Focal Kanta No.2

The mere fact that Kantas seem to have been designed, at least in part, with crossover to lifestyle appeal in mind, is already a huge stroke against them in the minds of most audiophiles.

Not in the mind of this audiophile.  I really prefer appealing design, especially in something like speakers that essentially become furniture in a room.  So an appealing design is a plus for me, and that's one reason why I was attracted to the Kantas.

I'm not familiar with 946's. If you mean 948's, they certainly can overwhelm a smallish to average size room. That's exactly why I didn't get them. You could probably overwhelm a small room with 936's too. The exact same things can be observed with the Sopra floorstanders. Focals are well known to have a meaty middle bass region. They most certainly design their speakers with an intended room size in mind. So you're going to blame the speakers because somebody decided to stuff them in an inappropriate room? That's kinda dumb. 

And I'm completely with Prof on the looks thing. Who exactly looks at a speaker and says "that thing isn't ugly enough to be good"? That's pretty much what a few of you have said. When was the time Focal didn't brag about the overtly french esthetic of their designs? Speakers are supposed to look like industrial machinery if they want to be taken seriously? I'm not sure I want speakers that have the esthetic of a Mazak CNC machine or a Fanuc robot, even if Dave Wilson and Vandersteen think they should. Saying a speaker looks too good to be serious is about the lamest criticism I can think of. 

Stereophile did test and produced measurements for the Focal Aria 936 and that speaker has up to a 6-7db midbass to bass boost as compared to the rest of the audible range. Seeing what the Kanta2 produces recently, its much more even handed and will sound considerably lighter down low in comparison to your Aria.

As with the Sopra, Focal wanted to keep distortion well controlled Kanta2 and the measurements does bear this out. The slopes in general are similar between all models, but the boost doesn't exist in either the Sopra or Kanta. They likely allowed a bit more distortion in the Aria line to make it sound more dynamic under certain music genres.

Focal stated the composite baffle utilized allowed them to keep the front baffle stiffness they desired while taking less volume as compared ot the Sopra design. So they went for a more compact cabinet to allow better fit in more rooms.

@mmeysarosh 

I don't agree with your assessment at all, and neither did RD at Stereophile. If you'd read the measurements instead of just glossing over them for a chart you'd have noticed JA pointing out that the measurements weren't accurate due to the near field technique he used. The 6-7dB you're talking about doesn't exist. It's maybe half that. It does NOT suggest uncontrolled behavior by the speaker. I have a guess as to why they measure with a hump where none is actually heard.