Bookshelf Speakers — JM Reynaud FOLIA JUBILE

The FOLIA JUBILE is a compact two-way model for shelf or wall use, built by the French firm JMR - Jean-Marie Reynaud. The Jubile version updates the earlier FOLIA with an aluminium woofer basket in place of the ABS one, a phase plug on the tweeter, a large felt surround on the front baffle and rounded front edges with large-radius curves on the rear horizontal edges. It is listed at 1,300 EUR and comes in satin black or a three-layer pearl white lacquer.

Key specs that matter

Frequency response is 60 Hz to 22 kHz. Nominal impedance is 6 ohm with a 4 ohm minimum, and sensitivity is 86 dB/W/m. JMR gives a usable amplifier power range of 20 to 120 W. The cabinet stands 43 cm high, 21 cm deep and 20 cm wide, and each speaker weighs 9 kg. The crossover point sits at 3,200 Hz.

Engineering and use context

Bass loading relies on two asymmetric coupled and tuned cavities that vent through a side port, and the ports are mirrored across the pair. Because the internal volume avoids parallel surfaces, only a minimum of absorbent material is needed. The 19 mm MDF cabinet is assembled under a press, and the rear carries a fixing and grooving system so the speaker can hang on a wall. The tweeter sits in the centre of the baffle to give even dispersion horizontally as well as vertically, and the felt around the drivers diffracts the first reflections off the cabinet to improve off-axis phase behaviour. According to JMR, the aluminium basket is stiffer than the old ABS part and improves impulse response, and the tweeter phase plug improves directivity and linearity. The 130 mm woofer uses a hypergraph paper cone, an anti-turbulence phase plug, a flat vented spider, a double ventilated magnet and a 25 mm voice coil on a Kapton former, with a high-damping surround. The 25 mm silk dome tweeter runs a double neodymium magnet and a gap without ferrofluid, made possible by a tuned double rear chamber that keeps its resonance low. The filter mixes 12 and 18 dB/octave slopes, and it uses large-gauge pure copper coils with very low resistance and point to point wiring in a dedicated silver-copper cable without a printed circuit.

Pairing

JMR limits the FOLIA JUBILE to domestic systems and excludes public or private sound reinforcement. The cabinet was also designed so that it can hang on a wall or stand with its back against one.

Alternatives

The BLISS JUBILE is a larger JMR bookshelf speaker with a 170 mm woofer, a 28 mm silk dome tweeter and a four-cavity load.