This is a review, listening tests and detailed measurements of the Radiant Acoustics Clarity 66 Purifi-based speaker. It was sent to me by the company and costs US $9998 (a pair).
My sample is in black (please don't mind the poor white balance) and looks quite elegant. It also comes in walnut and oak finishes. Despite its modest size this is one heavy speaker! It weighs in at 46 KG or 88 pounds. I felt every bit of it as I moved the darn thing around.
Back panel sports the largest port I have seen in a domestic speaker:
It is almost the same size of the woofers! Under load, it pumps out fair amount of air.
The only binding post configuration offered is banana jacks, giving the back a very flat and finished look. I suggest getting locking ones.
The main actor here is not one but two Purifi drivers which are known for their low distortion. Despite its size, speaker is 2-way which I much prefer to 2.5 way we typically see.
Radiant Acoustics Clarity 66 Measurements
Let's start with our anechoic CEA-2034 frequency response measurements:
EDIT: Original Review Measurements did not have NFS low frequency optimizations. These are the corrected ones now
Response is generally flat with some localized peaks and resonances. They are quite narrow though so should not be very audible. There is a slight tilt up as I have shown with the arrow.
Updated measurements show very deep bass extension now -- inline with what I heard.
Tweeter does have some pronounced resonances and roll off before 20 kHz. I should note that its design created a complex soundfield which was not fully resolved off-axis with the number of points I used to measure. The fins in front of it are the likely culprit.
Early window response shows a dip around crossover frequency (2.4 kHz):
I will show the pinched vertical directivity which is the guilty party:
The sum total looks alright though:
Near-field response shows the issues mentioned regarding tweeter:
Junk coming out of the port is nicely controlled.
Horizontal directivity is not very even:
So some room dependency may exist.
Now we get to the main act: distortion, or I should say lack thereof:
Amazing how the graph at 86 dBSPL hugs the near zero line, even in deep bass!!! It still remains civil at 96 dBSPL. During the sweeps, I only heard some deep bass distortion at 101 dBSPL. Below it sounded very clean.
I don't think I have seen distortion this low at 86 dBSPL.
Our new measurement of low frequency distortion shows off this capability like nobody's business:
We are talking less than 1% distortion in bass frequencies at even 91 dBSPL!
Impedance is typical at minimum of 4 ohm:
Waterfall shows a couple of resonances:
The 300 to 500 Hz was visisible in on axis response.
Step response is clean but has some waviness toward the end:
Radiant Acoustics Clarity 66 Speaker Listening Tests
The first impression was how low the bass response went and importantly, how clean it was. I have never heard a speaker with a couple of small drivers reproduce my sub-bass tracks as if it was a walk in the park! It might be subjective bias but track after track seemed to have more bass than I remember with cleaner reproduction.
As for tilted up highs, my ears are plugged from mowing our dusty field. But I could not detect excessive treble response. I sensed speaker was activating some of my room modes which may have balanced the response out.
With the amplification I was using, I was not able to create audible distortion even at max volume. And this is a very large space with a single speaker.
Conclusions
What do you get when you have the designer of one of the most advanced woofers get involved in a full speaker design? Clarity 66. We are talking about a full range speaker with unheard of distortion levels, doing justice to its name in that region. Yes, it has kind of a cliff that sets in at 101 dBSPL but below that, it likely beats any speaker its size and by wide margin.
Rest of the measurements are good to very good. Slight imperfections are seen here and there which seem to bother the eye more than the ears. For me anyway.
Price is high but we are talking about a speaker produced in Denmark. With luxury fit and finish and robust build. Very robust build.
The Clarity 66 brings true innovation and outside of the box thinking to speaker design. Certainly a feather in the cap of our Danish friends!
I am happy to recommend the Radiant Acoustics Clarity 66.
-----------
As always, questions, comments, recommendations, etc. are welcome.
Any donations are much appreciated using: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/how-to-support-audio-science-review.8150/
My sample is in black (please don't mind the poor white balance) and looks quite elegant. It also comes in walnut and oak finishes. Despite its modest size this is one heavy speaker! It weighs in at 46 KG or 88 pounds. I felt every bit of it as I moved the darn thing around.
Back panel sports the largest port I have seen in a domestic speaker:
It is almost the same size of the woofers! Under load, it pumps out fair amount of air.
The only binding post configuration offered is banana jacks, giving the back a very flat and finished look. I suggest getting locking ones.
The main actor here is not one but two Purifi drivers which are known for their low distortion. Despite its size, speaker is 2-way which I much prefer to 2.5 way we typically see.
Radiant Acoustics Clarity 66 Measurements
Let's start with our anechoic CEA-2034 frequency response measurements:
EDIT: Original Review Measurements did not have NFS low frequency optimizations. These are the corrected ones now
Response is generally flat with some localized peaks and resonances. They are quite narrow though so should not be very audible. There is a slight tilt up as I have shown with the arrow.
Updated measurements show very deep bass extension now -- inline with what I heard.
Tweeter does have some pronounced resonances and roll off before 20 kHz. I should note that its design created a complex soundfield which was not fully resolved off-axis with the number of points I used to measure. The fins in front of it are the likely culprit.
Early window response shows a dip around crossover frequency (2.4 kHz):
I will show the pinched vertical directivity which is the guilty party:
The sum total looks alright though:
Near-field response shows the issues mentioned regarding tweeter:
Junk coming out of the port is nicely controlled.
Horizontal directivity is not very even:
So some room dependency may exist.
Now we get to the main act: distortion, or I should say lack thereof:
Amazing how the graph at 86 dBSPL hugs the near zero line, even in deep bass!!! It still remains civil at 96 dBSPL. During the sweeps, I only heard some deep bass distortion at 101 dBSPL. Below it sounded very clean.
I don't think I have seen distortion this low at 86 dBSPL.
Our new measurement of low frequency distortion shows off this capability like nobody's business:
We are talking less than 1% distortion in bass frequencies at even 91 dBSPL!
Impedance is typical at minimum of 4 ohm:
Waterfall shows a couple of resonances:
The 300 to 500 Hz was visisible in on axis response.
Step response is clean but has some waviness toward the end:
Radiant Acoustics Clarity 66 Speaker Listening Tests
The first impression was how low the bass response went and importantly, how clean it was. I have never heard a speaker with a couple of small drivers reproduce my sub-bass tracks as if it was a walk in the park! It might be subjective bias but track after track seemed to have more bass than I remember with cleaner reproduction.
As for tilted up highs, my ears are plugged from mowing our dusty field. But I could not detect excessive treble response. I sensed speaker was activating some of my room modes which may have balanced the response out.
With the amplification I was using, I was not able to create audible distortion even at max volume. And this is a very large space with a single speaker.
Conclusions
What do you get when you have the designer of one of the most advanced woofers get involved in a full speaker design? Clarity 66. We are talking about a full range speaker with unheard of distortion levels, doing justice to its name in that region. Yes, it has kind of a cliff that sets in at 101 dBSPL but below that, it likely beats any speaker its size and by wide margin.
Rest of the measurements are good to very good. Slight imperfections are seen here and there which seem to bother the eye more than the ears. For me anyway.
Price is high but we are talking about a speaker produced in Denmark. With luxury fit and finish and robust build. Very robust build.
The Clarity 66 brings true innovation and outside of the box thinking to speaker design. Certainly a feather in the cap of our Danish friends!
I am happy to recommend the Radiant Acoustics Clarity 66.
-----------
As always, questions, comments, recommendations, etc. are welcome.
Any donations are much appreciated using: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/how-to-support-audio-science-review.8150/
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