Floor Speakers : Illumine HEFA nice measurements inside !

[Zaurux]

You can see a review (in french) by a review by a serious and renowned French audiophile.
https://audiophile-magazine.com/wp-...01/Audiophile-Magazine-Janvier-2021-N°4-1.pdf

Otherwise, I had KEF Q700s before I got the Define Hefa "little sisters", simply more transparent and musical... with much more emotion transmitted. For the price, the Define are perhaps the best buy under 1500€/$ but the Illumine bring maturity. A slightly high treble, more refined. A slightly more robust midrange.

@Darvis "The difference in price for just one more woofer is steep..."...
Not only that... totally different crossovers, different tweeters, different boxes... and weight !!
I really liked the Define but with my parquet (wooden floor) I had to optimize the placement and decoupling ( cement + rubber ).
I wanted to do the same thing for the Illumine ... no need, I just had to place them. ... 6kgs more, each !
I just added rubber feet.

(Excuse my French/English)

 

[daniboun]

You can see a review (in french) by
https://audiophile-magazine.com/wp-...01/Audiophile-Magazine-Janvier-2021-N°4-1.pdf

Otherwise, I had KEF Q700s before I got the Define Hefa "little sisters", simply more transparent and musical... with much more emotion transmitted. For the price, the Define are perhaps the best buy under 1500€/$ but the Illumine bring maturity. A slightly high treble, more refined. A slightly more robust midrange.

@Darvis "The difference in price for just one more woofer is steep..."...
Not only that... totally different crossovers, different tweeters, different boxes... and weight !!
I really liked the Define but with my parquet (wooden floor) I had to optimize the placement and decoupling ( cement + rubber ).
I wanted to do the same thing for the Illumine ... no need, I just had to place them. ... 6kgs more, each !
I just added rubber feet.

(Excuse my French/English)

Thanks and agree ) I went to listen to the Davis Courbet No. 7 and I was very disappointed... we're talking about 5000€ speakers here...
I think the opinions are unanimous on the Illumine, I did not read a bad comment in fact) It makes me want to get started)

The night brings advice lol

 

[Arnaudio]

unfortunately a seas L16 wont work crossed over to a dome tweeter. yes they claim special custom version like they all do. but it still has a metal cone that really sings in the low end of the treble. you can make it somewhat flat thru a crossover, but the breakup distortion you cant escape. the speaker will probably sound harsh.

Zaph|Audio

Forum lurker here, I do have "20 years of forum experience" but that'd be as arnaud over at head-fi. My first post on this site will be here then, as owner of the Recital Audio speakers (the 2 way define tower), and someone who's been engaging with the manufacturer to discuss technicalities before a blind purchase (without regrets, 1 year on).

In regards to the L16 woofer, the approach may not suit some people with the added filter complexity but the breakup at ~5kHz range is addressed by a notch filter built in the crossover. The crossover frequency is low (1500Hz) such that, with the notch filter, this metal cone breakup isn't noticeable and you probably won't find user feedback (a lot of it is in French on HCFR including myself as un_casque_ou_rien ) mentioning about harshness or sibilance.

What sold me on these above all was the honesty of the designer, his measurements are no BS and calls a cat a cat when explaining his technical solutions.

In terms of tonal balance, the closest I found were the KEF Reference 1 (that might be imaging even better with their coaxial but no direct A/B comparison unfortunately). I would not bring the Focal Aria in the discussion, as you'd probably need to go up a couple of grades up in their line up to start competing (and I'd be curious to see the respective crossovers parts quality).

Basically, the Recital-Audio brand has been a word of mouth success so far and indeed deserves to be heard. Thank you thread owner for starting this, I probably would have stayed quiet for another 5 years otherwise ;-).

cheers,
arnaud

 

[Arnaudio]

Might be ok for a small to medium sized room. But I'm always skeptical when a floor standing speaker only shows measurement graphs down to 200hz.

I am using the 2-way model in a small room indeed, no sure I'd recommend them universally in a large room (only limitation being the power handling although the woofers are long throw so might still be ok for moderate listening levels).

