After a number of emails and missed opportunities, I finally got an appointment to visit violet aka Jullien Thaller, the industrial designer behind the website dedicated to Elipson: 
www.passion-elipson.com. 
This website is all in French, so I was keen to give my English-speaking readers a glimpse of what Jullien had accumulated in terms of stories and Elipson vintage speakers.
More recently, and you can't get better proof of somebody's passion than that, jullien has been working at Elipson and is responsible for the (amazing...) look of the new 4260s shown left.

Jullien's home is an Ali Baba cavern of all things Elipson, and you barely walk into the living room that you are confronted with small and large "bits' of Elipson history!
In good french tradition, Gaelle had baked a beautiful chocolate cake, and Jullien brewed a real cup of coffee which was very welcome after the 2-hour drive to his house from Gare de Lyon and a quick lunch with some of the managers of Cabasse (More on this later...).
Jullien gave me the grand tour of his house and with his permission, I went on a rampage of photographs, like if I were a crime scene investigator.

I felt like a child on Christmas Day, and Jullien have so many elipsoesque objects that it would take a coffe table book to give them justice.
Most of these are in perfect condition, some waiting in his "hospital" in his basement awaiting various degrees of surgery.

However, the main purpose of my visit was to do a A-B listening test between the old and the new, aka the reference 4050 against the new 4260 top of the range.
Jullien has worked for another iconic French company, YBA, which makes amplifiers and CD players, (more on YBA soon...) so we had these massive monoblocs feeding the no less massive speakers, music by Jullien's iTunes library via ...DAC and the convenience of an iPad as a remote control for the whole thing.
At 129kgs each, there is no way to move the 4260s...Besides, Jullien has spent quite a bit of effort to fine tune their position in the room, so we will have to be content with listening to the 4050s wheeled in front of the 4260s: not ideal, but the best we can do.
I had listened to the 4260s at the Paris Hifi show, both in 2011 and 2012, and I had been impressed...
Having a chance to reconnect with the 4050s that I had not listened to in probably 30 years was quite a treat: the common trait is the openness, the transient response, the quality and neutrality of the midrange.
The 4260s seem to have a more extended response, and certainly a more articulate bass (38cm from PHL Audio...), but it feels more like a hifi speaker, where the 4050s make more music, and bring more life into it.
Both are extraordinary performers, don't get me wrong, and it is quite fascinating that after 30 years or more they still work so well.
I believe the configuration is one of the latest ones with all Siare drivers: woofer 31TE, midrange 21CP3 and tweeter TWM. One of the hair pulling things with Leon's contraptions, is the lack of continuity in the sourcing of the drivers. It seems that there are a myriad of combinations: Boomer Goodmans 38cm, Siare 31TE, medium Isophon, Supravox or Siare, Tweeter Audax TW8, Siare TWM, etc...
It probably reflects the fact that the mold for the plaster enclosures last only for 150 units!

If your eyes are good enough or if you are a Photoshop wizard, you might be able to find out what we have been listening to...things like Simon and Garfunkel" Bridge over the troubled water" and all sorts of things from the 80s and some tracks that I would not have chosen, but Jullien thought better of!
A very interesting afternoon indeed and a great many thanks for your hospitality Gaelle and Jullien!

In the course of my research for this site, I stumbled upon this website www.hifi-antique.com and its related site www.disquantique.com, run by Patrick Pennetier in Paris et Bernard Billon in Montmarault in centre of France.
I managed to pay a visit to Patrick in his Ali Baba like warehouse, well hidden in a courtyard in the middle of Vitry, a suburb on the south-east of Paris. No sign, just a bland painted steel door and a difficult to find doorbell...This is not the most salubrious part of the "banlieue" hence the discreet location, identified only by being the only business in that courtyard WITHOUT a sign: clever!
Past the door, and this is the first glimpse of the fabulous collection assembled here by Patrick. It is obviously a work in progressm as Patrick buys famous vintage products and restore them to their previous glory and then resell them for a profit...bien sur!
Patrick is so typically French looking, a chain smoker of self rolled cigarettes, that you expect to be sharing a glass of red wine any minute after the initial greetings...but, in good french tradition, this would not happen in the middle of the afternnon! Besides, I am that late because of a long and well lubricated lunch with a good friend of mine.
But back to business, the second item I spotted is a very well preserved Hencot pro tape recorder, a unit I was once desperate to own - I finally bought a Stellavox instead because of the portability.
It was (very well)  built in a nearby suburb of Bourg-La-Reine, and was a three head, 19/38cm/s unit in the 70s

