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Enough of the Stereophile futuristic statements about the Focal Diva Utopia

There have been multiple times that Stereophile has claimed the Focal Diva Utopia is a futuristic product. In the last issue of Stereophile, they did a review of this speaker. The 1st paragraph, he referenced "2001: a space odyssey". 2nd paragraph, states: "I am sitting earthbound".... "almost a quarter century beyond the year 2001, living a similar scenario with the Focal Diva Utopia". Then it goes on: "I feel more in a sci-fi future young me".

There is nothing futuristic about these speakers that haven't been done many years before now. We have had active speakers for decades. We have had all the features of this Focal speaker in other speakers for a few years now. 

The speaker that has had these features plus more are the Kef LS60 and the Kef LS50 wireless II.

My take on these Focal Diva Utopia: 

1) ugly, the felt/carpet on the cabinet is cheap looking

2) doesn't do Roon

3) sounded terrible at the latest audio show. Normally the smaller Focal speakers have no bottom end, but these speakers added more woofers and they produced terrible bass. 

4) $40,000!!! 

Compared to the Kef LS60:

1) The LS60 speaker is an active version of a baby Kef blade. Very similar. When I played with these for a couple of hours, I got to listen to the owners Blade speakers. 

2) More features, settings done by iPhone, does Roon. It's also very easy to hook up 1 of the Kef subwoofers and have them mesh well with the LS60.

3) Gorgeous! Many different colors to choose from, even the drivers can be different colors

4) $5000!!!!!!!! Steal of the century

5) Sound quality, excellent! Like I mentioned earlier, these speakers have you think twice about moving up to the Blades. Tight Bass, Very nice Mids/Highs. 

If you are thinking about: downsizing your equipment to just a couple of high quality pieces without losing any sound quality, you can cut it down to 1, all you need is an ethernet cable to stream Roon from your server or if you are using them for both music and video, these have the earc input too. 

Bottomline: After hearing both of these speakers, the Kefs are far superior sounding and are $35,000 cheaper than the Focals. They are so good, I'm going to replace my $20,000 2nd system with a pair of the LS60's.

p05129
erik_squires
16,563 posts
 

Aren't most of their speaker cabinets now made from pressed cardboard or something?  Seriously? 

audiotroy's avatar
audiotroy
3,872 posts
 

interesting post we are a dealer for both brands.

 

The Focals just came out I am sure roon certification will be coming shortly as all current naim focal products are Roon certified,

 

as per sound quality you are judging two very different systems in two different rooms at two different time frames so your findings may be a bit off.

The ls 60s are great, and for 5k a fantastic value, would I replace a 20k system with any streaming loudspeakers I would not.

As per ls 60s being baby blades they are not close the blades when well setup are nearly unbeatable you have to spend 60 to 100k to really beat the blades!

 

Dave and Troy

Audio Intellect NJ

Kef and Focal dealers

p05129 OP
524 posts
 

I didn’t say they were better than the blades, they aren’t, but I wouldn’t buy the blades if I was going to spend $20-$100k either. I have $20k speakers that are much better than the blades. Why would someone make excuses for a $40k speaker? There is no guarantee that the Diva’s will get Roon certified, and I asked at the show and they didn’t say it would be Roon certified either. This is huge! What other speaker is covered in felt? Then a $40k speaker in felt? Also, both rooms were not ideal that I heard both speakers in. I heard the kefs at a dealer and they were in a 50x50’ warehouse room with different speaker setups, many unopened boxes, no room treatment, nobody would buy this speaker for this size room, but they sounded excellent. The focals were at the audio show, in a room that is much more suited for this size speaker, and they didn’t sound good.

My point of the post was all the hoopla about the focals bringing to market a unique futuristic speaker, that has all of this technology built into it, which it turns out, is not unique, and for the price, it is not worth it. If both speakers were both $5k, the LS60’s sound much better and I would jump at the Kef’s.

As for focal speakers, I have never heard a pair I liked except for the $100k Utopia, and then, I would buy other speakers at 1/5 the price that I like better.

dynamiclinearity
297 posts
 

Many products have plus and minus characteristics. Many time these are not awful but you're aware of them. That makes it a bad or good product for you, nit necessarily a bad piece. There are many products I don't prefer. I don't buy them. But I will try to discuss what I like and don't like with someone also considering them. Hopefully I can help that person decide if it's good for them or not. Even the Bose 901 had useful characteristics for many listeners.

mark200mph
336 posts
 

Isn't it great we live in an era of audio and have so many choices.i do like the gan on class d .enjoy life and the music. Reviews are a baseline then you do your homework and don't let the dog eat it. Have fun in the search.

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