After enjoying the Joys, we now discover their extreme version, which naturally bears the same name. You’ll see that the young French manufacturer has taken particular care in the final development of this exceptional product. If you’re looking for a loudspeaker capable of reproducing fantastic performance in a small space, there’s a good chance the T&T Joy Extreme is the speaker for you. So allow us a word of humble advice: read on carefully!
Like its little sister, the T&T Joy Extreme adopts a two-way architecture with two drivers. The cabinet is built in 22 mm midrange for all walls, and 30 mm for the baffle support and base. The latter two elements are made of high-density midrange to spread resonance modes throughout the cabinet, for greater neutrality. The body is also reinforced with internal plywood partitions. Particular attention has been paid to internal damping: several types of damping material are arranged in optimized quantities to dissipate any parasitic vibration.
The T&T Joy Extreme uses a variant of bass-reflex loading. The 8-liter volume is tuned by a large-diameter port approaching 50 mm in diameter, which opens out beneath the speaker. Such a diameter allows full energy to be restored without compression effects or amplitude bumps at resonance.
The front panel is sloped to harmonize the emissive centers of the drivers and optimize the overall phase response at the listening point. Its slope breaks internal parallelism, preventing the formation of standing waves. The baffle is beveled around the tweeter to even out its response in the zone between 1 and 2 kHz. This also contributes to the regularity of the off-axis response and reduces the phenomena of wave reflection and diffraction. Our demonstration model was finished in an attractive “chalk” gloss.
The transducers are from SB Acoustics. We note the presence of a small 15 cm woofer from the NBAC series, selected for its low-frequency extension in a moderate volume, its low resonance frequency and its wide, even frequency response. Its rigid, lightweight aluminum diaphragm acts as a pure piston over the entire frequency range reproduced.
The tweeter is equipped with a 29 mm beryllium dome and a neodymium magnet. Highly motorized, with a large emissive surface area (9.6 cm2), it has a low resonance frequency (700 Hz), and remains very linear right through to the extreme treble. What’s more, it works as a piston right through to the midrange.
The exclusive internal cabling has been developed by Absolue Créations: this model has been developed for the strictest temporal respect of music, to present no perceived inertia, to suppress any oscillation phenomenon or artificial artifact, while favoring fluidity, strict respect for timbre, and respect for the tiniest details. The crossover layout is optimized for the Beryllium tweeter, with an even more regular overlap between the 15 cm and the tweeter.
The crossover is air-wired, isolated from the cabinet, and uses only air-cooled chokes, Jantzen Alumen capacitors for the midrange and tweeter, and Mundorf M Supreme resistors. The progressive torque screw terminals are from the Furutech catalog.
The set up
Needless to say, these monitors require high-quality stands. The manufacturer recommends the Tool One model from Music Tools, and we couldn’t agree more. With their welded steel structure of variable thickness, their oven-finished surface material with sound-absorbing plastic paint, Tool One are filled and tuned with the brand’s proprietary product, fillin, a specific type of granulate. And their 22 kg weight guarantees an inert foundation. When it comes to amplification, special care is taken to ensure that they can be powered without energy limitations. Powerful and subtle electronics can be put to good use. Finally, for the cabling, we used the Absolue Créations Ul-Tim model, which gave us excellent results. For placement, it’s a good idea to play with the rear baffle – as long as it’s rigid enough, of course – to control bass response and the breadth of the soundstage. The vents are cleverly placed on the sides, making the T&t Joy Extreme easier to install.
The sound
After offering us the Joy last year, the young French manufacturer T&T now presents the “turbo” version. The Extreme is indeed much more ambitious on paper, and we’ll see that in practice, the difference is considerable. We had the opportunity to talk at length with the designer, who told us that, with this Extreme version, he wanted to offer the highest-quality solution for listening in small to small rooms, in the smallest possible footprint. The Joy Extrême is the quintessence of sound reproduction for music lovers whose system needs to express itself in less than 20 m². It’s a big gamble, because in big cities, not only are square meters counted, but so is sound volume. And even though they can sing very loudly and gracefully, the Joy Extrême possess the rare virtue of being able to reproduce the content of your discs extremely exhaustively at a reasonable sound level. The breadth of the T&T Joy Extreme’s “useful” spectrum speaks for itself.
There’s not the slightest hint of frustration in the lower register. It remains utterly convincing, never becoming disunited, and provides beautiful physical sensations with infinite respect for textures. Firmness and nervousness are combined with talent. In the high-mid register, the textures are equally magnificent. Just listen to a single voice without artifice.
We passed this test without a hitch with PJ Harvey, Melody Gardot, Joyce DiDonato and Nina Simone. Even on forte, the modulation is exceptionally smooth and precise right up to the highest octaves. You’ll never hear the slightest stridency or stall. The timbre quality of this speaker is one of the finest we’ve tasted in a long time. There’s accuracy, subtlety, superb luminosity and an innate sense of homogeneity. The performance of the beryllium tweeter is certainly one of the keys to this performance. It undeniably sheds a special light on this part of the spectrum. To sublimate this tonal balance, the T&T Joy Extreme boasts a sharp resolving power. It delivers an impressive amount of information, making it much easier to perceive the sound message. The different layers of recorded music unfold infinitely more fluidly. The final act in the profession of faith of these extraordinary little loudspeakers: the construction of a remarkably realistic three-dimensional space!
Yes, putting the music in perspective is a major criterion for feeling the closeness of the recorded work. Of course, we’re well aware of the propensity of small ‘two-track’ recordings to be carefully and successfully put into perspective. The T&T Joy Extreme do not disappoint in this respect; in fact, they set themselves apart from many of their competitors by creating a scene of fantastic realism. At this stage, we’ve compared our Nel Extrême to their little sisters to find out what makes each so special. The monitors build an image that is impeccably positioned in the stereophonic triangle, with an ultra-precise spatial architecture featuring components with indisputable coordinates. Because of their wider bass range, the floorstanders ‘spread’ the image a little more, while maintaining excellent accuracy, but without the razor-sharp edge that makes the Joy Extrême so impressive.
Our conclusion
With this new version of the Joy series, T&T Joy Extreme, has further expanded its range to include six models: Joy, Joy Extreme, Nel, Nel Ultime, Nel Extrême and Nora. This rich line-up, designed for aesthetic music lovers, is the pride of French acoustics. Beyond their impressive pedigree and superlative performance, the Joy Extrême range is designed to appeal to demanding music lovers who work in intimate spaces. Tailor-made to offer the very best in sound reproduction in reasonably-sized environments, Joy Extreme deserve to be combined with the best sources, electronics and accessories on the market to form a system of remarkable sonic realism.
Author: Laurent Thorin
Technical sheet: T&T Joy Extreme
- Origin: France
- Price: €7,900
- Dimensions: 192 x 411 x 262 mm
- Weight: 11.2 kg
- Sensitivity: 85.5 dB (2.8 V/1 m)
- Frequency response: -3 dB : 48 Hz – 20 kHz on axis in free field
