This article discusses a new ultra-high-end Focal tower speaker called the Diva Utopia. This new product isn’t another Bluetooth speaker or active speaker system but a full-on high-end audio system with all the trimmings. We’ll discuss its abilities and technology and explain what makes it extraordinary compared to other active speakers.

Over the last several years, high-end audio components like amplifiers, DACs, and streamers are getting smaller and smaller as technology advances. This allows what used to be a full-sized component to fit into a much smaller enclosure. Advances in thermal control, cooling, and better circuitry integration allow these much smaller components to be installed in situations that used to be impossible. Today, it’s possible to get a fully functioning, high-end audio system that competes with a costly component system, all while housing all of the drivers and electronics in the speakers themselves!

When Focal unveiled the Diva Utopia, they made history by coming out with an all-in-one speaker system with all of the abilities of a component system but taken to the highest level of performance not seen in all-in-one systems. There will always be people who like separate components and the choices that come with them, and there will still be plenty of products from Focal and Naim for you. Still, this new wireless option for end-game performance is compelling for those who love music and want a no-hassle experience.

Company History

Focal began its journey in 1979 in France, making speaker drivers using time-tested manufacturing methods and the newest materials. Making drivers out of Polyglass or Polykevlar was new at the time and caught the eye of many speaker companies. In fact, many of these companies ended up purchasing drivers from Focal to use in their own designs. When others are relying on using your driver technology, you know you are doing something right!

As Focal gained recognition in the French speaker market and beyond, they introduced their flagship speaker, the Grande Utopia, in 1995. With its bold, eye-catching design and innovative engineering, the Grande Utopia became an instant icon, solidifying Focal's reputation as a leader in the high-end audio world. Today, they continue to design some of the best speakers, headphones, pro audio monitors, and car audio drivers in the industry.

However, over the past five years, Focal has been hard at work developing a new kind of powered speaker system. While they're best known for their high-performance audio equipment, this time, the goal was simplicity. They wanted to give people the immersive, high-fidelity sound Focal is famous for, without the need for external amplifiers, bulky gear, or a tangle of cables. The result is a true plug-and-play solution, making it easier than ever to enjoy world-class sound without the usual complexity.

To make this a reality, the speaker design is equally as important as the electronics that power it all. This is where Naim Audio comes in. Over the last 5 decades, Naim has also built a strong reputation for their innovative approach to power supply design, modular construction, and meticulous component selection. Their attention to detail results in an exceptionally lifelike, dynamic sound that has earned Naim a devoted following among audiophiles.

This pairing of British engineering expertise from Naim Audio and French acoustic artistry from Focal is a natural match that brings the Diva Utopias to life with stunning realism. The system synergy between these two brands is no coincidence. It's the result of decades of innovation and a shared philosophy of musical purity. This is true end-game high-end performance entirely self-contained within two speakers.

High Tech Look For a High Tech Product

The moment you see the new Focal Diva Utopia, you can tell it was designed by someone with a real eye for detail. It takes inspiration from the flagship Focal Utopia speakers, but it also has its own unique style. Focal spent five years of focused research and development getting the Diva Utopia ready for the spotlight. They wanted it to feel like a true Focal product while standing apart from the rest of the lineup. This is their first high-end, all-in-one speaker system, so it needed a look that matched its groundbreaking performance. And they absolutely nailed it.

The high-density molded polymer enclosure has structural reinforcement optimized using finite element analysis to keep resonance or vibration from ever being an issue. Over the top of this polymer enclosure are grey felt side panels that give the speaker a modern and distinctive look. But these panels aren't just for style. They also help reduce the environmental impact of production, which is a smart, responsible choice in today’s world.

The side panels also create the overall shape of the enclosure, which has been optimized with rounded corners and flowing lines to allow sound to radiate without the enclosure itself causing disturbances in the sound. Plus, the felt itself is OEKO-TEX®-certified, so you can feel comfortable knowing they are free of any harmful substances and durable enough to last many, many years.

If you don’t love the grey color of these side panels, Focal will be releasing new panels that you can easily change out. There will be three lacquer finishes and two wood finishes coming out in 2025. All of these new panels will not change the sound signature.

The base is made of injected aluminum and houses the port venting for the four woofers. It is a good-looking base with enough weight to keep the Diva Utopia grounded. But one of the stand-out features we all loved is that the Diva Utopia comes with rolling casters preinstalled from the factory. It can be a big pain for anyone who has tried to move a large high-end speaker on spikes.

