The French Connection

Blending style and sonic flair, David Price auditions this small but perfectly formed Gallic standmount loudspeaker

- David Price

Focal is on the move. You’d think with such a vast speaker range it would have already hit every possible niche, but apparently not. The striking Kanta N°1 is best described as a high-end standmount speaker aimed at those who put design flair before convention. It’s certainly something different for this French brand and is one of its most expensive standmount loudspeakers. Focal describes it as “a new vision for a premium speaker,” no less…

Regular readers who saw the £6,999 N°2 floorstander review back in HFC 435 will remember the Kanta range is the first time that the company’s beryllium tweeter and flax mid/bass drivers have been combined. Another innovation is the range of snazzy baffle colours offered with the gloss black cabinet paint finish – Carrara white, gauloise blue, solar yellow and black lacquer are also available. There’s also a walnut wood option, where you get a choice of ivory, warm taupe, gauloise blue and dark grey baffles.

Personally, I’m a big fan of both Focal’s beryllium tweeter and its flax mid/bass unit. The new pure IAL 3 27mm inverted-dome tweeter combines the principles of Infinite Acoustic Loading and Infinite Horn Loading tweeters, both of which improve the absorption of sound waves to reduce the resonant frequency of the tweeter, according to Focal. Although it’s two-and-a-half times lighter than titanium, it is seven times more rigid. At 2.4kHz it crosses over to the 165mm flax sandwich cone mid/bass unit, said to have low mass, high rigidity and excellent damping. It uses Focal’s Tuned Mass Damping and Neutral Inductance Circuit technology to stabilise the magnetic field to provide perfect definition and better-controlled bass, says the company.