Dynaudio’s Focus active speakers, side by side. Here is the Focus 30 between the Focus 10 standmount and the flagship Focus 50, showing what your money buys at each step.

The Focus 30 is the smaller of Dynaudio’s two active floorstanders, and it makes a genuinely radical proposition: a floorstanding loudspeaker, network streamer, digital processor and six channels of amplification, all in a pair of compact cabinets. For anyone who wants proper floorstanding performance without a separate streamer, DAC, preamplifier, power amplifier and speaker cables, it is an exceptionally complete solution, and it replaces an entire rack of separates with two speakers and two mains leads. The amplifier and room-correction technology come directly from Dynaudio’s Core professional studio monitors, so the engineering pedigree is real rather than marketing.

Brief product overview

A 2.5-way active floorstander with a 28mm Cerotar soft-dome tweeter with Hexis, based on the flagship Esotar3, and twin 14cm MSP Esotec+ mid-bass drivers. Each speaker contains three Pascal Class D amplifiers, 110 watts for the tweeter and 280 watts for each mid-bass driver, 670 watts in total, individually matched to each driver. The 2.5-way DSP crossover transitions at approximately 220Hz and 2,400Hz, with the lower driver working as a dedicated woofer and the upper handling bass and midrange. Streaming is comprehensive and built in, covering Spotify Connect, Tidal Connect, Apple AirPlay 2, Google Chromecast, Roon, Bluetooth and local network playback, with WiSA for a wireless connection to a compatible television and for the inter-speaker link at up to 24-bit/96kHz, or a wired digital link for 24-bit/192kHz. The rear panel carries analogue and digital inputs. A sliding high-pass filter protects the drivers at high volume, giving deeper bass at lower levels and greater headroom overall. Room-position settings and optional Dirac Live tailor it to the room. It is available in four furniture-grade finishes and made in Denmark.

How it sounds

The Focus 30 has real scale and bass authority for its compact size, the twin-driver arrangement giving it more weight and dynamic ease than the standmount Focus 10, and the sealed-box design with its powerful amplification and DSP reaching down convincingly. It is honest above all, revealing the truth of a recording rather than imposing a character, with the Cerotar tweeter delivering an ultra-smooth treble and the Esotec+ drivers a textured, natural midrange. Because each driver has its own optimised amplifier and the crossover is handled digitally, the integration is seamless, and once calibrated to the room the speaker gets out of the way in a way few conventional systems manage. It is, as one reviewer put it, a case of hearing the music rather than the room or the gear.

What we’d partner it with

The Focus 30 is a complete system in itself, so the streaming setup needs nothing added: the speakers stream over your network from Spotify, Tidal, AirPlay, Chromecast and Roon, take a television over WiSA or optical, and are controlled from the Dynaudio app. Being a floorstander, it needs no stands either.

To add vinyl, the rear panel has a line-level analogue input, so a turntable connects through a phono stage. The Rega Planar 8 is a serious deck to pair with speakers of this standing, with its skeletal Tancast 8 plinth and RB880 tonearm, fitted here with the Apheta 3 moving-coil cartridge. Because the Apheta 3 is moving-coil, the Rega Aos MC is the right stage between the deck and the speaker, a dedicated moving-coil design derived from Rega’s reference Aura, connecting to the Focus 30’s analogue input.

On cabling, only the mains leads and the phono stage’s interconnect are needed, since the speakers are powered; there is no speaker cable. AudioQuest and Chord are the cable brands we stock for the analogue connections.

Who shouldn’t buy it

If your room is smaller, the Focus 10 standmount covers much of the same ground and costs less, though with less scale and bass. If your room is large, the Focus 50 adds a dedicated midrange and a third driver for a full three-way design. And if you want to choose and upgrade your own electronics over time, an active speaker fixes those decisions inside the cabinet; a passive Dynaudio such as the Contour or Confidence range gives you that freedom instead.

Each Focus 10 needs a mains supply, so plan a power outlet near each speaker rather than only near a rack. Set them on the Dynaudio Stand 10 with the tweeters near ear level. Decide how the two speakers talk to each other: wirelessly over WiSA for convenience, or with a single digital cable between them for the full 24-bit/192kHz resolution. Set up over the network through the Dynaudio app, using Ethernet to the primary speaker where you can, and run the built-in room compensation, or add Dirac Live, once the speakers are positioned. For vinyl, connect the turntable to the Rega Fono MM Mk5 and the Fono to the primary speaker’s RCA input; the Debut Reference 10’s Pick it PRO is a moving-magnet cartridge, which the MM Mk5 suits.