The Consumer Electronics Show

(High-End Exhibits) and

T.H.E. Show 2000

January 6/9, 2000, Las Vegas, Nevada

by Dick Olsher

The Ocellia line of speakers features the PHY-HP full-range drivers. But there’s more to the story. Flying in the face of conventional wisdom and practice, Ocellia systematically uses thin-walled cabinets. Construction techniques that rely on mass-loading, bracing, and damping are rejected on the basis that they can never entirely eliminate vibrational energy, and that such methods produce residual narrow-band, slowly decaying cabinet modes that smears musical detail. Instead, Ocellia’s Samuel Furon (on right, with Mr. Salabert of PHY-HP) seeks to treat the cabinet much like a musical instrument. The frame is made of strips of solid beech wood, dovetailed together, while the panels much like a violin soundboard are made of spruce. The panels are of differing thicknesses and are allowed to vibrate independently. The idea is to achieve a balanced acoustic output that has a very quick time signature. I can testify that the end result is quite musical.

Music, Sound and Personalities

Year 2000 WCES and

T.H.E. SHOW (Part 1)

by Dave Glackin

The Best Sounding Concentric-Driver Speakers were being exhibited in the J. C. Verdier/PHY-HP/Ocellia room, by Dennis Pawlik.  They showed a very unusual turntable employing magnetic levitation of a 65 pound platter, with a plinth isolated via air suspension, and with an illuminated metal puck.  The Control “B” preamp has internal capability for moving magnet or moving coil cartridges.  The 845-based single-ended monoblock amps (one of my favorite tube types) are rated at 22 Wpc.  The Ocellia loudspeakers used beautiful concentric drivers made by PHY-HP in France, who also make the natural-cotton-dielectric cables used throughout the system.  This was one of the best sounds in the show.  I was even caught off-guard, and fooled into thinking that CD reproduction was LP reproduction (those sneaky exhibitors had left the cartridge playing a record, the cads...).  It used to be that I could tell without looking, but digital is getting better.