Not only can the speaker fall over if tilted, but the overall weight and awkwardness of moving speakers like these that weigh 141 lbs a piece can be taxing. Having these castors is excellent; we could even see some people leaving them on for convenience over the spikes in the box. This made our testing even easier by allowing us to move the speakers to different rooms within our showroom at will without hassles. Knowing that the Diva Utopia might be used where complete component systems just won’t work due to limited space or other factors, the castors are an excellent decision. We know this may be a small detail to some, but it just goes to show the attention that Focal put into every aspect of this speaker.

The Diva Utopias are about 48” high, 16.5” wide, and 22” deep, weighing 141 lbs each, so this does mean that these speakers are heavy enough to require help when lifting. But this is no surprise as these are reference class speakers that can fill large rooms. If you plan to keep the speakers in their originally installed spot in your house, then we’d recommend using the castors to easily adjust and move them and follow our speaker placement guides to find the best location, mark that spot, and then use the spikes they provide. But if you plan to use the Diva Utopias in environments where you want to move them occasionally, then keeping them on the castors might be a great idea for you.

Great Ingredients Make Great Meals

Anyone who cooks knows that the better the ingredients, the better the food. Focal used this same thinking process when designing the Diva Utopia. They wanted to marry their best driver technology with the best electronics available to create something truly special. They started with the IAL2 1 5/8" (27mm) pure beryllium ‘M’-shaped inverted dome tweeter housed in an infinite acoustic loading enclosure that minimizes resonance while controlling the acoustic pressure behind the dome. This tweeter uses a design and materials similar to the flagship Grande Utopia EM Evo tweeter. But this tweeter is a special “M” shaped dome version designed for the Diva Utopia. This unique shape allows lower sound directivity, allowing a wider sweet spot. So whether you're sitting front and center or off to the side, you’ll still enjoy balanced sound and clear imaging. Plus, everyone knows how good beryllium is for detail retrieval and rigidity in a tweeter, and it is even more rigid with Focal’s “M” shape dome.

For the midrange, Focal uses a ‘W’ 61/2" (16.5cm) midrange driver with TMD surround and NIC motor. This W cone driver comes directly from the work done while developing the flagship Utopia series speakers and features a unique surround to improve midrange performance.

Called the TMD (Tuned Mass Damper), the surround has precisely placed toroidal weights around the surround, enhancing the midrange and avoiding erratic behavior between 1kHz and 2kHz. Everyone who has heard the Flagship Utopia knows how well the W cone midrange driver and Beryllium tweeters sound together, and the Diva Utopia continues this trend.

For the low end, there are four ‘W’ 61/2" (16.5cm) woofers, two on each side of the cabinet. Focal wanted to ensure that the Diva Utopia could provide full-range sound even in larger rooms, so they went with four drivers, and we think this was a great choice. This allows each driver to share the load, which lowers distortions. These woofers are installed in a bass reflex-loaded enclosure that is ported out of the bottom of the base. This allows a very competent frequency response from 27Hz - 40kHz! This is excellent and some of the best we’ve seen for a powered speaker system.

Good Drivers Need Good Electronics

Focal and Naim Audio have been under the same company envelope for over 10 years, which has proven very beneficial in product development. When Focal was designing the Diva Utopia, they knew they wanted electronics to keep up with the rest of the design. The average class D modules and input boards wouldn’t cut it, so they went to their partner Naim for their expertise in audio electronics. And Naim took this opportunity to show what they could do. They sourced the multiple amplifiers from the Naim Classic Line, which has a reputation for easily powering hard-to-drive speakers that are rated well above the power output of the Naim. This means that each driver in the Diva Utopia will receive more than enough high current power to fill even large rooms. For the first time, you don’t have to pay the price for all-in-one convenience with underperforming built-in amplification.

The amplifiers in the Diva Utopia are first-rate and highly reviewed in their standalone versions. The tweeters and midrange drivers get 75-watt amplifiers each, and the bass section of each speaker gets 250 watts. That's 400 watts of Class AB Naim high current power per speaker in total! That is more than enough power for about any room of any size in your home. Naim also programs the ability to monitor the amplifiers and speaker drivers for any signs of distress or distortion and will throttle back power when it senses anything that could cause distortion or damage to the amplifiers or speaker drivers.

Naim was again called on to provide expertise for processing, digital and analog inputs, and power supply. The input board with processing is mounted right below the amplifier board on the speaker's rear. All processing is done via a Shark DSP processor, like in Naim’s separate components, but it runs at 64 bits vs. 32 bits in the Diva Utopia for the first time. Just like computers, the higher bits allow faster processing and more capability. And just like Naim’s digital components, they rely on Burr Brown DACs in the Diva Utopia to bring a detailed but musically enjoyable sound.

