Reviews:
Testimonials:
Germany Herrn Schulz (Image Hifi) Munich High End 2011
"Again in 2011"Best Sound of The Show" for AudioNec with the 'Answer' speakers. What this system accomplishes is pure magic and a perfect acoustic illusion!"
Netherlands hear.nl Munich High End 2011
The best sound of the show was clear to us the set of speakers from AudioNec:
A tweeter for highs, a kind of giant Lenaeum band and an open baffle speaker with four panels. How exactly it all worked, I could not see what i heard is how it sounded ... INCREDIBLY realistic.
Belgium Fredfish forum elfbi administrator Munich High End 2011
So here I am entirely happy once again after the Paris High End show, I already fell in love.
This configuration met all my criterias. Tonal accuracy, speed, transparency, modulation, granulation, impact. Really, I'm entirelly hooked.
United States (Clement perry Professional Journalist and founder of Stereo Times stereotimes.com)
Essentially, the sound seemed possess no source much like real instruments. There was a freedom of colorations I don't remember ever encountering from any loudspeaker with the exception of perhaps open-baffle designed electrostats and maybe the big Magnaplaners. But those designs always sounded somewhat light in dynamic output and bass. No pun intended, but that wasn't the case with the Answer. This loudspeaker produced a bass that might have been its most impressive feature. The bass drivers are also quite unique in that their composed of four 75 cm square (and flat) panels with an operating range of 15 Hz to 200 Hz. And like those aforementioned breeds, this too is a dipole, box-less design that Chaillet states boasts a sensitivity rating above 100-dB! The more I looked (and more importantly, listened) the more impressed I became. This system was an all-active system, open-baffle, dipole configured speaker system boasting amplifiers at each driver with their own dedicated active crossovers. Oh, I should also mention the system was also using their own version of room correction.
Not to mention their own (model SDV-3) music server ($25k) that was set up only to play their own music. Sad, considering the type of music I am familiar with I could not evaluate this otherwise remarkable sounding system on. Fortunately, I did recognize bassist Christian McBride's Night Train (from his Gettin' To it CD), which probably sounded better: faster and with more harmonics and articulation than I remember ever hearing it. Please visit their website for info.
Netherlands audioreview.nl Munich High End 2011
"AudioNec Answer speakers impressed last year and did so again this year. Also at higher volume these impressive speakers have amazing voices, very deep and uncoloured bass and beautifully detailed highs. Definetly one of the best sounding systems on the show."
Canada Marc Philip (Magazine Audio) Munich High End 2011.
The French Answer speakers are open baffle type, but in fact there's no baffle, besides the frame around the membrane, and active dipole operation. A DSP room correction system adapts to the room.
The electronics are from the same manufacturer.
One of the few dematerialized music demos which is shown convincingly, I'd be very curious to try out their music server in one of our systems.
Best sound award de High Fidelity Munich High End 2011.
United kingdom
Indeed it was the best sounding speaker at the Munich High-End show, I was however, slightly disappointed to see that a supertweeter is needed for the highest frequencies.
People were staring at magicos, focals, gryphons, tads, yg acoustics and the likes, but none of them could offer anything close to what they claimed, AudioNec simply beat them all, IMHO.
France (Translated from french)
Frederic, from Paris 2010 show.
This has been one of the most beautiful listening moments of my life. These loudspeakers include a real wide band (200 Hz to 20 000 Hz), as well as, at the bottom, a flat bass driver which is able to reproduce 15 Hz and a tweeter rising up to 45,000 Hz.
From orchestral music (Moussorgsky) to jazz (Louis Armstrong), the presence, truth and realism of this system is outstanding. Musicians and instruments are just « here » in the room. Impressive.
For information, these loud speakers are active. Besides, Audionec has developed a silent, musical and top of the range audio server as a source. As far as I’m concerned, this is the first time that I feel that a dematerialized source is far better that any CD reader, whatever the price.
* Very impressive dynamics,
* Major accuracy,
* Natural flow,
* Impressive scene (depth and width),
* Major presence of musicians,
* No harshness,
* Everything is exceptional (a room correction is built in the “full digital” system, which brings a lot in this context)
France (Translated from french)
Audionec System - listening report – Munich 2010 Show
And now the Exceptional : the 100% « frenchy » that you cannot miss !!!
