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Radiant Acoustics Clarity 6.2 - Purifi based compact speaker

Let's not forget that a prolonged "break in period" directly shortens the return period. Very convenient - for the seller, that is. For that reason alone, I'd never buy anything with a recommended period of days or even weeks. Not only is it technical bogus, but borderline fraudulent.
So, 29 days return period instead of 30 days? Come on ... :)

Did you intend to post this to a Markaudio thread? ;)
:p
 
Wow, that looks like a great speaker - and they can be auditioned in Europe und bought risk free. I´m rarely that excited for tests.
 
So, 29 days return period instead of 30 days? Come on ... :)

Did you intend to post this to a Markaudio thread? ;)
:p
I meant other manufacturers recommending "200 hours for best results" or similar. Unlike RA here, who talked of 24 hours first and then even deleted that notion.
 
This speaker has a great pedigree and look forward to the measurements.

Am a bit perplexed as to how it will be positioned once the Purifi tweeter is available though?
 
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Erin’s review is up for the patrons:

 
His (positive) video review is online now, written one not yet:
New Brand Comes Out Swinging_ Radiant Acoustics Clarity 6.2 Review 11-11 screenshot.png


 
Interesting how the EIR is almost horizontal instead of tilted. This is a linear and bright speaker so to say.
Distortion is not good though, that 500 Hz peak I guess must be a big cabinet resonance.
Overall good speakers but not great imo.
 
i was hoping for some better bass extension with these purifi woofers, but it looks like it doesnt offer much more than other bookshelfs. still temted to try these speakers.
 
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My takeaway is threefold:

- excellent linearity, very neutral, well suited as monitors. Easy to correct in your room with parametric EQ
- high power demand, not a problem these days except with anemic amplifiers
- regular bass extension, nothing special for the size, but smooth as hell response down there

Overall excellent, but in that price range nothing exceptional, a lot of very comparable competition exists.
 
Compression is phenomenal for a speaker of its size.
 
I've thought about that speaker and its measurements again, and despite what's said here, I'm quite impressed, it doesn't entirely match what I expected from the speaker but it surpasses it in other ways and I think it's a really good speaker if you also consider its internal volume.

Let's start with the pain points. That bump in THD at @150Hz, so there's a -36dB harmonic floating at 300Hz. I could see why this can be seen as a fly in the soup, but I question how audible this is and if it is indeed audible, how distracting it is. At the same time, if it's a cabinet resonance and there's something that can be done relatively easily to remove it, I'd like to see it eliminated from in later production samples. We don't see it from other speakers with Purifi woofers, but among those measured, this is the only one with this specific woofer model, so idk.

Then there's the measurement for IMD @96dB in the 1-2kHz region. It's a bit higher than I'd like to see. But, keep in mind that's it's a speaker that does a clean 40Hz anechoic, and we can see how the results improve if we cut it at 80Hz. IMHO, that's the price to pay for a two driver small speaker that goes that goes down to 40Hz with some SPL at that frequency.

Now, there are quite a few things that impress me.

What impresses me the most is the bass distortion, the previously mentioned bump stands out because otherwise there is no bass distortion to speak of. At 96 dB, at 35Hz, we're looking at -40dB, at 40Hz, it's -46dB. With a bookshelf speaker, that's unheard of and never seen before, this is incredibly low distortion. There is no other speaker with a 6.5 inch woofer that matches this result, not March Audio, not Ascilab, not Neumann.

Otherwise, the distortion in the mids and treble is at or lower than -50dB relative to the fundamental. This is very very good.

There is nothing to be said about the compression results except that they are stellar for a speaker this size and even larger.

Finally, there's the elephant in the room. The treble is uplifted and the speakers should be listened to at 15-20 degrees off-axis which promotes more room reflected sound from and probably a smaller sweet spot. This is a choice they made and one might like it or not, but it seems very easy to EQ based on the directivity characteristics of the speaker if one wishes for more on-axis listening. But I can certainly understand this is not what some people want.

All in all, it's a very well engineered speaker. At the same size, you can arguably get better but with more drivers (Kii); or you just need a bigger speaker. To some extent, I think this is a speaker tailored to the European market. A 25 to 35m2 living room, with an area dedicated to music, but not the entire room, and a slightly toed out positioning for aesthetics.

I wouldn't be entirely surprised if another SKU with the 8" woofer, the 4" mid and the same tweeter appeared 6 month to a year from now, it would extend bass capabilities and improved the mids and IMD situation. It would also be bigger and more expensive.
 
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