It’s the time of year when audio brands go big and hope you bring them into your home. Some of these launches weight more than your couch and cost more than your car. We’ve previously shared some of the fancier products showcased at High-End Vienna, and now French brand Focal, among others, is g etting in on the flagship action. And like with High-End, we’ve collected some of the most recent hi-fi highlights in pictures. Building on the Diva all-in-one powered speaker platform debuted in 2024, the Diva Alta Utopia loudspeaker is the ultimate extension of Grande Utopia, well, extension. And it better be at $210,000 a pair. A 4-way architecture, it integrates a next-generation PRISM multi-material micro-structure tweeter [shown above, right], new carbon-reinforced M-profile W midrange woofers, and more drivers and amplifier channels/watts and cabinet reinforcement in general to deliver deeper bass, wider soundstage, and higher SPL. The Diva Alta utopia will be available in five finishes at Focal Powered By Naim retailers. We saw the authoritative middle child, the Diva Mezza Utopia, at Audio Advice Live last August, and hope to get a similar first-hand encounter/positive impression with the active connected Diva Alta Utopia at this year’s edition. In other Focal news, there’s a new Graphen Grey colorway [shown above] of the Bathys MG flagship wireless headphones that we greatly enjoyed in Chestnut. Focal isn’t the only brand offering a TOTL integrated system. JL Audio recently introduced the Primacy system, available as both a 3-way $90,000 T6 tower and 2-way $35,000 S3 standmount pair. Both perform best with the $15,000 CS Centerpiece control hub. These luxury loudspeakers pack precisioned-machined enclosures with bespoke drivers/motor structures and proprietary multicore DSP for automatic room optimization and the ability to (re)tune behavior to specific listening positions, ensuring there’s no such thing as a bad seat. And studio-grade networking feeds the amps and crossover adjustments the most stable high-resolution digital audio (or MM/MC phono, so grab the Fluance below while you’re at it). Having heard them, we can say this decades-in-the-making system delivers energy with ease, pressure and presence, extremely lifelike expression and precise imaging without set-up hassle. In other JL Audio news, the Florida-based brand has recently introduced thin-line, shallow-mount Pavilion subwoofers for custom installs. If you’re interested in a whole-home system or to augment floorstanders, but want to add that extra octave without another box taking up square footage on the floor, these $1,000 8-inch in-wall/ceiling speakers give an integrator new articulate options. Fluance Sitting above the RT85 turntable we’ve previously lauded, the new $799 Fluance RT87 features several upgrades to elevate it over your average turntable. A dual-plinth architecture, with the belt-driven motor isolated on the lower plinth, decouples the tonearm and stylus to reduce vibrations intruding on your groove(s). And that tonearm is now a 9-inch low-resonance carbon-fiber bar, with your choice of an Audio-Technica AT-VM95ML Microlinear cartridge or an Ortofon 2M Blue. The sound is still Reference meets rhythmic. Sennheiser The new $399 Sennheiser Momentum 5 Wireless headphones are built on the same 42mm transducers that are built in Tullamore, Ireland (a delightful place that we’ve visited). But that doesn’t change the fact that these flagship active noise-cancelling headphones are the best expression of the line yet. The ANC/transparency mode is noticeably improved, Snapdragon Sound/aptX Lossless ensures the highest-fidelity connection (well, highest Bluetooth 5.4, there’s also 24-bit/96 kHz via USB-C), Dolby Atmos with head-tracking renders additional immersion for supported content, and the user-replaceable 700mAh battery powers up to 57 hours of playback. An 8-band EQ lets you tweak the warm stock sound. It’s not as natural/neutral as the $499 HDB 630, but punchy bass+midrange are well integrated with smooth highs, still on the “correct” side of consumer, making it a great fold-flat choice for commuters. The post Big speakers and bigger budgets: Here are some serious sound systems and smarter headphones appeared first on Popular Science. ...read more read less