[Active 2-Way] The speakers are strong enough to handle light vocals, keyboards and a drum machine/bass mix. I use two units to take advantage of the stereo functionality this allows. The portability is great. I have a 130 Watt-Hour battery that can run both units for 2+ hours so I can take them anywhere. Its nice having channel-volume and EQ knobs easily accessible on the front of the units. The speakers are very responsive to modest changes in bass/treble settings. So far I haven't had to use maximum volume settings - the speakers seem very efficient. I would recommend two.

[Active 2-Way] Although affordable, the fits, finishes, appearance, and workmanship are exceptional for any price. After about a 20-hour break-in the sound transforms into a sound quality that rivals the very high-end professional models. Focal is definitely driving their best technology down into the models obtainable by mere mortals. The near-field tuning is the best I've heard at any price such that the voice or instrument heard from the sweet spot is a living presence that materializes in the middle of your head. A truly wonderful experience. It has a very accurate and detailed sound, including a surprising amount of bass and distortion-free treble. I was initially concerned I may need a woofer, but it is not necessary due to the strong bass profile. In fact, I barely have to touch the EQ since the default tuning is truly based on studio experience. I was also concerned that the Alpha 50 has fewer watts of output than the Alpha 60, but the Alpha 50 has more than enough power such that I can't even get the volume of my pre-amp over the 9 o'clock position. One of my best B&H purchases of all time!

[17 x 13.5 x 13"] These sound great for the size and very well balanced. Definitely a much needed upgrade from my previous JBL monitors.

[101 dB] I tried many different spot monitors. For price & function, this is my #1 choice. I've bought 4. No problems with any of them.

[Black] I have been using a pair of Tannoy Reveal monitors in my home studio for the last 20+ years, but to get decent frequency response I needed to use a 15 band graphic EQ and a Rane frequency analyzer... comes with a reference mic and a pink noise generator -- you try to adjust the EQ while watching the LEDs bounce up and down and adjust each band until the frequency response looks flat. I always had to tweak the EQ setting (maybe defeating the purpose) to make them sound more natural. Then I decided to upgrade my monitors. I went to the B&H store in NYC and listened to half a dozen, including Genelec, Yamaha, and others. I finally bought the Focal Alpha 65 EVO, which sounded the richest and yet were half the price of the Genelec 5. Bringing them home, they sounded much better with no EQ than the Reveals did with no EQ, but not as good as the EQ'd Reveals. I wanted to make sure I wasn't coloring the sound. So I bought the Sonarworks Reference 4 item. Well, it worked great. It comes with a very sturdy-looking reference mic. It was fairly easy to set up, it acquired sound points from about 36 spots in my listening area, and it took me about an hour to create a detailed frequency response curve. It has an application (and a plug in) that automatically corrects your computer's monitor sound output to flatten the speaker response. It seems to work great! The Focal monitors were fairly flat except for a peak at around 150 Hz, which the Sonarworks flattened, without having to resort to a graphic EQ. Unfortunately there's quite a bit of falloff below 100 Hz that I can measured, so beware... you will need a subwoofer with these monitors if you want to mix music. However, for general audio projects they would be a great addition to any studio.

[45 Hz to 22 kHz] Bought these last week, & couldn't wait for them to arrive. After installing them, I was blown away by the fact that they were just as loud as my mackie mr8's in an a/b test. Of course the mr8's more low end, but the clarity of the cms50's across the entire frequency spectrum was nothing short of amazing. Thanks Focal & BH!!!

[101 dB] great clean sound for small box. serves great as a small monitor.