Goodbye Chora, Hello Theva

The world leader in high-end home theater speakers is back to shake things up - the Focal Theva speakers have arrived to replace the immensely popular Focal Chora line.

At Audio Advice, we have been avid supporters of Focal's exceptional products since we introduced them into our stores a few years ago. With a commitment to designing everything in France and utilizing their own proprietary materials, Focal has pushed the limits of speaker engineering to create components that are as beautiful as they are functional.

Thanks to their expertly-matched drivers, the Chora models were widely appreciated for their ability to simplify the process of creating a home theater system. The Theva speakers take what Focal learned on making amazing entry-level speakers with Chora and eke out even more performance.

The Price of Perfection

If you do a quick Google search for the world’s most expensive speakers, you will likely come across the top-of-the-line Focal Grand Utopia EM Evo. These sell for almost $300,000 a pair and certainly represent one of the best speakers on the planet. Not many speaker companies create products this advanced or expensive, but when they do, they usually find a way to use some of the tech they invented for their best speakers in their more affordable models. Chora, and now Theva, both draw inspiration from what Focal learned from the Grand Utopia, incorporating aspects such as cabinet design, crossovers, and speaker drivers.

The sound Focal aims for in all of their speakers is very neutral, with great sound staging and dynamics. The fact you can get this level of sound and speaker technology in the new Theva models is very impressive!

With Theva there are two tower speakers, a bookshelf model, a center channel, a cool on-wall surround, and a version of the larger tower that has an upward-firing Atmos driver on top.

Crafted for Your Ears and Your Eyes

As you would expect from a French company that is into design, the Theva models have more choices than basic black on every speaker except for the surround models. You can choose from: gloss black with a matching gloss black front faceplate, a light wood finish with an ivory front faceplate, and a darker wood with a gray-colored front faceplate. Each speaker includes a magnetic grill that covers most of the front.

If you choose to go with the grills off to show off the really cool slate driver material, you’ll find the Focal logo screen printed around each driver ring to display your choice.

In a change from Chora, Focal moved the ports to the rear of the speakers. In our opinion, this created both a pro and a con.

Pro: It allowed them to change the cabinet design to make them skinnier, which could be a big plus in some rooms.

Con: With a rear port, you will need them further away from a wall, as they will interact negatively with being close to a rear wall or cabinet.

Innovation in Every Note

Innovation abounds in the new Theva models.

If budget and space were no object, an ideal home theater system would comprise identical full-range speakers throughout. This would ensure all the surround effects sound the same, providing an immersive movie-watching experience. However, in reality, this is not practical. The next best option is to use speakers with the same type of drivers, crossovers, and cabinet construction to ensure a consistent sound. The new Theva speakers have identical tweeters and varying sizes of Focal's cutting-edge slate midrange/woofer, offering unparalleled audio quality.

The Theva employs Focal's renowned TNF tweeter, which was previously used in the Chora series. This exceptional tweeter is also found in more expensive Focal models, thanks to its proven performance and use of aluminum and magnesium. Focal has been utilizing inverted tweeters in its designs for over two decades and has been able to fine-tune this design to deliver the best possible sound.

During the development of their luxury Grand Utopia series, Focal devised a groundbreaking method of using Poron - a material with shape memory - as the suspension between the dome and bracket. This ingenious application of Poron significantly reduces distortion in the 2-3K range, by a factor of three, and can be found in the new TNF tweeter.

While there's no definitive "right" or "wrong" way to design a tweeter, it's hard to argue with Focal's decades of engineering expertise. With over 20 years of experience utilizing inverted domes, Focal continues to refine and improve this technology, making it a trusted and innovative choice for audiophiles worldwide.

They also had a goal with the TNF tweeter of improving how linear the sound is off axis. This is especially important for home theaters in media room situations where the viewers may not be in the sweet spot. Focal improved the waveguide to give them a very wide and linear dispersion pattern.

When you first see a Theva with its grill off, you will be struck with a very unique-looking woofer. The history and tech behind this is pretty interesting. Focal, like a lot of great speaker companies, has been experimenting with combinations of materials to improve performance. They decided to use an idea from the aviation industry and combine carbon fiber with plastics. After lots of trial and error, they discovered a magical combination of recycled carbon fiber held together with a thermoplastic polymer. Instead of weaving the fibers, they got better performance with them all going in the same general direction and held in place by the polymer. Can you imagine what it was like testing all those materials? Quite loud, we’d imagine.

Focal then had to design special machines to create these unique drivers at their factory in France. The random nature of the way the strands are put into the polymer creates a look very similar to slate, which is where they came up with the name Slatefiber for this new driver material. It is very light, extremely rigid, and highly damped, which are all things you aim for in a midrange or bass driver. No two are exactly alike, which is why we love these with the grills off. These first came out in the Chora models and are in the updated Theva series as well.

While the Theva shares the same drivers as the Chora series it replaces, Focal did make improvements to the internal crossovers and cabinet bracing for even better performance.

What’s New In the Focal Theva Line?

Now let’s take a look at each model. Picking the right one for your system will come down to the location you want to use them in and your room size. Focal has made it very simple with Theva as there is one bookshelf speaker, two floorstanders, a floorstander with elevation Atmos drivers, a matching center, and a surround speaker.

Theva N°1 Bookshelf Speakers

That covers the three models you could use either in two-channel stereo or two-channel home theater system. The next models we go over allow you to take these amazing two-channel audio speakers and put together a perfectly matched home theater system.

What is great about all of these models is they share the exact same driver materials and tweeter which means if you use these all matched up in a home theater system, your surround and Dolby Atmos effects will seamlessly pan around your room.

What is Our Recommendation?

The Focal Theva series once again proves Focal’s dedication to pure, natural sound combined with beautiful design. These models can work well in a two-channel system and their perfectly matched drivers make them ideal for home theater. Plus they just look fantastic. We do recommend you power them with a high-quality integrated amp or a higher-level AV Receiver. When you send them good power, they will really come to life and provide you with both dynamics and musicality that is hard to beat for their price.

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Audio Advice has been in the industry since 1978, and throughout the years, we’ve developed a team of professionals who live and breathe all things audio and video. We spend countless hours testing and reviewing every product we sell to be sure it stands up to our extremely high-quality standards. With our state-of-the-art home theater audio lab, we can become experts in our products and provide our customers with in-depth, honest feedback.

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