Focal’s new Mu‑so Hekla is a cleverly named, great-sounding, and well-priced all-in-one home sound system. But it there are a couple odd aspects to it, which I’ll get to later.
Hekla is the name of Iceland’s most active volcano. It’s not hard to imagine why Focal chose the name: this modestly sized system delivers an explosive, room-filling sound that belies its dimensions. The Hekla measures about 39.5″W × 4.7″H × 11.6″D and weighs roughly 35 pounds.
That room-filling presentation comes from 15 drivers, all controlled by digital signal processing, with 660W of built-in amplification. I wanted to get a look at all those drivers but was told the grilles needed a screwdriver to come off.
The Hekla supports Dolby Atmos. Not only can it play Atmos content received via its HDMI eARC input, it can play streamed Atmos content from Amazon Music Direct (via Google Cast), Apple Music (via AirPlay), and Tidal (via Tidal Connect or the Tidal client in the Focal & Naim app).
In Atmos mode, with Atmos movies and music, I heard sounds from all around me—and even behind me. But the Hekla has other modes that are less aggressive in the way they distribute sound around the room while still delivering a spacious soundstage. At times, listeners in the room were momentarily tricked into thinking the Focal Maestro Utopia speakers flanking the Hekla might be playing. They weren’t—at least not while we were there.
The Hekla also produces shockingly deep, explosive bass. Focal says the ‑6db point is 27Hz. We found ourselves looking around for a subwoofer that might be assisting. There wasn’t one.
Focal’s audiophile heritage was apparent. On music, the Hekla seemed to deliver a clean, quite refined sound. I use the word seemed, however, because the demo unit—said to be a pre-production sample—didn’t allow stereo listening without spatial processing engaged. All that spatial enhancement tends to overshadow tonal nuance, so the jury is still out on just how refined the Hekla will sound with well-recorded music played in pure stereo.
Still, the demo unit more than impressed me and SoundStage! senior editor Jason Thorpe. When we learned the price—US$3600 in the United States and CA$4000 in Canada—we both felt it was very reasonable given the sound quality, features (it operates wired and wirelessly and supports all major streaming services, among other things), and upscale look and feel. Particularly striking is the large, attractive volume knob, which activates and lights up when your hand approaches it. All in all, it’s well designed and nicely priced. Had units been available for sale at the show, I’m sure we would have seen plenty of people carrying boxes out.
Now for the oddities I mentioned at the beginning. First, all the Mu‑so all-in-one sound systems that have appeared over the years have carried the Naim brand. Naim Audio is related to Focal through common ownership by the Vervent Audio Group. Naim electronics are used on the Hekla as well. Still, it’s undeniably strange to see what is essentially a Mu‑so product on steroids—the biggest Mu‑so to date—released under the Focal brand. If the ownership group wanted to broaden the branding, it might have made more sense to establish Mu‑so as a standalone brand.
Second, it is difficult to know how to classify the Hekla. Many people will call it a soundbar because it’s designed to sit beneath a screen and be used for movies. But it’s equally at home with music, so “soundbar” doesn’t quite capture its capabilities. At the moment, Focal is calling it an all-in-one sound system, which works well enough, though that label could just as easily apply to far more pedestrian products—think JBL Nerf-football-sized speaker systems. The Mu‑so Hekla is considerably more than that. I don’t have a better term, though. Do you?
Nevertheless, Focal has a real winner on its hands with the Mu‑so Hekla—it’s certainly something I’d consider as a secondary music source in my own home, and when we were leaving the room, Jason muttered that he’d love one too. Undoubtedly, many others will have the same reaction. In fact, I think most people would be thrilled to have the Mu‑so Hekla as their primary system—for movies and music.
Doug Schneider
Founder, SoundStage!
