We have just two pairs left in the Dark Walnut finish, and one each in Carrara White and Black High Gloss.
This Focal 3-way is one of your best chances to go ultra-high-end.
The Focal Scala Utopia Evo is a lesson in how to make big speakers disappear in a room. First, the look. It's hard to imagine how four-foot-high, 187 lb. speakers can sit so lightly in a variety of rooms. Then, Focal's extreme driver and cabinet engineering place tweeter, mid, and woofer in separate enclosures, allowing the speaker to vanish into a huge sonic image. Finally, the three in-stock finishes cover every aesthetic and decor preference. The Carrara White gleams like a highlight in modern spaces. The Black High Gloss makes that classic audio statement. And Dark Walnut (pictured above) works as a warm contrast to steel and glass, or stylishly blends into a more formal wood-paneled room.
Three Speakers in One
Scala Utopia is the first in Focal's line-up to completely separate the upper, mid, and bass drivers, giving them their own cabinets to eliminate diffraction and other resonance issues. Since separate chambers can be sized and shaped to perfectly support the driver (and individually raked for time alignment), the crossover can be much simpler, allowing for a more direct signal.
Focal is a driver company first, and tailors each driver to each cabinet. Not just the mids and woofers—even the Be tweeter in the Utopia is not the same as the one in Sopra below or Maestro above. And though a beryllium tweeter offers massive top-end extension, it does so with a twinkle in its eye, never sounding harsh or etched.
The W cone mid is 6.5"—the size of a woofer in smaller speakers—bringing weight to the most important part of the frequency spectrum for human ears. The two 11" woofers move a lot of air very quickly, creating the effortless room pressurization that defines real-life bass.
The Scala is the first in Focal's speaker line-up to use three separate chambers for each driver.
To M or Not?
Focal has replaced the Scala Utopia Evo with the M version, and it's a substantial redesign. Notably, the beryllium tweeter has been replaced by Focal's all-new PRISM (Photon-Refined Intelligent Structured Membrane). As Focal puts it, "Beryllium was a major breakthrough in the early 2000s. As a raw material, it delivered one of the best compromises between lightweight, rigidity, and damping.
"However, beryllium has intrinsic limitations: its shape and thickness cannot easily be optimized, restricting how far acoustic performance can be pushed while, today, advances in materials science, coatings, and nanotechnology open new possibilities."
The new mid is smaller at 5", but the design is substantially upgraded, creating a stiffer driver with improved travel characteristics. The woofers have new dual-ferrite motors, improving bass dynamism. In short, the M version is absolutely worth the push if you can spare the extra $18,000. But at $32,000 for the pair, our last pairs of the Scala Utopia Evo present a rare chance to get into ultra-high-end audio for not a lot more than the Sopra No3.
Find out for yourself how speakers in this class retain the detail and delicacy of high-end standmounts, but deliver it with breathtaking scale and impact. We have just one pair left in the Carrara White and Black High Gloss finishes, and two very lucky homes await the Dark Walnut.
While the new M version provides substantial upgrades, it is $18,000 more expensive than these older Scalas that are at a very special price for the last pairs.