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How to make the Focal Kanta No. 2 speakers sing?

Hi!

My first post here and I would like to hear your thoughts and tips for "warming up" my Focal Kanta 2 speakers.

 

TLDR

The sound from my Focal Kanta 2 speakers in my room is a bit shouty, bright and thin sounding, clearly lacking level and emotion in the lower mid range. Bass is good, quick and quite deep though.

Any tips for getting more "vocal warmth" into the system? Tube preamp, Dirac, ...? I see that many use old school power hungry amps that can heat your house during winter to drive Focal speakers. Is that really needed or can I get away with a modern amp that doesn’t cost a fortune.

 

More in depth information

In my living room (5.3 x 4.1 x 2.4m) I have a setup with both 2 channel and a multi channel setup. They share the same front speakers and front speaker amp.

2 channel setup:

 

5.2 channel setup:

 

I focus mainly on the two channel setup here. Multichannel is used quite much also for streaming movies, but is ok.

So the main issue for me is that the sound in in the two channel setup is thin sounding with mids clearly lacking in the lower end. It can be fatiguing to listen for a few hours. Bass though is enjoyable, fast and fairly deep.

Earlier I had the Focal Aria 936 speakers as front speakers in the same room (connected to the Yamaha AVR at that time). I liked them but wanted to upgrade to the next level after a few years 😄 The Arias were more forgiving than the Kantas, had more enjoyable warmth in the mids and were a bit rolled off in the top compared to the Kantas. Not fatiguing at all. But everything else the Kantas do better.

I have also had some other speakers, up to half Kanta price range, in the same room where all have had fuller mids and a more forgiving sound: Dynaudio, Totem and Triangle floor standers as well as Buchardt and my really old B&W 602s3 (super full mids but super rolled off in the top) stand speakers. The Kantas are different animals to all these and seem to require the a more delicate and correct chain of components to perform.

I have messed around with speaker positioning quite a lot. It’s mainly the bass region that is affected. Mids not very much.

Options I’m considering:

  • Upgrading the Yamaha AVR to a Marantz Cinema 50 for example to get Dirac room tuning, and run the 2 channel system through this also. The quality of the Marantz might not be the best here to use as a 2 channel pre amp/processor.
  • Use a dedicated pre amp for the 2 channel system. Budget up to 2000€. Not sure what to look for? Used equipment is fine.
  • Tubes? Never really listened to tubes but from what I understand you generally get a more warm sound from them. Tube preamp? Not very modern but might do the trick. Schiit Freya + seems to be within the budget range for example.
  • Other 2 channel amplifier. As mentioned I have tried to avoid the nuclear power plants of amps. I see people recommending amps from manufacturers like Musical Fidelity, Sim Audio, McIntosh, Accuphase etc. But these are really costly and I feel they generally belong in an older age that we are moving away from. But it might be what is needed, I don’t know, haven’t really heard them play.
  • Treat the room more. I have a big sofa, a really big carpet and a few acoustic panels in the room (no real science behind them now). The room in itself is a bit "bright" so here I can make a better effort of course, regardless of other taken measures.
  • Get other speakers. I can also just face it that the Kantas are what they are, sounding thin in the midrange and lacking emotion in voices. Getting other speakers might be the easiest upgrade. But it’s not that easy to find and test speakers in your room either...

 

Long story. Any recommendations?

Thanks!

donald_dac
jeffreyw's avatar
jeffreyw
269 posts
 

@soix 

+1

mapman's avatar
mapman
22,303 posts
 

If I were you, with those very fine speakers, I would want to hear if a tube amp in place of the Class D would be more to your liking. I’d consider something like a Rogue Cronus Magnum personally.

Note I run good quality Class D amps on all my systems personally but being familiar with the Focal sound that particular combo might be a bit too much in the manner you describe  for many. 

erik_squires
16,121 posts
 

In my experience, Focal speakers are excessively sensitive to amplifier current capabilities.

The Kanta’s, like many of Focal’s floor standers with dual woofers, suffers from excessively low impedance in the mid bass. IMHO, a bad match for most tube amps. They need careful positioning relative to the rear wall to get maximum reinforcement and a solid amplifier.

Other positioning tips are to minimize toe-in and increase mid/treble absorbers in the room which will better balance out the speaker.  Those inverted domes have resonances which make them sound best off-axis.  You'll know you did it right when you go from having a Left, Center and Right image to an image that is seamless from left to right without a gap. 

 

https://www.stereophile.com/content/focal-kanta-no2-loudspeaker-measurements

mapman's avatar
mapman
22,303 posts
 

I’m not saying Focal and a tube amp are a technical match made in heaven in that tube amps seldom are for the impedance reasons mentioned, but I do think the tonal results might be of interest in this particular case as described.

Individuals tend to prefer many different flavors of sound, like flavors of ice cream. The best technical matches do not always win as is often cited here, although personally I tend to levitate towards things done right for the best chances of good results.

Alternately I have heard Focal sound very good with Krell SS amplification. Also Audio Research tube amplification (almost always a safe bet). Rogue is essentially a more cost effective alternate to ARC. A hybrid integrated like Rogue Pharoah is another I am familiar with that I would consider were it me. No impedance issues there.

 

I suspect Pharoah should sound very good in most any setup. It was awesome demoed to me with both Magnepan and Sonus Faber which tells me Focal would be no problem whatsoever.

deep_333
1,441 posts
 

@deep_333 So, a $1700 AVR has a great preamp section??? I beg to differ, and a good stereo preamp is absolutely critical. I’m a fan of Yammy AVRs, but no $1700 AVR has a “great” preamp section. Period.

Every dude has to start somewhere...But, as expected, @soix didn’t read the full post or even understood what it was about.... and assumes that a 1700 Yamaha AVR that he never played with has an abyssmal preamp section. He also didn’t read the part where i mentioned that the dude’s upgrade path should go to a Yamaha flagship prepro (since he has a hybrid stereo/multichannel setup), which holds its own against any preamp out there. It is indeed a possibility that soix knows nothing about the performance/value offered in Yamaha gear.

For reference, I have Yamaha’s flagship prepro, a 10k purist preamp (Yamaha C5000) and a 20k preamp (Luxman C900) currently. I have had the Gryphons and the Esoterics and the whatever else in the past...I sure as sht am not gonna suggest to a guy with a Focal Kanta that he should get a 20k preamp.

What cream preamp were you gonna suggest to a dude with a Focal Kanta soix? 40k? 80k? Gryphon? Boulder? Do you even know what his budget is soix?

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