Price Paid:  $5500.00 from dies't audio

Summary:
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.

Strengths:
Reality-rate, totalness, ambience

Weaknesses:
Burn-in time (aprox.800 hours)

Similar Products Used:
B&W Nautilus 801 etc. etc.

Price Paid:  $4400.00 from CTA (Paris)

Summary:
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.

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

Weaknesses:
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.

Similar Products Used:
Quad 66, Apogee centaur minor