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Radiant Acoustics Clarity 6.2 - Purifi based compact speaker

kharan said:
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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Two or three points of mine:

1) The overall compression at higher volumes, especially in the bass range, is indeed exceptional, and pretty much what sets this speaker apart from the competition in my opinion.

2) Used as they are, as main speakers and nothing more and with nothing else, that's really good. But what about the average use case? Either lower to medium volumes, where compression is much less of an issue, or together with a subwoofer and highpassed for higher levels? Then the compression and distortion advantage quickly turns into almost nothing. What good is inaudible distortion at 35 Hz if you can barely hear it at all?

From the late 90s on, or early 2000s at latest, we had really properly constructed 2 way bookshelf speakers, including 8" models large enough to handle deep bass (solid 40Hz performance in a room) at reasonably high levels on their own. If you wanted more from them, you just highpassed them through your subwoofer filter, and let it handle the subbass it was specifically designed for. Advantage: getting rid of most bass compression on the main/sat speakers, so they could shine and do their best while the sub handled the "blackest bass" duties.

This new speaker, in most practical scenarios, offers nothing more than regular bookshelf bass as it has been available for 30 years, at admittedly exceptional compression and distortion levels. So to speak, it only shines in that regard where other, long established speakers start to give up. Which is a rather niche use case. He who wants good bass at higher volumes, takes appropriate measures. Which is not using 6.5" speakers on their own.

In the usual more-demanding-than-average scenario, where people would usually employ highpassing and subwoofers, these don't offer anything substantially new. Especially not what other models do at a comparable price.

Given the rather high price, in a region where interested buyers can also afford all kinds of other options, I remain skeptical. No doubt they're really good speakers even at the price. But again, nothing exceptional, or even "cheap and affordable", as the sum of online reviews unfortunately seem to claim.

The latter is particularly off-putting marketing in my view, as it raises expectations that inevitably get disappointed. But that's no fault of the speaker and the company behind it themselves, of course. Just unfortunate "social media" hype.
 
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stevoknevo said:
As is Bruno Putzeys, who invented both UcD and Ncore at Hypex, worked at Grimm Audio and Mola-Mola, and co-founded Kii as well as Purifi.
Peter Lyngdorf's CV/resume is even more impressive but from a different, less inventor-y, aspect.
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All my criticality above aside, I'm still looking forward to what this new company founded by experienced heads may bring us in the future. It may be bright, if you excuse the horrible pun.
 
Erin’s measurements clearly show an on-axis response rising enough to make this speaker sound bright. I also thought Erin clearly articulated why and that it was designed to be used slightly off-axis. As I have speakers using the Purifi woofers, also agree with his sentiments about robust bass. This woofer is standout but is still a small woofer in a smallish cabinet. The fact that you can crank them up and can still expect solid bass, is impressive.

My main gripe is the value. When you can get a Philharmonic HT tower for about the same price, know which I would buy. While there’s a clear difference in directivity, the Philharmonic speaker is a whopping 7dB more sensitive! Also, the alleged savings about a direct sales channel falls pretty flat at the current price for the Clarity 6.2. So, a decent first effort, but still seems a premium offering rather than a value-oriented product imo.
 
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LOL!

All these graphs and measurements, dealing with THD and IMD, all this talk about directivity index, first reflections and in-room response ... but in the end the true expert can extract the whole truth about how a loudspeaker sounds and if it presents good value or not just from one (more or less) unechoic on-axis frequency response.

Just like 50 years ago! Impressive. ;)
 
Rick Sykora said:
Philharmonic HT tower
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I think the key word is Tower. Frankly, Kef R7s aren't much more expensive, but they are also towers.

Ropeburn said:
we had really properly constructed 2 way bookshelf speakers, including 8" models large enough to handle deep bass (solid 40Hz performance in a room) at reasonably high levels on their own.
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I'd be curious which model they are and how big they are.
 
kharan said:
I think the key word is Tower. Frankly, Kef R7s aren't much more expensive, but they are also towers.


I'd be curious which model they are and how big they are.
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Anything well made from 20 liters upwards really. Canton RC-K from 1999 (22l), newer Reference 9 models (same size), current Nubert Nuvero 60 (30l), although the latter are 3-way. 180mm Woofers. Just a few examples that do 40Hz easily - and cost less than 2000 the pair.
 
Ropeburn said:
Anything well made from 20 liters upwards really. Canton RC-K from 1999 (22l), newer Reference 9 models (same size), current Nubert Nuvero 60 (30l), although the latter are 3-way. 180mm Woofers. Just a few examples that do 40Hz easily - and cost less than 2000 the pair.
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Show me the data that their distortion is also so low.
 
Ropeburn said:
Anything well made from 20 liters upwards really. Canton RC-K from 1999 (22l), newer Reference 9 models (same size), current Nubert Nuvero 60 (30l), although the latter are 3-way. 180mm Woofers. Just a few examples that do 40Hz easily - and cost less than 2000 the pair.
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I took a look that the current Canton Reference 9 that are currently selling for 4k€, and the bass response looks more shelved than that of the Radiant Acoustics.

https://imgur.com/6RZCj4M

I don't think that earlier models improve on the current Cantons.

Speaking of the Nuvero 60. Amir has tested them, it distorts significantly more than the Clarity 6.2.

I think the CEA2034 charts cannot be directly compared to charts made in the 90s or early 2000s especially if those take into account bass reinforcement from the room. I don't exactly know the measurement protocol Radiant Acoustics used, but I suspect this is closer to the in-room measurements they used to do in the 90s early 2000s.


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Cammy said:
Some really cheap film capacitors inside these speakers. I think these are the cheapest film capacitors money can buy right?
View attachment 397191
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Hey. Just to clarify here: all components in the crossover were selected based on very thorough objective measurements and subjective listening tests. We have of course tried out components from more expensive/more well-known brands. They didn't provide any major audible or measurable improvements - but would have just made the retail price much higher.

To be fair, this crossover alone costs more than most entry-level speakers outright.
 
Ktacos said:
Boutique crossover components are snake oil, one should be pleased with the crossover components and layout you see here.
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Of course electricity doesn't care about the price a component costs. Wasn't expecting Taiwan fell off the back of a truck specials. Here's some more photos of the exquisite craftsmanship anyhow.

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henz said:
To be fair, this crossover alone costs more than most entry-level speakers outright.
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I only see fairly low cost components, eg sand-cast resistors. Crossover pictured shouldn't cost more than ~$75 from what I can see.
 
@Cammy do you own a set or where are the pictures from?
 
BTW I heard them at the Dutch Audio Event 2024 last weekend. Powered by a TDAI 1120. They sounded very good, had a clean and open sound, impressive tight and punchy bass response (though little real sub bass). One song with a female voice was pristine, so pure and clean it sounded. This song was it:


They were demonstrated by Peter Lyngdorf. People in the back of the room just couldn't stop talking during the presentation, SHUT UP please. Disrespectful to Peter and the people who wanted to listen to what he had to say. Only when the music played, most of them finally zipped their mouths.

IMG_7351.jpeg
 
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