Focal has finally drawn the curtains on its highly-anticipated 40th anniversary products at High End Munich - and it appears to have prioritised quantity as well as quality to mark its middle-age milestone.
The ’40 Year’ range comprises special edition versions of three of its most celebrated speakers - two new home audio models and a professional studio monitor - and a collector’s bundle of portable Focal fare. They all join the new wood-finished Sopra and Utopia speakers announced earlier this week.
First up are the Spectral 40th and Scala 40th speakers. The former is a retro-styled, three-way bass-reflex floorstander equipped with Focal’s K2 Power cone and Beryllium tweeter, while the Scala 40th is a special-edition ‘Black Silver’-finished variant of its existing Scale Utopia Evo floorstander.
With a high-gloss, mirror-effect black-silver finish on the side panels through the application of silver nitrate, and a black matte finish on the baffle (a first for a Focal Utopia speaker), the Scala 40th is the product of an investment in equipment (such as new spraying machines) for Focal’s Ebénisterie Bourgogne cabinet workshop.
Only four pairs will be available - each pair represents a decade of Focal’s existence - when they go on sale in June for €70,000 per pair.
The Solo6 BE 40th professional studio monitor, meanwhile, is another special edition variant - this time of a product that's been in the line-up for 14 years. It sports a new black coating and has been stamped as a special '40 year' edition. It will be available in October, priced €1999.
Focal hasn't left its portable range out of the celebrations, launching a limited number of special-edition collector's 'cases' called Symphonie 40th. The bundle is a headphone lover's dream, featuring Focal's flagship Utopia open-back headphones with its Arche DAC/headphone amplifier, as well as the Stellia closed-back headphones alongside the QPM Questyle music player. The package comes in a numbered, Macassar ebony-veneered wooden case and will be available in the autumn for a not-so-insignificant €15,000.
Last but not least, there's something for petrolheads. The F40th car audio kit - available now, priced €2999 - comprises Flax sandwich cone speaker drivers and a pair of pure Beryllium inverted dome tweeters - a combination previously exclusive to Focal's Kanta speakers - as well as an 5-channel amplifier and an 8-way audio processor for electronics.
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