No, we have a TV mount hanging down from the ceiling at the far corner of the room. The TV sits on that, but the top of the TV just barely clears the ceiling. When we lie back in bed horizontal, heads on our pillows, it’s at the perfect height. Just under that is a dresser and the Mu-su sits on top of it, just below the TV.
It’s a perfect arrangement.
That’s probably because it’s not a Naim product. It’s a Focal product. Why they’re choosing to label it Focal seems odd. I guess any product that includes speakers will now be under the Focal brand.
My understanding is that as it’s an AV product Focal branding made more sense. Focal has a larger foot print in the AV market than Naim.
It’s Focal (powered by Naim) branded, and does use some existing Mu-So drive units (along with some that are unique to the Hekla) but it’s very much designed by Naim and leverages Naim’s extensive DSP expertise to give quite a remarkable performance. I’ll happily admit I was fairly sceptical when I first heard about it, but having had a demonstration yesterday and learned about what went into it, I’m hugely impressed. And that’s something I really didn’t think I’d be saying…
Sorry… that was intended to be ironic. Advertising pictures tend to leave out all the cables so that everything looks neat and clean.
Just to add to a few of the questions above, I thought I’d mention a few bits.
The Hekla features 15 drive units, some of which are horn loaded and angled to bounce sound off the side walls and ceiling.
There are 3 LF drive units, and a port that is tuned to 31Hz, so for most people, you wouldn’t need any subs. However, of course you can add them, and there is an subwoofer adjustable crossover.
There is a single HDMI eARC socket, which isn’t an input as such. As most setups are based around the TV being the source (Smart streaming etc), or Apple TVs etc connected to the TV, it made sense that the Hekla would use eARC, rather than all sources having to go to the Hekla first.
There is also an optical SPDIF input, although that would limit you to Dolby Digital 5.1 rather than Atmos.
I’d be mightily p1ssed off if I were a Naim dealership who couldn’t sell this Muso product.
Things are hard enough already without products they have “pushed” for years being only available in “select” stores.
Hopefully this will be looked at and rectified.
.sjb
For that sort of money and a product coming from Naim, I would have thought the consumer would want highest quality sound as first option. As long as the soundbar can pass-through ‘full’ video, I’d want 4K player, Apple TV box, PVR, etc into soundbar first. Degradation of the signal going through tv, some Tvs are poor at passing the audio signal through, audio delay and a few other disadvantages of tv first.
Also, I think a fairly high percentage of consumers for this would easily notice the huge upgrade adding a subwoofer. 31hz isn’t low for movies and also it’s not about the 31hz spec, it’s how the drivers/amp handle 31hz. Adding a sub and adjusting the crossover so it takes away everything below 80hz, lets the soundbar work cleaner, easier and better.
P.S. Not telling you this, just replying.
I think it’s a sound system for people who want a much more immersive sound for the likes of movies, including giving them much of the sound effects common to some types of movie, but who simply don’t want the faff of choosing gear, and/or don’t want multiple boxes all around their room, rather than people who want the best movie sound they can get for the money. A bit like a Qube or Muso vs a hi-fi system.
It does look a tempting proposition for me. Might investigate further next year.
Any suggestions for furniture that could hold this AND a 65 or 75 inch TV? Ideally with a shelf or 2 below for other sources?
Atacama made to order
I think the Hekla may just about fit on the 1m wide unit, but it would need to be pretty deep to fit a TV behind the Hekla. The TV would also need to be raised further to avoid the Hekla blocking the screen! To be honest , I rue not buying a Hi Fi Racks unit which had a large shelf and also a structure at the back for vesa mounting a TV above the top shelf. Would have been perfect for the Hekla. Sadly they are not in business any more.
I’m sure Atacama could make a custom unit, but my budget may not extend that far!
It will be interesting to see a comparison between this and the CI Uniti 102 with some appropriate speakers.
i guess a full set of surround sound speakers would likely be better - at the cost of a lot of clutter. from the demo last week the hekla did a pretty good job of surround sound especially using the naim software (rather than std atmos). bass was particularly impressive from such small drivers
Well, well … finally Bose might have just met its match?: )
At the recent demo at Naim, they set up the TV and Hekla an separate racks, albeit only temporarily ones in a room normally used for HiFi demos. The Hekla can go loud and deep, so I’m not sure that putting it on a rack shared with a TV or other boxes would be ideal. Maybe consider a wall bracket for the TV or some such way of giving it robust support of its own.
Also bear in mind that it has upward facing drivers designed to bounce sound off the ceiling. These aren’t gong to work as intended if there’s a TV in the way.
My take out……for £3k it could be really good, but i would need a home demo. We never heard it just playing music, either.
i think we got a few seconds of a female vocal at the end which was a std music track - not long enough to judge but i would say it sounded unimpressive after the surround sound fireworks
