Jean Marie Reynaud XO series

[20tajk7]

Got the XO-1 for free in 2012 after chatting on a French forum with a guy who where just a few block away from me.
He found them for cheap in a flea market but never used them as it was student in a small collocation apartment back then.
The speakers were stored in a garage with a few other hifi components waiting for the time he get a house.
But the garage got flooded, most of the fragile things were on shelves so no big deal but the JMR's got some mud on the bottom, that's why these were offered for free.



4" woofer, works flawlessly after cleaning the mud traces.


Fixed once by JMR in 1986 during warranty.



The filter was the most tedious part to clean, I've replaced the capacitor and got rid of the automatic breaker (was 0 Ohms but no way to clean the mud inside).


The tweeters were open but that wasn't due to the flood.


The replacement one were still sold in France back then so that was easy to find and pretty cheap (new tweeters and capacitors costed ~$20).

 

[mr_rye89]

I think Visaton still makes those and a similar one is used on the Dahlquist dq-10. Not that the Audax one is hard to find

 

[20tajk7]

Didn't knew the Dahlquist DQ-10 used similar tweeters, heard a pair long ago, that was stunning.

Found the XO-2 yesterday at a thrift store, almost missed them.
The first one was on the top of old furniture, cut angle shape and gold emblem looked familiar, so I chased the second one then found it behind a plasticy 5.1 system.
Instantly recognize the JMR sign, deduct there are XO-2 model then grab them, didn't have to think twice for 60€.

Quick test with the first amp (Aiwa XA-006 from the same place a few times ago) and the first source (Denon DRM-07 cassette deck) that came on hand.
Sounded pretty bad first, thought about dead tweeters or aged capacitors but that was scratchy switches ant pots on the amp.
Replaced by the second amp that came on hand (Sony TA-F60, with Pulse Power Supply), better but still a bit weird.
I redo the connections as the cables that came with the speakers were 'OFC' quality (Oxidized, Focked up, Cracked), turned out the white cable were reversed as it doesn't have a polarity strip.

XO-1 due to the smaller size has less range and less bass compared to the XO-2.
I find the XO-2 more pleasant and less fatiguing even at high volume than XO-1.