At the heart of the sound material and the music Gérard Chrétien, Vice President - France - 5 October 2009

In September 77, I met Jacques Mahul; Focal wasn’t born yet… It was the beginning of “L’Audiophile”, a magazine of the new Audio wave. It was about to arouse passions and catalyse a very simple urge: the improvement of sound reproduction, at the risk of shaking up many received ideas… and turning the manufacturers against us!

In September 90, I joined Focal, which was approaching its 11th anniversary, ready for new adventures… manufacturing adventures. Jacques was looking for a number 2 to help him in the development of the structure. The goal was to get a good industrial tool, to find the best skills in each field to build a very well-integrated company in order to have total control on our products. That was more than ten exciting years to learn, to build and to make the company grow up to maturity.

In January 2003, the industrial structure was then solid, the skills were there… Jacques asked me to relieve him and to take over the Home division’s destiny. Back to the products, with the intact urge to open up new territories. If technology was still deeply anchored in Focal’s genes, it wasn’t any more the only way that needed exploring. Design, use value, the new music listening modes… as many new dimensions to integrate to live new experiences!

In September 2009, we are celebrating Focal’s 30th anniversary, these new dimensions have now been integrated into the products, such as the Grande Utopia EM, Dôme and XS. One more forward step thanks to the genius of the new talents who came and enriched our teams.

Luckily, there are still limits to overstep. The music dematerialization is not anymore the devil it once used to be; it’s rather a new way towards progress for Focal. Our part is to reproduce and preserve all the subtleties and the integrity of the source, isn’t it?

With the new audio formats, truly in high-definition that will replace the CD, we will be able to cross new frontiers and then find back the lost pleasures of the analog sound without its limitations… All the more so as we’re now getting closer to the artists with our latest developments for the studios (thank you Jacques-Hubert!). As many opportunities for Focal to transcend itself, to increase even more the tremendous pleasure it is to penetrate at the heart of the sound material and the music.
Gérard Chrétien
Vice President
Focal JMlab