The goal from the get-go, Boutonet says, was to create the very best sound possible, entirely without compromise—which is what landed the speaker in Focal’s high-end Utopia range. Engineers were given free rein to do what they needed to ensure the speakers sounded as good as they possibly could. “The target was not to make the most compact speaker, the focus was completely on the sound,” adds Boutonet.
The former is certainly clear. The Focal Utopia Diva loom large in the Parisian listening room I encounter them, with each speaker measuring 47 x 16 x 22 inches and weighing 141 lbs, or 64 kg. They make quite the statement, sitting on a chunky aluminium base and adopting the familiar backwards lean of the Utopia range that makes their footprint all the larger.
While there’s something distinctly space age about them, there’s a softness to them, too—quite literally. The panelling that wraps around each speaker, which is both floating and removable for future customization, is made from a light gray felt material. At the front, the panels come together but don’t meet, leaving a space down the middle that accommodates Focal’s backlit logo, and gives you a peek of the molded polymer cabinet underneath.
Naim Check
The Utopia Diva bring together the acoustic expertise of the team at Focal with the electronic know-how of its sister brand Naim, for the first time ever. Each speaker features a 1in beryllium tweeter, a 6.5in mid-bass driver and four side-mounted 6.5in woofers, with a sizable 400 watts of Naim Class AB amplification on the inside. That’s per speaker remember, meaning this setup is capable of 800 watts of power.
Getting the Utopia Diva up and running is as simple as any other wireless speaker. Simply plug each speaker into power, fire up Naim’s excellent control app (there’s also a remote included, but the app will be more straightforward for most), and stream directly to them via Apple AirPlay 2, Google Chromecast, Tidal Connect, Qobuz or Spotify Connect—plus there’s Bluetooth 5.3 on board with aptX Adaptive support, too.
The Utopia Diva are also UPnP compatible, meaning you can stream from connected NAS drives and computers, can access internet radio, and are even capable of multiroom—whether that be with other Naim products via the Naim app, or using the built-in capabilities of AirPlay 2 or Chromecast. Sonos eat your heart out.
The two speakers don’t even have to be physically connected to each other if you really want to keep wires to a minimum. Naim has used UWB (ultra-wide band) tech in the Utopia Diva, to ensure latency between the two speakers is negligible—though you should connect them for the very best sound quality. When wireless, the resolution maxes out at 24-bit/96kHz, but this ramps up to 24-bit/192kHz by hardwiring them together.
As you might expect, there are physical connections as well, including optical, HDMI, USB-A and line-level RCA inputs. I didn’t get to hear any of these in action, though, which shows the backseat they’re really being given here, but they’re there if you want them—and it means the Utopia Diva can hook up to your TV and any hi-fi separates you might have, without the need for an amplifier.
What Does $40k Sound Like?
Now sat in front of the speakers, I get the chance to hear what all this really means in practice, and Raoul Bauer, acoustics systems designer at Focal and Naim, is in charge of the playlist that will show us just what these speakers are made of.
Spoiler alert—they sound superb. It’s tricky to really imagine what $40k of engineering sounds like until you’re sitting in front of it, and if you hazard a guess, you’ll likely still underestimate the impact. Perhaps most importantly for a system like this, you’d never know you were listening to wireless speakers and not hi-fi separates unless you were told, which in itself is a huge accomplishment (and exactly the goal).