Focal Professional CMS50 Studio Monitors

Combining irreproachable sound quality and easy installation, the CMS50 Professional Monitor Series solves the problem of getting superior audio from a compact speaker system.
  • Accurate sound stage with inverted dome tweeter
  • Aluminum cabinet optimized for maximum rigidity and damping
  • Numerous settings to achieve best acoustic integration
  • Neutral sound without coloration
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4.5 out of 5 stars

Based on 9 reviews

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Purchase Information

$1,590.95

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Features

Apple Recommends For

Home and project studios that need a great-sounding, flexible monitoring solution

The design of Focal's CMS speakers combines performance and small size. That's why the box material is aluminum. The combination of substantial thickness, internal reinforcement and acoustic treatment effectively cancels the "ringing" effect often encountered in this type of cabinet.

Inverted aluminum/magnesium dome tweeter

The inverted dome tweeter is unique to Focal. It offers uniform movement of the entire dome - thanks to optimum mechanical coupling between the dome and voice coil - so you get superlative midrange and treble.

Focal Polyglass woofer

Polyglass technology, exclusive to Focal, consists of depositing a layer of hollow micro-spheres of glass onto a cellulose cone. The result is a rigidity rating that even exceeds single-skin Kevlar's. This provides perfect control of the cone, even at its highest limits, guaranteeing a resolutely accurate sound and encouraging linearity and neutrality in the midrange.

Bi-amplification: power, quality and simplicity

When it comes to amplification, the CMS features a high-quality yet clear and simple circuit that's capable of rendering the smallest signal, in both the higher and lower frequencies. The CMS integrates two high-end amplification units, one to power each drive unit.

Calibration for precise installation in any environment

CMS offers very high precision and resolution, however, soundstage coherence also depends on the exact positioning of the monitors. Focal handles this by supplying height-adjustable spikes to perfectly orient each monitor toward the listener. CMS also integrates all fine-tuning adjustments necessary to ensure optimal operation.

Highlights

  • Al-Mg inverted dome tweeter for accurate soundstage
  • Aluminum cabinet optimized for maximum rigidity and damping
  • Numerous settings (Parametric filter, high-pass filters, bass level, treble level...)
  • Polyglass cone to ensure neutral sound without coloration
  • Tweeter power unit reproduces every detail
  • Mounting plates compatible with K&M and Omnimount fixing kits

Did You Notice?

The CMS50 has multiple threaded mounting holes, so you can mount it directly on the wall or even on a microphone stand.

Technical Specs

Power

  • Power: 130 W

Driver

  • Frequency Response: 55Hz - 28kHz
  • Speaker Configurations: Stereo
  • Drivers: 1" Aluminum/Magnesium Inverted Dome Tweeter, 5" Polyglass woofer
  • Sound Pressure Level: Adjustable, +4dBu / 0 / -10dBV

Dimension

  • Weight: 17 lb./7.7kg
  • Height: With rubber feet: 11.38 in./289.5 mm; with decoupling table stand: 11.75 in./299.5 mm
  • Depth: With rubber feet (HxLxD): 7.94 in./201 mm; with decoupling table stand: 7.94 in./201 mm
  • Length: With rubber feet: 7.5 in./190 mm; with decoupling table stand: 7 .5 in./190 mm

What's in the Box?

  • Two CMS50 Monitors
  • Two rubber decoupling table stands
  • Eight rubber feet
  • Four height-adjustable feet
  • Two phase optimization plugs (tweeter)
  • Four removable grilles (tweeter and woofer)
  • User manual
  • Two power cables

Manufacturer Information

Warranty

  • Note: Products sold through this website that do not bear the Apple Brand name are serviced and supported exclusively by their manufacturers in accordance with terms and conditions packaged with the products. Apple's Limited Warranty does not apply to products that are not Apple-branded, even if packaged or sold with Apple products. Please contact the manufacturer directly for technical support and customer service.
  • Warranty: 5-Year Parts and Labour

