It’s not often that style, luxury, and top-tier quality all meet at a certain point, but when they do, you get this beauty of a loudspeaker. Focal, one of the top audio brands in France, just unveiled the new DIVA UTOPIA. This is a floorstanding loudspeaker that’s designed to give you the best audio experience that money can buy.

The DIVA UTOPIA combines high-quality equipment, amazing audio, excellent convenience, and an eye-popping design. Coming in at $39,000 for a pair of speakers, these aren’t your typical store-shelf speakers. They’re for people who want the very best from their speakers. As steep as the price is, it’s more than justified for the sheer experience you’re getting for it. So, let’s dive into what makes the DIVA UTOPIA the one to have.

Focal announces the DIVA UTOPIA with high-quality drivers

Saying that this speaker is high-quality is an understatement. Focal has nearly 50 years of audio expertise under its belt, so the company has its own unique sound and technology. The DIVA UTOPIA is an active bass-reflex speaker. It uses the company’s patented ‘W’ membrane for its drivers to drive rich and engaging audio through your home.

This special membrane consists of two cones of glass that sandwich the central foam body. This unique technology allows the engineers to master the lightness, rigidity, and damping of the loudspeaker. The end result is a much more refined sound with reduced distortion and a better frequency curve.

The sound doesn’t only come from one driver, as the main drivers are accompanied by a beryllium ‘M’-profile tweeter that produces the higher tones. This combination creates a well-balanced and engrossing sound. The lower tones, mid-tones, and higher tones will have special attention paid to them.

All of the drivers use TMD suspension. This is a part that stabilizes the diaphragm to reduce vibrations. The TMD (Tuned Mass Damper) technology stabilizes the diaphragm for better sonic neutrality. It also enhances the midrange performance of the audio.

The cherry on top of this acoustic cake is the Infinite Acoustic Loading technology. This controls the acoustic pressure behind the dome of the tweeter. It minimizes the internal resonances, thus ensuring minimal distortion and a pure sound.

All in all, there’s a tweeter, a mid-bass driver, and four side-mounted woofers. The drivers all come with Niam amplification. All of these elements come together to create a magnificent listening experience that you can only get from a Focal product.

We can’t ignore the aesthetics of this speaker

The DIVA UTOPIA is a beautiful device. It has a unique design that goes along with Focal’s design mentality. It has a sleek gray aesthetic that’s as elegant as it is professional. The design is eclectic with a balance of curves and straight lines throughout. The tweeter and main driver sit at the top of the body right above a split that goes down the speaker. Also, the bass speakers sit on the sides of the body.

This all creates a visually appealing design that will fit in with your decor.

Ease of connectivity

Much of the time, the more pricey a device is, the more complicated it is to set up. However, that’s not the case for the DIVA UTOPIA. Focal created this speaker for a no-sweat experience.

Firstly, you don’t need any additional hardware like an amp or DAC to listen to music. In fact, you also don’t need wires to connect the pair of speakers to one another. The DIVA UTOPIA uses UWB (Ultra Wideband) technology to connect the speakers. This is convenient, as you don’t have to worry about the hassle of running wires throughout your room to connect the speakers. All you have to do is plug them in, pair them, and enjoy your music.

Exceptional audio quality

The audiophiles among you might have your doubts about the audio quality since it’s being streamed wirelessly. However, you don’t need to worry. While wireless playback has gotten some flack over the years, the audio coming from the DIVA UTOPIA blows past CD quality and gives you rich studio-quality audio.

The ultra-wideband connectivity allows for some insanely detailed music. You’re able to stream audio at up to 32-bit/348kHz. To put that into perspective, Tidal, one of the most popular hi-fi music streaming services, maxes out at 24-bit/192kHz.

Speaking of Tidal, this is one of the streaming services that you can connect to directly for seamless listening. Along with that, you can also connect to Spotify, Qobuz, and QQ Music (for Chinese listeners).

If you want to connect a device like your phone or tablet to the speakers, the DIVA UTOPIA supports Google Cast, Apple Airplay, UPnP, and good old Bluetooth. Along with those, there are also several wired input methods. You have HDMI eARC, optical, RCA, and USB. This means that you can connect the speakers to your existing audio setup depending on what sort of equipment you have. Also, if you want to connect the speakers to your TV or turntable, you can do so. Rather than setting up an entire surround sound setup, you can use a pair of these speakers and you’ll be more than fine.

