Loudspeaker of the Year

Focal Grande Utopia EM Loudspeaker

Rating: 90/100
Value: 10/100
Total Points: 100/200

Price: $180,000.00 USD, varies by region.
Weight: 260 kg

Focal's Grande Utopia EM is a third-generation product with rich heritage and modern composition. It is suitable for homes approximately $18M in value, with serious listening rooms. The sort of car you would likely drive, for economic comparison, would be a Bugatti Veryron 16.4 Super Sport ($2.4M), making this Focal purchase a genuine "no-brainer." That out of the way, we highly recommend this product, and bestow on it our "Loudspeaker of the Year" award for meritus achievement in architecture, and sound quality.

Resembling a monolith, figured and segmented into regions (diced, sliced, and quartered), the Grande Utopia displays admirable qualities exceeding those of competitive products in display, suited to a modernist suite, extensively, and sound, it being fully capable of "playing acoustic instruments" aurally as perfect as instruments sound.

Listening to big-band recorded jazz in only 16/44(.1) we were transported to a level of sonic "heaven" exceeding that of a first-rate jazz club in the 1920's, in our estimation; New York's "The Cotton Club" would take second billing, due to conversation, dance and dinner background noise, interfering with the music.

Listening to higher-resolution, better-recorded material, and you are rewarded. The speaker is not the limit.

There is no difference, literally, between this speaker and the sound of actual instruments in actual acoustic space.Whether it be a solo instrument, such as a trumpet, tenor sax, entire percussion section, or entire orchestra, there is no difference: you are there.We are a fan of binaural recordings with serious headphones and "ear-speakers" and this speaker does sound simply better. That you could see the musicians, would be secondary: we can imagine that a system combining the Grand Utopia III with a projection display would be stunning. Worthy of a first-rate home, or extremely equipped studio.

Not looking at the system, however, we and others could make no distinction between "live" and played-back instruments with these speakers, as we have already said. It has been said before, and we say it now: this is the first hi-fi loudspeaker. Others were attempts, only.

We reviewed this speaker in a large room, with top-range Bryston electronics, and Nordst cable. It would be our preference to try this speaker with Devaliet electronics (two or more amplifiers, $16,000 each) and attempt to bypass the internal cross-over.

For those on a more limited budget, with an inclination towards pop-music, the Focal Electra 1038/1028 be may be an option. For smaller rooms, and a mid-range budget, the Focal Scala Utopia III (same series) with a recommended powered sub-woofer (pair), properly configured is possible. We also like the Revel Ultima Studio 2 and Salon 2, for those listening to pop, exclusively.

The relaxed sound presentation and full-scale realism of the Focal Grande Utopia EM is second-to-none. We only find fault in the lack of micro-detail audible in other monitors, which is why we award the product 90 points (of 100) in sound, leaving room for future improvement.

[The electronic adjustment of the frequency relationships between the speaker drivers is a manual, clunky operation, done via the rear of the speaker, which we would like to see addressed in a future revision. Likewise, we would prefer an integrated electro-magnet driver assembly, rather than a separate, linked box, however pretty or configurable. A speak-on connector (or multiple) would be preferred rather than a contemporary hi-fi / binding-post arrangement. Ed.]

Should you be technical, lucky, or employ a true-professional to do the installation please ignore any faults we have pointed-out. This is an exemplary loudspeaker that puts previous attempts of the art as attempts, in a progression of truth and beauty, and this, the first of speakers.

We thank Commercial Electronics of Vancouver, Canada for providing this system for review, and regret that we did not find a home ourselves for this speaker. Thank you, kindly.

You will likely find yourself at home with this product.

www.commercialelectronics.ca
www.focal.com
www.hifiart.ca

2012/12/28 JP

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