Come Together
Naim and Focal sing in perfect harmony
The new Focal Diva Utopia is an active three-way high-end audio system.
If you were a Naim Audio fan during the 1990s and 00s, you may have dreamed of one day owning a Naim "six pack." This was the best possible Naim system of the time, a fully active three-way setup that, with all possible upgrades, ran into 20 different boxes.
How so many? First, there were the six monoblock NAP power amps, and then you added the external PSU upgrades; that's 12 already. There was the SNAXO active crossover with its PSU, the preamp plus PSU, and a CD player plus PSU, that's 18, and we haven't even got to a turntable and phonostage. On the Naim forums, we'd drool over system pics where an entire living room wall was lined with Naim black boxes on shelves because the most fastidious amongst us never stacked them more than two or three high.
All these boxes drove the imposing Naim DBL loudspeakers (which, frankly, don't look that big these days) that shipped as three separate cabinets per channel and whose notorious set-up procedure required in-field silicone gasket-making and very specific torque requirements of innumerable bolts.
We're thinking of the Naim six-pack as we gaze at the ridiculously slick Focal Diva Utopia that's also effectively a high-end Naim three-way active system with six mono amplifiers but is contained in just two loudspeaker cabinets and is ready to play with just two cables.
The Focal Diva Utopia
When an electronics and a speaker company as experienced as Naim and Focal merge, you know there's something really special coming down the line. Dubbed a three-way active wireless loudspeaker, the Diva Utopia is high-end audio for people who just want the destination, not the journey. There's nothing wrong with that. Some of us want to buy a frame and build a bicycle up piece by piece, carefully researching compatibility and saving for the best possible parts. Others want to go to a store, buy a fully functional bicycle, and just start posting rides to Strava.
At $40,000, the Focal Diva Utopia is for the hi-fi enthusiast who is all about high-fidelity performance but not the high-maintenance research and conversations around "synergy." This is a proper system for the person who wants audiophile-grade sound but does not want to purchase an audiophile-grade cable, rack, or isolator or get into the never-ending cycle of upgrades.
Each Diva contains 400 W of class-AB amplification (remember, this is Naim, so that's a huge amount of power), 250 W for the four 6.5" woofers, 75 W for the 6.5" mid, and 75 W for the beryllium tweeter. The speakers can sync up wirelessly using a proprietary lossless wireless protocol or can be connected using an Ethernet cable for the highest-resolution playback.
Similarly, you can add another Ethernet cable for data or use Wi-Fi and other wireless formats to stream music. You can use the dedicated app, the remote control or Apple's or Google voice assistants.
The cabinet is made from a special high-density polymer with the familiar Utopia bass reflex, and, your eyes don't deceive you, that is a grey felt finish.
How Does It Sound?
We don't have a demo unit yet (give us about three weeks), but based on our experiences with high-end active powered speakers from brands such as Meridian Audio, you are sure to get an astonishingly effortless and open sound, the result of each speaker driver being controlled by a separate amp. We're especially excited that the Diva is a class-AB design, so we're not going to miss any of Naim's deep connection with the soul of the music.
This being Focal, you can be assured the drivers have been designed specifically for this cabinet, resulting in a tuned response that takes full advantage of every millimeter of driver travel and every cubic centimeter of cabinet space.
Active systems such as these are prized for excellent low-level performance and the ability to play shockingly loud without overdriving either amps or speakers. They are the perfect party system—there are no boxes or cables to fall over, and they can sound fantastic even when pushing enough dBs to keep a room full of screaming drunk people dancing. Don't forget to invite us!
What Is an Active System?
When referring to loudspeakers, "active" means they have amplification on board, as opposed to passive speakers, where you need a separate amp. When an entire system such as that Naim "six-pack" is called "active," it's because it uses an active (i.e. powered) external crossover.
In a regular system, the crossovers are usually passive (i.e., unpowered) and reside in or on the loudspeakers. The amp sends a full-range signal to the speaker, and the crossover divides it into separate signals for tweeters, mids, and woofers.
An active crossover, however, sits between the preamp and amplifiers. Like before, the crossover separates out the high, mid, and bass signals and sends them to separate amplifiers for the tweeters, mids, and woofers, bypassing the speaker's crossover. This is why a three-way active speaker system needs either three stereo amps or six mono amps.
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