Looking for Advice on Focal Speakers

Suboost, welcome to the forum!

Are Kantas worth slightly over double the price of 936s?  Yes, probably - if you are building a system incrementally and it is within your budget.  I would say no, if you are not building incrementally.

Do you know what was driving the Focal 936s when you auditioned them?  The preamp/amp is an important part of what you will hear (as are interconnects, room treatment, etc.).  Your Parasound Halo A23 is a power amp only -  not integrated.  So there is no preamp built into it.  The only preamp component I can tell you have in your system is with the Marantz AV receiver.  That receiver is likely very good for movies/shows, etc., but not as good as an integrated amp for 2 channel music listening.

I would sell the Parasound and apply that money towards a good integrated amp with HT (Home Theater) Bypass.  That way you can use the front left/right speaker for both home theater audio through the Marantz and 2 channel listening through whatever integrated amp you buy.

The Kantas won’t come close to showing their true potential if you stick with your current components.  However, if you are building your systems incrementally, and are interested in the Kantas, I would audition them and see if you feel they are worth the higher price.  If so, buy them, but make sure you upgrade your other equipment to a level that matches the Kantas.  Hope this makes sense.

Here’s a video about setting up HT bypass: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E7f_w1_wy5I

@ricmech23 Yeah I was open to the 948s, but the dealer I spoke with said that for my room size and the fact that I have a sub it would be a complete waste of money. First time a dealer of any kind encouraged me to spend less money, haha.

@cd84 Thanks for all the info! Do you think that an integrated amp would sound better or offer any benefit over just buying a pre-amp? Now that I finally understand what all this stuff means, I'm just trying to figure out the best option. It would be a fairly similar price to add that vs selling mine and buying an integrated, so I'm totally open to opinions on this subject. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

@suboost, a used Parasound Halo P5 (I think it is discontinued) or a Halo P6 should work well with the A23.  There's other preamps that should work with A23 - so you are not limited to using the same manufacturer.  But you would also need interconnects.  Both of these preamps have HT bypass.  See Parasound links below:

https://www.parasound.com/p5.php
https://parasound.com/p6.php

You might let the vendor know you're interested in the Focal 936s but also let them know you are using the same space for both home theater and 2-channel listening.  What options might you have with your current equipment where you could switch between the two.  Hence the suggestion for the HT bypass option on an integrated amp OR buy a preamp with HT bypass and the interconnects.

Hope that helps.

I have the Kanta No. 2s. I listened to the 936.s before I bought the Kantas and can state they certainly are a step up from the 936s. I also agree with other posters that 1) they don’t require a lot of "toe-in" and 2) if you have patience you can pick them up for 1/2 price. I bought mine last year for $5K used, 1 year old. As far as the brightness of the Be tweeter goes I find it is more due to the recording and other gear you pair with the Kantas than the speaker itself, The last thing I will mention is, and this is likely the most important part, make sure your amp is comfortable with 2-3 ohm loads as both the 936 and the Kanta both hit less than 3 ohms in the 100Hz range and stay below 4 ohms up to around 500Hz. Mine are hooked to the 4ohm taps on a pair of Rogue M-180 monoblocks. The video below is an example of how they will sound on the lower registers. And I don’t find a lot of "brightness" in this recording. Obviously the room set up was not great when I recorded this but it has changed a lot since and sounds even better now. I would use this recording to audition any speaker when wanting to test its ability to reproduce lower frequencies. Another is Temple Caves from Micky Hart’s Planet Drum album. You should feel the floor rumble with either of these. If not then your amp is not up to the task.

Birds by Dominique Fils Aimé - YouTube