Part Number

  • UPC or EAN No.: 3544051801300
  • Mfr. Part Number: FOPRO-CMS50
 

Ratings & Reviews

4.5

Based on 9 reviews

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Most Useful Reviews

  • 5.0 out of 5 stars

    Superb, professional-standard speakers

    • Written by from San Francisco

    These are wonderful speakers, designed for what is known as near field monitoring (for example, when working on sound recording/editing and having the speakers placed close to the listening position, between 1m and 3m away.
    They are powered by their own built-in amps and are not designed to be used with a receiver, which probably explains one of the other reviewer's negative comments.
    Rather, these speakers work superbly when connected to something like the Apogee Duet Firewire interface. Connect the Duet to your Mac and connect these speakers to the Duet and that's all you need for some magnificent sound.
    In small rooms, they can be used for fantastic quality replay of audio files, with an outstanding quality high enough to reveal the weaknesses of most compressed music, while doing full justice to uncompressed or Lossless sounds. These speakers are for ears that appreciate such differences. For others, they would be overkill.
    Build is top class. Switches on the rear allow for custom adjustments to suit the acoustic characteristics of any listening room.
    If you are looking for quality and have been considering similar studio speakers (say, the Adam A7), I give these my highest recommendation.     …More

    182 of 193 people found this useful

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  • 5.0 out of 5 stars

    Nearly perfect desktop monitors

    • Written by from Brookfield

    With a high quality DAC, these professional near-field monitors deliver non-fatiguing superb low-level detail and tight high-quality mid-bass and for their size better than expected bass.

    Very adjustable, the 160 hz notch eliminates the mid bass boom common with desktop use and with front gain knobs on both speakers, the stereo image can be dialed in just right.

    The decoupling pad and spikes are well done. Dusted my BM5A monitors. Very musical and involving, but with detail consistent with their mixing monitor design. Don't know of any similar sized monitor at this price that can compete. Highly recommend.     …More

    144 of 156 people found this useful

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  • 5.0 out of 5 stars

    You won't believe the sound!

    • Written by from MEMPHIS

    I bought these speakers to compliment my 24" imac and was surprised at the shallow sound and how much background noise they generated for $1,000.00. After some research, I purchased a Benchmark DAC to interface between my Imac and the Focals, and I was amazed at the new sound quality. There is no background noise regardless of volume, and the effect is like being at a live performance. Apple should offer the Benchmark DAC as an additional product to upgrade your listening experience. Believe me, you will have a sound system better than anything costing several times as much, with the Itunes flexibility of control. Of course, your music library needs to be in the Apple lossless format. …More

    124 of 141 people found this useful

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Most Recent Reviews

  • 3.0 out of 5 stars

    Cool for little guys

    • Written by from Chestnut Hill

    I am spoiled, having grown up in the era where speakers were part of the living room decor in their elegant walnut cabinets and big smooth sound. The behemoths were capable of filling a room with sound with little effort, producing solid bass down to 32Hz, in the case of my speakers (I still have them). Most of these behemoths were hand made in either Hope, AR or Northridge, CA. These were the speakers that set the standards for movie and audio mastering.

    Most of these old speakers lasted so long that there are replacement parts readily available, something that can't be said in a throw away generation.

    Most of the new "mini monitors" are very directional, or as my friend would say "tinny". I found the detail in these speakers to be remarkable, yea, they have no bass line and no, they don't come close to the old Altec Monitors with the 811b sectoral horns, but the aren't half bad for inexpensive little guys. They are for near field monitoring, the farther away you get, the more directional they sound.

    All in all, if you're on a budget, they ain't half bad in near field.     …More

    23 of 57 people found this useful

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  • 5.0 out of 5 stars

    I am at a loss for words

    • Written by from FAYETTEVILLE

    I am a jewelry designer & by no means a professional audio engineer. I must concentrate very deeply on the work that I do. I am addicted to classical music, opera & I also like to listen to a verity of world music. Since I bought these speakers I am more relaxed & I can do my jewelry much better.