Not for everyone, but everyone will love it

The DIVA UTOPIA represents the very best that Focal can bring to the market. It’s the culmination of decades of refinements and innovation. At $40K, this won’t be for everyone. However, everyone who buys it will be thoroughly impressed with it. This is a top-tier speaker for those looking for a top-tier experience.

For more information like where to buy this speaker, click on the link below.
More info on the DIVA UTOPIA

Specifications

• Type: 3-way bass-reflex active
• Speaker drivers: Floorstanding bass: 4 x ‘W’ 61/2″ (16.5cm) push-push configuration
  Midrange-bass: ‘W’ 61/2″ (16.5cm) with TMD surround and NIC motor
  Tweeter: IAL2 15/8″ (27mm) pure beryllium ‘M’-shaped inverted dome
• Bandwidth: (+/-3dB) 27Hz-40kHz
• Low-frequency cut-off (-6dB): 24Hz
• Maximum volume (per pair): 116dB SPL (@ 1m)
  Amplification power per loudspeaker
  LF: 250W Class AB
  MF: 75W Class AB
  HF: 75W Class AB
• Power supply: 110-120V/220-240V ~50/60Hz
  Power consumption:
  Usage type: 280W
  Network standby mode: <2W
  No-network standby mode: <0.5W
• Inputs:
  Primary loudspeaker:
  – HDMI eARC, CEC
  – TOSLINK Optical
  – RCA analogue
  – Type A USB 2.0
  – RJ45 Ethernet
  – RJ45 Speaker Link
  Secondary loudspeaker:
  – RJ45 Speaker Link
• Internet radio format: Windows Media-formatted content, MP3, ACC, Ogg Vorbis streams and MMS
• Internet Radio: Internet Radio
• Audio format:
  – WAV, FLAC and AIFF – up to 24bits/384kHz
  – ALAC (Apple Lossless Audio Codec) – up to 24bits/384kHz
  – MP3 – up to 48kHz/ 320kbits (16bits)
  – AAC – up to 48kHz/320kbits (16bits)
  – OGG and AAC – up to 48kHz (16bits)
  – DSD64 and DSD128
  – Bluetooth® – aptX™ Adaptive, SBC, AAC
  – Note: handles smooth, continuous playback on all formats
• Multiroom: Sync up to 32 Focal & Naim streaming devices
  and control them from the Focal & Naim app
• Wireless streaming feature:
  – AirPlay 2
  – Google Cast
  – UPnP™
  – Bluetooth® 5.3
  – Spotify via Spotify Connect
  – TIDAL via TIDAL Connect
  – QQ Music via QPlay
• Music streaming services:
  via the Focal & Naim app
  – TIDAL
  – Qobuz
  – QPlay
  – Internet radio
  – Podcasts depend on services available in each country
• Network: Ethernet (1000/100/10Mbps), Wi-Fi (Wi-Fi 6)
• Wireless connection: UWB 96kHz/24bits
  Connection with Hi-Res Link 192kHz/24bits
• Handheld: Integrated remote control
  Focal & Naim control app for iOS and Android
• Remote control: Zigbee
• Dimensions (HxLxD): 475/8×161/2×22″ (121x42x56cm)
• Packaging dimensions (HxWxD): 54×201/2×291/2 (137x52x75cm)
• Net weight: 141lbs (64kg)
• Weight (with packaging): 174lbs (79kg)

One of the year’s scariest and most engrossing horror games is clawing its way to a new console. SFB Games’ Crow Country will launch on the Nintendo Switch .

Crow Country may look like a cheerier, grainier Animal Crossing but that just adds to the horror adventure’s creepy and dark atmosphere. You play as Mara Forest, a plucky young woman exploring the remains of an abandoned amusement park called Crow Country. Its owner Edward Crow mysteriously disappeared in his park and has been missing for two years. It’s up to Mara to uncover the mysteries behind the abandoned theme park and its long lost owner.

reviewed the game back in May and highlighted that it drew some inspiration from the aesthetics and horrific monsters of horror games on Sony’s first Playstation like Resident Evil and Silent Hill. She also described the game as “cozy,” an odd word to describe a horror game. Crow Country’s “cozy” nature adds to the horror by taking familiar seeming characters and putting them in the Lovecraft-ian atmosphere of terror and mystery. It’s so good that it even made our list of .

Crow Country is also available on Steam, PlayStation 5 and Xbox X/S.