Doesn't likely mean anything nefarious -- only that the manufacturer is using quasi-anechoic measurements. For Most quasi-anechoic measurements below 200Hz the measurements are not valid. It's a little weird they don't have a near field bass or ground place measurements for the bass though I suppose

I've always wondered how one can make accurate far field estimates from nearfield measurements? For recital-audio, the choice may be peculiar but he publishes typical in-room response including the room gain:

Define HEFA

www.recital-audio.com

The Define I own have the bass-port tuned really low (~35Hz I recall) such that, with room gain, I basically removed the sub from my system.

cheers,
arnaud

 

[thewas]

For recital-audio, the choice may be peculiar but he publishes typical in-room response including the room gain:

Define HEFA

www.recital-audio.com

Although the directivities are not superb must say I am impressed about the honesty and amount of measurements they present on their website, this is unfortunately very rare in the Hifi market and makes the company instantly very sympathetic to me.

 

[Arnaudio]

Although the directivities are not superb must say I am impressed about the honesty and amount of measurements they present on their website, this is unfortunately very rare in the Hifi market and makes the company instantly very sympathetic to me.

Their more recent Mutine bookshelf does improve on this and it's probably the speaker I'd have chosen if available at the time:

Mutine HEFA Ex

www.recital-audio.com

Myself, I use the Define in a nearfield setup (really unusual for tower speakers but I have constraints with space lol) with a little of toe-in and the results are fantastic. Out of curiosity, what would other contenders be and what does their directivity look like? I'd been exploring coaxial designs including KEF R1 mentioned above, and TAD ME-1, the latter I am in love with but reasonably cannot afford...

arnaud

 

[thewas]

Their more recent Mutine bookshelf does improve on this and it's probably the speaker I'd have chosen if available at the time:

Mutine HEFA Ex

www.recital-audio.com

View attachment 210137

Myself, I use the Define in a nearfield setup (really unusual for tower speakers but I have constraints with space lol) with a little of toe-in and the results are fantastic. Out of curiosity, what would be other contenders be and what does their directivity look like? I'd been exploring coaxial designs including KEF R1 mentioned above, and TAD ME-1, the latter I am in love with but reasonably cannot afford...

arnaud

Looks nice, especially for a relatively wide directivity design, a high tech coaxial design like the Ref 1 has though even more smooth directivity (especially vertically) but its also narrower which has its advantages and disadvantages. Here you can see measurements of the now discontinued Ref 1 and here from the new Ref 1 Meta:

 

[napilopez]

I've always wondered how one can make accurate far field estimates from nearfield measurements? For recital-audio, the choice may be peculiar but he publishes typical in-room response including the room gain:

Define HEFA

www.recital-audio.com

View attachment 210136

The Define I own have the bass-port tuned really low (~35Hz I recall) such that, with room gain, I basically removed the sub from my system.

cheers,
arnaud

It should be essentially the same method I demonstrate in this thread. Most of the time it gets you pretty darn close to the real thing, but with less resolution in the lower frequencies so it might mask some issues

I missed the in-room measurement -- that's nice to see. Imo that's still useful information.

 

[jhaider]

Their more recent Mutine bookshelf does improve on this and it's probably the speaker I'd have chosen if available at the time:

Mutine HEFA Ex

www.recital-audio.com

View attachment 210137

I wonder why that Seas 22mm wide-surround (22TAF or something like that is the stock model part number) tweeter used here doesn’t get more attention. It sounds good and is robust, at a reasonable cost (under $50 USD). I’ve only used it in the SEOS8 waveguide, but its lower limit in that waveguide was about the same as the 1” Dayton/Usher (ScanSpeak 9800 knockoff, more or less) tweeter the wg was designed for, with better top octave.

 

[daniboun]

In terms of tonal balance, the closest I found were the KEF Reference 1 (that might be imaging even better with their coaxial but no direct A/B comparison unfortunately). I would not bring the Focal Aria in the discussion, as you'd probably need to go up a couple of grades up in their line up to start competing (and I'd be curious to see the respective crossovers parts quality).
cheers,
arnaud

Here the measurements of the Kef reference1 so you can compare )

KEF Reference 1 META Bookshelf Speaker Review by Erin's Audio Corner

Parting / Random Thoughts (of Erin) As stated in the Foreword, this written review is purposely a cliff’s notes version. No order; just some random notes from my listening. For details about the performance (objectively and subjectively) please watch the YouTube video. But a few notes: All...

audiosciencereview.com

 

[daniboun]

Although the directivities are not superb must say I am impressed about the honesty and amount of measurements they present on their website, this is unfortunately very rare in the Hifi market and makes the company instantly very sympathetic to me.

