Focal and Naim Audio merged in 2011, and in 2014 the first of a very successful line of Naim ‘Mu-so’ wireless speakers came to market.
Focal, though, reckons it’s the more credible brand when it comes to home cinema equipment – and so this latest ‘Mu-so’ speaker carries the French company’s logo.
Can a ‘Focal powered by Naim’ speaker repeat the successes of those plain Naim models? On evidence of the Hekla, the answer is (just like its build) a very robust 'yes'...
Price & Availability
The Focal Mu-so Hekla launched in South Korea and China at the end of November 2025, and it’s been available in the rest of the world since late March 2026.
In the United Kingdom it costs £2999, American customers will need to spend $3599, and those in Australia will have to fork out AU$6499.
Features & What's New?
There’s not a huge amount of connectivity – but what there is seems entirely appropriate and fit for purpose.
Where physical sockets are concerned, you get an HDMI eARC and a digital optical input that can handle file resolutions of up to 24bit/96kHz. There’s also stereo RCA ‘Aux’ output for use with, say, a powered subwoofer (just in case the claimed frequency response of 30Hz - 20kHz strikes you as rather tentative at the bottom end), and an Ethernet socket.
Wireless is covered by dual-band Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.1 with SBC and AAC codec compatibility. The Mu-so Hekla keeps its Wi-Fi antennae in the heatsinks at the rear of the cabinet (which is tidy), and it’s compatible with a very wide range of services and functions.
Wi-Fi means access to the ‘Connect’ versions of Qobuz, Spotify and Tidal, it allows the Focal to be UPnP-compatible, it means that Apple AirPlay 2, Chromecast, Amazon Music HD and plenty more are all available, and it allows for internet radio reception provided by Naim’s own servers.
The device is compatible with every meaningful digital audio file type – it’s good for resolutions of up to 32bit/384kHz and DSD128 for two-channel content, and 24bit/192kHz for multichannel and spatial audio stuff.
Once the audio information is on board, it’s returned to you by a complement of 15 speaker drivers, each with its own block of Naim-developed Class D amplification and configured to be able to deliver 7.1.2 channels of spatial audio.
Front-and-centre there are three 130 x 60mm bass drivers, while towards each end of the front panel there’s a 60mm midrange driver and a 25mm tweeter. On each side there are two 70 x 40mm full-range drivers, and there are a couple of these drivers behind each of the areas of perforated metal on the top panel.
Those three big bass drivers are given 60 watts of power each, while the other 12 drivers are granted 40 watts each. A total of 660 watts should really be more than adequate.
Performance
Before I get to the nuts and bolts of the way the Mu-so Hekla performs it’s worth noting that although there are differences in the way the five different spatial audio options sound, they are subtle in the extreme. You’ll alight on the setting that you prefer, but if all the other numerous EQ options are left alone, I think you’ll be hard-pushed to identify an obvious favourite.
That’s because no matter which of the options you’ve selected, and no matter if you’re listening to content that’s been mixed for spatial audio or that was originally two-channel stuff, the Focal doesn’t really alter its stance or its character. It mixes precision with energy and analysis with entertainment in a most enjoyable fashion.
Its frequency response, for instance, is extensive and generally nicely even. At the very bottom of its extension – and the Focal can most certainly dig deep into bass frequencies – there’s a slight-but-definite bloom, almost as if the engineers couldn’t help but want to show off how much low-end presence they’ve been able to deliver.
Despite this mild overconfidence, though, bass sounds are nicely shaped and controlled, so as well as detail, variation and straight-ahead punch, there’s good rhythmic expression available when the speaker is dealing with music.
At the opposite end of the frequency range, the Mu-so Hekla summons remarkable bite and shine for a speaker featuring only two dedicated tweeters in a complement of 15 drivers. There’s a similar level of detail and variation in treble sounds, and a fair amount of substance to balance out the top-end brilliance. Even when pushing on, volume-wise, the Focal stops well short of glassiness or edginess at the top end, too – it simply gets louder.
In between, the midrange is absolutely alive with information – the amount of detail, both broad and fine, the Mu-so Hekla seems capable of identifying, revealing and contextualising in a voice is really impressive. It’s one thing to be able to communicate the tone and timbre of a speaking or a singing voice, it’s quite another to tease out the minutiae of character and attitude – but the Focal manages to do so in the most unforced and naturalistic way.
