Verdict
Sometimes you do n’t get what you pay for when you drop very gravid money on audio equipment . This is not one of those times .
Pros
Cons
Key Features
Introduction
Focal and Naim have been siblings for the honorable part of a decade now . And for the last five , they ’ve been involved in develop what Focal seems pretty certain is the finest , most sodding ‘ music - streaming - system - in - a - pair - of - stereo - speakers ’ product around .
It ’s fair to say that as individual concerns , neither of these caller has anything to prove – so how do things work out when they put their heads together ? Is the Focal Diva Utopia more or less than the sum of its considerable parts ?
Availability
The Focal Diva Utopia has been on sales agreement since October 2024 , and in the United Kingdom it costs £ 29,999 . In the United States it ’s an even more punchy $ 39,999 . Australian pricing has not been substantiate at time of writing – but it ’s likely to be AU$59,999 or something quite like it .
This , it almost move without saying , is a vast amount of money for a euphony streaming system within a brace of stereo speakers . patently the Diva Utopia has a political party - piece or two to test and apologize its request damage – but let ’s not make it ’s going to have to be a infernal region of a political party if it ’s going to do so …
Design
Even if it look like any other pair of speakers , at 121 x 42 x 56 cm ( HWD ) and 64 kg per side the Diva Utopia would be quite imposing . But I think it ’s dependable to say these do n’t appear all that much like any other speaker – not even other Focal Utopias .
The Diva Utopia cabinet are made from high - compactness moulded polymer , and are structurally reinforced to deport a rigid , almost inert structure that zealously turn down vibrations . Each speaker ride on an injected aluminum pedestal that arrives pre - jibe with castors which make unpacking them a stack easier than it otherwise would be – they can be remove in favour of the sizeable floor spikes Focal also supplies .
The distinctive shaping of the cabinet , especially towards the top where the tweeter is housed , is evocative of the ease of the Utopia range of a function – but because they ’re polish off in a fair quantity of heavily - wearing , right - looking grey felt rather than the more usual high - gloss colour or woodwind facing , the Diva Utopia savour an appearance that ’s unlike any other speaker of this size .
The striking nature of the look is accentuated further by the manner the felt seems to float above the main storage locker , and the beautifully determine gaps that allow the lit Focal logotype to take centre leg .
Features
The Focal Diva Utopia is a three - style bass reflex speaker system with a quite significant full complement of drivers and an equally celebrated amount of power to repel them .
The tweeter near the top of the cabinet is a 27 millimeter pure Be M - shaped invert noodle tweeter behind an elaborate double grille that seems to change coloring material between red-faced and black depending on how the light catches it . Further down the front baffle board there ’s a 165 millimeter W mid / deep equipment driver with a tuned the great unwashed muffler environs and the sort NIC ( neutral inductance circuit ) motor that Focal ’s been keen on for a while now .
Each of the side panels of the cabinet houses a brace of 165 millimeter bass driver arranged in a push - get-up-and-go layout . And in font four sea bass driver per talker seems a bite tentative , scurvy - end reinforcement is provided by a downward - face bass reflex interface that fire against the fixed limit of the aluminum footstall that support the master physical structure of the utterer .
Each speaker is home to 400 watts of Naim ’s finest Class AB power . 75 watts amplifies the loudspeaker , and the mid / bass machine driver gets the same amount . The remaining 250 watts is divided between those four sideways - face bass drivers . The upshot is , according to Focal , a frequency response of 27Hz – 40kHz .
Like most ‘ all - in - two ’ music streaming speaker organisation , one speaker has a honest scrap more responsibleness than the other – and you only call for to peek at the rearward panels to discover out which is which here .
Each Diva Utopia features a big radiator on its rearward jury that ’s more than a little suggestive of Naim ’s grievous Statement amplification , with a mains power input and RJ45 verbaliser link socket to a lower place . One of the speakers also have another RJ45 ( for Ethernet ) , a Type 2.0 USB - A slot , a digital optic input signal , a line - level stereophony RCA stimulus , and anHDMI eARCsocket . The lack of a consecrated phono stage for exercise with a turntable is a number of a missy ( because anyone spending this sorting of money on a system is likely to expect the work ) , but otherwise this is a full house of physical connectivity .
Wireless connexion are taken care of byBluetooth 5.3with aptX Adaptive codec compatibility , and dual - banding Wi - Fi . Wi - Fi bring compatibility withApple AirPlay 2 , Google Cast , Spotify Connectand TIDAL Connect – and the Diva Utopia is UPnP - compatible , too .
It ’s deserving observe that it ’s not Roon quick , though , which is another minor col in its specification . Internet radio is on board , andQobuzand QQMusic ( for Taiwanese consumers ) are also available via the Focal & Naim control app . All the digital stuff and nonsense , whether received wirelessly or via a wired connexion , is handled by a 32 - bit/384kHz DAC that ’s also compatible with DSD128 .
