Work continues on our soundroom. Are those things ever truly "done?" Most recently our Focal flagship system went on-line. This features the Utopia No.7 kit- arguably the most revealing speakers available for car audio use. The drivers in this system are also used in their home counterparts: the JM Labs Grande Utopia Be. The passive crossover network (or Crossblock, as they call it) is a work of art aesthetically, electronically, and sonically. It offers the flexibility to compensate for many of the placement issues that vehicles impose. This requires designing what amounts to literally several hundred different crossover circuits for that onepair of speakers, a task ignored by virtually all other crossover networks extant.

The second half of the system is the pair of Focal Power amplifiers feeding the No.7's and the subwoofer. At the heart is the Dual Monitor: a behemoth of an amplifier designed from the ground up to deliver all the precise drive needed for a premium set of component speakers. It is also fully dual mono, with completely independent left and right channels housed in one chassis.

The Dual Monitor also incorporates an extremely sophisticated and powerful Digital Processing Engine which allows recording engineer control over the signal in a number of domains; both for itself and a second amplifier connected downstream. Varying slope and style of crossover filters, full L vs. R 30band parametric EQ, level, and time delay are applied digitally for maximum precision and minimum side effects (more compensation for those pesky vehicle-induced attacks on your listening pleasure!). Indeed, in our system, the amplifier is fed the raw digital signal straight from the disc player! This is considered proper form in good home systems, and we don't see any reason not to do it that way on the road as well.

Zach has been busy with his laptop and ears implementing the processor into a series of presets allowing you to hear just the No.7 kit (impressive in it's own right) as it sounds from the driver's seat of our soundroom, then stepping you through the addition of EQ and finally full blown time correction and proper subwoofer utilization. Hear how you can listen to MUSIC your car, not just a stereo.