Testing the all new Ilumnia Magister!!

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Last weekend, my audio buddy Jacques and I went to Meerhout in Belgium, to extensively test/hear/admire the speaker developped by the 2 brothers Nuyts.

You can read about this unique project on their good website:

https://www.ilumnia.be

It took them 7 years of blood, sweat and tears to finalise their new driver concept.
It uses electro-magnetic suspension, which is the reason that the response is more linear than any other driver in the world.

Here it is:

The cone itself is incredibly light:

 

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There you have the driver, installed in the speaker:

This is the power supply, needed to generate an electro magnetic field for the cone to float in.
It resides on the Gamut pre-amplifier:

5 positions in the power supply, to influence the suspension tightness.
It is in fact a very stable (until 1/1000th of a Volt!) 3 Volt rating power source.
The speaker itself is 100% passive.

 

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This is the set-up.
No room treatments, Tom Nuyts wants to create the same circumstances as there exist in most living rooms.

Crossover happens at 7 kHz.
The driver goes to 12-13 kHz but the Scanspeak Illuminator takes over at 7 kHz (slope 6 dB).

 

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We started off with the Jadis integrated (2x30W), an EAR DAC, and the music came from streaming or an Accuphase DP-80 used as CD-drive.

The speaker has a sensitivity of 88 dB, but is quite easy to drive.
I didn't feel lack of power in most tracks.
Jacques found the bass lacking with this combination.
But I'll comment later on sound quality.

I tested EAR DACs some time ago.
I compared them profoundly against my Burmester DAC/CD player, and me and my wife found them very very similar.
I knew this would make an evaluation of this speaker more trustworthy.

 

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We listened to a couple of tracks Tom chose first.

Then we went to the selection I brought.
Very well known tracks, that I have heard on multiple systems.
Before I left, I went through them, to really imprint my reference.

First:
Rebecca Pidgeon - The Raven

Ben, from Acoustic Matters, learned me how to listen to track 12, 'Spanish Harlem.
I noted: very fast transients, very clear and transparent sound. Mids and treble close to perfection.
But: bass a bit disconnected.
This is clearly not a point source like some review stated.

 

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Next track, a piece that Jacques knows by heart:

Michael Hedges - Aerial Boundaries

Track 1, 'Aerial Boundaries' is bass heavy, and it is a complex bass to reproduce.
Jacques found there was not enough separation in the bass, it all became a bit a one tone fundament.


Next: Madredeus - Ainda

Track 9; 'Ainda' contains a very low, steady note. I heard it during a live concert and was so disappointed that my system at the time could not reproduce it.
When I went with a sub, it could, but it was only with my current speakers, the Vivid G2 Giya, that the result was entirely satisfactory.
B&W 800 D2s were not able either to adequately transduce it, so it is a difficult track for loudspeakers.
Here we heard the tone a bit, but only a bit.
Tom said they measured output till 16 Hz.
So it is possible that the room was partly the cause of the bass a bit monotonous and/or lacking.
I also found the timbre of the singer's magnificent voice was a bit poorer than at home.

 

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Next: Muddy Waters - Folk Singer

Here I had to complement Tom!
Truly excellent.
I thought the ambient noise of the recording studio was even more apparent than at my place.
Wonderful.

Jacques and I agreed that the imaging of the speakers was brilliant, even in such a bad room.
That became even more clear in Ludovico Einaudi - Divenire

 

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Liadov - Baba Yaga

This orchestral piece showed that the Ilumnia can reproduce an orchestra quite faithfully, even the double bass section.


Forqueray - Pièces de clavecin

A torture track.
A harpsichord is difficult to transduce realistically.
The Ilumnia did again a great job on the mids and highs, but the lower notes were a bit muddled.


Gabrielli - La Nascita del Violoncello

This is a terrific recording.
And the Ilumnia did a terrific job.
A bit less coherent bass than at home, but very natural and drawing into the music.
Tom liked this album a lot.
He really also is a MUSIC LOVER first of all!

 

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Ella Fitzgerald - Let No Man Write My Epitaph

Piano and voice, like in the fantastic song 'Black Coffee' were rendered beautifully.


Ella and Louis

We listened to a couple of tracks.
Voices and trumpet again fantastic.
But I could again hear that the bass was a bit of a problem.
Especially the double bass made the enclosure resonate a bit.
Not like with Harbeths or other English speakers, but still a bit.
I'm quite sensitive to that phenomenon, and I don't like it.
Tom told us it was a choice they made, so that the speaker wouldn't sound too 'dry', or 'dead'.

 

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The second part of our listening session was with the Gamut pre and power amps.

We clearly gained (a bit) of power, at the expense of musicality (for me, not really for Jacques).
I think a good tube amplifier can make these babies sing.

 

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Last track that I'm going to discuss before my end conclusion:

Secret Key Masters

Another (SA)CD I got to know via Ben from Acoustic Matters.
A very exigent album for speakers.
Simply because a grand piano is a pain in the a** for any transducer, especially when a piece like 'Apollo 14' is played.

The same strengths and weaknesses became obvious: mids and highs that are rarely equalled, bass that comes into troubles a bit too soon.
The notes of the lower registers were a bit muddled. Individual notes didn't come out clear enough.

 

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My conclusion.


I may appear too severe.
Because I compared these speakers with my reference Vivid Audios that cost 38,000€ a pair, retail price.
But, if you claim to have the best driver in the world, and recommended retail price is 20,000€, you have to confront this kind of comparison.

It might in fact be true, that they have developped the best driver.
It seems that Marten is already interested in it.
Jacques and I both thought that an even better implementation of this driver would make it shine even more.
If you for example would cut it off at 50 or 60 Hz, so that it could focus on its strengths, upper bass, mids and highs, then it could surprise us even more.
Think a monitor, and then combine it with a very fast sub for the lowest octaves, and you really would have a world class speaker system.

Now, you have a true high end speaker that shines in all kinds of acoustic music, where it throws a very good image, and gives you good insight into the music.
But it falls a bit short when you for example like electronic music with lots of heavy beats.
With Ilumnia, you won't have the visceral impact of Drum-'n-bass or jungle tracks.

In the end we compared the Ilumnia with a 4500€ pair of EgglestonWorks on the other side of the room.
It was not a real fight.
The EgglestonWorks were outgunned in every aspect.
It was like a thick cloth was hung in front of us, and the soundstage collapsed entirely.

So yes, a big welcome to the world of high end speakers Ilumnia!!
A fantastic effort, with still room for improvement, but already quite an accomplishment.
A new paradigm in the world of transducers, it doesn't happen every year.
A couple of pairs have already found their way to listening rooms, and I'm sure lots more will follow.

I'll end with a couple of pics that show the finish is fine also:

Birch is the only version there is at the moment.

 

[Geardaddy]

Thank you for the very nice and detailed review. The million dollar question is what the speaker was doing with the room in terms of its interaction. Did you turn the ports? That was mentioned during the 6Moons review.

 

[bart]

Thank you for the very nice and detailed review. The million dollar question is what the speaker was doing with the room in terms of its interaction. Did you turn the ports? That was mentioned during the 6Moons review.

The brothers Nuyts have followed some of our suggestions and made the enclosure steadier.
Jacques and I are going to test these again at my house, in our decently treated living room.
We'll probably use the H590, but also my Halgorythme tube amps.
We'll try to do this early next year.