HISTORY
Funded in 1993, BC Acoustique is a French speaker manufacturer and hi-fi components, specializing in high end products. The company has been growing steadily since then and has become a major actor in Hi-Fi and Home Theatre in France. It then expanded into a second brand, Mosscade, specializing today in high quality subwoofers.
Christian Avedissian (the C of BC) and Bruno Roux (the B) started BC Acoustique in 1993 in a suburb of Paris, France called Maisons-Alfort. They had been friends for 20 years and shared a common passion for sound and music (Christian studied piano for 14 years), and a common will to one day create their own company.
Christian Avedissian studied computer engineering in Paris. Bruno Roux studied engineering in the “Ecole Nationale d’Aviation Civile” in Toulouse. He specialized in signal processing. During this period, they both built their own speakers and started making various models for friends and relatives.
They learnt everything, trying to find the best solutions and the best drivers, designing crossovers and cabinets, doing all the woodwork and veneering. They slowly progressed, testing all kinds of drivers and various solutions to improve their models; and in 1992 they sold their first speakers to one of Bruno’s teachers! That was quite rewarding. After this first success, they decided to work even harder.
They started to test all of their solutions in the “Laboratoire National d’Essais” in Paris an important lab ran by the state. Their facilities include the largest anechoic room in Europe, semi anechoic rooms, reverberation room. The use of these equipments would guarantee the quality of the measurements.
After a long evolution in research, Bruno and Christian finally developed a 3 ways speaker that satisfied both of them and that sounded different from what could be found on the market. This new speaker was named the Araxe for a river in Armenia.
The following models would all be named after rivers of the world, a symbol of music that should flow just like water. The trademark of the new brand was the use of a horn tweeter. This technology could bring much more information and micro information in the high frequencies. This was seen as a n obvious choice. The second orientation was to limit the number of components on the crossover and to let the drivers work in wide range if possible.
The small manufacture opened on April 1, 1993. But it is always difficult to start a new company. Christian and Bruno learnt one important thing during this period: in a difficult market it is one thing to have a good product, but it is another thing to sell it. They decided to try to reinvest most of their earnings in advertising in Hi-fi magazines. This policy represented a high investment; it was a gamble that would eventually prove a wise choice.
In August, BC Acoustique officially sold its first pair of Araxe. Sales would rapidly increase at the end of the year. But with growing sales it soon became obvious that it would be impossible for Bruno and Christian to keep on making all the speakers from A to Z. BC started to go through sub-contractors to keep the pace.
After the first few months, the growth was steady. A new model appeared: the Hudson, a 2 ways speaker. But real success came in 1995.
The Niger was introduced to the market in July. This model was bigger than the Araxe. Its development took more than a year, and it immediately met success. The first reviews in magazines were extremely positive. This leads to an award, the “Diapason d’or” in 1995. Sales grew very rapidly during that year.
Years of hard work (and short nights) followed and BC became a well-known name in France. In September of 95 BC participated in its first Hi-fi show in Paris. It was very successful. In the future BC would be present in every major show taking place in France considering that this was the one and only place where they could meet directly with the public and explain their philosophy.
In 1996 for the first time, BC turned to home theatre and created the Axios central speaker. Built with no compromise and based on a pure audiophile speaker (the Araxe), it was one of the first high-end central speaker presented in France. Again this different approach proved very successful.
During this busy year two other models were presented: at the bottom of the line, the Tibre, a small two ways floor standing that would become a best seller. A top line model followed: the Nil. It became an instant success for its sound, its design and very competitive price.
BC always had the idea that if you can’t sell your products in your own country, there is no way that you are going to sell them abroad. After being recognized as one of the major speaker manufacturer in France, BC Acoustique turned to foreign European markets. They started with Germany, Swiss and Belgium. Over the next few years they would expand to Spain, England and various smaller countries.
In 1998 the growth continued to be steady in France but foreign markets became more important with active participation in shows in Frankfurt, Germany, and London, England. For the first time, BC created a speaker with a closed cabinet, the Gange.
In 1999, BC made its first appearance at the CES in Las Vegas. The company started to increase its presence on foreign market. 3 new models were presented that year: the small Axe center speaker, the smallest Hi-fi model in our line, the Darling. Finally BC introduced a new bipolar and dipolar speaker, the Dives.
But BC Acoustique also started the R&D phase for their new line of high end speakers. It was introduced to the market in 2003. The ACT was an instant success. With original technologies and a new tweeter developed y BC Acoustique, the ACT marked a new step in the evolution of the company. The line includes 5 floorstanders, 2 center speakers, a dipole tripole surround speaker and a bookshelf.
BC Acoustique has become a reference for sound quality. The conception of our speakers is a long process, taking at least a year from the first idea to the finish product. After a careful designing process, all of our prototypes are tested at the “Laboratoire National d’Essais”. Musicians and sound engineers listen to them before a final prototype is made. Only then is our new model introduced to the market.
BC is always trying to be honest toward music and listeners by staying as close as possible to reality without trying to artificially embellish the sound. Using, high quality materials and drivers, and as little electronic crossover as possible, BC Acoustique’s speakers give a clear and precise sound with an exceptionally low level of distortion.
In 2011, a new distribution (and manufacturer) company is created: BC Diffusion. This new company is working with the historical team of BC Acoustique and is also the officialdistributor of Mosscade, Teac, Amina and Liko Design brands in France.
In September 2012, BC Acoustique bring to the French market a brand new astonishing range of electronics with the EX Series consisting in many amplifiers and CD players.
In October 2013, BC Acoustique present at the Hi-Fi and Home-theater Show in Paris the first bookshelf speakers in a whole new range called Reference Series. The SR-B2 is a hit among audiophiles came to listen repeatedly, the new bookshelf speaker.
For 20 years the brand, BC Acoustique currently developing a new range of speakers, the 20th Series A (A for Anniversary)...
May 2013, the well-known hi-fi French magazine “les Années Lasers” N°198 wrote about the Saga of BC Acoustique regarding the 20th anniversary of the brand.
BC Acoustique team has also created a second brand in 1999 called Mosscade specializing in Subwoofers. With the range of Titans, BC has created highly successful products which have evolved over time. The Nano introduced in early 2008 with its limited size offers new opportunities to add great sound and better integration to a home theatre system. Mosscade also it presented a push pull subwoofer called the Saturn 12 to respond to a demand by customers for a high precision subwoofer for AV but that could also be used for Hi-Fi.
