Got a large, acoustically-treated listening room but don’t wish to line one wall with hi-fi racks full of electronics to feed a pair of passive loudspeakers? Focal wants to pull on your coat about the Diva Utopia — a pair of exceedingly expensive streaming active loudspeakers. And it isn’t the ‘hi-res’ assignation that will determine the Diva Utopia’s sonic prowess but their construction, driver array and amplification. For starters, Focal rates each speaker as 3dB down at 27Hz for near-full-range performance.
The Diva Utopia is a 3-way bass reflex design that deploys a quad of 6.5″ bass drivers in a “push-push configuration”, a 6.5″ mid-bass driver with “TMD surround and NIC motor” and a 2.7cm M-shaped inverted dome tweeter that’s made from “pure beryllium”. And it isn’t that each loudspeaker needs to see wall power that makes them active but how each driver enjoys its own bespoke-tubed amplifier. Inside each cabinet, Focal is juicing the six drivers with 400 Watts of Naim’s Class A/B amplification: 250 Watts is fed to the bass drivers with the remaining 150 Watts split evenly between the mid/bass and tweeter.
On streaming, the Diva Utopia support Bluetooth (SBC, AAC, aptX Adaptive), Spotify Connect, Tidal Connect, Apple AirPlay 2 and Google Cast. Mais Mon Dieu! Roon Ready is not part of this deal.
Hard-wired connectivity sits towards the bottom rear of the primary loudspeaker to offer HDMI eARC, TOSLINK, USB-A (for storage devices) and analogue RCA. That connectivity panel is also where the secondary speaker joins the primary via RJ45 cable for a 24bit/192kHz-capable interlink. Otherwise, an ultra-wideband wireless interlink joins them invisibly and with low latency at 24bit/96kHz.
Control comes via any supported streaming app, Focal/Naim’s own smartphone app (that integrates Qobuz and Tidal) or the supplied Zigbee remote. Each speaker weighs a whopping 64kg.
Pricing? I hope you are sitting down: US$39,999 or £29,999 per pair. This is Future-Fi for someone with deeper pockets than your average hi-fi enthusiast. That means having a house large enough for a dedicated media/listening room where the walls and ceiling are acoustically treated.
Further information: Focal
