Displaying items by tag: floorstanding - StereoLife Magazine

Focal has unveiled the Scala Utopia Evo M, a new version of one of the most recognisable loudspeakers in its flagship range. The French manufacturer has retained the three-way configuration, distinctive curved silhouette and general proportions of the previous Scala, but replaced all of its principal drivers and developed a new crossover network to integrate them. The most significant change is the introduction of the PRISM tweeter, which takes the place of the pure-beryllium inverted dome used in the earlier model. It is joined by a 13 cm midrange driver with a W-cone and M-shaped profile, as well as a completely redesigned 27 cm woofer equipped with a dual-ferrite magnet system.

Sonus Faber has introduced the Olympica G3 collection, the third generation of one of the most recognisable loudspeaker families in its catalogue. The Italian brand is returning here to an idea that, from the beginning, was always more than just another line of speakers. Since its debut in 2013, Olympica has combined traditional craftsmanship, a characteristic asymmetrical cabinet and clear references to the culture of Vicenza, the city Sonus Faber calls home. The new generation is intended to preserve that spirit while introducing acoustic solutions inspired by the company's flagship designs, including Suprema. The result is a collection that still looks unmistakably like Sonus Faber, but also shows that the Italians are not interested in living only on memories of beautiful loudspeakers from a decade ago.

Triangle has introduced Solstice, a new loudspeaker range that takes the spirit of the long-running Esprit series and moves it into a more contemporary, more visually ambitious and more technically developed form. The name is not accidental. A solstice is a moment of transition, the end of one cycle and the beginning of another, and the French manufacturer clearly wants to suggest that this is not just another variation on a familiar design. It is the start of a new chapter in this part of the catalogue. That may sound a little grand, but here it is not difficult to see the point. Esprit was for years associated with a strong balance between sound quality and price, while Solstice aims to preserve that accessibility and add fresher styling, new drivers and several mechanical solutions that are not always expected at this level.

Audiovector has introduced the R5 Arreté, a new floorstanding loudspeaker in the R Series, designed to sit between the slimmer R 3 Arreté and the larger R6 Arreté. The Danish brand describes it as a sweet spot between size, performance and musicality, but behind that familiar high-end phrase there is a fairly concrete idea. The R5 Arreté is the first model in the R Series to use technologies developed directly for the reference R10 Arreté. In other words, this is not simply another addition to the catalogue, but an attempt to bring flagship engineering into a loudspeaker that has a much better chance of fitting into a real listening room. It is still a very serious, hand-built Danish loudspeaker, but not a monument that demands half the living room.

Focal has introduced the Diva Alta Utopia, the most advanced model in its family of active wireless loudspeakers developed in partnership with Naim. The French brand is clearly positioning this system very high - not as a luxury network speaker for an elegant living room, but as a fully fledged high-end system intended to replace a traditional stereo set-up made up of loudspeakers, amplifiers, streamer, DAC, cables and the rest of the usual audiophile infrastructure. The difference is that here, everything has been built into large active loudspeakers.

Wharfedale has introduced the Elysian R series, a refreshed version of its flagship loudspeaker range. This is not an entirely new project, but rather a carefully considered evolution of speakers that already occupied a special place in the British brand's catalogue. The original Elysians showed that Wharfedale could move well beyond the world of very successful, sensibly priced loudspeakers for normal people and offer something on the edge of high-end audio - large, beautifully finished, technically ambitious designs that still did not pretend to be products with prices detached from reality. Now, under the direction of Peter Comeau, the engineering team has returned to the concept and refined almost every important area, including the drivers, crossovers, cabinets, finishes and construction details.

Pylon Audio has introduced the Opal 23 mkII, a new version of one of its best-known floorstanding loudspeakers. The model develops a concept that has been part of the Polish manufacturer's catalog for years - a full-size, reasonably priced loudspeaker designed not for a narrow group of specialists, but for listeners who want solid engineering, room-filling sound and enough versatility to work in a normal domestic system. The original Opal series occupied an important place in Pylon Audio's lineup precisely because it offered this kind of balance. It was not an exotic or overtly audiophile design, but a practical loudspeaker for people building their first or second serious stereo system. With the mkII generation, Pylon has not attempted to replace that idea with something completely different. Instead, the company has retained the overall format and visual identity of the original model while redesigning the drivers, crossover, cabinet tuning and resonance-control measures.

Marten's new Dexter series brings several ideas from the Swedish manufacturer's upper ranges into a more compact and comparatively accessible loudspeaker family. The line made its public debut at High End Vienna 2026 and consists of four models - Dexter Duo, Dexter Trio, Dexter Quartet and Dexter Quintet. All are designed and built at Marten's facility in Sweden, and all share the same core ingredients - a Marten pure diamond tweeter developed from work carried out during the Coltrane Supreme Extreme project, a new triple-layer M-Core cabinet construction, internal Jorma Duality wiring and a new bass loading system created specifically for the series.

For Raidho, the X Series has always carried a slightly unusual task. It is the Danish manufacturer's more accessible loudspeaker line, but it still has to sound and feel like a Raidho - fast, open, highly resolved and built around the company's own driver technology. The new X2.8 takes that idea into a larger floorstanding format, giving the range a serious three-way model with deeper bass, greater dynamic scale and more of the physical authority expected from a full-size loudspeaker.

Jamo has announced two new loudspeaker families, Concert Legacy and Concert Element, marking a major step in the brand's 2026 direction and a clear attempt to re-establish its presence in Scandinavian hi-fi. Both ranges will be available from August 2026, with Concert Legacy positioned as the company's premium passive speaker family and Concert Element developed as a more contemporary expression of Danish functional design. The launch is not just about adding new models to the catalog. In different ways, both series return to ideas that have long been associated with Jamo - clean Scandinavian aesthetics, practical room integration and loudspeakers designed to fit into real homes rather than exist only as technical objects.