Focal Sopra No.2

[David A]

Running SAM at 100% will give you maximum bass extension but it will also place a bigger load on the amp. Do you need the extra extension SAM can give? I don't know what size your room is or if it has any characteristics which reduce bass, or what kind of music you like, how demanding that music is in the bass, or what your personal tastes are, but you can get more bass support by moving the speakers a bit closer to the wall behind them, and also by extending the spikes at the rear a bit to tilt the speakers forward a little. Both of those things will give you a bit more bass without placing additional demands on the amp and may allow you to reduce the amount of SAM you set things to. You said the Sopras need feeding and that they're a hungry beast but SAM is a bit of a hungry beast as well so dropping the level of SAM may actually give the Sopras a little more drive, especially if you can make up for the loss of bass from reducing the SAM setting by playing with speaker positioning and adjusting the rake. That may also help stop things falling a little apart at higher volumes. I do most of my listening at very moderate levels so that's not an experience I've had with my Sopras. I also listen mostly to jazz and the lowest bass in a lot of what I listen to is probably the bottom note on a piano which is around 29 Hz or so, not all that low, so I can get enough extension with placement and a small rake adjustment if necessary. Your situation and tastes may well be different given your mention of higher volumes. To give you an idea of my listening levels for comparison, I rarely have the volume set to more than -10 dB and most of my listening seems to be done somewhere between -20 and -15 dB.

I will add that I started out with SAM set to 100 with my Dyns when I got my 130 but over the first few weeks, as the 130 broke in and as I got used to the sound of it, I started reducing the level I set SAM to, ending up with it around the 20 to 25 mark. I've reduced it to 0 since getting my Sopras. Be open to reducing the SAM setting and you may well find, as I did, that you have to reduce it a fair bit to notice a reduction in extension anyway.