AUGUST 2021 MACWORLD 119co/2UZFe9Q) and the $2,990 Stellia (fave.
co/3dEQhfh), deriving features from both.
Soundwise, it’s a bit different from its
siblings, but still excellent.
FE ATU R E S
Like the Elegia and Stellia, the Radiance is
a circumaural (around-the-ear), closed-
back design that connects to the source
device with actual wires—no Bluetooth
here! It comes with a 4-foot OFC (oxygen-
free copper) 24 AWG cable with a 3.5mm
plug and an adapter that converts it to a
¼-inch plug. The design elements are pure
Bentley, with the company’s logo at the
ends of the headband, a diamond motif in
the outer earcup grilles and stitching of on
the inner headband that’s reminiscent of
Bentley’s iconic upholstery quilting, and an
elegant black-and-
copper color scheme.
Also notable is the
full-grain Pittards
leather that covers the
earpads and inner
headband.
The full-range
driver is the same one
found in the Elegia—a
40mm M-shaped
dome made from an
alloy of aluminum and
magnesium. (The
driver in the Stellia is
the same size and shape, but it’s made
from pure beryllium.) It is called
“M-shaped” because the cross-section of
the diaphragm resembles the letter M,
which is said to offer high rigidity for more
precision and less distortion. Specs
include a frequency response from 5Hz to
23kHz (no tolerance given) with a THD of
0.1 percent at 1kHz/100 dB SPL and a
sensitivity of 101 dB SPL/1 mW at 1 kHz. The
impedance is 35 ohms, making the
Radiance relatively easy to drive.
As in the Elegia and Stellia, the earcups
offer excellent isolation from ambient
sound while providing an optimized
acoustic environment for the drivers. In
fact, the earcups include two vents: one to
control the balance between the bass and
midrange and the other to evacuate theFocal designed its Radiance headphone in cooperation with the
luxury automobile manufacturer Bentley Motors.