With a national economy that eschews risky international investing for a more conservative, domestically-based market structure, France sure is looking like a good place to do business nowadays. Maybe that's how smaller companies like Focal Professional are able to afford to travel thousands of miles to California to show off a couple of "prosumer" reference monitors.

Focal Professional has made its name with the "SM" series of studio reference monitors, and the CMS-series -- stands for Compact Monitor Speaker -- are their first foray into the homes studio market. Both the CMS-50 and the CMS-65 feature a die-cast and internally dampened aluminum cabinet design, acoustically isolating rubber feet, and internal biamping. Controls include adjustable sensitivity, volume, high-pass filter, LF and HF shelving a switchable "desktop notch" at 160Hz, aluminum-magnesium inverted dome Focal-designed tweeter and XLR or RCA connectivity.

The CMS-65 sports a 6.5" woofer (Focal-designed polyglass cone), and 160 watts. RMS. The CMS-50 features a 5" woofer, 130 watts RMS. They are magnet-shieled for worry-free operation in close monitor proximity. C'est bon ça!

Focal Professional has only one US distributor currently, but hopefully a good showing at AES will mean you won't have to travel to Champlain, NY to pick up a pair.