The two brothers and founders of the brand Atoll Electronique, Emmanuel and Stéphane Dubreuil, took the time to exclusively answer to our questions in order to share with you their passion for music. It is also the moment to reveal the backstage of the creation of a “Made in France” company!
1. WHAT IS THE PHILOSOPHY OF ATOLL ELECTRONIQUE?
Offering reliable links of very high musicality at reasonable prices, in order to access a beautiful Hi-Fi system to the widest public.
The first step was to streamline production in order to drive down the final price of the devices.
Then, the best had to be implemented within a given budget. We decided to use discrete component stages for all our products, giving us a plenty of possibilities, in order to offer a maximum of musicality. That is why we do not use operational amplifier in our devices, but transistors that we often polarize in class A with high precision.
We also opted for passive electronic components that give the best listening results possible.
2. WHAT MADE YOU WANT TO START PRODUCING HI-FI PRODUCTS?
We have always been in love with music. On the market, it was hard to find the products we were looking for!
With Emmanuel, we were at a moment in our lives where we were ready to start a great adventure, to create and manufacture electronic products associating musicality, French manufacturing and affordable prices.
3. YOUR COMPANY IS BASED IN NORMANDY. DESIGNING AND OFFERING “MADE IN FRANCE” PRODUCTS: IT WAS AN OBVIOUSNESS FOR YOU?
Yes, it was! For the following reasons:
Firstly, it is for economic reasons. It seemed important to boost our region, by creating long-term and local jobs. We come from the Manche region, and we wanted to stay in this area. At this time, Brecey’s mayor (note: municipality in the Manche region where the Atoll premises are located) helped us a lot to set up our factory. We looked for French subcontractors in priority, since we have beautiful know-how and quality industries.
Secondly, it is for an environmental approach. Minimizing long-distance transport and journeys, is reducing the pollution as much as possible.
And finally, it is for huge reactivity reasons. Having a subcontractor close to us, is the possibility the quickly react, which seems complicated when we entrust production overseas!
4. WHAT IS MOST IMPORTANT TO YOU WHEN YOU DESIGN A PRODUCT?
During development, we favor the most qualitative features and technologies (example: USB input for asynchronous high-definition processing) and we implement all the innovations resulting from our continuous researches.
Once the general design has been defined and the prototypes meet our expectations, the listening maturation step begins.
Our choices are directed by pleasure, we love when the restitution is alive, with the respect of the ranges.
It is essential to make very long listening without experiencing auditory tiredness and to really change place, atmosphere while passing from one album to another one. That is the reason why we chase away the flattering colorations on some tracks, but how tiring in the long run…
5. AFTER THE SUCCESS OF THE SIGNATURE RANGE, WHAT ARE THE NEXT PROJECTS OF ATOLL ELECTRONIQUE?
We never rest, we have a lot of projects in store but it is too early to talk about them. 🙂