Looking at Focal

We enjoy B&W 802Ds in our family room, and Focal Kanta 3s in our more ‘dedicated’ (and smaller) home theatre room. I own both because, in my opinion, they sound amazing but of course, different...and one isn’t better than the other. For me, the B&Ws sound more balanced, with a deeper and wider soundstage; deeper bass, and liquids highs. The midrange is a little more “laid back” than the Focals, and overall when listening at reasonably high volumes the B&Ws fade into the background and the soundstage takes over, the musicians precisely and clearly etched in my family room.

Alternatively, while I don’t feel the soundstage with my Focals is as deep or wide than the B&Ws, this isn’t a problem in my smaller room. What I do enjoy with the Focals, to my ears is a tighter bass, amazing vocals (particularly female), thrilling if even a touch bright highs, and a “faster” and overall more forward presence than B&W. For movies, I feel the Focals offer a more engaging, if a touch less “lifelike”, performance.

Obviously your ears will make the best choice. However, my guess is if you like B&Ws “signature sound”, and can work them into your budget, you should at least audition the 802Ds.

Part 2: If it were me and you're sold on Focal, I would do a Sopra 2 over any of the Kantas. Better speaker.

I listened to them and the first thing I thought was, “where’s the bass”.

I concur with jrbirdman.  I have a set of Dynaudio Contour 60i on order.  They are supposed to arrive to the US shores in August.  For me, the Dynaudio sound is just right and completely natural.  A very comfortable and enjoyable speaker to listen to for hours on end.  At high volume they remain the same and don't fall apart.  Everything is full, smooth, and coherent; just absolutely natural sounding.  As I was about to buy the Contour 60 the new i version was introduced.  There are numerous upgrades to the already stupendous sounding Contour 60.  So, I chose to wait the additional 3 months and get the new generation.  Read up on the Contour 60 reviews, then read the up on the Dynaudio website about the improvements to the 60i.  The best review on the Contour 60 is the one from Soundstage Ultra.  It can easily be found with a Google search.  Full retail price on the Contour 60i is $10,750.