Focal Aria 905 vs Focal Aria 906: which should you buy?

The Focal Aria 905 is my pick here, and it is not a close call. It out-listens and out-looks the 906 on every quality I care about in a bookshelf speaker, and I would buy it without hesitating.

Buy the Focal Aria 905 if you listen in a small or medium room, near-field, or in a corner where a 390 mm cabinet would dominate. At 334 mm it sits on a shelf or a wall bracket without fuss, and what comes out of it is crisper through the midrange and more detailed on top than the larger pair. The low end is balanced rather than deep, and it stops at 60 Hz, so a subwoofer rounds it out if you want real weight. Expect a bright first few hours; it smooths and warms once the drivers have some playback on them. Feed it 25 to 100 W of clean power and it repays the outlay.

The Focal Aria 906 makes sense in a bigger room, or on a stand where its 390 mm cabinet and 6.5 inch mid-woofer have space to breathe. It is rated down to 55 Hz, handles up to 120 W, and it is a fine low-level listener: quiet passages stay clean, instruments sit in clearly separate places, and finger noise on a guitar string comes through. The catches are real though. Push it hard and high notes can turn harsh, the bass can sit more forward than some listeners want, and the wood-look side panels are vinyl veneer rather than the real thing. If those do not bother you and you want the larger cabinet, it is a rewarding speaker.