That was at AudioNec’s.
- AudioNec audio server (French Brand)
- « Answer » loudspeaker system: dipole made of the following:
Flat electrodynamic bass panel (15-200Hz) + medium/treble JANUS 50 equivalent to a wide band (200-20.000Hz) + super tweeter (>20KHz)
digital amplification and integrated DSP, frequency and timing equalizing software.
In bulk : outstanding depth and speed of the low register ; exceptional speed and sharpness all through the spectrum. No trailing. Apparently unlimited power (this is what makes this system different from any electrostatic panel, be it as large as the door of a barn).
A server was running in a loop : the music was naturally quite significant, but mainly acoustic, and it was unfortunately impossible for people in the audience to listen to their proper records.
Everybody was unanimous, even audiophiles who used to claim that flat panels could not compete with very good electrodynamic systems in the low register…
I was convinced of the oposite quite a long time ago, and had planned that specific listening : that listening was worth the whole trip…
France (Translated from french)
Almost absolute transparency, in tune, and natural tones, are the words that suit the best to describe what I felt when I listened to the AudioNec whole set, which is made of Answer loudspeakers and the SDV3 server. The music flows naturally and is freely expressed. The auditor experiences each modulation, each inflexion, each musician move, directly in the room. The sound stage really appears in 3D, wide and deep. Sound schemes can be perfectly distinguished (according to records), as well as instruments. Whatever the number of instruments (limited or large orchestra), they can be heard with an outstanding auditory acuity and an amazing naturalness.
They really sound real, just as they are, and air flows all around each of them. For example, I has never heard castanets with such a realistic sound before.
You can litterally « see » the two small pieces of wood knock together and feel the air vibration coming out of the two cavities ! all that is music becomes music. No specific sound spectrum or noisy effects disturb the listening. All is linear and neutral. Perfectly neutral. There is nothing else but music.
To conclude, this is very very very top of the range, and probably a height in the field of musical transcription, that was never reached before. (as a comparison, this system is clearly better than DCS huge reading systems and Grande Utopia by Focal. A great performance, though !
Do listen to it, and buy it (if you can afford it…)
Hervé B
France (Translated from french)
Listening report. « Answer » loudspeaker by Audionec
15 O’clock, Thursday, March, 25th, Saint Mesmes, a village lost in the fields, at the South of Roissy Airport.
The listening space is located at the first floor of the house, where Francis Chaillet made one room with three, for a total surface of about 70 m². The works are not quite finished yet. The room has been designed with a sound insulation system, i.e. kinds of openwork wooden folding screens, that have been placed like pleated doors along both sides of the room, and acoustic panels are placed closed to the rear wall…though there is still a lot to do, according to our host.
The touchscreen of the Music Server and control system is placed in front of a huge sofa. The server case itself rests on a stand between the loudspeakers.
The listening begins and the scale immediately hits me : it has nothing to do with just a loudspeaker ! In fact the whole room is shrouded in the music. In width, in height, in depth, Edith Piaf song is what best describes this « « ça me rentre par la bas, ça me rentre par le haut … » (it comes from the bottom, from the top).
It gives a smooth wrapping up feeling (not violent at all), consistent, just like in a concert hall : it is not ‘thrown’, like in front of a loudspeaker wall, a membrane wall, like in the "Stade de France", for instance. It is like in a bal room where an orchestra would play : it fills the whole room, though you don’t loose the initial origin of the sounds. Astonishing.
What surprises next is the medium/low register that seems a little bit predominant, though not excessively. When we were at the Maison de l’Audiophile, we had switched from the 3-way Onken system to the 4-way system introducing the Sato horn, which part of the spectrum has become predominant (not to use the word ‘inflated’, that doesn’t seem to be appropriate in that context).
In this case, I have that same feeling again. Well heated, with staggering details, the sound structure, which is like enlarged by a microscope, just as if the ear had been genetically modified in order to hear more and better. Compared to this, my own system, yet including horns in 10 sheet steel with sanded cells and a 288 engine, seems like held back, intimist (though it is perfectly able to litterally and easily burst out for « forte »).
