Review: Radiant Acoustics Clarity 6.2

Denmark is a loudspeaker country. There is hardly a place on the planet with more speaker factories per capita than here. And there are more than we realised.

We found out when Peter Lyngdorf invited himself for coffee in my listening room to talk about his latest project: Radiant Acoustics.

Radiant Acoustics is a new brand under Nordic Hi-Fi, which also houses Argon Audio and Vestlyd. And the company’s first product is the Clarity 6.2 loudspeaker. But why another loudspeaker brand when there are so many (and Peter Lyngdorf himself owns a handful)?

For Peter Lyngdorf, it’s all about synergies. In addition to HiFi Klubben, the Aarhus-based hi-fi entrepreneur owns a number of companies (DALI, Lyngdorf Audio and Purifi, to name a few), and he wants to bring their technologies to more people. This has led to a collaboration between several of the companies with the aim of making great sound accessible to more people.

The mainstay of the speaker is the woofer, which is a 6.5′ version of Purifi’s Ushindi driver. The driver is especially recognisable by its surround suspension, which instead of a semi-circular arch resembles a mountain range. The distinctive shape reduces distortion while allowing for a long cone travel. The Ushindi base unit is packed with patented technologies and solutions all aimed at reducing distortion, both in the mechanical and magnetic systems. And they have done just that. According to Peter Lyngdorf, the Purifi units have the lowest distortion in a woofer in the world.

‘Purifi has developed some amazing drivers, but not many people have done anything with them yet,’ says Peter Lyngdorf. And adds:

‘This is probably because they are quite expensive. But we wanted to make something that more people could benefit from. And we ended up with Radiant Acoustics.’

The tweeter is an AMT unit. The unit is custom-made at DALI (when you own a speaker factory, there’s no need to go to strangers). To precisely control the dispersion, the unit is placed in a waveguide and also fitted with a dispersion lens. The result is a dispersion characteristic that is even throughout the entire working range of the tweeter. Even at 20 kHz, the level has only dropped 6 dB 40 degrees off-axis. That’s pretty good for such a large diaphragm.

‘Every speaker is full of compromises. But our speakers have some of the best compromises!’

The Radiant Acoustics Clarity 6.2 enclosures are solidly built. Although the cabinets are small, they are internally braced and the bracing also stabilises the woofer magnet. The front panel is a sandwich construction consisting of 21 mm MDF and 15 mm aluminium with a rubber sealing in between.

The speakers are available in matte black or matte white, as well as walnut veneer. Pointless ornaments such as front fabric are not available.

On the sides of the cabinet are two more Purifi Ushindi units. These are passive drivers without a magnet system and voice coil. The units fulfil the same role as a bass reflex port. It’s an expensive solution. But a properly sized bass reflex port to tune the small cabinet would be impossibly large and long.

‘Many people say that their speakers are uncompromising. But that’s bollocks. Every speaker is full of compromises. But our speakers have some of the best compromises!’

The Radiant Acoustics Clarity 6.2 is a compact or standmount speaker. But don’t call it a bookshelf speaker. It requires a stand with just the right dimensions. Before I could even be allowed to review them, I had to explain on the phone the exact height of my ears in the listening position. As well as the distance between the speakers and the listening position. The reason is that it is extremely important that the tweeter is at exactly the same height as the listener’s ears – or at least angled precisely towards them. The speakers have a large horizontal dispersion, but are very critical vertically.

The speakers are designed to play straight forwards, but my personal experience was that in my particular room they worked best when angled towards the listening position (‘toe-in’).

The connection, on the other hand, is simple: The two gold-plated sockets only accept banana plugs. Peter Lyngdorf hates screw connectors for stripped wires – which in his opinion always lead to poor connections over time. I couldn’t agree more, and all my cables have fixed banana plugs.