    They will not sound well connected to the earphone jack of my IMAC but with my digital analog converter these speakers produce sound that lends to realism. Sometimes it sounds like live musicians are preforming next to me in my small studio.

    They may be pricy, however, you get what you pay for in anything you buy & the Focal-CMS 50 speakers are worth every dollar I spent on them.     …More

    31 of 33 people found this useful

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  • 5.0 out of 5 stars

    Focal Professional - CMS 50 Monitors

    • Written by from Boynton Beach

    I've had many 'professional 'products on my watch. The Focal CMS 50's are truly what they claim to be. As uncolored and clear as they come. Simply Outrageous no matter the Volume or type of music. On my uncompressed Albums I get music I simply never heard before. The highs are brilliant and the lows are resonant and not muddy. I am running them through a MacBook Pro 17 with the Duet by Apogee running Block between the two. A more clear, majestic soundstage is simply not be had at this low price, for what you get. These are BMW's in a Chevy world. They earn my hearty Recommendation for purchase if you have Uncompressed music on your iTunes. The normal fare from the store sounds 'great', but it's the uncompressed that really will 'Blow You Away'. Buy them if you have the green and won't settle for the Ordinary! You will have No Regrets! Oh, I hooked them up with 1 Mono RCA cable each.. …More

    92 of 95 people found this useful

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Questions & Answers

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Most Interesting

  • The product does not include cables to connect to a Mac! Power cables are the only cables mentioned in the description. What cables do I need to buy
    • Asked by Karl F from Gloucester
    • Jan 13, 2010

    5 Answers

    Best Answer

    A very late reply, but it might help other people out. These are professional studio monitors, and very good entry ones at that, they're not cheap PC speakers or designed to make dodgy recordings sound great. To get the best out of them, you will want your Mac to be connected to an external DAC (digital to analog converter), either via USB or the headphone-out which doubles as a digital out; spdif/optical toslink to be precise. You would then connect the Focals either via unbalanced RCA cables, or balanced XLR if your DAC supports it. Some examples would be the Apogee Duet or DAC Magic for entry level. You don't need amplification because these are active not passive speakers.

    If you're going to have a decent desktop set up, then you need to go all the way (this includes high-bitrate AAC, or ideally ALAC files, turning off iTunes EQ in order to avoid upsampling or the audio, and isolating the Focals from the desk they are sitting on, otherwise why pay all this money and not use them properly?

    Hope that helps someone.     …More

    • Answered by Paul S
    • Mar 10, 2011
  • True range capacity of these speakers?
    • Asked by Craig W from Calgary
    • Mar 20, 2010

    3 Answers

    Answer

    The frequency response is listed on the Focal website. I think these go down to 45hz, and 90% of music, let alone clubs and places like that never go below 40hz. There's no way a 2.0 set up will match a 2.1's sub for low bass, because the speakers are simply too small to move the air like that; if they were, then who would need a sub?

    The Focals have clean, accurate bass but don't try and reproduce what they're incapable of doing well. They will faithfully give you low frequency response within the realm of nearly all music, and I've heard several people comment that it feels like they go lower than the stated response anyway.

    As far as desktop solutions go, you'd want 8"+ monitors if you're after the lowest bass (the CMS 65's go lower than the 50s), but even then, bass is bass and if you don't want to annoy the neighbours, then a sub doing 30hz or a bookshelf speaker doing 30hz is still going to travel through the wall the same way. Remember, anything lower than 40hz is really where you start feeling the physical effects of bass rather than hearing it anyway, and this is more the preserve of movies than music. These monitors are among the best in their price point and have won awards, which should tell you enough about how good they sound with well-recorded music!     …More

    • Answered by Paul S
    • Mar 10, 2011
  • Can I connect these to the 30' Cinema Display?
    • Asked by Diego R from Riverdale
    • Nov 10, 2009

    1 Answer

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