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How to make the Focal Kanta No. 2 speakers sing?

Hi!

My first post here and I would like to hear your thoughts and tips for "warming up" my Focal Kanta 2 speakers.

 

TLDR

The sound from my Focal Kanta 2 speakers in my room is a bit shouty, bright and thin sounding, clearly lacking level and emotion in the lower mid range. Bass is good, quick and quite deep though.

Any tips for getting more "vocal warmth" into the system? Tube preamp, Dirac, ...? I see that many use old school power hungry amps that can heat your house during winter to drive Focal speakers. Is that really needed or can I get away with a modern amp that doesn’t cost a fortune.

 

More in depth information

In my living room (5.3 x 4.1 x 2.4m) I have a setup with both 2 channel and a multi channel setup. They share the same front speakers and front speaker amp.

2 channel setup:

 

5.2 channel setup:

 

I focus mainly on the two channel setup here. Multichannel is used quite much also for streaming movies, but is ok.

So the main issue for me is that the sound in in the two channel setup is thin sounding with mids clearly lacking in the lower end. It can be fatiguing to listen for a few hours. Bass though is enjoyable, fast and fairly deep.

Earlier I had the Focal Aria 936 speakers as front speakers in the same room (connected to the Yamaha AVR at that time). I liked them but wanted to upgrade to the next level after a few years 😄 The Arias were more forgiving than the Kantas, had more enjoyable warmth in the mids and were a bit rolled off in the top compared to the Kantas. Not fatiguing at all. But everything else the Kantas do better.

I have also had some other speakers, up to half Kanta price range, in the same room where all have had fuller mids and a more forgiving sound: Dynaudio, Totem and Triangle floor standers as well as Buchardt and my really old B&W 602s3 (super full mids but super rolled off in the top) stand speakers. The Kantas are different animals to all these and seem to require the a more delicate and correct chain of components to perform.

I have messed around with speaker positioning quite a lot. It’s mainly the bass region that is affected. Mids not very much.

Options I’m considering:

  • Upgrading the Yamaha AVR to a Marantz Cinema 50 for example to get Dirac room tuning, and run the 2 channel system through this also. The quality of the Marantz might not be the best here to use as a 2 channel pre amp/processor.
  • Use a dedicated pre amp for the 2 channel system. Budget up to 2000€. Not sure what to look for? Used equipment is fine.
  • Tubes? Never really listened to tubes but from what I understand you generally get a more warm sound from them. Tube preamp? Not very modern but might do the trick. Schiit Freya + seems to be within the budget range for example.
  • Other 2 channel amplifier. As mentioned I have tried to avoid the nuclear power plants of amps. I see people recommending amps from manufacturers like Musical Fidelity, Sim Audio, McIntosh, Accuphase etc. But these are really costly and I feel they generally belong in an older age that we are moving away from. But it might be what is needed, I don’t know, haven’t really heard them play.
  • Treat the room more. I have a big sofa, a really big carpet and a few acoustic panels in the room (no real science behind them now). The room in itself is a bit "bright" so here I can make a better effort of course, regardless of other taken measures.
  • Get other speakers. I can also just face it that the Kantas are what they are, sounding thin in the midrange and lacking emotion in voices. Getting other speakers might be the easiest upgrade. But it’s not that easy to find and test speakers in your room either...

 

Long story. Any recommendations?

Thanks!

donald_dac
soix
8,729 posts
 

He also didn’t read the part where i mentioned that the dude’s upgrade path should go to a Yamaha flagship prepro (since he has a hybrid stereo/multichannel setup), which holds its own against any preamp out there.

@deep_333 So, a $2700 pre pro holds its own against any preamp out there?  No. Just…no.  That’s just silly talk.  There’s no way a $2700 pre pro can match the parts quality, power supply, etc. of the better stereo preamps out there.  No way.  And yes I did read and understand your prior post where you said the Yamaha RXA2080 has a “great” preamp section.  It does not and you’re just flat out wrong for saying it.  You can talk all you want, but your words are your words, and maybe you should just choose them more carefully when spewing out stuff here.

donald_dac OP
8 posts
 

It's really good to get input from people with different experiences and preferences. Love it.

@deep_333 Thanks for the extensive Yamaha PEQ guide. I will give the Yamaha another 2 channel chance based on your tips, thanks for the push!

I have found that YPAO hasn't worked out for me though. I always ended up with measuring tape and manual PEQ settings, as you point out too. The other PEQ modes are not very good. Especially the subs needed manual setting as described. The enhancer gave me phase problems with the subs so it's turned off, as well as the other features you mention.

REW room simulator is a good tool, especially to identify the 32 Hz room mode I have. I have a Umik-1 as well but haven't overcome the hurdle to start measuring properly. Also on the todo list!

YPAO is not up to the same level as Dirac as I understand, thus a Marantz AVR was mentioned as a possible upgrade. Haven't heard one in action though...

I will do a shootout with the Eversolo/Purifi amp and the Yamaha with and without Purifi amp and see where that puts me.

The Eversolo is quite nice BTW, especially with the latest update which provided an impressive spectrum analyzer. Reminds me of my first stereo system I got in 1992, the Sony MHC 2600 which also had a spectrum analyzer 😀 Good memories from that one.

@soix I see the point here with the Yamaha AVR not having the best pre amp/ Dacs etc. It's a good allrounder with lots of functionality and is probably ok but not at the level of separates in a higher price range. That's also why I've been looking at a 2 channel path in parallell to the multichannel path.

@erik_squires I've also understood that the Kantas are current hungry despite they quite high sensitivity and need a capable amp to perform.

@larsman @mapman The speakers are indeed broken in and are 3-4 years old. I got them used 15 months ago or so and I have 1000+ playing hours myself on them. Some really loud hours as well, so they should be as soft and mellow as they could be.

bikeboy52
184 posts
 

@erik_squires Accurate well thought out and researched post. I own and love the Kanta Two,s. Your absolutely right on all counts and a tube amp should be a bad choice for this speakers impedance challenges. However I use them with both a Classe solid state amp and a Prima Luna Evo 400 tube amp and prefer the sound of the tubes with them. You can never tell what’ll work till you give it try right? Synergy ,room , individual tastes, so much goin on with this crazy hobby.

ozzy62's avatar
ozzy62
2,844 posts
 

@soix 

+1

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