‘Naturalistic’ is a good enough way to describe the tonal characteristics of the Mu-so Hekla, too – there’s an even-handed and confident sensation to tonality here. Which, when you consider the numerous shapes, sizes and compositions of the driver array, is not bad going.
That tonality is unaffected by volume, or big dynamic variations in volume or intensity – and the Focal has an awful lot of headroom available for when the movie soundtrack gets explosive or the symphony orchestra steams into a crescendo.
But it’s with soundstaging and the impression of spatial audio that the Mu-so Hekla gives the most compelling account of itself. The sound it creates comfortably escapes the confines of its considerable cabinet, and in all directions – there’s appreciable width to the soundstage, and more than a suggestion of the sonic height that’s so essential to the whole idea of ‘spatial’ audio.
Despite its expansive nature, though, the soundstage here is approaching ‘immersive’ – voices, instruments, sound effects and what-have-you all relate to each other despite the sometimes significant distances between them. Some spatial audio soundbars (yes, I know this isn’t a soundbar, Focal) can sometimes sound remote, like a collection of individual occurrences rather than a unified performance, but the Hekla always remains coherent even if it’s attempting to steer a sound from, say, bottom left front to top right rear.
Design & Usability
I know what you’re thinking, because I thought it too, but you’re wrong just as I was wrong – although its 118 x 1000 x 295mm (HxWxD) dimensions are of very soundbar-like proportions, don’t go suggesting the Mu-so Hekla is a soundbar.
I made this mistake quite early on in my acquaintance with the product, and Focal wasted no time at all in putting me right. The Mu-so Hekla, it turns out, is an all-in-one immersive home cinema system.
It’s a beefy (15.5kg) and good-looking all-in-one immersive home cinema system, too. The standard of build and finish is flawless, and the black aluminium cabinet, with its shot-blasted and anodised aluminium heatsinks, somehow manages to be understated and dramatic all at the same time. In fact, more than anything its design is reminiscent of 2019’s Naim Mu-so (2nd Gen), right down to the big, smooth-scrolling control dial on the top surface.
It’s a very pleasant user interface indeed, that oversized dial – but if you want to explore everything the Mu-so Hekla is capable of then the Focal & Naim control app is what you need.
The app is where you get access to input selection (including all your very many internet radio options), playback control, check for updates, select up to five ‘favourite’ shortcuts to preferred radio stations, playlists or what-have-you, set up the Hekla as part of a Focal/Naim multiroom system (using as many as 32 partnering streamers), run the ‘ADAPT’ room correction routine, adjust the intensity of the light surrounding the control dial, and plenty more besides. It’s a wide-ranging, logical, stable and eminently usable control app, one from which quite a few nominal rivals could learn a thing or two.
But perhaps most significantly, it’s the app that gives you access to the minutiae of the Mu-so Hekla’s spatial audio performance. There are five spatial settings to choose from: Dolby Music, Dolby Movie and Dolby Night are joined by two alternatives, developed by Focal, called Sphere Movie and Sphere Music. The company reckons its Sphere settings are good for rooms with some acoustic treatment, while the Dolby settings are better for larger rooms with less (or no) treatment.
No matter which of those five you decide suits you best, you can adjust performance using a three-band EQ and ‘+/- 10’ sliders called, helpfully, ‘voice enhance’, ‘low frequency effects’, ‘surround’ and 'height’. In addition, the app allows you to trim the level of each of the 10 channels that make up its 7.1.2 configuration.
The one thing the app can’t do is let you fully override the spatial audio aspect of its performance. No matter if you’re listening to two-channel content or a less-than state-of-the-art five-channel surround soundtrack, the Mu-so Hekla will bring both its room-correction routine and its spatial audio algorithms to bear. The idea being to deliver a sound that’s optimised to your space and uses all 15 of those drivers – whether that’s your preference or not.
Focal Mu-so Hekla review: Verdict
A big price tag, a bigger cabinet, and sound that’s bigger still – everything about the Focal Mu-so Hekla is oversized. But in the best of ways.
If you’re after the most convincing impression of spatial audio a one-box speaker can deliver, then you’re going to have to deal with those big numbers.
Also Consider
The Bang & Olufsen Beosound Premiere is not coy about calling itself a soundbar – and it’s every bit as individualistically designed and every bit as expensive as you’d expect from the company. It’s also capable of full-scale spatial audio at the same time as acting as shorthand for how wealthy and discerning you are.