Requires a powerful amplifier

The Radiant Acoustics Clarity 6.2 is not an efficient speaker. At 1W, it delivers a sound pressure level of 82 dB. That’s not quite as bad as it sounds. Since the speaker has an impedance of 4 ohms and most other speaker manufacturers report sensitivity not at 1 watt, but at 2.83 volts – equivalent to 1 watt into 8 ohms. Measured this way, the Clarity 6.2 has a sensitivity of 85 dB. Which is still quite inefficient. The manufacturer recommends an amplifier power of at least 100 watts per channel.

I used a NAD C 298 power amplifier that delivers 2 x 340 watts into 4 ohms. This was perfectly adequate, but the volume control had to be turned up quite high before the speakers came to life. The output stage of the amplifier is based on Purifi’s Eigentakt amplifier modules. So there was Purifi all the way through the chain.

The sound of Radiant Acoustics Clarity 6.2

With its stark simplicity, the Radiant Acoustics Clarity 6.2 looks like a Lyngdorf product. Do they sound like that too?

Yes, they do. The speakers follow Peter Lyngdorf’s sound philosophy by having no inherent sound signature. Or at least as little of it as possible.

Many of the speakers that visit the listening room over the years sound really good and charming. Joy, commitment and greatness are adjectives that come into play. But it’s rare that I come across speakers that sound like so little.

How can that be a good thing? Isn’t this all about enjoying the music?

Yes, but if all recordings sound equally charming, then it’s not the music you’re listening to, but the system.

I’ve rarely heard the acoustics of the Stampen jazz club so clearly on I’m Confessin’ from Jazz at the Pawnshop. Or been able to distinguish the voices in the choir on Koyaanisqatsi with the same ease.

I’ve heard both reproduced with greater sensitivity, but not as nakedly.

Disturbed’s cover version of Sound of Silence can drive many speakers up the wall when they have to handle orchestral crescendos and acoustic guitar at the same time. But not the Radiant Acoustics Clarity 6.2. On the other hand, I wish I’d had the opportunity to do the test with a really powerful amplifier like the Musical Fidelity M8xi. I wouldn’t go so far as to say that the NAD was brought to its knees, but it would have been interesting to try with an amplifier with even higher dynamic reserve.

The bass is deep. The data sheet says 35 Hz lower cut-off frequency, which is a rare feat for such a small speaker. Especially when we’re talking about passive speakers without the possibility of DSP wizardry.

You can count on one hand the number of small floorstanding speakers with equally deep bass. From memory, I can only think of the Buchardt S400 MKII.

Competitors

Radiant Acoustics Clarity 6.2 may be cheap by high-end standards, but they still cost a lot of money.

For the same price you can buy the Bowers & Wilkins 705 S3 Signature, for example, which is also an excellent speaker with a simply stunning finish. Whether you prefer the charm of B&W or the sobriety of Clarity is a matter of preference. The DALI Rubikore 2 is built in the same factory as Radiant Acoustics. They cost a third less and deliver a gigantic acoustic stage. But it’s not quite as naked as the Clarity 6.2.

Revival Audio Atalante 3 has a really dry and revealing sound and a voice reproduction that’s perhaps slightly better. But not quite as crisp and precise.

When it comes to bass reproduction, very few compact speakers get down into the regions where Radiant Acoustics travels. So if you want to play organ music (or have full range for stereo home cinema) there’s no competition.

Conclusion

Peter Lyngdorf’s mission with Radiant Acoustics Clarity 6.2 was to bring technologies from his companies, and not least Purify, down to a price point where more people can participate. The result is a very unique speaker. And a speaker that doesn’t compromise in many places. The drivers and cabinet are of a quality that you would normally have to pay twice as much for. Or more.

If you are looking for charm (which Peter Lyngdorf would probably call distortion), this is not the speaker for you. What comes out of it is very much what goes into it. Distortion and colouration are very, very low and you’re listening more to the rest of the chain than to the speakers.

This places demands on the amplifier, which must also have a good amount of raw power and dynamic range to make the very heavily driven speakers perform at their best. If you have the right equipment and can live with the striking appearance, the Clarity 6.2 can be a great buy.