3-way High- End FloorStanding Loudspeaker

Be surprised by Kanta, highly original speakers that will reconnect you with your music. Entirely dedicated to acoustic performance and with a resolutely bewitching aesthetic: that, in a nutshell, is the Kanta DNA! It took three years of research and development to create this model, Kanta No. 2, the first in the range. With their new materials and effectiveness-focused design that give them their powerful identity, they come straight from our engineers' hearts.

Focal offers a hitherto unknown amalgamation of technologies: the marriage of Beryllium, in the latest generation IAL3 tweeter, with Flax, for the midrange and bass drivers. The result is precise, detailed sound brimming with warmth and musicality. This is the start of a new era for those who love sound.

Marriage of Materials: Beryllium & Flax

For the very first time, a Flax sandwich cone speaker has been combined with a Beryllium tweeter. Flax is the answer to the low mass / rigidity/damping equation, leading to sound clarity and precision. This unique Flax/Beryllium combination gives music incredible warmth and musicality. Made in France, this patented flax cone has already proven itself in Focal home and in-car speakers. The midrange speaker uses TMD ( Tuned Mass Damping ) suspension, and every Kanta speaker is also equipped with an NIC ( Neutral Inductance Circuit ) motor, which stabilizes the magnetic field for perfectly defined sound and better controlled bass.

Cabinet-work: High Density Polymer

Everything is designed and made to create acoustic softness and warmth: the density and stiffness of the front panel and cabinet materials, softened angles and double port vents. The front panel is made of a new material to suit the acoustic parameters. It is moulded in one piece from High Density Polymer ( HDP ). This material has excellent performance: it is 70% denser than MDF, 15% stiffer and provides 25% more damping. The one-piece front panel totally eliminates any sound diffraction. Kanta incorporates Power Flow technology with two vents, on the front and rear faces, to limit bass compression.

New Tweeter: Distortion is the Enemy 

Focal's research is geared towards reducing distortion in every register. With Kanta, the treble register is reproduced by a new pure Beryllium tweeter. This IAL3 tweeter combines the IAL ( Infinite Acoustic Loading ) and IHL ( Infinite Horn Loading ) tweeters features, both of which help with the absorption of waves, thus lowering the tweeter frequency.

Style

Our engineers have revisited their choice of ‘Focus Time’, which corrects speaker alignment, making them the same distance from the ear. The cabinet is made in one-piece integrally moulded wood. The Zamac base also brings out masses of character. With its spikes and cups, the base provides great stability from a very small footprint. Final details: the glass-covered top and magnetic grilles. When these are removed, they reveal the speakers' flax cones, the final design touch that gives Kanta its unique look.

Finishes

A wide range of combinations are available to fit into every interior space. The cabinet is available in High Gloss black lacquer and Walnut. For each of these, there are four front panels colors, in two finishes. With the High Gloss black cabinet there are four front panels available: High Gloss Carrara White, Gauloise Blue and Black Lacquer. With the wood finish cabinet there are four front panels available:  Ivory, Gauloise Blue and Dark Grey in Matt Finishes.

"Any color, so long as it's black." That was the choice famously offered by Henry Ford to buyers of his Model T. Some makers of loudspeakers, notably GoldenEar Technology, follow the same dictum.

Design

Focal's mix'n'match approach to the Kanta No.2's cabinet and baffle finishes is only a minor part of the speaker's design. Located in Ste. Etienne, France, in a 188,000-square-foot facility occupied by 230 employees, Focal is very much an R&D-oriented company, and 100% of its high-end products, including this one, are made there. The design of the Kanta No.2 is said to be a continuation of the innovations introduced in Focal's Utopia Evo and Sopra speakers, the most important goal presumably being the reduction of distortion. The new IAL 3 tweeter used in the Kanta No.2, made of pure beryllium ( see sidebar, "Beryllium" ), features Infinite Acoustic Loading ( IAL ) and Infinite Horn Loading ( IHL ), both technologies intended to reduce unwanted resonances. The 6.5" midrange drive-unit and the two 6.5" woofers all have cones made of a 0.4mm-thick layer of flax, the plant used in the production of linen and other textiles, sandwiched between 0.04mm-thick layers of glass fiber. The midrange includes Focal's Tuned Mass Damping ( TMD )—a pair of tubular rings built into the cone surround—and all three lower-frequency drivers are equipped with Focal's Neutral Inductance Circuit ( NIC ), to stabilize the magnetic field. Focal's "marriage of materials" between flax-and-glass–sandwich cones and a pure-beryllium inverted dome is the world's first such nuptial, they claim.

Focal has paid a lot of attention to the design of the Kanta's cabinet. The baffle is molded of a high-density polymer ( HDP ) 70% more dense and 15% more rigid than the more commonly used MDF, and that produces 25% higher damping. Rapping a knuckle on the baffle revealed a very solid, well-damped structure. The baffle's edges are rounded, to reduce diffraction. The cabinet itself is made of a molded wood product also for greater rigidity. The speaker's glass top panel adds a touch of elegance.

The Kanta No.2 has one port in front and one in back, in a design Focal refers to as Power Flow.The speaker has only a single pair of terminals, so biwiring is out—which was fine with me.

Setup

The owner's manual suggests positioning the Kanta No.2s symmetrically, not too close to a room corner or wall, and ideally so that they and the listening position describe an equilateral triangle. Focal doesn't define "not too close," but otherwise this describes my usual listening setup, with the speakers along the long wall of my listening room ( 16' long by 14' wide by 7.5' high ), toed-in to almost fully face that position. With the Focals in about the same positions I'd placed the Wilson Audio Specialties Sabrinas and the Monitor Audio Platinum PL300 IIs, with some tweaking of toe-in, I was able to get a good focus of aural images on the soundstage. The top-to-bottom tonal balance was smooth, with no obvious peaks or dips in the frequency response.

The Kanta No.2s are provided with bases made of Zomac, an alloy of zinc and aluminum, that include spikes that can be extended by turning knurled knobs, similar to the method used by Monitor Audio—a convenient design that permits the precise control of leveling. I first listened to the Focals with the spikes retracted, extending them only when I felt the speakers were in their final positions, and protecting my wood floor with metal discs. Listening to the sort of bass-heavy music that's expected to reveal the effects of spikes, I compared the Focals' sound with and without spikes, going back and forth several times. The spikes certainly made an audible difference, but I wasn't sure it was an improvement. With spikes, the bass was a little tighter but also a bit subdued—which may be another way of saying "tighter." But see my discussion below off the effects of IsoAcoustics' Gaia isolation devices for speakers.

Technical Specifications