Focal Kanta No2
(Priced Each Speaker)
3-way floor standing speaker
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…
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 stabilises the magnetic field for perfectly defined sound and better controlled bass.
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.
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.
Type | 3 way bass-reflex floor standing loudspeaker |
Drivers | Two 61/2” (16.5cm) Flax woofer with NIC motor 61/2” (16.5cm) Flax midrange with TMD suspension and NIC motor 11/16” (27mm) ‘IAL3’ pure Beryllium inverted dome tweeter |
Sensitivity (2,83V/1m) | 91dB |
Frequency Response (+/-3dB) | 35Hz – 40kHz |
Low Frequency Point (- 6dB) | 29Hz |
Nominal Impedance | 8Ω |
Minimum Impedance | 3.1Ω |
Recommended Amplifier Power | 40 – 300W |
Crossover Frequency | 260Hz – 2,700Hz |
Dimensions (HxWxD) | 441/64 x 1241/64 x 1825/32” (1,118 x 321 x 477mm) |
Net weight (with front grille) | 77.2lbs (35kg) |
Packaging dimensions (HxWxD) | 4939/64 x 1617/32 x 2711/64” (1,260 x 420 x 690mm) |
Total weight (including packaging) | 88.2lbs (40kg) |
Stereophile
In their ads, Focal emphasizes the choices of baffle and cabinet finish strongly enough that you might think the Kanta No.2 a “lifestyle” product in which appearance takes precedence over sound quality. Nothing could be further from the truth. Focal is one of the most technically advanced speaker makers in the world, and the Kanta No.2 has benefited from that expertise, with drive-units designed and made in-house and the applications of other proprietary technologies…With the Kanta No.2, styling is merely the icing on the audiophile cake.
Home Theater Review
Familiarity, as they say, often breeds contempt. By that I mean that with most hi-fi products, the longer you spend with them the more you start to notice their flaws, minor as they may be. With the Kanta No. 2, I found just the opposite: the longer I spent with it, the more I appreciated its sophistication. If you have the budget, the Kanta No. 2 belongs on your short list of contenders.