In short: French audio giant Focal expanded its Kanta speaker lineup with three premium products, unveiling them in the form of the Kanta N°1, Kanta N°3, and Kanta Center. While different in terms of design and some technical features, the trio shares Focal’s proprietary technology that combines a Flax cone with a Beryllium inverted dome tweeter for accurate, high-quality sound reproduction. The gadgets are expected to be released in the coming months but their prices are yet to be disclosed.
Background: The Kanta N°1 is the smallest new addition to the series, having been designed to sit on a bookshelf or a stand and fill rooms no larger than 269 square ft² (25m²) with audio. The Kanta N°3 is what Focal calls “the gold standard” of the entire product family which can adequately serve rooms more than three times the size of the Kanta N°1’s recommended area of operation. The speaker is both the most powerful and precise of the three newly unveiled ones and will undoubtedly warrant the highest investment. The Kanta Center has been designed not as a standalone solution but a gadget meant to complement existing audio systems, regardless of their quality or other properties. Focal is pointing to its ability to accurately reproduce a human vocal range with “extreme neutrality” as one of its main selling points that should enhance both music and home cinema experiences.
The impact: Historically known for professional-grade equipment, Focal has been on a mission to bring its technological advancements to the average consumer for some time now. With products such as the Listen Wireless and Spark Wireless families, the firm is now offering a number of devices that cater to audiophiles without unlimited budgets and while the newly unveiled expansion of the Kanta series still isn’t expected to be affordable by any definition of that word, it’s likely to follow that same value-oriented philosophy.
