Focal Diablo Utopia Colour Evo Loudspeaker
I’ll begin with the thank yous. The first goes to my friend Austin of Atlas Audio Video here in Victoria for arranging my review pair of the Focal Diablo Utopia Colour Evo Loudspeaker (USD 20,998/pair). Matching stands, add $2998/pair. The dedicated stands look essential to bring out the best in these speakers. This is how I reviewed them. Second, thank you to the entire staff of Atlas for shipping and receiving, and for setting up the speakers in their main music room for preliminary listening and break-in. We began to call the well-treated Atlas main listening room the Audiophilia “overflow” room. God knows I need one. We gave the Diablos a massive 200-hour break-in and they needed every minute of it. And, a final thank you to our friends at Focal Naim America, specifically, the Canadian office in Repentigny, Quebec, for shipping the four large boxes across the country.
The Diablo Utopia Colour Evo is a “bookshelf” loudspeaker and is the entrance to the top “Utopia III” range of Focal loudspeakers (“Evo” stands for evolution). It’s the only standmount in the series. I am well versed with the brilliant technology and sound of the range as I’ve reviewed most of the Utopias for Audiophilia, including what I still consider one of the world’s greatest loudspeakers, the Utopia III Grande Utopia EM Loudspeaker, now priced well above 300K! Imagine the trickle-down from the brilliant Focal engineers from their masterpiece to the fairly small Colour Evos.
The Focal Diablo Utopia Colour Evo Loudspeaker in British Racing Green. Fit and finish are exquisite as you’d expect from a top Focal speaker. As usual, all drivers are designed and manufactured in house.
My Use
After the 200-hour break-in over a couple of weeks at Atlas (I dropped by 3 or 4 times for lengthy listening sessions), Austin kindly dropped the 4 boxes off at my place where we got down to serious business.
As I felt the speakers were still not sounding their best, I played them with some effective, non-stop bass tracks for another week. This did the trick.
So, when purchasing, do not judge on first listen. Or second or third! I’m finding many new components shipped these days sound pretty good out of the box. But speakers, especially the woofer’s neoprene surrounds, are the components needing the most attention. As such, the Diablos were tight, tight, tight. Bass was a far-off event and sounding anemic compounded by the efficiency and dynamic performance at unboxing by what I consider one of the world’s great tweeters, the IAL2, Focal’s second-generation inverted beryllium dome. This is the tweeter used in many of Focal’s highest-end products. IAL is an acronym for “Infinite Acoustic Loading”—it references a horn cavity behind the tweeter motor.
The Evos were in my system for six weeks. So after my further break-in, I had a full five weeks to dig down and get to know them.
The Carrara White Diablo as setup in my room. The Diablo Utopia Colour Evo Stand (sold separately) is a heavy stand of 19 kg with an aluminum body and can be filled with sand. The loudspeaker is fixed on the base to eliminate vibrations. It is in a Graphite Black finish made from MDF with decoupling spikes.
Driving the speakers was my MBL N51 Integrated Amplifier with its N31 sister on CD/DAC duty. Analog was a combination of Bergmann Audio Magne/Phasemation EA-350 Phono Amplifier/Phasemation PP-2000 MC Phono Cartridge for stereo records and Pure Fidelity Harmony/Phasemation phono with Decca curve/Miyajima Labs Infinity Monaural Cartridge for mono playback. Cabling was Nordost Valhalla 2, conditioning by Audioquest and streaming by Roon Labs Nucleus Plus. A beautifully curated system of gear we own and some in the system as long-term loans.
Positioning was stand-mount standard operating procedure—10-degree toe in and minimum 1.5 feet away from walls and at least 8 feet apart.
Colours available. From left to right: British Racing Green, Metallic Blue, Carrara White (my review pair colour), Black Lacquer, Ash Grey, Noyer Foncé, Noyer Naturel.
Features and Specifications
The Diablo is a 2-way, compact bass-reflex loudspeaker with mechanical phase optimization of the drivers and is constructed with Focal’s “Gamma Structure” with MDF panels up to 5 cm for a stable mechanical reference and anti-vibration heavy structure, optimized by “vibratory mapping”. Further, Focal uses phase optimal control for “a perfect 3D image”. WBT connectors on the rear. Woofer covers included.
In addition to the high spec tweeter, the Diablos use Focal’s 3rd generation (16.5cm) Power Flower "W" woofer/midrange driver with its new, no saturation surround/spider coupling and “Power Flower” magnet, optimizing maximal power and reduced magnetic leaks.
The laminar port ensures no airflow or distortion noises. No chuffing was heard through the review period, even on very demanding repertoire.
