Focal’s Kanta range, side by side. Here is the N°2 alongside the N°1 standmount below it and the larger N°3 floorstander above it, showing what your money buys at each step.

The Kanta N°2 is the smaller of the two Kanta floorstanders and, for many rooms, the model the range was designed around. It takes the Kanta N°1’s pure beryllium tweeter and flax mid/bass technology and builds it into a full three-way design: a 16.5cm flax midrange and two 16.5cm flax woofers beneath the beryllium tweeter, all made in France. The extra drivers buy deeper bass, higher sensitivity and the dynamic ease of a true floorstander, while the front baffle and slim profile keep it from dominating a living room. It is not a speaker to drive with a small amplifier, as its impedance dips close to 3 ohms in the bass. What it offers is Focal’s upper-range resolution with full-range scale.

Brief product overview

A three-way bass-reflex floorstander with a 27mm IAL3 pure beryllium inverted-dome tweeter, a 16.5cm flax-sandwich midrange and two 16.5cm flax-sandwich woofers, crossing over at 260Hz and 2.7kHz. Beryllium is exceptionally stiff and light, which pushes the tweeter’s own break-up well above the audible band, and IAL3 absorbs its rear output rather than letting it reflect back through the dome. The flax cones sandwich flax fibre between thin glass-fibre layers for stiffness and natural damping. The midrange has Focal’s TMD (Tuned Mass Damper) suspension to reduce distortion, and the woofers use NIC (Neutral Inductance Circuit) motors to keep the magnetic field stable for tighter bass. Giving the midrange its own driver from 260Hz up frees the two woofers to handle only the low end.

The bass is vented through Focal’s Power Flow ports, front and rear. Frequency response is quoted at 35Hz to 40kHz (±3dB), reaching 29Hz at −6dB. Sensitivity is quoted at 91dB with an 8-ohm nominal impedance, but the minimum falls to 3.1 ohms (independent measurement has found closer to 2.9 ohms in the upper bass), and Focal recommends 40 to 300 watts. The front baffle is made from high-density polymer, which is denser and better damped than MDF. The speaker measures 1118 × 321 × 477mm and weighs 35kg.

How it sounds

The Kanta N°2 combines the N°1’s resolution with genuine floorstander authority. The beryllium tweeter is quick, open and extended without harshness, and the flax midrange gives voices and instruments natural body and texture. The dedicated midrange keeps them clear even in dense, loud passages. The two woofers reach the low thirties in a real room, so the bass has weight and depth as well as speed and definition. The stereo image is wide, deep and precisely layered. The limits are honest ones. The Kanta N°2 is highly revealing: it rewards a good source and amplifier and exposes a weak one. Its impedance dip in the bass means it needs an amplifier with genuine current, and without one it sounds lean and hard at volume. And though its sensitivity is quoted at 91dB, measurements suggest nearer 89dB in practice, so its appetite for power is real.

What we’d partner it with

The McIntosh MA7200 is an ideal match for the Kanta N°2’s difficult load. It is a 200-watt-per-channel Class AB integrated with McIntosh’s Autoformers, output transformers that let it deliver full power into 2, 4 or 8 ohms, so the speaker’s impedance dip doesn’t catch it out. It has separate MM and MC phono inputs, the MC with adjustable loading from 50 to 1,000 ohms, plus five RCA and one balanced XLR line input and a DAC module with USB, coaxial, optical and MCT inputs. It also has the blue watt meters, tone controls, a headphone amplifier and Power Guard clipping protection. It has no network streaming, so a streaming source completes it. Two on-list alternatives, stock permitting: the QUAD Platina Integrated gives 200 watts into 8 ohms and 300 watts into 4 ohms with a high-grade ESS DAC and MM/MC phono; the Technics SU-R1000 offers 150 watts into 8 ohms and 300 watts into 4 ohms, with an MM/MC phono stage that corrects for historic EQ curves.

For streaming, the Aurender N150 feeds the MA7200’s DAC module directly. It is a network transport and music server with a single USB audio output, built around a linear power supply, a supercapacitor backup and an isolated network interface, with a bay for an internal drive for a local library. It is controlled from Aurender’s Conductor app, which handles Tidal and Qobuz as well as local files. Alternatives, stock permitting, are the Eversolo T8, a streaming transport with USB, coaxial, optical and AES/EBU outputs, and the HiFi Rose RS130, a step up with an OCXO clock and external clock inputs.

For vinyl, the Linn Majik LP12 with the Koil cartridge is a strong partner. Hand-built in Glasgow, it has Linn’s Karousel bearing, an aluminium sandwich Majik sub-chassis, an internal power supply and the Krane tonearm. The Koil is a low-output moving-coil cartridge with a boron cantilever and a Microlinear stylus, at 0.4mV. It goes into the MA7200’s MC input set to 100 ohms, with no step-up transformer or separate phono stage needed. Alternatives, stock permitting, are the Linn Selekt LP12 with the Kendo MC, a step up in the LP12 family, and the Pro-Ject X8 with the Quintet Blue MC.

On cabling, use a well-made speaker cable of appropriate gauge for the run; AudioQuest and Chord are the cable brands we stock.

Who shouldn’t buy it

If your room is small, the Kanta N°1 standmount has the same beryllium tweeter and flax mid/bass in a size that suits a smaller space. If your room is large or you want the deepest bass and most scale in the range, the Kanta N°3 steps up to 21cm woofers. And if your amplifier is modest in current, or valve-based, the Kanta N°2’s impedance dip will hold it back; plan the amplification around the speaker rather than the other way round.

At 35kg the Kanta N°2 is a two-person lift. Position it before fitting and levelling its spikes. It has ports front and rear, so allow room behind it: start with around 50 to 60cm of clearance from the rear wall and adjust from there, as closer to the wall the bass grows fuller and less controlled. Angle the speakers slightly towards the listening seat; more toe-in sharpens focus, less widens the stereo image. Connect the Kanta N°2 to the MA7200 with equal-length cable runs for each side. Start on the amplifier’s 8-ohm Autoformer tap to match the speaker’s nominal rating, then try the 4-ohm tap and keep whichever gives the tighter, fuller bass in your room. For streaming, connect the N150’s USB output to the MA7200’s DAC module USB input. For vinyl, connect the Majik LP12 to the MA7200’s MC phono input with loading set to 100 ohms, and its earth lead to the amplifier’s ground terminal.