That app is just one of the uncommitted command method available . The Diva Utopia ships with a Zigbee remote control that will be familiar to anyone who ’s purchased some Naim electronics in the last decade or so , and the organization is also compatible with your native voice assistant of choice .
But really , it ’s the control condition app that ’s the most astray - roam and utilitarian – as well as the usual playback controls , make unnecessary favourites and assigning presets , checking for firmware updates and all that , it also features a comprehensive way correction quotidian into which the ending exploiter catch a remarkable amount of remark . It also allows the user to enable or disable specific input signal to keep the home page tidy , bring down the output grade of specific stimulus , and lots more besides . Even in beta ( as it was at the prison term I test it ) it ’s a clean , coherent and stable interface .
The Diva Utopia use UWB ( extremist all-encompassing band ) technology to ensure latency between the two speakers is paltry when wirelessly connected . join this way , resolution tops out at 24 - bit/96kHz – but employ the provide RJ45 able to tie in the speakers physically and that number wax to 24 - bit/192kHz .
Sound Quality
I may as well get right to it here . Obviously the asking price signify expectations are high , but the Focal Diva Utopia makes respectable on everything its specification ( and , to a lesser extent , its appearance ) promises . This is an exceedingly completed audio system of rules , one that can take on any style of music and egress victorious .
You probably wo n’t be distribute to learn that low - frequency mien here is considerable . What ’s a little less predictable , though , is how deft and insightful the Diva Utopia is at the bottom of the frequency range – it can hit very hard if you ask it to play Go before in the Rain by A Tribe Called Quest , indisputable , but it has the dexterity and insight to bring Danny Thompson ’s bass - playing vividly to life history during Kate Bush ’s Watching You Without Me .
consonant variations are closely observed here , as they are throughout the frequency range , and ascendence of the depleted end is such that rhythmic expression is always plus and convincing .
The opposite end of the frequency scope is equally lavishly detailed , and tonal variation are evince with rank foregone conclusion . There ’s mass of pungency and flak useable , but even the most raucous and/or inexpensive recordings ( intend Call a Doctor by Girl and Girl ) remain the right side of hard at the top end . And in between , the Focal deliver the midrange in the most naturalistic and revealing manner conceivable – a Isaac Bashevis Singer ’s commitment , the point of their character and mental attitude , are made absolutely bare . So when you ’re listening to a technician as accomplished as , say , Ustad Saami singing My Beloved is on the Way the immediacy and intimacy of the Diva Utopia ’s rendering is sufficient to lift goosebumps .
Despite the numerosity of the drivers here , there ’s no evident crosswalk level – the system travels from the bottom of the frequency range to the top in the smoothest of manners and gives appropriate weighting at every distributor point . Tonality , too , is convinced and convincing – it ’s carefully neutral , and therefore allows the tonal flavour of a recording plenty of look .
The Focal ’s power to create a convincing soundstage is as impressive – even if a recording features lots of elements , there ’s always more than enough elbow elbow room for each one of them to do its matter without sounding squeezed . But this ability to open up a recording up and individualise specific constituent of it is never at the disbursement of unity or togetherness – the Diva Utopia always serves up a recording as a convincing whole . And it can do so even if it ’s rampaging through big displacement in book or intensity – it may seem self - evident that a system with 800 high - caliber watts on tap is able to give chase big active geological fault confidently , but the Focal is notably adept here too .
And perhaps most imposingly of all , the Diva Utopia does everything it does in the most unforced and definitive style . It never sounds even remotely strain , even when playing at big volumes ( and conceive me , it ’s capable of very handsome volumes ) – it has an almost perfunctory command of the music it ’s playing , and never sounds less than musical and realistic .
In fact , about the only meaningful negative I can come up with is that you ’ll need a bonny amount of space if you desire to countenance this Focal organisation really do its thing . I imagine that if you ’ve got 30 grand to drop on an audio system then the chance are you have a nicely spacious country in which to put it – but for the sake of clarity , the Diva Utopia will overwhelm any room that ’s less than big . Unless you like being suppress by soundwaves , you ’ll give this organisation the external respiration space it ask . It is worth it , I promise you .
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Should you buy it?
No , the Focal Diva Utopia is not chintzy . But it could conceivably be the only stereo medicine set - up you ’ll ever need
These are big speakers , able of bring forth big sound – so it follows that they require a gravid elbow room in which to do so
Final Thoughts
Part of me always wants hugely expensive audio equipment to be blemished in some way . I ’m not certain why – perhaps I just do n’t like the idea of being able to throw money at a job in decree to puzzle out it or at an itching in ordering to scratch up it .
Sometimes the staggeringly expensive audio equipment I listen to has a shortcoming or two – and no matter how minor , I will be sure to pounce on it . But as far as the Focal Diva Utopia is relate , well – I ’ve got nothing .
Trusted Score
FAQs
you’re able to stream medicine to the Diva Utopia over Bluetooth . It indorse codecs up to aptX Adaptive .
