Brochure

Design
The primary goal of the compact Sopra design was
to ensure that its proportions would nonetheless
satisfy the minimum volume requirement to yield
extended bass.
The height of the tweeter is crucial to imaging and
must reach the ears of a seated listener, no more
than one meter high. This situates the tweeter
beneath the midrange, requiring Focus Time
(physical time alignment to normalize the distances
of each transducer from the listener), particularly
significant in the largest model.
With its modest footprint however, Sopra lacked the
necessary volume in its lower section to generate
sufficient bass energy, which forced our engineers
to cross through the tweeter section to exploit
superfluous volume in the upper section.
The IHL system presented an ideal solution,
allowing two large canals to splice the upper and
lower sections together, and reclaiming the unused
space behind the midrange driver.
The well-damped polyurethane tweeter mount
sufficiently isolates the tweeter from the bass
vibrations and protects the midrange. This improves
the overall rigidity of the structure and prevents any
loss of precision. Of course, it also adorns Sopra
with its signature look.
"The Sopra line is meant for the most
passionate audiophiles. When expectations are this
high, the design must provide solutions that go far
beyond aesthetics and shape. It’s quite the challenge
of industrial design; serving acoustic experts and
favoring performance, while marrying the qualities
expected of an object that will be integrated into very
elegant interiors and decors.
With the very first sketches, we wanted to
emphasize the brand image of Focal loudspeakers:
a trapezoid section, the recognized signature of
the tweeter housing; angled cabinets for acoustic
coherence (Focus Time), etc. All these strengths
that are inherent to the brand image had to be
emphasized, all while updating conventions and
even daring to reinvent new ones, and applying the
latest technological advances in R&D.
In this sense, Sopra represents an exemplary
collaboration between Focal’s engineers and designers
over the course of three years...