![]() It's not only the Be tweeter's dome that's exotic. Our microphones can only register up to 40kHz, and there is no breakup before that point." When asked about the upper limit of the Be tweeter's linear response, Jacques Mahul gave an ineffably Gallic shrug. This, in turn, means that more of the energy put into the tweeter by the magnetic structure is radiated as sound. Focal's white paper asserts that this "reverse" shape, like that of a conventional dynamic driver, provides a much more stable interface between the voice-coil and the driven dome structure. Like Focal's Tioxid tweeter, the Be tweeter is an inverted dome. It can also release highly toxic and dangerous fumes when worked or machined. The metal is scarce and horribly expensive in its pure form, which is produced in only three countries: the US, Russia, and France. While there's a huge upside to a beryllium dome, many complications are involved in the manufacturing. For domes of identical mass, beryllium is seven times more rigid than one made of titanium or aluminum, and the velocity of soundwaves traveling through it is three and 2.5 times faster than through, respectively, titanium or aluminum. It took us over three years to do it, but Jacques wanted it done."īeryllium is 2.5 times less dense than titanium and 1.5 times less dense than aluminum, but is three and five times stiffer, respectively. When I asked Focal's managing director, Gérard Chrétien (also, at one time an audio journalist), how much had been spent on R&D for this driver, he shook his head ruefully, saying, "We do not know, and we do not want to know. Focal worked for years to develop a tweeter using this ultra-light, ultra-stiff material. The most ballyhooed, and immediately noticeable, upgrade in the Be series is the new beryllium tweeter, which gives the line (including the Nova Be) its names. Everything-from the woofer's grille cover to the superb terminals and massive spikes-bespeaks the most attentive craftsmanship and the highest quality of parts.įocal has for years been an innovator in driver and cabinet design, and the new Utopia series further advances the company's reputations in these fields. Not one person who said "Wow! What the hell do those cost, anyway?" was surprised when I told them: $37,500/pair. ![]() The Nova Be is jewel-like in the precision of its assembly and finish (mine had the Signature finish: burred ash with a rich, claret-like burgundy tint). One thing about the Utopia line has not changed: the exquisite level of finish. After I'd finished auditioning the Legacy Audio Focus 20/20s for my January 2004 review, piano movers hauled the two 400-lb crates containing the Novas down into my basement listening room and unpacked the beasts. ![]() (The massive, $80,000/pair Grande Utopia Be was reviewed in the September 2003 Stereophile by Paul Messenger.)Īfter my visit to Focal's factory and cabinet-building facilities in early 2003 (see Sidebar, "The French Touch"), Daniel Jacques, president of Focal-JMlab's North American distributors, had a pair of Nova Utopia Bes delivered to me last summer. Each new Utopia model features a tweeter with a pure beryllium dome and an extensive redesign of the earlier models' basic structures, all under the guiding hands of Mahul and chief designer Dominic Baker (formerly of B&W and before that an audio journalist in the UK). Since 1993, Focal's Utopia series of speakers has embodied everything that founder-CEO Jacques Mahul knows about speaker design, and 2003 saw the introduction of the second generation of the line: the Utopia Be speakers. While most audio manufacturers, like most symphony orchestras, have tended in recent decades to homogenize into an "international" sound, most French audio gear has remained distinct.Īudio Aero, Jadis, and Metronome have all contributed to the reputation of French components on the world high-end scene, but no company has done more to vigorously fly the audio tricolor as has Focal-JMlab. ![]() When high-end audio came along, those characters became the national sounds of the gear. Symphony orchestras once had definable national characters.
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