French speaker manufacturer Focal is demonstrating a range of speaker setups and headphones at the Audio Advice Live show in Raleigh, NC, but the demo I was most excited to catch was its Utopia Cinema system.
Focal’s 7.4.4-channel home theater setup consists of five Cinema LCR and two Focal 1000 IWLCR speakers, four Cinema Sub subwoofers, two IWSUB in-wall subwoofers, and four ICLCR5 in-ceiling Atmos speakers, all driven by a Focal Astral 16 audio processor and multiple Naim CI-NAP amps.
The system costs around $150,000 alone, with the Sony VPL-GTZ30 projector, 200-inch Stewart Filmscreen screen, and Kaleidescape movie player that Focal also used for its demo adding another 100K or so to the bill of sale.
Focal screened several movie clips, including one of my reference go-tos for TV testing, the 2021 James Bond film No Time to Die, and the image from the 10,000-lumen Sony professional projector looked fantastically bright even on the enormous screen.
The sound was equally impressive, with the explosion when Bond makes an ill-advised visit to former flame Vesper Lynd’s gravesite conveyed with a level of impact and low-end rumble that one would expect to hear from six huge subs with dual 13-inch woofers.
The sweet sounds of Dolby Atmos music
As good as the Bond clip looked and sounded (and I have screened it innumerable times, so I know what to expect), what really grabbed my attention in Focal’s demo was the Dolby Atmos music selections.
Two songs were played, with the first being Elton John’s Rocket Man, from the 1972 album Honky Château. John’s piano had a solid yet wonderfully wide presentation that remained locked up front, while the soaring lead guitar and backing vocals spread above and around me in a manner that I found warm and engaging instead of gimmicky.
The next clip was a spatial audio remix of the electronic track On My Knees by Rüfüs Du Sol (those umlauts!) done by Techno Dad, a well-known YouTuber and friend of Focal. This was Atmos music to the max, with the trajectory of the bass-heavy, spatially adventurous mix graphically depicted in an onscreen display. Once again, I found myself utterly engaged, as well as curious to hear more demo-worthy Atmos music mixes, and on the best possible system.
After a year or so settling for the best soundbars for music listening, it looks like I’m going to have to reinstall my big AV rig when I get home. Sadly, I’ll be limited to only one subwoofer, not six, but I’ll manage to make do.