The tweeter compartment cavity is tuned as a Helmholtz Resonator which is said to smooth bass impedance and diminish the typical resonance in the mid-bass of compact loudspeakers.
Frequency response: 44Hz - 40kHz
Sensitivity: 89 dB
Nominal impedance: 8Ω
Minimum impedance: 4Ω
Crossover: Fourth-order Linkwitz–Riley
Recommended amplifier power: 25 - 200W
Dimensions: (HxWxD) 431x258x427mm
Net weight: 20kg
Sound
Once the break-in was finally complete, we could get down to business. In almost an instant at 250 hours, everything snapped into focus. Bass, mids and treble were defined yet cohesive. And the might of these speakers, the power delivery, was made whole.
You’d think after almost 30 years reviewing, 50 years as an audiophile, and longer as a musician, I’d be less frustrated with break-in. And this was made worse because of my aural memory of just how good this family of speakers sounded.
Patience was tested, the speakers were tested, then, all was well with the world.
Just as the impressive and musical nature of the family revealed itself with all the Utopia IIIs, the baby also shone in very musical ways. The speaker offers all the attributes in imaging and soundstaging like all well-behaved, expensive monitors, but these were combined with seemingly effortless power handling. Once the woofer found its mojo, a torrent of musical information of all genres was the result. And each listener who heard the speakers at this unabashed time was the better for it.
So sampled silly bass tests that ended as an earworm and played infinitum during break-in and for a bit after demonstrated just how seamless the bass performance was from Focal’s carefully designed but oddly named Power Flower "W" woofer. This bass excellence flowed beautifully into refulgent and detailed mids and highs as only a beryllium beauty can achieve.
I chose quite a few flat curve mono jazz LPs as test fodder. Here, the speaker’s natural proclivity for pure, unadulterated HiFi sound shone. Basically, close-miked, studio-bound acoustics with musical marvels such as Time Further Out: Miro Reflections with the Dave Brubeck Quartet on Columbia, What Is There To Say? with The Gerry Mulligan Quartet, Gerry Mulligan Meets Johnny Hodges, and an Art Pepper beauty, simply The Art Pepper Quartet. Quartets galore!
Large-scale orchestral music (choose any Analogue Productions Reiner/Chicago vinyl reissue) sounded emphatic and displayed the large Chicago stage from back to podium and side to side with the barrel-shaped rear wall heard clearly on most releases. Thus, soundstage and imaging fans’ flabber will be gasted. You won’t be wanting for more.
And the dynamite energy continued in rock music. All my Led Zepps I through IV (Japanese pressings all) sounded overwhelming in a good way. If your room is on the larger size, this speaker will pump and pump ‘till you or the electronics drop. In my smaller room, I could play music very quietly and the detail, especially from the tweeter, was always clear and, more importantly, in balance with what the artist was trying to convey. But, when a speaker can play this loudly with grace and coherence, why not?
$20,998/pair for a pair of highly regarded French loudspeakers is not poulet feed even considering the fantastic lineage. Yet, that’s the going rate for speakers of this quality. If you’re a stand mount fan like me, I’m always looking for the very best in monitors/bookshelves. I simply love the way they image rather than searching out the very lowest bass. I preferred the Diablos to the Franco Serblin Accordo Loudspeakers I had in the house recently. They were exquisite works of art and had a unique, very musical sound. However, the Diablos, while I feel better, are 8K above the Serblins. And a completely different type of loudspeaker. You may prefer the Serblin design topology and aesthetic philosophy of the Italians over the French. And at the ripe old age of 64, I found my stand mount nirvana recently with my Borresen Acoustics 01 Silver Supreme Edition Loudspeaker. The finest bookshelf I’ve experienced; the speakers brought me closer to my lifetime of live events heard from the stage and audience and most importantly, and uniquely, to the intent of the artist. No matter how impressive, the Focals can’t match the $55,000/pair 01 Silver Supremes.
Summary
The ($20,998/pair) Focal Diablo Utopia Colour Evo Loudspeaker is a very fine stand-mount loudspeaker featuring a world-class tweeter and Focal’s excellent woofer with enough of the French manufacturer’s whizz-bang tech to pull everything together. What you’ll get for your purchase is a loudspeaker capable of giving endless amounts of power even in a large room. Even then, it never loses its coherence or poise. And, the tweeter is one for the ages. Back in the day, it was Esotar tweeter this, Esotar tweeter that. Truly, the Prince of Dome Tweeters. Now, the King of Dome Tweeters commands the stage. It’s a marvellous device and brings a lot of value to a complete loudspeaker. And definitely audition-worthy if the budget is there. Highly recommended.
Further information: Focal
