I can't tell you what they are but I can tell you one other story. A long established European amp manufacturer had 4 little black boxes in his 60 and 100 watt amps. I was helping him stabalize the amps for the US market -- Europeans think that because 240 V is 240 V that 110 is 110, not 95-125V. Anyway, as I was checking biases and taking measurements at different places on the boards, I could not figure out what the little black boxes were. They were about 1" cubed. I finally asked. Somewhat serious and somewhat joking he said that they were special transistors that gave the amp its special sound. I shrugged it off but came back to it a week later. He finally told me. "Everyone expects special components because they do not understand or accept that a simple circuit is best. They are little 5 cent transitors that work very well. There is nothing better sounding. There are three of them hot glued and epoxyed up in the box." So, this person needed to hide 60 cents of transitors in his $2000 and $3000 amps. So, you have might just have the French version of the little black box that adds lots of "PERCEIVED VALUE." It would be interesting to find out what they really are. Dig into it and find out.