Anybody have Focal Kanta 2


How do they sound with solid state

128x128jjfinelli49
I have a friend who has a pair driving them with an Arcam integrated amp. I think they sound very good. Very smooth and engaging, never harsh or bright.

Oz


I think it’s pretty vague to lump all solid state (or tubes for that matter) into one “sound”. There is a wide continuum of sound across either implementation.
I brought the kanta3 home to demo against my usher be20dmd’s and while i liked the kanta’s initially the lack of bass in my room made for a lightweight presentation that didn’t hold up. Maybe in a room that supports bass better than mine 
I'm in absolute heaven with the Kanta No2's.
I'm running a solid state amp and hybrid pre (BAT VK-220 & BAT VK-3iX). I wouldn't hesitate to use all solid state as long as it's got current and decent specs. They're far more efficient than I had anticipated. The Stereophile review used 2 class D monoblocks.

As far as bass, the 2's have serious grunt power. I seriously don't know what people listen to these days, but assume the need for so much bass comes from Transformer movies? I wouldn't want to pair these with subs at all, but in my case they're strictly for music/2-channel.

My listening "area" is approx 18x19 with a 20' ceiling. It opens onto a kitchen, staircase, catwalk and foyer, so it's really quite a bit larger. The floors are hardwood over slab. I'm not settled on the final positioning layout, but I'm really glad that I didn't set up in my living room, which while more contained and easier to tame would have been far too small.

Perhaps Steve59's issue was the Kanta 3's weren't broken in. I've heard plenty of complaints about thin, lightweight and harsh until they've had a few hundred hours (again, see the Stereophile review). Mine had already spent considerable time playing before I got them.
I heard the Kanta 2 at RMAF two years ago and they were damn near best of the show IMHO. They were using NAIM gear and had a good setup although not ideal but man did they bring the goods! 
I have a difficult room and the kanta 3 had a +10db spike at 100hz and dropped like a rock from there so they were -40at 60 hz. The mids and treble integrated nicely with my room and imaging was also excellent, nothing like the ear bleeding experiences of focal back in the day. I don't fault the speakers for bass below 300hz as the experts say anything below there is room dependent. I find most speakers I measure in this room (simple phone/tablet app)have a nice boost around 100hz.
I upgraded a pair of Focal Aria 926 in our living room to a pair of Kanta no 2 about two months ago.  I’ve got them running off a Cambridge Audio CXA80 and they sound much more detailed than my old 926.  I really like the sound from the CXA80.  I do plan to upgrade my amp sometime, but we have a small room with a small media cabinet and most amps don’t fit.  Honestly, I’m thrilled with the improvement of the Kanta from the Aria, which I also loved.  The Kanta really are in a class above.