Floor Speakers : Illumine HEFA nice measurements inside !

[delta76]

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 :

I can't tell how "poor quality" this is (I'm not a hardware engineer), looks fine to me. If a part is cheap but does not affect the sound performance (most important thing), and longevity, I'd say it's effective cost cutting.

There are several "factory tour" videos on Focal and I have nothing but confidence about their manufacturing process (and extra things like working conditions etc.).

Again, all I am interested in is performance alone, measurements are there and if someone with better knowledge than me can make a comparison that'd be great. Otherwise I'll just shut up.

 

[Arnaudio]

This is as dirty as it gets in terms of comparison but, from Erin's video on the R1 meta and the published chart for the Mutine bookshelf speakers, I attempted to draw the -5/-6dB line from non-normalized directivity plots and they would appear to have similar amount of beaming isn't it?

 

[fredoamigo]

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

I don't know how to measure the Davis 7s vs. the 3s, but I doubt there will be much improvement for the 7s...

https://audio.com.pl/testy/stereo/kolumny-glosnikowe/3227-courbet-no-3

 

[hardisj]

This is as dirty as it gets in terms of comparison but, from Erin's video on the R1 meta and the published chart for the Mutine bookshelf speakers, I attempted to draw the -5/-6dB line from non-normalized directivity plots and they would appear to have similar amount of beaming isn't it?

View attachment 210209

My plot on the left is not normalized. The plot on the right is normalized. For comparison purposes, you'd want my other plot (normalized contour; on my site) for that.

 

[thewas]

This is as dirty as it gets in terms of comparison but, from Erin's video on the R1 meta and the published chart for the Mutine bookshelf speakers, I attempted to draw the -5/-6dB line from non-normalized directivity plots and they would appear to have similar amount of beaming isn't it?

View attachment 210209

Here is a better optical direct comparison where you can see the wider directivity of Mutine:

The directivity of both is only similar above 10 kHz where the Mutine tweeter narrows is dispersion, below the directivity of the Mutine gets quite wider whle on the KEF is stays constanly narrow until approximately 800 Hz.

This can be also seen from the full 0-60° curves of both, I deleted the 67.5°-90° ones of the Mutine to make them directly comparable:

The plots of the KEF where generated by https://pierreaubert.github.io/spinorama/

 

[daniboun]

Interesting ) whatever we could say the Kef reference 1 are about 6000 euros vs 1250 for the Mutine....

 

[thewas]

Interesting ) whatever we could say the Kef reference 1 are about 6000 euros vs 1250 for the Mutine....

You can get though also very good and similar performance to the KEF Ref1 for comparable price in the form of R3.

 

[Arnaudio]

My plot on the left is not normalized. The plot on the right is normalized. For comparison purposes, you'd want my other plot (normalized contour; on my site) for that.

A response from the man himself, nice to meet you Erin . Congratulations on your klippel measurements and nice video reviews, I often watch these!

 

[Ilkless]

Fairly affordable for the artisanal scale of production and drivers used. I especially like seeing the DXT in use in a non-megabuck design, as well as the really cool 22TAFG as @jhaider pointed out. A simple, uncomplicated SEAS Prestige speaker will outdo a lot of what's out there.

I feel like there are a lot of gems in continental Europe - especially France, Germany and also some parts of Eastern Europe like Serbia and Lithuania with a surprisingly sophisticated audio market. We recently had a thread on German brands like Heco, Quadral, Canton and Nubert.

Maybe we should have a more general one for interesting small European manufacturers with surprisingly good value.

Italy also has a few cool brands like Chario (38mm waveguide tweeter!!) and Opera that have some decent engineering, good drivers and not too insane prices. Sonus Fabers are a lot less odd than the Franco Serblin years as well.

A fantasy of mine to bring in some of these brands to Asia... But I don't think the market here is mature enough, nor is there enough of a technically-minded segment of the market to do what Keith @Purité Audio and some of the performance-oriented active speaker retailers in Germany do.

