A few weeks ago, my wife and I cleaned out the garage in order to have the floor professionally coated. A task like this, even though we’ve only been in this house for two years, means the usual purging of the stuff that has inevitably accumulated. She was done in a couple of days. Her frustration mounted as the time drew nearer to our epoxy date, and I still wasn’t ready yet. My bay of the garage was still full of stuff. I made the deadline in the nick of time, but only after selling off some unneeded collections of things and filling up the garbage can a couple times.
I have noticed that many of us audiophiles are also hopeless collectors (read: hoarders). Yes, I know the old saying that it isn’t really hoarding if your stuff is cool, and in our case, we have the coolest stuff, but the fact remains that when it comes down to a moving project- we’re generally all in trouble.
When the conversation comes around to speakers, we’ll often start talking about our main speakers, and then joking about the “others,” the speakers that are either in secondary systems, or just sitting in our closets – or in the garage. I’ve heard of some really nice speakers just collecting dust in peoples’ crawlspaces.
A couple of years ago, I bought out a bunch of equipment from a guy for a low flat price. He just wanted it all out of his house. I resold some of it, and came out slightly ahead, while keeping some of the pieces that I wanted to hold onto. One of those pieces ended up being this pair of passive studio monitor speakers by KRK, the 7000B 2-way design that instantly impressed me.
There isn’t very much information out there about these speakers except that they are built with Focal drivers, which is likely why they blew me away right from the start. No specific data about the woofer seems to be readily available, but the tweeter is the T90, and is the typical inverted Focal design. Through some digging, I found that they originally sold for about $1,000 for the pair.
They are square boxes with the tweeters set back in a time-aligned fashion. The cabinets are painted in a stone gray. They have as much WAF (wife-acceptance factor) as a bulldozer. Even to me, they’re rather ugly, with exposed yellow cones set of against the speckled gray, and logo sticker on the front. They are winners on sound, alone, unless you have one of those concrete houses or an industrial loft apartment.
However, here is the bottom line, despite their only-a-mother-could-love look, they are actually one of the best sounding sets of speakers in my home, and some of the most enjoyable to listen to. So, what am I doing with them? Am I featuring them prominently in a serious system? Are they my main speakers somewhere? Well… no. In fact, I’m practically wasting them. They reside on my workbench, where they rock for me when I’m restringing guitars or fixing something. Their source component is an old Pioneer 300-disc changer filled with CDs that I’ve burned. I come down to my bench, hit the “Random” button on the player, and set about my tinkering. Power is supplied by an old Rotel RA-2020 integrated amplifier. At the moment, I’m experimenting with this little S.M.S.L. DAC in-between. Cabling is all basic Monster Cable that I’ve picked up here and there.
As I’m writing this, I’m listening to Lyle Lovett’s I love Everybody. The thing about the 7000B’s is that they have an interesting character to them. Some people don’t like studio monitors because they tend to be very flat, uncolored, and accurate. These are certainly every bit of that, but they also have a distinct Focal flavor to them. If you’ve listened to other Focal speakers, you might know what I mean. The highs are very accurate, indeed, but there is a particular crispness and depth from the inverted tweeter that gives more intricate detail than many other speakers, without being overly forward. There is a striking realism in these monitors, while still maintaining that Focal warmth.
Suddenly, I feel like listening to Alan Parsons Project’s “I Robot” through these. As the track rumbles in, the 6.5 kevlar woofer stays remarkably tight while producing enough low end to hit me in the chest. The Rotel amp is barely breaking a sweat at the KRKs are brought to an incredibly loud level. While I cannot find any real specifications on these, I can tell you that that these speakers don’t take much to drive.
Even though I’m not using “reference” equipment here, and my placement certainly leaves much to be desired, the KRKs provide stellar imaging, sounding like a huge multi-driver speaker delivering depth and spaciousness- even though I have them too close to the wall behind them and spaced only five feet apart.
I know I should be lashed with a wet noodle and charged with the high crime of audio abuse for my under-utilization of these speakers, but as my changer lands on some UFO right now, and the volume comes up again, the bottom line is, I’m doing what makes me happy. I’m enjoying my hi-fi. It’s not gathering dust, going unused, or sitting on a Web site hoping someone will buy it from me. Yes, I’m a collector, practically a hoarder of audio, but it brings me pleasure. As always, I welcome your comments and love to get your letters. What gear are you “wasting?”
Associated Equipment
KRK 7000B studio monitors
Rotel RA-2020 integrated amplifier
Pioneer PD-F1039 CD player
S.M.S.L. 793II DAC/headphone amp
Gemini PL-100 power conditioner
Monster Cable interconnects and speaker cables
Hello there 🙂 Interesting post I must say. I came up with an offer of a pair of these for €200. Is it worth the price? I’m mentioning this here as this popped up as soon as I typed their name in Google 🙂
That sounds like a pretty good deal for these speakers!
ok thanks! 😀
I honestly think the 7000B is one of the most musical and enjoyable studio monitors I’ve ever heard. The top end is open, pristine and gorgeous, while the low end is amazingly substantial for a driver that size. I owned a pair in the early 2000’s, but had trouble getting my mixes to translate, but after trying many different monitors since then (currently Dynaudio BM12a) I’ve realized I can’t personally trust one set of monitors for a mix. It suspect this is because I often listen to and enjoy hifi speakers with a recessed midrange. When mixing I have to cross-reference often in different rooms and with different phones, just to make sure I’m not pulling the mids out of everything. That being said, I wish I’d never gotten rid of the 7000B’s in my quest for the “perfect monitor” and am watching online auctions for them. Thanks for the post, and keep on enjoying those great boxes!
I love music and have always loved garage sales and junk stores. About ten years ago, at estate sale of a retired music professor, I came across a pair of 7000’s and was instantly in love! Mine are the full black, but appear to b e the same speakers.
Since I was a kid, I’ve been hooking up multiple speaker systems and have gone through scores of speaker pairs. NOTHING compares to the clean, full, rich sound these produced.
About an hour of checking them out, I sat behind the drums and was playing along. Then disaster struck. I pushed them too far. I hadn’t realized I had switched from A/B to just A and was pushing not with four speakers as I’d thought, but only these two. I went from my cheeks hurting from smiling to near tears–I’d blown one of the high drivers!
Why had I not just played along with a guitar or piano? Why hadn’t I known how special these were?! That they were meant for sipping, not gulping!
I’ve since read a bunch over the years about them. Occasionally, I chase a replacement Focal, but it remains cost-prohibitive for me. I love the original poster’s (Stephen?) description of “extras.” I too have a wife who can’t understand why I need 6 pairs of speakers (to go along with multiple drum sets, guitars, violins, and electronic pianos of course!).
I’ve found a JBL high driver that works, but the look is of course wrong! I doubt the original inverted cone is fried and unrepeatable but would appreciate any input on that. It’s always bittersweet to listen to them. They sound great and I can convince myself that the replacement is close, but inevitably conjures tremendous regret.
Best of luck to you all!
(my other favorite backup pairs are my Sansui 7500x’s when it’s time to dance with the kids in the basement or a pair of DCM’s that look ugly but are so full and loud!)
I have seen the original replacement tweeters on Ebay, but they’re not cheap. It would be worth it to bring these back to their original form.
Michael
Hi
This is a 7 inch driver Focal 7K4211. 40mm voice coil 13 deep
Had these in MTM system, Wish I still had them . I would not buy
original replacement tweeter as the foam surrounds will be starting to rot.
get them professionally done. The tweeters are very good but these
base midrange drivers are outstanding. Drives can go in a bigger box & will
increase bottom end, I have the specs.