When I mention a question of tuning, the owner of the place replies that the premises still need to be finished, just like the layout of the loudspeakers and the listening spot need to be refined. I may seem to mean that this is a fault to reduce, but in fact, I’m easily getting used to that fabulous and brilliant profusion.
I think about Mozart music, that was said to have too many notes !! the reference is laudatory, but that listening is luxurious.
The low register is really magnificent, in strength, detail, depth, just as much as enduring and nervous : it is really dynamic. The strings of all the doublebasses are extremely present. It is sharp, nothing runs, it is all very clean, accurate and it goes down and down again… It is just breathtaking (what an initial part of Himalaya !). I can feel again the qualities of the fast low register of my VoT, but obviously without the drop into the depths ! The concert piano is fantastic, from the top to the end of the left hand. What a slam! It is rich, brilliant, bright, from the treble to the rumblings of the low register.
Last but not least, the voices are wonderful, the tones are in tune, everything is true: a tenor bursts of magnificence, a soprano moves your guts, a bass puts off the limits that you could ever imagine. The melodic line seems obvious, it flows, it slides. The tone of the voice, all the moves of lips, mouth noises, all the tonal intentions… Everything is there. From the very first word, the voice of Paolo Conte shows his human heat and tenderness, that make anyone love him at once. Satchmo’s voice is deep, rocky and luxurious. You can feel the size of the hall at once, the atmosphere of the New York cabarets (Pawnshop) is there, we are there, the applauses are dry and soft at the same time, just like a wave …
I ‘ll stop there. I am convinced. With quality CDs, it is just wonderful.
And I already schedule the next listening at Francis’ !
France (Translated from french)
Listening report of AUDIONEC Server and « Answer » loudspeakers
Listening of October, 6th, 2010
By Annie and Pascal
Annie :
I wasn’t really enthousiastic when I followed my « hifi-addict » husband so far away…
We live in the Yvelines department (Paris area), and after unpleasant traffic jams around Paris, we reach the Seine-et-Marne countryside area. Mr. Chaillet welcomes us and looks surprised to see me !!!. Indeed, it is unusual to see a woman in this typically world of men.
We settle down comfortably and the first hearing feeling is good, after those traffic jams. The hushed lounge and the wonderful "enlightened" loudspeakers are the first step towards another world. The listening is such that it makes us travel into music. We are sent into the middle of the musicians. The voice of Louis Amstrong is fabulous, just as if he were in front of us. Unfortunately everything has an end, and the afternoon passed so quickly. Listening to this system is absolutely not tiring, which is not the case of so many others. That was a pure moment of happiness. I should thank my husband for that. I heard music, not noise.
Pascal :
As I was very curiously interested in the listening of this very top of the range system, and as I was looking for a musical server, I decided to get in touch with Mr CHAILLET and accept his invitation.
I ask my wife to join me (we chose together that kind of purchase) and go to that appointment without any prejudices. I would define myself as somebody who’d rather prefer vinyls and sound return via a triode 845 « lamp » sound broadcasted through omnidirectional type loudspeakers. These are the features of our current equipment, completed by a CD driver and a converter.
I am pleasantly surprised by the transparency of the system as soon as the listening begins.
The dynamics and the tone quality couldn’t leave anybody unadmiring.
It is indeed a genuine reproduction of music in its major dimension, without digital compression and no need for any acoustic pressure. You get what you can hear during real shows, with a sound level that you can choose.
This is sincerily a wonder of musicality.
This is most certainly the creation of the 21st century.
Germany
"Dear Mr. Klein,
Thank you first for your great hospitality!
I tried to resolve the question how the AudioNec Musicserver transport would compare to a current state-of-the-art Transport like the Accuphase DP 800. Result:
Surely, the future belongs to transports that use fast SSD discs like AudioNec instead of fast rotating optical discs! While listening with well and even not so well recorded music it was evident that the AudioNec provides a better soundstage and more transparency with complex classical orchestra music (Tutti on Anne-Sophie-Mutter "Carmen-Fantasy", Track 1). The AudioNec provides the music with a natural presentation and the finest resolution, that one can only dream of.
All manufacturers of so called "reference equipment" should get an AudioNec Transport just to have this reference! Then they would know how high the sound quality is that they would need to achieve - but they could come only close to the AudioNec and not surpass it, I am sure.
Futher the AudioNec convinces with its extremely well balanced mix of design and mechanical quality.
