I have this speakers for about over one month now (bought second hand/demo by the man from former dies't audio), i am coming from about 30 years experience with audio equipment, and have had already a lot of speakers at home from varied brands and models (to many to mention,cheap and expensive).
-maybe it is also a combination of factors that finally ended my quest for the ''perfect'' pair of speakers ,(more like the perfect combo, from amp and speakers),including the fact that i am getting more old, less prone to change equipment , and also less keen on spending money less well spend, but all that doesn't change my ability to recognise a trully wonderful pair of speakers.
-this grand operas from jean marie reynaud are really wonderful,they just let you focus on the music without thinking if you are standing right in the middle so that they image better, and all that audiophile bla..bla,..it's only the second time in so many years that i catch myself foot taping with all music i hear, but if i have to descrive them in audiophile terms ,..here it goes: -Neutral.(a bit on the warm side of neutrality/but just a bit), they capture very good the caracter of what's behind them in equipment.
-in contrast with the most modern speakers, this jean marie reynaud are not frontal in presentation, they can come as a bit laid back at first listen, but that laid back first impression is a result of they being very well balanced over the audio spectrum, with nothing standing out and shouting for attention.
-very good presentation of instruments, being this presented as a complete instrument, with body and tail,...and with the right mesure of timbre.
-lows ,..: very,..very,..special,. this speakers are adept at fooling you with the bass response,
this can go very low when demanded , but they also have very good control and are fast enough to fool you that the speaker should have even more bass for the size, witch of course it's not true, bass has an almost perfect pitch,(this is all in my small room).
-and something very eerie : despite the fact that i don't find them detailed as a speaker in a frontal and Obvious kind of way,(they are , is just that the detail is presented in a more balanced way,and in context with the rest),....with every recording i can easily pick the ambiente cues, recording venue, where it was recorded, and the echo from the voice, or from the place where the music was being made, the audio tail from that echo is very pronunciated and long.
-from what is written above, is easy to understand that despite being big speakers (at least for european houses and rooms), they play very nice in my small room(attick dedicated room,with almost nothing in terms of acoustic treatment, and about 5 x 3,20 meters in size) and i personally didn't find them fussy about positioning.
Every day that i turn the system on, my foot is still tapping ,and i still have a smile on my face, so this ones aren't going anywhere, my quest for speakers is official terminated.
if you have the space (they are bulky), and find them nice looking,(doesn't disturb me, but there are much nicer looking speakers),despite that i like them, with the retro look ,mixed with quality furniture feeling. (by the way they are heavy, and quality of construction is first rate), despite size (no mini monitors), if i knock on them, i hear nothing but a solid ''thuck'', (just like the most mini monitors)what is impressive for such a large cabinet.

Reality-rate, totalness, ambience

Burn-in time (aprox.800 hours)

In 12 years time I have auditioned most speakers available in the Netherlands, Germany and the UK. I had just a simple goal: to get a better sound than my home-built active speakers (with Seas and Dynaudio units each coupled to its own amp) for not more then 6000 euro. In this quest I encountered a lot of speakers that sounded good, but never all the way better than my old ones. In 2003, I found out that there was an importer for Jean-Marie Reynaud in the Netherlands and I immediately made an appointment. From the first notes on, I felt that this was something special. For the first time I had the feeling that the instruments and the singer were actually right there in my living-room (a cliche, I know, but true for the first time). Most important asset is that the JMR's reproduce every little particle that the sound of a certain instrument consist of. I have never before heard a speaker with that quality. Even the most expensive speakers lack this "totalness" of the sound. Another incredible ingredient is that you can very precisely hear the ambience of the recording location. Depth, width, air around etc.etc. it's all there, but this ambience-thing, wow! Listening from speaker to speaker by JMR , I found out that they all shared the most important elements of the JMR sound. This man knows what kind of sound he wants and he doesn't compromise! It was very difficult to choose between the Grand Opera's and the Concordes because they were so alike. I finally decided for the Concordes, by a narrow margin, because of the better and deeper bass. After installing them at my place I found that they sounded hard and not very coherent, just as the importer, Han van Diest, had predicted. After about 500 hours of play, it improved a lot and after 1000 hours they are totally "loose". If you're looking for a real-life sound, this is the best speaker ever made.

Similar Products Used:

B&W Nautilus 801 etc. etc.

Mid and treble precision, bass powerful yet natural.
Beautiful finish

Due to realistic bass level, may cause problem in certain listening rooms.
Despite beautiful finish, overall shape of the speaker fairly uninspired. In my view slightly overpriced.

I'm so sad that there is no opinion about these that I am willing to fill the blank.
Associated equipement :
Pre : Audio Research SP 9
Amp : Krell KSA 50
Tuner : Naim 02
CD : CAL Genesys, then Arcam alpha 9, then Naim cdx

Type of music : preferably contemporary classical (Messiaen, Ligeti ...) which is obviously very demanding for a Hi-Fi system.

At first I 've had Quad 66 for a long period of time and went more and more dissatisfied because of the bass weakness (apart from that these speakers were very good).
So I decided to upgrade, but replacing Quad 66 is a pretty hard job ! In particular on the financial side because overall quality level with Quad was already pretty high.
I've tried Centaur Minor but bass level was not up to my expectations (the rest was very good indeed)
I've also tried magnepan stuff but my listening room was not adequate.
Finally I had to forget electrostatics or ribbons and try to obtain same kind of results with more conventional speakers.

And that is how I came to listen to those JMReynaud stuff which was a revelation to me.
Mid and treble are very smooth, precise really electrostatics-like.
Bass level is incredible given the relative small size of the boxes. It is both realistic and without any unpleasant resonance as occurs too often.
Finish is splendid like that of a nice piano, although the boxes are uninspired as compared to some competition where some research has been made in terms of look. (Indeed speakers are not designed to deserve a place in a museum of modern art but shoe-box type of shape is not so rewarding for the eye !)
My listening room is in the range of 25 sq. meters and positioning the speakers was easy. Some romm resonance appeared which was quickly corrected with the help of the manufacturer / dealer through placing some foam in the bass reflex tube.
Price level : I think that the price level is a bit above what it should be simply because the competition at this level is so enormous that you may not consider JM Reynaud as a first choice.

As a conclusion I strongly suggest to all music lovers to go and try these before considering any purchase.

Similar Products Used:

Quad 66, Apogee centaur minor