 

[daniboun]

Fairly affordable for the artisanal scale of production and drivers used. I especially like seeing the DXT in use in a non-megabuck design, as well as the really cool 22TAFG as @jhaider pointed out. A simple, uncomplicated SEAS Prestige speaker will outdo a lot of what's out there.

I feel like there are a lot of gems in continental Europe - especially France, Germany and also some parts of Eastern Europe like Serbia and Lithuania with a surprisingly sophisticated audio market. We recently had a thread on German brands like Heco, Quadral, Canton and Nubert.

Maybe we should have a more general one for interesting small European manufacturers with surprisingly good value.

Italy also has a few cool brands like Chario (38mm waveguide tweeter!!) and Opera that have some decent engineering, good drivers and not too insane prices. Sonus Fabers are a lot less odd than the Franco Serblin years as well.

A fantasy of mine to bring in some of these brands to Asia... But I don't think the market here is mature enough, nor is there enough of a technically-minded segment of the market to do what Keith @Purité Audio and some of the performance-oriented active speaker retailers in Germany do.

I would like to point out that XTZ, a Swedish manufacturer, works with the same philosophy as Recital audio) the 99.36 and 99.38 both use Seas Excel and Prestige woofers for a very fair price ) I shared some pictures of my XTZ floor speakers with Seas Beryllium Tweeters in Page 2 ) The Italians are also very strong.. but their price is much less attractive.

 

[Ilkless]

I would like to point out that XTZ, a Swedish manufacturer, works with the same philosophy as Recital audio) the 99.36 and 99.38 both use Seas Excel and Prestige woofers for a very fair price ) I shared some pictures of my XTZ floor speakers with Seas Beryllium Tweeters in Page 2 ) The Italians are also very strong.. but their price is much less attractive.

My understanding is that XTZ doesn't manufacture in Sweden anymore. So different wage situation compared to the other brands discussed here

 

[daniboun]

My understanding is that XTZ doesn't manufacture in Sweden anymore. So different wage situation compared to the other brands discussed here

You re right. I mentioned philosophy) insofar as they assemble in Sweden only. Their Woofers are produced by Seas. which is not bad )

 

[Ilkless]

You re right. I mentioned philosophy) insofar as they assemble in Sweden only. Their Woofers are produced by Seas. which is not bad )

As in, they don't assemble in Sweden anymore as well. I was looking at buying the 99-series some years back. They quietly removed the country of manufacture/assembly from the back sticker.

 

[Darvis]

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

Hey Arnaud, since you've become BFF with them, do you know if they intend to produce a center speaker?

 

[Ilkless]

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

Now that's how you treat a aluminium cone SEAS! Low XO plus a notch. Very meticulous and truly respectable.

Speakers like this make me think if there might be interest in an "ASR special" run by engineering-led boutique brands, optimised by the NFS.

 

[daniboun]

I spoke to the creator of the brand on the phone a while ago ) Very friendly and very knowledgeable. I asked him if he could send a pair to Amir... He is not closed to the proposal ) Time will tell ) He seemed to tell me that his only concern would be his ability to produce in the event of high demand...

 

[Arnaudio]

Hey Arnaud, since you've become BFF with them, do you know if they intend to produce a center speaker?

In the works it seems and original design:

RECITAL Audio s'attèle à un projet ambitieux Audiophile Fr

Enceinte Centrale RECITAL Audio nous faire part en exclusivité d’une nouveauté qui sera présentée au cours de l’année 2022. Il s’agit d’une enceinte acoustique de type centrale, 2 voies à charge bass-reflex. Cette enceinte en cours d’élaboration vient compléter la gamme de colonnes et...

audiophilefr.com

 

[daniboun]

 

[Andysu]

Some other pics of the Crossover, It exudes quality, it's obvious

the big coil crossover sort of looks like inside the JBL control SB-5 that is also i think hot glued and held securely with cable ties

 

[bo_knows]

Some other pics of the Crossover, It exudes quality, it's obvious

Wow! No Cheesy parts here.