Focal 165 K2P

A two-way component speaker system with separate tweeter units, midbass drivers and passive crossovers. Complete with a mounting kit to fit the tweeters in more than one application and screws and fixings. The tweeter with the set is called a TN52 HF and is a Neodymium design. The midbass drivers have exotic materials in their cones and are massively constructed. The passive crossovers’ casings are again unique in all twenty pairs in that they are castings. They house three pop-switches to operate HF attenuation and offer -1dB, -2dB or -4dB of treble attenuation depending upon which one you have depressed. The capacitors in the passives are Aeon branded which are high quality.
– Power Handling 100wRMS
– Sensitivity 92.5dB 1w/1M
– Own Pink noise test figure 113.3dB (Vol @20 @ trk 9 dB Drag Vol III)
– Passband 70Hz to 22kHz
– Tweeter diameter 25mm
– Tweeter Mounting Depth 20mm
– Midbass Mounting Depth 77mm
– Cone: K2 Composite sandwich
– Tweeter: TN52 Tioxid 5 Inverted Dome
– Crossover slope & point: 18dB per octave @ 3.8kHz
– Chassis: pressed steel
– Complete with: alternative silver tweeter grilles as well as tweeter mounting kit, fixings sticker and credit card style guarantee card
Review by Adam Rayner
Focal is another speaker maker of utter aristocracy. Their top end domestic speakers are just awesome and some of their lovely Beryllium inverted-dome tweeter technology has been filtered across in concept at least to their car product. This set comes with a tweeter called a TN52 and is a classy act. The only set to have capacitors within its passive crossovers that a home hifi audiophile might be able to identify, too. The slope of said crossovers is also class-leading at 18dB per Octave.
The sound is powerful rather than sweet but stays linear and does not change character as it gets louder. It just gets louder. They have a lovely rich and warm sound with an involving midband and a sweet imagery that made my tatty old wooden test boxes act like the best holographic sound-away-from-the-box posh home speakers. Which was startling. None of the lunatic bass extension of the mighty Atomic QT6.5C2 or perhaps the thunderous JL Audio C5-650 but nevertheless the sound quality was right up there. They were built with great sexy lumps of engineering expertise and they are horribly good at using big power as well as sounding great at sensible and even low volumes. So they work with all three main control options, which is rare. (All the way off, all the way on, somewhere in between)
Seriously, they only dropped a point or two for needing more power per decibel made than some on the test and also for being a fat £400. A wicked product and deeply deserving of the higher Talk Audio accolade of Best Buy.
Overall 9.2
Sound Quality 10
Build Quality 10
Power Handling 10
Efficiency 8
Value For Money 8