Kanta......anyone have a pair yet?

[rubytuesday]

I had the chance to audition the Kanta No2 today. I have to say, i have pretty much never liked the forward sound of the Focal speakers. I've always found them to be a bit bright and too much in your face. The Kanta has changed my mind. It was very detailed but not fatiguing and I didn't find the treble too forward, like i have in other Focal's. I have tried the electra series and honestly couldn't listen for very long, due to brightness.

I listened to the Kanta first with the Primaluna Dialogue Premium and then with the Hegel H160. Interesting comparison, they both sounded wonderful, with my personal preference being the Hegel.

It took quite some time at the dealer to get decent sound, given all the other equipment nearby. I was finally able to get a decent setup with about 3 feet from each side wall and 6 feet from the back wall. The toe in was very slight and the speakers disappeared. Amazing tone, huge soundstage and wow the detail. Listening to Bubbles by Yosi Horikawa was insane!!! If you haven't heard this on a highly resolving system, i strongly recommend it. It will have you turning your head and hearing sounds from behind and the side of you. The Ballad of Bill Hubbard from Roger Water's Amused to Death is also amazing on this system.

As a side note, you know when you are listening to a record you've heard about 500 times and think you know every single instrument/sound, and then you listen to a new system and all of a sudden you hear something new? That happened on several records with the Kanta/Hegel pair. I was grinning ear to ear, as this doesn't happen often!

The Hegel seemed to have a bit more depth in the bass than the PL, and the soundstage opened up a bit more. The Hegel Dac probably had a lot to do with it since I had to use the CD player's (Marantz) Dac with the PL. The Hegel was a wonderful combination. I am guessing the Dialogue HP would be a much fairer comparison both in sonics and price, but would also need a Dac for my purposes. By the way, would love to hear the Chord Qutest with this setup!

Do i think these are worth $10k? I don't know. I do know that they were very very enjoyable and would definitely put them up against other speakers in the price range.