Burr Brown DACs are renowned for their musical and engaging sound when implemented well. The Shark DSP processes the incoming audio signal, divides it into the correct driver section, and then sends it to separate DAC chips for treble, midrange, and bass sections. While most companies prioritize inexpensive and easy-to-design internals, Focal and Naim chose the design that offered the best sound possible.

There have been debates for years on the merits of active crossovers and their benefits. With active crossovers, the signal is separated to each driver section before amplification occurs. This allows better control, as the active electronics will enable you to more easily choose crossover points, slopes, and gain almost on the fly. This is compared to passive crossovers, which only change when the components are changed and cannot be changed on the fly. The downside to an active crossover is that you need separate amplifier sections for each driver. While this used to be more of an issue, with today's ever-shrinking amplifiers it's no longer much of a problem. Also, some say that electronic or digital crossovers can alter the signal or add unwanted distortion. But we can assure you that with today’s digital technology, the active crossover in the Diva Utopia is top-quality and allows each section to receive the cleanest signal.

DSP-based crossovers offer control and adjustability that passive crossovers just can’t do. And with better processors and DAC technology, you don’t pay for this adjustability in a harsh or grainy digital sound. The Diva Utopia has some of the best DSP available today so your sound will be smooth and digital glare-free! This Shark/Burr Brown combination allows all of your favorite music to be processed at its native resolution. Supported formats are listed below.

Audio Formats Supported:

• WAV, FLAC and AIFF – up to 24bits/384kHz
• ALAC (Apple Lossless Audio Codec) – up to 24bits/384kHz
• MP3 – up to 48kHz/ 320kbits (16bits)
• AAC – up to 48kHz/320kbits (16bits)
• OGG and AAC – up to 48kHz (16bits)
• DSD64 and DSD128
• Bluetooth® – aptX™ Adaptive, SBC, AAC
• Note: handles smooth, gapless playback on all formats

This is excellent news as just about every format is covered, so if you are like many music lovers who store music on hard drives or NAS storage, then you know that you can collect music in many different formats over the years. Having processing for all of these formats means you can spend more time listening to your favorite music rather than worrying about formats and compatibility.

For music streaming lovers, Focal thought about you as well. All of your favorite streaming sources are supported, and all casting technologies are as well. That means you can get your favorite music from your choice of streaming sources and then use the technology to cast it to the speakers. One of the great things about Focal’s efforts to make Diva Utopia as easy to use as possible is that they ensured all the streaming platforms and casting methods worked great and effortlessly.

In our testing, we used streaming audio directly from our phones using Chromecast or Airplay. We tried a networked setup with UPnP streaming and streamed directly from the Focal/Naim app included with the Diva Utopia. We even connected via Bluetooth a few times just for convenience and to see how well it functioned. We had no issues, and it sounded great (not quite as good as direct streaming, but close). So, for music lovers like many of us who get our favorite music from multiple streaming platforms, Diva Utopia is fully set up to make that process as easy as possible, and with the Focal & Naim app being the hub, that is possible.

The Focal & Naim app was familiar to us, as we have used it many times with the Focal Bathys headphones. However, the version for the Diva Utopia uses specific speaker settings. It was easy to use, and we could find our favorite music or setting very easily. Another cool thing about this app is that it allows Diva Utopia multi-room audio compatibility with other Naim products, like the very popular Naim Mu-so reference wireless music system.

Plus, when it comes to room correction, they implemented their Focal-designed ADAPT (Adaptive Acoustic Personal Tuning), which is a system that allows you to make meaningful adjustments to room acoustics. It uses built-in sound tests to adjust the sound to the room, and they even let you have a hand in tuning the speakers so that you can add a slight personal preference to the mix. We will further show this ability in our product video, but it worked great for us and allowed the Diva Utopia to work great in just about any environment. To put it into perspective, this is not a full EQ like many Bluetooth headphones have, it is an innovative system for adjusting the speakers to the room and placement within it. It also allows you to tweak to your personal preference slightly. Our entire team was super impressed by this feature!

Focal has also considered people who want to connect their legacy or separate digital components to the Diva Utopia. Type A USB, Toslink, RCA analog inputs to connect a phono preamp for vinyl lovers, RJ45 ethernet with UPnP support. Another option that Focal added to the Diva Utopia is connecting your television to the speakers via the HDMI eARC connection. This allows you to get better-quality television audio while controlling the volume of the Diva Utopia from the television remote.

