Focal Kanta 2 speaker next to a REL subwoofer in a listening room

Music & Hi-Fi

For the love of music.

And the ongoing pursuit of better sound.

5.2.4 Dolby Atmos layout

Focal Kanta front stage and surrounds

Dual REL S/850 subwoofers

Benchmark AHB2 dual bridged-mono amplification

Listening room

The heart of the room.

An Atmos setup built around the front stage, with matching Focal speakers and dual REL subs. Finding speakers that not only sounded great, but were also available in a finish that fit our aesthetic was a bonus.

Listening room

The heart of the room.

Rabbit hole

The calibration that changed the room.

Before the current Dirac ART setup, the real turning point was discovering Serkan Gür's A1 Evo work leveraging the Audyssey calibration system. What started as "what is A1 Evo?" turned into a year of Room EQ Wizard, target curves, measurement runs, and learning why the room suddenly sounded better than I thought it could.

That changed the system too. I had approached my previous speaker purchase with the room’s limitations and available placement options in mind, assuming there was only so much better speakers could do in the space. Once I understood what careful calibration could accomplish, I upgraded with more confidence and got back to the simple joy of sitting between two speakers with the sole purpose of listening.

System map

The room, in three dimensions.

An interactive view of the 5.2.4 system, furniture, and main listening position.

15 ftRoom width

7 ftCenter to MLP

7 ft 11.5 inCeiling

16.2 ftFront to rear table

Equipment at a glance

The pieces behind the room.

Most of my music listening is focused on the two front speakers and subs, but I also love having the whole room come alive for a great Atmos mix.

Front stage

Focal Kanta 2 main speakers with a Focal Kanta Center channel.

Amplification

A pair of Benchmark AHB2 amplifiers running in bridged mono for the main speakers.

Low end

A pair of REL S/850 subwoofers tightly integrated via a combination of positioning trials and Dirac ART room correction.

Surrounds

Focal Kanta 1 surrounds extend the Kanta voice into the rear field.

Heights

Focal 300 ICA6 front and rear height channels complete the 5.2.4 Atmos layout.

Control

Denon AVR-X6800H receiver with Dirac ART calibration and an EverSolo DMP-A6 Master Edition Gen2 streamer.

Roon

Running on a dedicated Mac mini, Roon is my primary music source, organizing and combining my local library with Tidal streaming. In the garage brewery, it dramatically improves the sound of the speakers through DSP and a convolution filter. I spend a lot of time out there, so I had to set up my mic and calibrate them too.

Amplification

Effortless dynamics, serious headroom.

The front left and right channels are powered separately from the receiver by a pair of Benchmark AHB2 amplifiers, each running in bridged mono, while the Denon AVR-X6800H handles surround processing, Atmos duties, and Dirac ART room calibration. I first became familiar with Benchmark’s reputation for quality via their pro audio gear and the AHB2 ticked all of the boxes for me. It handles the low impedances and demanding phase angles of the Kanta 2 easily and with ample power (380W in bridged mono), it runs relatively cool without fans, and it doesn't weigh 150 pounds. I love these amps and they're made in the USA.

Room layer

An Atmos field around the Kanta voice.

Having speakers that shared the same family of drivers was important to me for a cohesive Atmos experience. I went with all Kantas for the bed layer along with heights that share the same flax-based drivers.

Focal Kanta 1 surrounds

Rear-channel detail with the same Kanta design language as the front speakers.

Focal 300 ICA6 heights

Front and rear height channels complete the overhead layer for the 5.2.4 layout.

Special thanks

Audiolab

A huge thank you to Audiolab, where I purchased almost all of this system, and especially to Eric, who went above and beyond throughout the journey.