With the new Diva Utopia, the Focal/Naim partnership takes a bold step into the future
By Roy Gregory
More than one seasoned observer scratched their head and shrugged their shoulders when Focal bought Naim back in 2011. Not exactly a shotgun marriage, it certainly made, initially at least, for uncomfortable bedfellows. Merging any two established companies is always going to be a tricky business, but merging two companies with such distinct and contrasting cultures (not to mention the burden of history) looked like a case of optimism overcoming common sense. And so it proved, with early efforts to grow a shared approach and resources falling on stony ground.
But that was then and this is now…
Today, Focal launched the Diva Utopia, a product that is, arguably, the first example of truly unified design and engineering, not just feeding on but challenging the developmental capabilities of both Focal and Naim Audio. It’s not the first example of shared input and technology, with the Focal powered By Naim marketing initiative and products like the various Musos and the Uniti Nova PE displaying clear signs of cross-company pollination. Indeed, while the very idea of a class D amplifier will doubtless have Naim die-hards muttering in their beer (or rolling in their graves), there’s no escaping reality – and reality is that the Nova PE currently represents 11% of Naim’s turnover, business no company can afford to be without.
But the Diva Utopia – an ambitious, floorstanding, near full-range, active, wireless speaker system – takes things a whole lot further. Look at the Diva and you can clearly see not just Utopia DNA, but a product that combines and takes cues from the last three Focal speaker series, with cabinet construction drawn from the clamshell concept of the Kantas, drivers from the Sopras and cabinet concepts and tweeter from the Utopias. To that you can add wireless communication, a DSP engine, active crossover and four channels of Class AB amplification mounted internally, developed by Naim.
Look closer and you discover not just an impressive quantity and quality of engineering, but equally impressive and novel solutions to old problems. Let’s start with the cabinet: a three-part construction built from massive, low-pressure injection moulded polymer material, it divides into a head unit, front baffle (and side cheeks) and the rear body of the bass enclosure. It’s a solution that produces utterly consistent components ideally suited for volume manufacturing, concentrates the expensive and time consuming precision machining in the ‘one-time’ creation of the dies and allows precise profiling and graduation of wall thickness and internal shaping, structure and dimensions. The material can be mechanically tuned for optimum mechanical behaviour and is immune to humidity and other environmental hazards. The use of moulding extends to the creation of the die-cast foot, which includes the carefully profiled termination for the downward firing vent. German speaker manufacturer Avantgarde Acoustics learnt years ago that whilst moulds might be expensive to create, it’s a one-time cost and the components produced thereafter are incredibly cost effective. But while Avantgarde applied the approach to both their horns and their amplifier chassis, this is the first time I’ve seen it applied on a large volume box speaker from a mainstream manufacturer. I’m sure previous examples exist, but I doubt if any of them got close to being produced in the numbers that focal envisage for the Diva.
