It’s been more than a decade since Focal and Naim became sister companies under the VerVent Audio Group umbrella but, apart from sharing stands at hi-fi shows and some minor tinkering around the edges of each other’s product ranges, there hasn’t been a full-on collaboration between the two brands. Until now, that is.
Focal and Naim have been working away at this Diva Utopia wireless music streaming system for the past five years. And despite the fact that it wears ‘Focal’ branding, the metaphorical fingerprints of both of these venerable companies are, quite frankly, all over it.
The Diva Utopia is, fundamentally, a pair of three-way bass-reflex speakers. Near the top of the front baffle there’s a 27mm pure beryllium ‘M’-shaped inverted dome tweeter in a semi-decoupled upper chamber - it’s positioned behind an elaborate ‘double’ grille that appears to change colour between red and black as you move around the speaker. Below here there’s a 165mm ‘W’ mid/bass driver with tuned mass damper surround and an NIC (‘neutral inductance circuit’) motor of the type Focal has been ardently perfecting for a while now.
The side panels of each speaker feature a pair of 165mm ‘W’ bass drivers arranged in a push/push configuration. The output of each of these quartets is bolstered by a downward-facing bass reflex port that vents against the fixed boundary provided by the speaker’s integrated aluminium base.
Inside each cabinet there’s a total of 400 watts of Naim-designed Class AB amplification to power this extensive driver array. The tweeter and the mid/bass driver are in receipt of 75 watts each, and the remaining 250 watts is used to power the four bass drivers. Focal suggests this is an arrangement that provides a frequency response of 27Hz - 40kHz.
The cabinets themselves are formed from high-density moulded polymer, and are structurally reinforced to produce as rigid a structure as possible - all the better to reject vibrations, of course. Each one arrives pre-fitted with castors -that can be swapped for chunky, high-quality floor-spikes that are also part of the package (along with discs they can stand in to protect your floor). The relatively complex shape of the cabinet, especially the tweeter-bearing top section, will be recognisable to anyone who’s come into contact with any of Focal’s other Utopia speakers.
The shape is only half of it, though. Not for the Diva Utopia your usual black or white or wood veneer finishes, oh no. Focal has clad these cabinets with a robust, tactile and expertly applied grey felt cloth - it combines, says Focal, elegance with minimal environmental impact. To put the other side of the argument, mind you, one visitor to my home took a look at the finish and enquired as to why my speakers were in strait-jackets. Other colours are likely to be available in the future, which may minimise that particular impression. In the meantime, though, there’s no disputing the quality of build and finish that’s apparent here.
At the rear, each cabinet features an oversized radiator that’s straight from the Naim Statement school of design. Beneath it, each has an RJ45 socket for making a hard connection to the other and a mains power input. After that, though, one speaker does all the heavy lifting where connectivity is concerned. It is home to a second RJ45 for Ethernet connection, a type 2.0 USB-A slot, a digital optical input, a line-level stereo RCA input and an HDMI eARC socket. A pre-amplified input for use with a turntable would have been nice, but otherwise it’s hard to know what else Focal might reasonably have included where physical connectivity is concerned.
Focal is using UWB (ultra-wide band) technology to ensure that when the two speakers are wirelessly connected latency is negligible. Connected this way, resolution tops out at 24bit/96kHz - but use the supplied RJ45 cable to join them together and 24bit/192kHz is on the menu.
The wireless stuff is handled by Bluetooth 5.3 with aptX Adaptive codec compatibility, and dual-band wi-fi that brings Apple AirPlay 2, Google Cast, Spotify Connect and TIDAL Connect to the party. The Diva Utopia is UPnP-compatible, too, although it’s not Roon Ready. Internet radio is available, and both Qobuz, and QQMusic via QPlay (for Chinese customers) are also accessible via the Focal & Naim control app. All your digital signals, whether acquired wirelessly or via a hard connection, are dealt with by a 32bit/384kHz DAC that’s also good with DSD128.
Sound quality
Naturally, expectations are high for a wireless audio system with such a giddy price-tag. But - spoiler alert! - it seems fair to say the Focal Diva Utopia does an impressive job of making the asking price seem fair.
Certainly, these speakers deliver an expansive, full-scale and room-filling listen - which is hardly a surprise when you consider the amount of power that’s on tap. Perhaps more surprising is the fact that they’re deft and insightful at the same time - the physical appearance suggests ‘bruiser’ but the sound they serve up is more ‘ballet dancer’ than ‘brawler’.
Tonally, they’re nicely balanced and winningly neutral. Frequency response, from the brilliantly deep and controlled bottom end to the bright and attacking top, is utterly even - no area of the frequency range is unduly emphasised, no area is underplayed. And the active digital crossover arrangement means the sweep from bottom to top is as smooth as can be.
