- Mu-so Hekla has 15 speaker drivers in a 7.1.2 system with 660W of power
- Dolby Atmos (but not DTS), HDMI eARC, Ethernet and Wi-Fi
- Available in 2026 for $3,600/£3,000 (around AU$6,030)
The merger of French audio specialist Focal and British hi-fi specialist Naim continues to bear exciting fruit: the new Mu-so Hekla takes its name from an Icelandic volcano and promises an equally spectacular level of power for your home cinema system.
With 660W routed through 15 speaker drivers, this single-box 7.1.2-channel Dolby Atmos system is incredibly powerful; Focal says it is ideal for rooms up to 40 square meters.
That power comes with a big practical consideration, though: this thing is a lot heavier than the rest of the best sound bars. In contrast to the way something like the Sonos Arc Ultra can be placed in front of your TV on a TV unit, this is more like the size of the old sound bases (remember those?), only you can’t put a TV on top of it. Measures 4.65 x 39.37 x 11.61 inches (11.8 x 100 x 29.5 cm). Is your living room space prepared for it?
The Mu-so Hekla will launch this week, but will initially only be available in the South Korean and Chinese markets. It will launch globally in Q1 2026 with a recommended retail price of $3,600 / £3,000 / €3,300 (approximately AU$6,030).
Mu-so Hekla: great sound, great box
There are seven speakers on the front of the Mu-so Hekla, two on each side and four on top, and the sound benefits from the Focal/Naim “Sphere” system, a combination of beamforming and crosstalk cancellation technologies.
The soundbar features the latest Naim Pulse platform streaming board, with access to key streaming services, and uses the same Focal and Naim app as the company’s other streamers with widget, smartwatch and voice assistant support for both Apple and Google. It also supports party and multi-room mode.
Dolby Atmos is supported, but there’s no mention of DTS in the specs list, which may frustrate home theater fans: If you’re spending this much on a soundbar that promises high-resolution sound, you probably have 4K Blu-rays that you want to listen to in the highest quality possible. However, the Hekla includes built-in smart room tuning for its sound.
Inputs are HDMI eARC (but, annoyingly, there’s no HDMI pass-through port) and optical TOSLINK, and there’s also Wi-Fi and an Ethernet jack for wired networking. There is also Bluetooth in basic SBC and AAC formats, but… that hardly fits the spirit of this beast, does it?
The RCA outputs allow you to combine your Mu-so Hekla with a subwoofer for even greater audio.
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