The "other" French loudspeaker designer, Jean-Marie Reynaud, has updated his catalog with two new offerings.  

 

The Jean-Marie Reynaud Duet is a bookshelf model that uses a 7" paper/carbon compound driver to fill out the lower registers. At 3200Hz the duties are handed off to a 1.1" silk dome that utilizes a dual neodymium magnet system and a tuned rear chamber. The tweeter is mounted in what could be described as a very deep waveguide, or a shallow horn. A tuned slot is used for porting. The Jean-Marie Reynaud Duet is a 4 ohm load, with good sensitivity of 89dB. Frequency response is 45-25k Hz.

 

The 36" tall Jean-Marie Reynaud Euterpe is a floorstanding, transmission line version of the Duet. Particulars are similar to the Duet, except the Euterpe is able to coax a little more bottom end out of it's larger enclosure, going down to 40 Hz, and is slightly more sensitive at 90dB.

 

Continuing with the recent trend, neither the Duet or the Euterpe accomodate biwiring. The Duet will set you back $1525/pair, while the floorstanding Euterpe occupies the crowded $1995 tier.

Young Dane Kim Neeper Rasmussen cut his hi-fi teeth working for Thule, Avance and GamuT. In 2005 his desire to create loudspeakers regardless of whether they were too expensive to develop or produce in the eyes of management led him to start Neeper Acoustics.

 

The 39" 2 1/2 way Neeper Acoustics Perfection One loudspeaker is currently Neeper Acoustics sole product. The Perfection One uses two Scan Speak 5 1/4" drivers that were designed for Neeper, and appear similar to their larger Scan Speak Revelator cousins. These are mated with a 1 1/2" Scan Speak ring radiator for the upper frequencies. The Perfection One boasts an average sensitivity of 87dB and presents a 4 ohm load. Frequency response is quoted as 30-50k Hz. Amplifiers from 70-300 watts are recommended. The Neeper Acoustics Perfection One enclosure is tapered as well as curved, and rests atop a lovely aluminum plinth. No provision for bi-wiring/bi-amping is provided, which seems to be an increasing trend.

 

The Neeper Acoustics Perfection One loudspeaker is a statement speaker, and those looking for a statement loudspeaker shouldn't be put off by it's $20,000/pair price tag. The Perfection One appears to be a beautiful loudspeaker with solid technology behind it's design, and we'll be watching to see what new designs come from Neeper Acoustics.

Everyone's favorite DIY loudspeaker designer, Troels Gravesen, has developed yet another appealing loudspeaker design, the floorstanding ATR25.

 

The ATR25 is a 41.5" tall transmission line design featuring two 7" mineral filled polypropylene Audio Technology drivers that are mated with a Danish Raidho ribbon tweeter. Troels says the combination of the more forgiving polypropylene cones with the electrostat qualities the ribbon tweeter provides a best of all worlds combination of compromises; one that serves music but that won't be as critical of your library of music as some would be. The ATR25 is a sensitive 90dB, and the impedance curve, while it does dip to 4 ohms in places, is a generally friendly load in the 6-8 ohm neighborhood through most of the frequency range.

 

Denmark's Jantzen Audio is offering the ATR25 as a kit. Those with a little skill in the wood shop and with a soldering iron need only shell out $2515 for the plans and components needed to build the ATR25, minus cabinet and damping material. The ATR looks like a fantastic loudspeaker for the money, and the specs indicate it would satisfy solid state and tube aficionados alike.

These familiar looking bookshelf speakers aren't some new offering from Focal. British cable and interconnect retailer Russ Andrews has gone hands-on with some Focal Chorus bookshelf loudspeakers and is offering them as the Russ Andrews SP-1 bookshelf loudspeaker.

 

According to Russ Andrews the speakers have undergone extensive modification to the enclosure, crossover and driver wiring. The resulting loudspeaker is a very friendly load of 95dB at 8 ohms, perfect for those with an affinity for low power amplifiers. Kimber Cable is used for all wiring, and Kimber capacitors have replaced the stock caps in the crossover. 

 

The Russ Andrews SP-1 loudspeaker will set you back $795/pair in either black ash or Amati finish, and are available for order on the Russ Andrews website. 

Joe D'Appolito has designed a loudspeaker or two in his day and has been associated with numerous loudspeaker makers. Of late he serves as chief engineer at Snell Acoustics, and his latest offering is the Snell Acoustics B7.

 

The Snell B7 floorstanding loudspeaker uses the familiar Seas magnesium drivers. Driver complement is two 4.5" magnesium mids coupled with a 1" Seas Excel tweeter configured in an MTM arrangement. The bottom end is filled by dual 8" aluminum side firing woofers, which Snell claims reduces cabinet resonance and provides more authoritative bass and detail. Snell will finish the B7 in your choice of stains.

 

The Snell B7 loudspeaker looks like an improvement on the already solid Snell C7. The Snell B7 will set you back a cool $10k/pair. Soon to be joined by the Snell A7, which we are awaiting more details on at this time.

Emotiva Audio is refreshing their entire lineup in 2008. The first of two new pre/pros, the Emotiva UMC-1 (formerly designated LMC-2) will be shipping this June instead of April, as previously anticipated.

 

In this post from the Emotiva Lounge, Dann G of Emotiva explains:

 

The Emotiva UMC-1 will offer 4 HDMI inputs, 1 HDMI output, 4 each composite and s-video, and 3 component inputs. All analog video sources can be upscaled and output over HDMI. The UMC-1 will also sport a DVI and a VGA input. The UMC-1 also will feature auto room correction, and an AM-FM tuner. A full color OSD via HDMI will provide the interface for users to custom tailor their settings. The Emotiva UMC-1 will also support all advanced audio codecs. Those interested in snagging a UMC-1 will want to pre-order. The initial run is set to sell for $699, but according to Dann, component prices have risen 25%, so we're sure to see a higher asking price after that first shipment is sold.