Evo 1

AUDIONEC HISTORY

PHILOSOPHY

Since the beginning, AudioNec’s philosophy can be summed up in a few words: no snake oil, only the best possible musical sound reproduction. For more than 10 years AudioNec’s goal is to realize the audiophiles Holy Grail: not listening to a HiFi system or its parts instead listen to the musicians and their real instruments, playing music in the listening room. 

AudioNec is a 100% French brand devoted to a wide range of audio products: music servers, amplifiers, loudspeakers, DSP... Each product is designed and handcrafted near Paris. In many ways, that competence is a signature of traditional French know-how in luxury products and a guarantee to receive the finest craft can offer today.

The management of the company is overseen by two individuals with complementary skills and backgrounds: Francis Chaillet, founder, main owner, and C.E.O. of the company which holds a master’s degree by The Louis Lumière National Sound Engineering School. He draws his expertise on his decades-long solid expertise in the fields of acoustic, computer engineering, and digital electronics to lead the conception and manufacturing of products.

Herve Brasebin holds a master’s in marketing, an industry he has worked for more than 25 years having held various marketing and business development roles in a variety of communication agencies. Audiophile and extremist when it comes to music. He first bought an AudioNec SDV3-S Music Server, then an AudioNec AA2 Signature amplifier. His meeting with Francis gave birth to real friendship and complicity which resulted, among other things, in Hervé’s entry with capital into AudioPrim, the proprietor of AudioNec. Francis oversees the design, development, and manufacturing of products, Hervé by his training, takes care of sales, marketing, and communication of the company.

2005-2010

Francis Chaillet began the development of an audio server in year 2005. The AudioNec brand has been registered in year 2009 when Francis Chaillet began the process allowing the move from laboratory research to production. In 2009 AudioNec appeared for the very first time at the Paris High-End show with the music server SDV1. Following this show it was clear that a brand with one product only would have a hard time to succeed.

Therefore, it was decided to develop the very first prototype of the extreme Answer speaker. This speaker had to be quite different from all that has been marketed so far, so many brands are there with good products all sharing more or less the same kind of driver technology. The idea was simple, explore another way to achieve another level of listening quality. This is why AudioNec exhibited for the very first time at the 2010 Munich High-End show with it’s Answer speaker system. Not only this speaker employs its proprietary dipole wideband driver named DuoPole without any kind of box, it uses a very special flat bass driver box less as well and developed to complement the mid-high driver perfectly. To reproduce music without compromise, this speaker came with its DSPV2 processor that performed the crossover in the digital domain, the system optimization, and the room acoustic correction. This design made 2 ways of amplification per speaker mandatory. The Answer was the technological base for other speaker developments from AudioNec to come. Still many audiophiles and industry professionals who come every year to the Munich High-End show strongly remember ten years later, their listening experience of the Answer because it was a real revelation.

As 4 channels of amplification were needed per speaker pair, AudioNec decided to develop their own range of amplifiers to be able to supply their customers the purest possible quality of amplification. It was mandatory that every detail, every micro information is reproduced with high precision and exceptional harmony. The AA2 offers a listening experience similar to the very best tube amplifiers with the velocity, frequency linearity and bandwidth of some of the best existing Class D amplifiers. Its totally balanced design, with a discrete component typology and with an oversized power supply, give a very lively and warm listening experience without any feeling of limiting power or stress.

The next step in the company history was the Response speaker with a 15 inches bass driver for low end. This speaker had not good enough woman acceptance factor. 

Therefore, AudioNec developed the “Classic” range made of the Crystal, the Diva and the Diva XL flagship. Since 2011 all AudioNec speakers were sold with their Digital Signal Processor and needed one additional stereo amplifier per loudspeaker. Consequently, Francis Chaillet started the development of a passive crossover for music lovers to enjoy the AudioNec speakers the traditional way. Of course, what makes an AudioNec speaker so special (tremendous speed and dynamics, beauty of tones, lifelike music...) had still to be in the DNA, this has been a long path in development. End of 2014, the first AudioNec speaker has been made available both as passive or as Signature version with it’s processor and it’s 2 ways of amplification per speaker.

2010-2016

As time passed, the music server improved from version to version to the current SDV5 and STV5 edition that is a no compromise versatile modern digital music player. 2016 is the year that saw the company’s capital raised to 747,000 Euros to allow a transformation to new premises, increased investment in R&D, production tools, etc. It also opened the door to the development of a new driver and new concept of modular speakers. It was time to create the DuoPole DS.31 wideband driver whose height is only 31 cm. This new driver benefits from the qualities of its famous elder, which has allowed AudioNec to be unquestionable at the top of the qualitative pyramid in terms of sound reproduction. 

This exclusive and proprietary driver also permitted the creation of the very innovative EVO line: a range of modular high-end loudspeakers created by a young talented architect Matthieu Brasebin graduated from Ecole Polytechnique de Lausanne.

As the name suggests, the new Evo range introduces a radical new concept of speaker system scalability. With its smaller size, the DuoPole DS.31 opens the door to modular scalable speaker design. This new line offers four levels, ranging from a solution costing around 20 K€ to a non-standard system without compromise. This way, from a more affordable starting point, AudioNec offers its customers the opportunity to “grow” their speaker system over the years to reach the absolute best sound reproduction quality one can dream of. 

There are three levels of performance within the EVO line, the standard Evo speakers implement passive crossovers that allow bi-amplification. The “AS” versions correspond to “Active Subwoofer”, for which the subwoofers are amplified and filtered actively. The Signature versions implement the AudioNec DSPV4 processor that offers system optimization, acoustic room correction, digital crossovers, and inbuild low frequency amplification.

This story is not over as AudioNec has already started up new very innovative projects in the pipeline...So stay tuned!