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Re: Have you ever had french audio at home ?

Posted: Mon Oct 26, 2015 11:30 am
by musique!
Was I wrong ? :grin:
Many of you got french equipement , more than I think , and two of you seems to have more problems with their room than their spekers :mrgreen:
I never had micromega products but I had Triangle and JMLab and i've decided to stay on Cabasse for my Speakers .
I even recommand to everyone try a french brand named Atoll who got really nice amps for very reasonnable price

Re: Have you ever had french audio at home ?

Posted: Mon Oct 26, 2015 12:19 pm
by Classicrock
Many people must have Audax drivers in their speakers though they have now left the business I believe. The most prolific product in the UK from France was Micromega. Great looking CD players but had a terrible reputation for reliability. Also there is the famous J.C. Verdier turntables. Some may remember the ERA TT which wasn't that great by all accounts. Apart from Audax drivers in my UK made speakers never have owned anything French. Oh I suppose the Fireybottle phono stage is French :mrgreen: (Made by a Brit ex pat on AOS).

Re: Have you ever had french audio at home ?

Posted: Mon Oct 26, 2015 12:33 pm
by Dr Bunsen Honeydew
It is itinerant, and is a walking time bomb for him. The French are very serious about company law and you don't have the UK freedom of being a small sole trader under the VAT limit. It is VERY expensive to start trading in and from France, so I presume he is hovering in the middle of the English Channel / Pas de Calais and trying to avoid both sides. A dangerous game as one or the other will come up and bite his bum eventually. Not so good for owners either if he is jumped on. I came close to sending a couple of letters when he was attacking NVA and me over SSC interconnects, but in the end I couldn't be bothered.

Re: Have you ever had french audio at home ?

Posted: Mon Oct 26, 2015 2:35 pm
by paskinner
France is a bureaucratic nightmare for businesses; it makes the UK look easy going; and it's expensive to do business in France. But the wine and the food might be some compensation.....

Re: Have you ever had french audio at home ?

Posted: Mon Oct 26, 2015 7:55 pm
by Sandman
Nothing French here, though both my Decca London carts were repatriated from different parts of France, so sort of counts :grin:

Re: Have you ever had french audio at home ?

Posted: Tue Oct 27, 2015 12:52 am
by Dr Bunsen Honeydew
I think the only things French in my house apart from often smelly cheese and smelly salami (saucisson) is my collection of Asterix hardback comics.

Re: Have you ever had french audio at home ?

Posted: Wed Oct 28, 2015 7:52 am
by Progmeister
I have always wanted to listen to a Micromega cdp. I have heard a lot of good things about them.
jammy395 wrote:I had a Micromega Stage (Mine was a stage 3) player yonks ago and if memory serves, thought it very good indeed.
Micromega Stage cdp..jpg

Re: Have you ever had french audio at home ?

Posted: Wed Oct 28, 2015 9:48 am
by Theo
In the early 90s had a Micomega Stage 3 that had the 'gummy' transport issue, but it was easily resolved. I then got a Micromega Classic Solo, the best one box CDP they ever made. It too had a transport issue: a new mechanism was installed by Micromega in 2003 and it's been faultless since. It still sounds superb:

Image

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Looks like it's sulking in the first photo...

Re: Have you ever had french audio at home ?

Posted: Wed Oct 28, 2015 3:55 pm
by musique!
Hi everyone !

I think that your point of view about the french way of business which is expensive and a bureaucratic nightmare is absolutly right ! It desespairs many of us in here including the one trying to make their own business and it unluckly left many of audiophiles far from our nice productions :x

I also wondering if Micromega products got talent in great britain because of their Rega look a like ? :grin:

Re: Have you ever had french audio at home ?

Posted: Wed Oct 28, 2015 5:09 pm
by paskinner
Because my partner is French I take a mild interest in these matters. It's true that France is highly bureaucratic, and the labour laws pretty rigid. But it is still true that with such drawbacks the French economy has tended, over the long run, to outperform that in the UK. Or to put it another way, the French have a similar standard of living but with far better working conditions and a health service which actually works.
Furthermore, anyone who spends time in France soon becomes aware of the vastly superior roads and the railways..we have no equivalent of the TGV here, although fares are far higher.
Both nations have good and bad points, but it would be a serious mistake to underestimate what France has achieved. And that's without mentioning the fabulous Crime series ''Spiral''.
Mind you, they also have Johnie Halliday .