A RARE AND PRECIOUS MATERIAL
Beryllium is so rigid that it is the only metal that can scratch glass. It’s the material of choice for tweeter diaphragms! Its price – it’s 50 times more expensive than gold – makes it a material to be reserved for the best expected acoustic renderings. Today, Beryllium tweeters are used in exceptional Focal products.

EXTENDED FREQUENCY RESPONSE TO 40 KHZ
After two years of research and development, Focal has achieved a world first with the shaping of an inverted dome in pure Beryllium capable of covering more than five octaves (1,000 Hz – 40,000 Hz). What’s the point of seeking an extended response to 40 kHz when the human ear hears down to 20,000 Hz? The more extended the frequency response at the top of the spectrum, the better the impulse response, and therefore the better the perception of transients and other micro-details. What’s more, the linearity of a loudspeaker’s response curve is primarily a function of the balance between three contradictory parameters: lightness, rigidity and damping.

INCREDIBLE ACOUSTIC CHARACTERISTICS
To date, only one material has made it possible to take a decisive step forward: beryllium. For domes of identical mass, Beryllium is 7 times stiffer than titanium or aluminum, materials which offer the same rigidity for equivalent mass. Sound also travels 3 times faster than in titanium and 2.5 times faster than in aluminum. All in all, the frequency response curve, acoustic transparency and impulse response of the Béryllium inverted dome tweeter are perfect, guaranteeing total control of the work to be done.

Flax is linen. Made in France yet affordable in price, Flax membranes are focused on acoustic performance, high-tech and bring a truly original design to the brand’s loudspeakers!

After more than five years of research and development, in 2013 Focal engineers unveiled a new Flax membrane made from flax fibre. It’s characterized by a very natural, uncolored sound, rich reproduction in the midrange and clean attacks in the bass.

FLAX FIBRE, UNIQUE QUALITIES
The “F” membrane is a sandwich made from a core of high-quality flax fiber, embedded in two thin sheets of glass fibre. It meets all the criteria of a high-fidelity membrane: it’s light to deliver good dynamics, rigid to hold the bass, and damping to deliver a neutral, natural listening experience.

Rigidity
A “single-material” cone can’t perfectly meet all these criteria. Sandwich technology plays a very important role in the sonic neutrality of a membrane, a neutrality that has always been the signature of the Focal sound. Our mastery of sandwich technology on the Utopia and K2 Power ranges has enabled us to develop revolutionary “Flax” membranes that reconcile all 3 criteria.

Lightness
Flax fibre is twice as light as glass fibre, because it is a hollow fibre. It has very low elasticity, making it ideal for increasing the flexural modulus of a sandwich structure. What’s more, it can be obtained as a non-woven connector with a large diameter, providing the thickness and rigidity required for a sandwich.

Damping
Composite materials are the right choice for applications where stiffness and low mass are required. However, they are penalized by a lack of damping, leading to very poor vibration control. Recent developments combining composites and natural fibres offer unexpected opportunities. Flax fibre offers excellent internal damping on a par with glass fibre, Kevlar® or aluminium.

MADE IN FRANCE AND COMPETITIVE
Flax membranes are designed and manufactured in France, using French flax fibre. France is Europe’s leading producer of fibre flax, mainly in Flanders, Picardy, Normandy and Pas-de-Calais. French flax fibre is considered the best in the world.

Synthetic fibres or foams derived from petrochemical resources are subject to fluctuations in crude oil prices. Organic textiles or “ecotextiles”, like linen, are competitive…

What’s more, since the superlative “W” and “K2” sandwiches can only be made by hand, they can only be produced in limited numbers, for reasons of cost. The industrial process developed to produce the “F” sandwich makes this technology highly competitive

TMD suspension

Stabilized suspension, eliminated vibrations
While our engineers are experts in developing exclusive cones, they also innovate for all the elements that make up the speakers, such as the suspension that connects the cone to the chassis and whose performance is essential to control. Created in 2015, TMD (Tuned Mass Damper) technology with harmonic damping consists of the addition of finely positioned toroidal weights, allowing the suspension to be stabilized for ever greater sound neutrality. This technology enhances the midrange and the erratic behavior of the suspension between 1kHz and 2KHz.

OBSESSION WITH THE MIDRANGE
The midrange register is undoubtedly the most complex to master in an acoustic system. On the one hand, it must ensure a harmonious energy junction with the bass channel. On the other, it must be coherent with the tweeter in terms of dispersion and acceleration. Timbre homogeneity and spatialization depend on it.

Over the last twenty years, Focal has been working to control diaphragm “break-up” (the frequency at which the cone deforms and causes distortion) with 3rd generation “W” composite diaphragms, and to drastically reduce tweeter resonance with the IAL 2. Today, thanks to the power of numerical finite element analysis, our teams have developed a simulation tool to visualize the dynamic behavior of the surround that links the cone to the saladier, revealing the dysfunctions on which progress can be made.

THE TMD HARMONIC DAMPER
Following the discovery of these malfunctions, the challenge was to design a device that would enable them to be controlled. Known solutions for increasing surround damping lead to an increase in mass, which in turn affects definition. The answer was found in a technique used in anti-seismic systems for skyscrapers, and also found in the surrounds of racing vehicles! This is the Tuned Mass Damper technique: an additional mass oscillates in opposition to the resonance to control it.

Applied to the loudspeakers, the solution simply consists of two circular “beads” molded into the surround mass and judiciously sized and positioned. They constitute our harmonic damper (TMD) and stabilize the surround’s behavior at resonance to avoid cone deformation and not penalize dynamics. This innovation is patented

NIC magnetic circuit
The accuracy and detail of the reproduction depends on the stability of the magnetic flux.

Stabilizing the magnetic flux field

After pushing the limits with electromagnet devices, our engineers realized that the magnetic flux field, no matter how strong, has a dynamic dimension that we can’t control.

The magnetic flux is not stable, as it is modulated by three factors:

the movement of the coil (Lenz’s law),
the current flowing through it (eddy current),
frequency.

As a result, the coil and all the moving parts, including the diaphragm, are supported by a magnetic flux that becomes “elastic”, resulting in a loss of precision.

NIC technology – Neutral Inductance Circuit

After three years of research and the development of simulation software to visualize these complex interactions, Focal engineers have created an incredibly stable magnetic circuit for the Sopra line of high-fidelity loudspeakers.

The solution, NIC technology, resides in a Faraday ring whose dimensions, material and positioning have been optimized to make the magnetic flux insensitive to the position of the coil, and to the intensity and frequency of the current flowing through it.