Detail levels are high across the board. There’s a huge amount of insight into a recording, and an ability to identify and contextualise even the most minor and fleeting occurrences - even if they occur at the very edge or very rear of the soundstage. The soundstage itself is much bigger than the speakers that are creating it, with more than enough elbow room available for each individual element of a recording to fully express itself without being impeded by any other element - and that’s the case even if the recording in question involves an absolute stack of individual elements.
Dynamic headroom is considerable, so no matter how pronounced the shift in volume or intensity a recording indulges in, the Focal system has no problem giving it full expression. And the attention it pays to the more minor, but no less significant, harmonic variations apparent in an unaccompanied voice or solo instrument, is no less zealous.
And everything the Diva Utopia does so well, it does in the most unstressed and unforced manner. No matter if it’s shifting from ‘whisper’ to ‘all-out attack’, organising and describing the layout of a packed soundstage, or giving even the most complex, difficult-to-track rhythm completely naturalistic expression, it sounds like no effort at all. The system hints at apparently limitless reserves of power and energy and insight - if there’s a piece of music that makes it even slightly apparent how hard the Focal is working, I’ve yet to encounter it. And make no mistake, during the course of testing I listen to the Diva Utopia for much, much longer than is strictly necessary - because to do so is no hardship whatsoever.
Really, about the only note of caution I can realistically sound concerns the size of room in which you place your expensive new wireless audio system. The Focal Diva Utopia, as I’ve already mentioned, is a more meticulous and less pugnacious performer than its appearance might suggest - but there’s no denying it will overpower a smaller listening space with the sheer scale of its presentation. Even when it’s playing small-scale stuff the Focal sounds big. Still, it seems to me that anyone with such a significant amount of money to spend on a pair of speakers is likely to have sufficient space in which they can properly do their thing.
Living with
At 121x42x56cm (HxWxD) and 64kg per speaker, the Focal Diva Utopia is a significant physical proposition. Add in all of that power and that prodigious frequency response, and it should be apparent that a larger listening space is in order. Once wheeled into position in your nice big room, though, the Diva Utopias are painless to live with - unless, of course, you share a house with one of those unruly cats that will use anything even remotely grippy as a scratching post.
The command options here are thoughtful and well-implemented. The system is supplied with a ‘Zigbee’ remote control of the type that will be familiar to anyone who’s taken even a passing interest in Naim equipment over the last decade or so. It’s also compatible with your preferred voice assistant - but the Focal & Naim app is where the real control lies.
It’s a clean, logical and well laid-app, and far more stable than it used to be - which is a blessing. As well as the usual stuff such as playback control, assigning presets and saving some favourites, checking on firmware updates and all the rest, it also has a comprehensive room correction routine into which the user gets an unprecedented amount of input. The app also allows you to enable, disable and rearrange the order of specific inputs to keep the homepage to your liking. It lets you trim the output level of specific inputs. It even lets you choose between a slider and ‘+/-’ buttons for volume control. If you can’t get your Focal Diva Utopia system to do exactly what you want, quickly and easily, I really think that’s on you.
Conclusion
It should be apparent by now that the good people of Focal and Naim have not spent the last five years sitting on their hands. Yes, the Diva Utopia is big both in the space it occupies and the hole it leaves in your bank balance - but it’s a big performer too, with an enormous range of sonic talents to go along with its extensive specification. You’ll make your own mind up about the looks and the finish, of course - but either way, you may be surprised at just how convincingly the Focal justifies that asking price.
Listening notes
Daniel Avery Diminuendo
Do you want to know exactly how hard the Diva Utopia can hit, how deep it can dig and how carefully it can control the attack and decay of bass sounds? How expertly it can express a rhythm and handle low-frequency harmonic variation? Daniel Avery has the answers…
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds Frogs
‘Start volcanically and build to a climax’ as someone once memorably said - and the relentless increase in scale and intensity of this recording is made all too apparent by the Focal system. It’s a slow-ish ignition, sure - but eventually, remorselessly, it burns itself to the ground.
Lisa O’Neill Old Note
Midrange resolution is all-important where this remarkably immediate and eloquent vocal performance is concerned, and the Diva Utopia effortlessly reveals all of the technique, the character and the attitude in O’Neill’s unmistakable voice.
Of course, if you go down the more traditional route and buy a powerful amplifier, some big and accomplished loudspeakers, and a nicely specified network streamer, you can spend £29,999 in any number of ways. But if you want a decent dose of convenience to go along with expansive, entertaining and full-scale sound quality, the Focal Diva Utopia is currently the only game in town at this sort of money. And what a game it is.