With few exceptions, the sports genres in video games are dominated by triple-A franchises put out by major publishers. Whether it be 2K’s NBA and NHL series, Sony’s MLB: The Show, or EA Sports’ redoubtable list, when most people want to play a sport video game, they usually reach for one of these games — which are always premium titles, usually with yearly iterations. So how does a free-to-play game compete in that same space? Maximum Entertainment believes it’s found a way with its upcoming title, Maximum Football.

At this point, it’s practically a meme in the games industry that sports games come out every year, demand a princely price, and yet don’t change very much or add much new content in each successive year. This has not stopped player demand for football games — in July alone, EA Sports College Football 25 was the best-selling game in America (and the second-best, thanks to sales of the MVP bundle). Maximum, however, has a different approach: Launching a game in free-to-play, then iterating on it with feedback from the fans.

GamesBeat spoke with Micah Brown, the game’s director, about developing a free-to-play football game for the market. Brown told us, “We are trying to jump into this space that is occupied by basically the biggest game studio that’s ever existed on planet Earth, and it’s one of their biggest games. So it’s a pretty uphill battle. and we’ve been in development for about almost three years at this point… We try to listen to our fans and and try to give them what they haven’t gotten out of other football games, and address the different features that they feel are lacking in some of the other football games.”

Maximum Football launches on Steam Early Access on November 7, where Maximum says in a statement it plans to “gather feedback directly from you, the community, so we can make the most realistic, physics-based football simulation game possible.” At Early Access launch, it’ll feature Exhibition Mode, with pre-made teams; College Dynasty, a customizable mode about guiding a college ball team; online multiplayer and the “Maximum Football Customization Suite,” where players can customize their own teams.

According to Brown, customization is one of the Maximum Football’s most important features. “You can customize absolutely everything. If you want to make a team of geniuses and have Albert Einstein as a quarterback, you can go ahead and do it. If you want to make a team of Barbies and put Ken as a quarterback, you can do that too. So the game is fully customizable. Everything about the players is customizable. Everything about the teams is customizable.”

Brown adds that Maximum made its football title free-to-play as a way of differentiating itself from other sports games on the market: “The obstacle we’re facing is that we don’t have the license to use any of the NFL or the college players, or anything that the fans are looking for. The fans are also very weary of other sports games. They only really trust two studios to make a sports game: 2K and then EA Sports. Other than that, most fans out there like, ‘Ah, this game’s not going to make it, you know.’ And so they’re not even going to get going to give it a chance. If we initially, you know, launched this game and said, ‘All right, this game is $40 for you just to be able to turn it on, before you even know if you like the gameplay.’ Most people out there wouldn’t even give it a shot. We knew that.”

Instead, Brown says that Maximum plans to make the game free-to-play from launch, and offer all of the features fans wish to play, with plans to possibly monetize in the future after they’ve already won players’ hearts with solid gameplay. “The thing that everybody is questioning the most is, ‘Can you do gameplay?’ Because other games can do dynasty, or they can do customization. They’ve come out before, but they didn’t nail gameplay. And gameplay in a football simulation game. You win it or lose it based on the gameplay. So we said, okay, let’s release this game as free to play… There’s going to be a lot of opportunities to play for free, a lot of opportunities to play dynasty and franchise and all of that for free.”

At present, Brown says the team is working on refining gameplay and working out any bugs in online play, to make the early access experience as positive as possible for users. “As soon as all of that is cleared through, we’re back onto gameplay. We’re just going to keep iterating on the mechanics that we’ve already worked on.”

CRV, a more than 50-year-old venture firm, is returning to investors $275 million from its $500 million Select fund, which backs later-stage rounds of existing portfolio companies, the New York Times reported.

The firm is one of the first Silicon Valley outfits to return committed capital to investors. (We reported yesterday that India’s largest venture investor, Peak XV, is slashing the size of a handful of funds.)

CRV partners said it realized that investing in follow-on rounds of many of its companies would lower its overall returns.

The firm raised the Select fund along with a $1 billion fund for early-stage startups in 2022. CRV said its next early-stage fund will be smaller and it doesn’t plan to raise another Select fund.

This isn’t the first time CRV has reduced its fund size. In 2002, after the dot-com bubble burst, it cut a fund from $1.2 billion to $450 million. Other firms to slash their fund sizes in that era included Kleiner Perkins, Accel, and Redpoint Ventures.