Performance

Like all of Focal’s products, unboxing the Diva Utopia was easy and first-rate. It is about as close to plug-and-play as a reference-quality all-in-one system gets! No speaker wires are necessary (we loved that Focal used UWB technology to connect the speakers together wirelessly). Still, RJ45 primary and secondary speaker link connections are available for users who want a wired link connection (we cover this below). Once you set up the app and run the ADAPT room optimization software, you are ready to start listening!

One thing to note was the ADAPT system. Some distance and room boundary measurements are required, and then you have listening tests to see which profile sounds the best. It's meant to assist in speaker placement, room boundary tuning, and personal preference tuning. We still recommend using good speaker placement practices to get the most out of the Diva Utopia unless it is impossible. Here, we have an article on just that.

Audio Advice 2-Channel Speaker Set Up Guide

We suggest reading through the manual while connecting up the Diva Utopia because Focal has added multiple ways to connect the speakers together, as well as different options like a ground switch for connecting analog components if you need a ground to prevent hum. These different connection methods depend on your room situation and if you have other components, so our wireless speaker connection method with the ground switch-off might not work for you in your room. Use the manual and go with the best method for your room, as Focal has ensured all the options are of the highest quality possible. If you need additional help with setup, when you purchase from Audio Advice, our experts are here to help with any questions.

To be honest, sometimes we had a hard time spending alone time with the Diva Utopia. Everyone wanted to see them and, of course, hear them. Everyone who heard them agreed they are a true marvel of technology and sound. One thing is for sure: Focal ensured that all of the technology within the Diva Utopia worked well. We even used our Siri or Google Assistant to skip tracks and change volume and were impressed with how smoothly it functioned.

Our first listen told us we weren't listening to a half-baked attempt at a new product. This is real high-end audio. With all the realism and scale one would want. Listening to Prince’s "One Nite Alone" recording from 2002, we were left shocked at how good these all-in-one speakers sounded. Prince's voice had great depth and clarity, with a locked image you could almost touch. The piano was hauntingly realistic, with excellent dynamic swings between soft and hard keystrokes. Some might say the Diva Utopias are tuned too safe. But to us, they are tuned to present music in an energetic and detailed way without any fatigue or harsh elements. And with the ADAPT system, you can somewhat tailor the sound to your needs. Another thing of note is that the imaging was excellent, and the m-shaped tweeter dome on this model allows better image properties while sitting off access from the center position. In simple terms, if you're not sitting in the sweet spot, you still get good imaging. Plus, the sound will be more balanced throughout the room, so everyone can enjoy great sound and not just the person in the main listening seat.

During our testing, we noticed that the RJ45 wired link connection between the speakers gave slightly more dynamic and expressive performance than the UWB wireless connection. This is likely the result of the limited bandwidth of the UWB connection. In wireless UWB mode, the resolution is capped at 24-bit/96kHZ. In ethernet mode it allows up to 24 bit/192kHz. These differences were minor and only noticed during intense listening sessions, but they were worth noting. So, if you want the best sound possible in your room and can do it, go wired (but there is nothing wrong with the wireless link method if it is better for your installation).

We tested just how loud the Diva Utopias could play on a couple of after-hours listening sessions before any audible distress showed up. But what we didn't know was that Focal and Naim devised an active system to monitor both amplification and speaker drivers for any signs of distortion and limit output above that. So, in theory, you can't make them distort or blow! We secretly think that Focal knew the speakers would be used for parties and knew a system like that would be beneficial.

Overall, the Focal Diva Utopia proved that it belongs among the ultra-high-end flagship products within its price class. It performed well and is a competitive option compared to separate components and speakers at the same price level. With the baked-in synergy, it could outperform them in some cases.

Conclusion

We could discuss the Focal Diva Utopia's features and capabilities all day. But what matters is whether it lives up to the standard of a flagship speaker in audio performance. We are proud to say that the sound of the Diva Utopia lives up to flagship status in every metric we measure speakers. The imaging and soundstage were excellent, the detail was at the flagship level, and the realism was impressive.

Yes, it is an expensive speaker, but it is comparable in performance to a full-component system of the same cost. And you get all of the wireless capability and ease of use features that Focal and Naim took years to engineer. We wholeheartedly recommend the Focal Diva Utopia and feel it is an excellent start to a new product category. If you are in the market for flagship-level performance without the hassles of component systems, call us, email, or chat on our website here at Audio Advice to see if the new Diva Utopia is the right product for you.

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