The second model in a series of six, the ACL Cassiopée is a relatively compact speaker offering true-to-life sound reproduction. Designed without filtering and featuring an exceptional transducer, it stands out significantly in today’s electroacoustic production. Portrait of a newcomer from the South!
ACL is a young French brand created in 2017 by Thierry Boinet. It designs and handcrafts full-range speakers equipped with EMS speakers. The birch plywood cabinets all have a labyrinthine load. They are handmade in the Villeneuve-lès-Béziers workshop.
To achieve the best possible quality, ACL has opted for a signature S-shaped acoustic line corresponding to a labyrinthine structure known as a wave structure. This structure breaks up standing waves and limits feedback on the speaker membrane.
ACL has a direct relationship with consumers and invites you to discover its range of acoustic speakers in your own home, anywhere in France. This is a way of reminding you that the acoustics of your room play a major role in a successful installation. It also allows you to test ACL speakers on your own electronics.
You will be asked to contribute towards the cost of travel to and from your home, calculated from Béziers. You can also get together with other enthusiasts to organize a listening session, which reduces the cost of travel. If a sale is made, this will be deducted from the purchase price.
ACL offers six models ranging from the Hermès, a small bookshelf speaker equipped with a 10 cm driver, to the Vega, built around a 38 cm driver. Four of the six models are available with excitation drivers. Finally, two cabinets are also available for sale. They feature a front-panel on/off button with a voltage and current indicator. On the rear panel, there are six sockets with the option of a symmetrical transformer or mains filters…
The Cassiopée is a compact speaker equipped with a 13 cm EMS driver. It has a fairly narrow monitor format, stretched in both height and depth so that the acoustic load can flourish within the cabinet. The cabinet is made from a block of Finnish birch plywood that has been machined by material extraction. The sides are made from a 22 mm thick sheet of the same material, covered with a leather-like film available in a wide variety of colors.
Viewed from the side, the cabinet is rounded at the top rear to follow the profile of the folded horn. The laminar vent is also located at the rear, at the bottom. Just above it is an aluminum plate supporting two WBT NextGen terminals. Inside, of course, there are no filters or damping materials, but excellent internal copper wiring from Neotech.
On the front panel is the LB6 speaker from the EMS factory run by Catherine and Michel Fertin. This is a 13 cm speaker with a low-mass moving assembly, a cellulose pulp cone, a wooden anti-vibration cap, and a powerful symmetrical magnetic circuit equipped with flux and impedance stabilizing rings. Its highly optimized cone and suspension allow it to reach 20 kHz with impressive linearity.
THE SETUP OF THE ACL CASSIOPEE
These speakers come with matching stands that place them at the ideal height for standard use. However, you can also install them on a wall bracket if it is sufficiently stable and rigid. Please note, however, that the acoustic load vent is located at the bottom of the rear panel. You will therefore need to ensure that there is enough space to avoid exaggerating the bass response.
When it comes to pairing, many Cassiopée observers will be tempted to use tubes. We are very much in favor of this, and pairing with a Jadis Diapason, for example, or a small Luxman SQ-N150 would be perfect.
When it comes to transistors, we immediately think of Heed with the Elixir, Atoll with the IN100 Signature, or the Rogue Sphinx v3, among others. Just be aware that the Cassiopée reacts instantly to whatever you put upstream. You will therefore quickly know whether your choice of associated components is appropriate.
THE SOUND OF THE ACL CASSIOPEE
The listening experience of a full-range speaker is always special. It allows you to immerse yourself deeply in the sound performance thanks to a unique feeling of continuity in the sound. Good acousticians can create very successful filters. But while the human body is not the most accurate measuring tool in the world, it is by far the most subtle. And sometimes the ear “latches on” to the crossover frequency.
With full-range speakers, there’s no need to worry. The sound is revealed to you in its entirety without the slightest alteration. This is exactly what happens with the Cassiopée. You perceive the recorded musical message with a surprising level of purity. In this respect, listening to a record as successful as Michel Godard’s Monteverdi: A Trace of Grace is a moment of exceptional pleasure and contemplation.
The Cassiopée reproduces the slightest subtleties of the musical phrase with acuity and frankness. The modulation unfolds with unusual fluidity and cohesion. The bandwidth is not the most extensive, especially in the low frequencies, but it is remarkably consistent. And that’s not all, because there is also a beautiful depth and extension. The soundstage is wide and provides a feeling of spaciousness both in terms of the soundstage and the energy. There is a lot of life and responsiveness.
The absence of filtering promotes spontaneity, lightness, and agility in the sound flow. This overall observation also applies to Miles Davis’ charismatic Kind of Blue, Bach’s cantatas, and more broadly to all well-recorded acoustic music, which includes an impressive collection of classical, jazz, blues, and many other genres. The fact that the speaker is connected directly to the amplifier terminals, without any obstacles, gives the sound its authenticity. As a corollary to this transparency, less successful recordings, with very (too) complex messages, are exposed by the Cassiopée. They tend to highlight the imperfections in the recordings. This is a characteristic, and by no means a flaw.
OUR CONCLUSION
The Cassiopée are particularly simple speakers, each component of which has been meticulously designed to offer the best in a specific context. If you prefer natural and realistic timbres, impeccably distributed dynamics across the entire reproduced spectrum, and a wide-open soundstage, it’s a safe bet that these small ACLs will be at the top of your list.
They are uncompromising when it comes to recording quality, but they will repay you a hundredfold when the disc is well made. These are atypical speakers aimed at sincere and eclectic music lovers who have not yet found what they are looking for in the catalogs of the big-name manufacturers. In short, they are a little gem in a world that is sometimes a little too formulaic.
Author(s): Laurent Thorin
Technical Sheet: ACL Cassiopée
- Origin: France
- Price: €2,800
- Dimensions: 170 x 450 x 340 mm
- Weight: 11 kg
- Efficiency: 92 dB
- Power handling: > 15 W
- Frequency response: 45 Hz to 20 kHz
- Impedance: X ohms
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