Focal France has pulled ALL of their DIY driver specs off of their website. This includes all current drivers, and all drivers in their archive. What is listed, are car audio drivers (as included in kits) and all the Home and pro Audio finished cabinets.

This is a sign that Focal is shifting their market strategy to go head to head with all but a select few speaker manufactures. Currently, indevidual driver sales in the US account for a large portion of their revenue....but, this is shrinking. Exclusively designed car audio kits, and complete home speakers are a growing market segment for Focal. And from their website's shrinking support of the home DYI market, thing don't look good.

I realize that most people on this forum buy kits with everything included for installation. But... there is a thriving hobbiest and small manufacturer community that uses and deppends on Focal's raw drivers to exist.

Things are looking a little bleak....

Adam

 

Um....OK let me spell it out a bit clearer!

Dynaudio has already gone this route.

Morel is looking to be doing the same.

With Focal appearing to be leaning this way, others are bound to follow.

I'm not suggesting that the raw driver market is going to dry up. What I"m saying, is that the availibility of premium level drivers on a peice by peice bases appears to be threatened.

If you were a manufacturer, I"m sure that you'd put the products that are the most expensive to research and produce in a high margin market. After all, this is a business.

Things are still looking bleak....

Adam

 

Adam, time for you and you're dad to design, manufacture and market raw mid to high end drivers. Look at this as an opportunity!!

 

I don't think that it's as bad as things look.
To quote a rep at Karz, the Canadian dist. for Focal:
"This is partially true. Focal is no longer supplying individual
components to the world. With one exception: they are still
supplying Orca Design (our U.S. affiliate). As you know, Orca
Design distributes Focal Car Audio and Audison in the U.S., but
they also sell a number of other speciality products including:

- Audiomatica: testing equipment
- Axon: drivers, capactiors, wires, cable and connectors
- Blackhole: damping material
- Cabasse: drivers
- Focal: drivers
- PHL: drivers
- Raven: drivers
- Soundeasy: software

So, as you can see, the world is still safe. Focal raw drivers
are still available from Orca Design. We are not turning our
backs on the hobbiest and small manufacturers! Of course, the
main focus of Focal is still on their finished home speakers and
complete car audio kits since that's what the majority of
consumers want, but we will continue to cater to those who prefer
to go their own way.

As a side note, all Focal car components are also still available
for individual sale. So, if you just want the 6" driver from a
165W kit or just the crossover from a 165K2P, we keep these in stock."

Looks alright to me...

 

huh?