But a lot of Patrick's inventory revolves around Elipson and all versions of them, probably recovered from the studios of Radio France. It is obviously difficult to find the original speakers from Supravox, as the newer versions are nothing like them - Patrick had both side by side, and although the chassis and motors are similar, the membrane and cone are completely different and there is NO WAY they can sound the same.
Incidently, Supravox has once more gone bust and I doubt it will be revived, but who knows, I might be wrong.

The Scientelec Regie ORTF was a latter version of the speakers used by Radio France in the 70s, an amplified 3 way designed by Mr delamare and subcontracted to Scientelec, more famous for their amplifiers than their speakers. The pair seen in my pictures have been nicely refurbished since my visit:

Patrick has also a nice collection of British and German vintage products - nobody is perfect!

I will finish with a typical 70s design product, a combined turntable amplifier and tuner with speakers to match!
I used to own the turntable!

Bang pang in the middle of Paris, in the Halles quartier, between up and coming young fashion designers boutiques and century old delicatessen, Christian Grados is running a nice little business, selling vinyls (the original part of the business) and primarily vintage electronics, turntables and tape recorders. Speakers are scarse as space is at a premium.
Christian takes great pride in his customer service: during my visit he spent a good half an hour changing a tiny little bulb in an alarm clock radio that was certainly over 40 years old for a customer much older than that, for whom this little piece of history was probably essential to his daily routine.
I spotted a few favourites of mine: turntable from Braun, amplifier and tuner from Dual, Revox B77 tape recorder,a Merlaud amp being taken care of (they were once my client when working for HP...), Ampliton, Esart, two other famous brands in the 70s and many a Marantz and Pioneer, all in perfect condition, ready for you to fall in love again...
Check his new website: www.hifivintage.eu and in the meantime, here are a few photos to feed your dreams:

When one lives just across the road from such a lovely old church, part Roman, part Gothic, with a spire covered in timber tiles (our North american readers would called them "shingles", I suppose...) and only an hour north west of Paris, one would be under the protection of the Gods...
Such a happy person, Jean-Jacques Capello (JJC), just happens to live there in his family farmhouse, among 4000 vinyls and CDs and a great collection of French HiFi systems.
After spending his life as a Principal of many high schools around France, educating young people on music and reproduction systems, JJC is more than willing to let you in (sur rendez-vous only...) in what would be otherwise a comfortable retirement, although I doubt this word will ever be part of his vocabulary!
During the Paris Show this October 2011, JJC had reiterated his invitation to come and listen to all these goodies, and there was no way I was not going to find the time over the short five days I spent in Paris after spending time in Vendee with my Mum and sister.
So, as JJC lives vaguely in the direction of CDG Airport, I managed to spend my last afternoon in Paris there (after a detour via the Kreon/Vismes showroom Place des Victoires, and getting lost trying to find Bertrand Valere, the affable owner of JMB Acoustique, himself vaguely on the way to Point Musiques...)
By the time I did all this and shared a simple "steak frites" with Bertrand, I got to Point Musiques way past 3.00pm. JJC saw my relief to finally be there and sat me confortably in his generous leather sofa, letting me enjoy some introductory music, while he busied himself preparing coffee for both of us...
It might be time for a couple of photos, so you get into the gist of the place!

So, here we are, listening to Beethoven's Sonata #1 for Cello and Piano, played by Jacqueline Du Pre and Daniel Barenboim, an live recording by EMI made in 1976.
We are using the Metronome Kallista CD player, Tosca preamp and amp, and the Ocellia Grandis Calliope Twin, deemed to have a 97dB/m sensitivity and a 30Hz to 30Khz bandwith.
We are talking serious money here, so you expect serious results! And guess what, this was so far the most amazing HiFi experience of my life. I should actually say one of the most amazing musical experience ever! The thing is you didn't hear the equipment, just the music was flowing effortlessly and in a very concert like manner.
On this particular recording you had a sense of the venue, the audience, and the players were right there, playing with each other in a brotherly synergy. You could hear the hands on the keyboard, the bow on the cords of the cello, and the air in between resonating with the subtleties of the music...beautiful!
The coffee went almost cold, before we had a chance to extract ourselves from this sensational record!