I agree that s why I opened this thread. )
These speakers deserve to be known

 

[delta76]

I'm clueless about the measurements but how does this fare compare to Focal Aria 948? 948 can be bought at 1500e/pair at right times, and around 2000e/pair frequently.
Looks like good pair of speakers at decent price but nothing groundbreaking to my untrained eyes?

 

[Arnaudio]

Here the measurements of the Kef reference1 so you can compare )

KEF Reference 1 META Bookshelf Speaker Review by Erin's Audio Corner

Parting / Random Thoughts (of Erin) As stated in the Foreword, this written review is purposely a cliff’s notes version. No order; just some random notes from my listening. For details about the performance (objectively and subjectively) please watch the YouTube video. But a few notes: All...

audiosciencereview.com

Thanks for this, I had started to watch Erin’s video the other day but got carried away, good reminder .

For the directivity plots, not sure it’d all be to its advantage but the published charts on Recital-Audio aren’t normalized to on-axis response and the color gradation is a bit more severe (2.5dB) than Erin’s measurement of the R1 meta (3dB).

That along with +/-90 vs +/-180 span makes it hard for me to judge how widely different these speakers behave. Now, in vertical direction, for sure there’s no contest ;-).

I’m still very interested in listening to the meta, only got experience with the previous R1 model.

Cheers,
Arnaud

 

[Arnaudio]

I'm clueless about the measurements but how does this fare compare to Focal Aria 948? 948 can be bought at 1500e/pair at right times, and around 2000e/pair frequently.
Looks like good pair of speakers at decent price but nothing groundbreaking to my untrained eyes?

Wouldn’t that translate into a production cost for the Focal in the 2-300e range per pair or even less? Their appear to be a comparatively high margins audio brand out there (e.g. high MSRP).

Despite the cost savings from large volume sale and own manufacturing (both drivers and cabinet), not sure they can compete with a direct sale model.

 

[delta76]

Wouldn’t that translate into a production cost for the Focal in the 2-300e range per pair or even less? Their appear to be a comparatively high margins audio brand out there (e.g. high MSRP).

Despite the cost savings from large volume sale and own manufacturing (both drivers and cabinet), not sure they can compete with a direct sale model.

forgot to mention that the price is quite France-exclusive. they are selling normally at 3000e at other EU places than France, 4000e where I live, and more than $6000 in the US. I'm not sure about the actual cost of manufacturing, but let's assume they are in same category of size and configuration. How do they compare in performance? Measurements can be found here https://audio.com.pl/testy/stereo/kolumny-glosnikowe/489-aria-948 (And if I understand the translated text correctly, they praised it quite highly)

 

[daniboun]

Wouldn’t that translate into a production cost for the Focal in the 2-300e range per pair or even less? Their appear to be a comparatively high margins audio brand out there (e.g. high MSRP).

Despite the cost savings from large volume sale and own manufacturing (both drivers and cabinet), not sure they can compete with a direct sale model.

I will find it difficult to compare the Focal 948 to the Illumine. Recital audio manufactures its speakers in France and equips them with a high-end crossover. with a reserve since 2019, the cabinets are now manufactured in Poland

In general I find that only a few manufacturers offer speakers with very good crossovers in this price range)))

 

[delta76]

I will find it difficult to compare the Focal 948 to the Illumine. Recital audio manufactures its speakers in France and equips them with a high-end crossover. with a reserve since 2019, the cabinets are now manufactured in Poland

In general I find that only a few manufacturers offer speakers with very good crossovers in this price range)))

Focal Aria line are made in France as well .

 

[thewas]

In general I find that only a few manufacturers offer speakers with very good crossovers in this price range)))

Because crossovers with high end material and looks don't really improve audibly the performance, so on a budget the money is better spent on engineering, drivers and cabinets instead.

 

[delta76]

Just to be clear, I'm not trying to derange the discussion, I'm genuinely curious. To my (very untrained) eyes, these are very comparable to Focal 948 on many aspects (origins, size, price), so I just want to know

 

[daniboun]

Focal Aria line are made in France as well .

you will say that I boring .. but there is a difference between the made in France and the assembled in France. The mass-produced speakers have poor quality crossovers made in China...(Kef R3 R5 R11, Focal 948 and many others...) Regarding Recital Audio : The fact of not using an intermediate circuit makes it possible to offer artisanal speakers with competitive prices

Focal 948 crossover :