A very positive and unexpected experience, this AudioNec Musicserver."
Original E-Mail in German:
"Lieber Herr Klein,
zunächst vielen Dank für Ihre ausgeprägte Gastfreundschaft !
Es galt die Frage zu klären, inwieweit der von Ihnen vertriebene AudioNec Musicserver in einem Klangvergleich zu einem der derzeitigen Spitzenprodukte, nämlich dem Accuphase DP 800 transport, abschneiden würde.
Sicher gehört den Geräten, die mit statt schnell rotierenden, optisch ausgelesenen Disks (wie im Accuphase DP 800) nun mit echten unbewegten Festspeichern (SSDs - wie im Audionec Musicserver) arbeiten, die Zukunft.
Es wurde nach einigen Klangproben mit gut und weniger gut aufgenommener Musik klar, dass der Audionec komplexe Orchesterpassagen auf eine größere Bühne verteilte und somit das Ganze besser durchhörbar war. Als Beispiel möge das erste Orchestertutti der Anne-Sophie-Mutter CD "Carmen-Fantasie" (DG 437 544-2 / Track 1) dienen. Das Gerät serviert die Musik so neutral und feinst aufgelöst, wie man es nur erträumen kann.
Alle Hersteller von sog. digitalem Equipment der "Referenzklasse" sollten sich als wahre Referenz einen Audionec Musikserver zulegen. Dann wissen sie, was es klanglich zu erreichen gilt, wobei man - davon bin ich überzeugt - nur in die Nähe des Audionec kommen wird.
Das Gerät überzeugt außerdem mit einer hervorragend ausbalancierten Mischung aus Design und mechanischer Qualität.
Ein positives und so nicht erwartetes Erlebnis, dieser Audionec Musikserver.
Viele Grüße
Germany
Am meisten haben mich die aktiven Lautsprecher von Audionec
beeindruckt. Leider wurde nur Christian McBride am Kontrabaß und ein Percussion-Demostück vorgeführt.
Für mich als Kontrabassist aber mit Abstand die körperhafteste Darstellung eines Kontrabasses.
Beim Percussionstück war die Bühnendarstellung zum Niederknien, die Trommelschläge druckvoll und wuchtig, Zimbeln, Hi-Hats und Becken schnell, akzentuiert und jederzeit gut ortbar.
Für mich eine fast perfekte Vorstellung.
Netherlands
"En de voorlopige winnaar bizar design gaat naar de Franse luidsprekers van AudioNec. De mid-hoog unit (die het frequentiegebied tussen 200 en 20.000 Hz weergeeft!) lijkt te bestaan uit twee kokers opgerold papier, de woofer uit een vierkant strakgespannen vel van hetzelfde materiaal. De vertegenwoordiger van de fabrikant vertelde me dat dit een onafgewerkt prototype is, maar dat de technologie wel definitief is. Hoe het klonk? Als ik roep dat ik dit misschien wel het beste vond dat ik vandaag heb gehoord, geloven jullie me dan? Het is namelijk wel zo. Ik denk alleen dat mijn vrouw bij me weggaat als ik hier mee thuis kom ;-)"
Hungary
- A kiállítás egyik legszokatlanabb és talán a legjobban megszólaló rendszerét egy új cég, az AudioNec szolgáltatta. A mindössze két komponensb?l álló rendszerben az SDV3 nev? zeneszerver szolgálta ki a cég Answer hangfalait. A hangfal aktív váltókkal és oldalanként négy beépített er?sít?vel rendelkezik, tehát külön er?sít?re nincs is szükség a megszólaltatásához. A különös felépítés? hangfalban 200 Hz és 15 kHz között egy nagyméret? szélessávú hangszóró dolgozik, amely a cég képvisel?i szerint az "air motion transformer" technológia továbbfejlesztése. 200 Hz alatt dipól mélyhangszórók szólnak, 15 kHz felett pedig egy ribbon hangszóró egészíti ki a konstrukciót. Összességében döbbenetesen életh? reprodukciót nyújtott a rendszer. Sajnos az árcédula a túlnyomó többség számára elérhetetlenné teszi a termékeket, ugyanis a hangfal ára 50.000 Euro, a zeneszerveré pedig 24.000 Euro. |