We then listened to Patricia Barber, a Chicago-based jazz singer described by Bill Zehme of Esquire Magazine, as early as 1994, in these words: "Patricia Barber makes jazz the way Tiffany makes crystal -- sleek and smart and dazzling. You must hush the world when she plays and listen to that which no one ever thought to do before with notes, with voice, with style penultimate. She is, for my money, the best jazz performer currently working the planet".
Well, what a discovery: we listened to "Bye Bye Blackbird" and "Autumn Leaves" from her "Nightclub" CD, where piano, bass, drums and Patricia's voice, and its various intonations, proximity to the mike or breathing away from it, were perfectly "there". We could feel her presence, and all the tricks of the mixing deck in post-production...The balance of the whole band and Patricia's voice were particularly remarkable.

We then listened to TWO different versions of the "Four Seasons" both recordings with Nigel Kennedy.
I have one on EMI and English Chamber Orchestra, and JJC had that one plus another one with the Berliner Philarmoniker (plus another 25 versions of the Four Seasons, all catalogued on his MacBook Pro...more on this later). I just found a third version on Amazon...
Anyway, Nigel's violin playing is not for the faint hearted - actually I had the chance to attend one of his concerts at the Sydney Opera House: what a treat! (Let's have another song...).
Again all the intricacies of his virtuosity were there, raw for our ears, and no trace of sibilance, or other high frequencies nasties so common to even the best speakers on this sort of violin tunes.

We did also play a number of songs on the "Classique" turntable from Pierre riffaud, fitted with a Denon DL103 and fed to a Tosca phono stage, and then the same Tosca gear that was used with the Kallista CD player.
I cannot recall precisely what we listened to, but it was a combination of Jazz, male and female voices, probably some Mahler (we did listen to a lot of Mahler...).
Well, interestingly enough, I could not hear significant differences between CD and vinyl with these two set-ups. Sure, we didn't have the same music on both media, but we had similar kind of music and instrument combinations on both, and I am sure you couldn't tell the difference if blindfolded: quite an achievement...

By now, this excellent coffee IS cold, and JJC suggests we change speakers, which means going upstairs, where they are used in another room, and bringing them downstairs, which doesn't take my fancy...
Anyway, I am so curious to hear the"petites" Ocellias that I agree...
To my utter surprise, they are extremely light and quite easy to carry, if not for the narrow staircase!
Time for more photos:  

The smaller Calliope.16 has ONE full range 16cm driver made by PHY-HP, as all the drivers used in the Ocellia range. Again, specifications call for 97dB/W/m and a bandwith of only 50Hz to 16KHz...
It is wired with copper, where the Grandis, uses silver wiring, all this contributing to reducing the price considerably.
We listened to more music, some of the same as previously, but also some new ones like the Goldberg Variations of Bach, Simone Dinnerstein on the piano and a Telarc CD and more Mahler...
Well, what can I say? 
Without splitting hair, my overall impression is that the petite Calliope is actually better than the Grandis.
The overall balance, the accuracy of the timbres, the absence of filter, all this contributes to a delightful performance, always sweet and accurate with plenty dynamic range.
At around a third of the price of the Grandis, this is certainly exceptional value, more WAF friendly and definitely right there with the sort of sound I like.
Now, we have not played any rock or pop, but even on large symphonic ensembles as in Mahler, there was no trace of distortion, perfect transients and an overall sense of space and being "there" with the orchestra, or a single jazz vocalist and a small formation. Great achievement.
was so enthralled by the music we played than my host had to bring me back to reality around 6.30pm, as my flight back to Australia was due to depart at 10.15, and I was supposedly a good 90mm away from CDG!
I did make it in time (It took me a mere 60mns to get there, as it is freeway all the way...) with plenty of time to check-in my baggage (thanks Emirates for not charging me excess...) and some quality time with Mum on the phone before leaving France. 
The pleasure of this afternoon of music and Jean-Jacques's hospitality lingered with me all the way to Dubai, feeling like I was still on a little "nuage" populated with Nigel's violin acrobatics and Patricia's sexy voice, entre autres...

Here we will write more in-depth articles about visits to Hifi shops, manufacturers, and equipment reviews
Stay tuned!