I was in Tweeter last night and saw the new JVC wood speakers
Jstas
Posts: 14,842
Cones made from wood. There was a discussion on them here I think.
Anyway, I wanted to listen to them so I started messing around with it. The system had a DVD player with a small screen attached. "The Count Of Monte Cristo" was in the DVD player. I was watching some of that and listened to the opening music.
Those speakers weren't more than 3 inches wide and in a fairly large enclosure for thier size. My friend was with me and stopped to ask what I was looking at. Even he was impressed!
The sound was deep, rich and full. It had power behind. It reproduced lows with authority and the highs just sparkled with no harshness whatsoever. Vocals were warm and inviting and the dialogue in the movie felt like they were speaking to each other directly in front of me. It was a very natural sound. Even more so than any magnetic planar or electrostatic speaker I have ever heard and certainly better than any cone speaker. It had effortless dynamics to it. Reached peaks and vallys and transitioned between them without a hint of distortion. I twisted the volume knob all the way to right and it responded in turn with just more and more of that wonderful sound from such a tiny speaker!
I can't really say anything about imaging because I was listening to it on a carpeted shelf and stuff was vibrating around it. I'd imagine it's be fairly decent.
The speakers had the single full range drives and sounded like they were digging pretty low (50 Hz range) for a 3 inch driver. The sound was accurate too.
I really hope JVC tries to build a larger speaker with this technology! I'd like to see what else they can do with it. Judging by that mini-stereo system and those miniscule little giant killers, the technology has a hell of alot of potential. Certainly worth a listen just for the sheer fact that it is new technology if not the sound quality.
I also stopped into the speaker rooms to listen to the LSi speakers. They sounded good but I was unimpressed. Not by the speakers per se because they were being severely under-powered by a Yamaha surround sound reciever.
A sales guy stopped in to ask me if I needed help and I said "Yeah, find me an amplifier capable of powering these." and I pointed to the LSi's. He gave a smirk and a snort of a laugh and said "That amp is doing just fine." I looked at the other units and it was nothing but Denon and Yamaha that they were hooked up to with nothing over 100 watts per channel. I asked if I could just cart the 15s to the "Ultimate Home Theater" room for a few minutes. He said "I'm not going to do that. They don't belong in that room." I looked at him with a quizzical look wondering why he was telling me such a lame excuse and asked "What is that supposed to mean?" His exact response was "Those speakers aren't good enough for the equipment in that room." My friend let out a loud "Huh!" of a laugh and I just sighed and shook my head. Spanky the salesman got a look of consternation combined with fear on his face and crossed his arms across his chest and stood defiant. I stood up, put my right hand on his right shoulder, looked him dead in the eye and said "Well Sparky, looks like you just lost a sale. I think I'll order my LSi15s from Crutchfield. Have good night."
We went to the counter to buy the car stereo parts we needed and he followed us and was talking to the store manager to find out if he could do what I asked. The store manager said "That's not a problem at all." Then sparky started trying to get me to go and look at the speakers and I told him to forget it. He got adamant with me and I said "Dude, did you not hear what I just said? F O R G E T I T!" The store manager asked what the problem was and I told him his salesman's attitude sucked and to have a nice day and walked out.
I'll have to go back during a better time when I can get a salesman more willing to help me out.
Sorry, that was a long post.
Anyway, I wanted to listen to them so I started messing around with it. The system had a DVD player with a small screen attached. "The Count Of Monte Cristo" was in the DVD player. I was watching some of that and listened to the opening music.
Those speakers weren't more than 3 inches wide and in a fairly large enclosure for thier size. My friend was with me and stopped to ask what I was looking at. Even he was impressed!
The sound was deep, rich and full. It had power behind. It reproduced lows with authority and the highs just sparkled with no harshness whatsoever. Vocals were warm and inviting and the dialogue in the movie felt like they were speaking to each other directly in front of me. It was a very natural sound. Even more so than any magnetic planar or electrostatic speaker I have ever heard and certainly better than any cone speaker. It had effortless dynamics to it. Reached peaks and vallys and transitioned between them without a hint of distortion. I twisted the volume knob all the way to right and it responded in turn with just more and more of that wonderful sound from such a tiny speaker!
I can't really say anything about imaging because I was listening to it on a carpeted shelf and stuff was vibrating around it. I'd imagine it's be fairly decent.
The speakers had the single full range drives and sounded like they were digging pretty low (50 Hz range) for a 3 inch driver. The sound was accurate too.
I really hope JVC tries to build a larger speaker with this technology! I'd like to see what else they can do with it. Judging by that mini-stereo system and those miniscule little giant killers, the technology has a hell of alot of potential. Certainly worth a listen just for the sheer fact that it is new technology if not the sound quality.
I also stopped into the speaker rooms to listen to the LSi speakers. They sounded good but I was unimpressed. Not by the speakers per se because they were being severely under-powered by a Yamaha surround sound reciever.
A sales guy stopped in to ask me if I needed help and I said "Yeah, find me an amplifier capable of powering these." and I pointed to the LSi's. He gave a smirk and a snort of a laugh and said "That amp is doing just fine." I looked at the other units and it was nothing but Denon and Yamaha that they were hooked up to with nothing over 100 watts per channel. I asked if I could just cart the 15s to the "Ultimate Home Theater" room for a few minutes. He said "I'm not going to do that. They don't belong in that room." I looked at him with a quizzical look wondering why he was telling me such a lame excuse and asked "What is that supposed to mean?" His exact response was "Those speakers aren't good enough for the equipment in that room." My friend let out a loud "Huh!" of a laugh and I just sighed and shook my head. Spanky the salesman got a look of consternation combined with fear on his face and crossed his arms across his chest and stood defiant. I stood up, put my right hand on his right shoulder, looked him dead in the eye and said "Well Sparky, looks like you just lost a sale. I think I'll order my LSi15s from Crutchfield. Have good night."
We went to the counter to buy the car stereo parts we needed and he followed us and was talking to the store manager to find out if he could do what I asked. The store manager said "That's not a problem at all." Then sparky started trying to get me to go and look at the speakers and I told him to forget it. He got adamant with me and I said "Dude, did you not hear what I just said? F O R G E T I T!" The store manager asked what the problem was and I told him his salesman's attitude sucked and to have a nice day and walked out.
I'll have to go back during a better time when I can get a salesman more willing to help me out.
Sorry, that was a long post.
Expert Moron Extraordinaire
You're just jealous 'cause the voices don't talk to you!
You're just jealous 'cause the voices don't talk to you!
Post edited by RyanC_Masimo on
Comments
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JVC will be building larger wood-coned speakers, it has announced. JVC has always manufactured speakers, some very high-end in cost and sound, but always kept them in their home market. This can also be said for most Japanese audio manufacturers.
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Wood cones are interesting but I have never heard them myself. Vifa has been making them for a while. I'll keep my eye out for those JVCs. I also like full range speakers.
Graham -
I don't think those are the same. These JVC cones are sheets of wood, soaked in saki and formed into the cone shape. The wood is not ground into pulp or combined with anything else. The cones have a visible wood grain to them. They are actual wood cones. As far as I know, no one out there has accomplished this before now.Expert Moron Extraordinaire
You're just jealous 'cause the voices don't talk to you! -
30 x 2, the drivers are made of Birch, cool little systemDodd - Battery Preamp
Monarchy Audio SE100 Delux - mono power amps
Sony DVP-NS999ES - SACD player
ADS 1230 - Polk SDA 2B
DIY Stereo Subwoofer towers w/(4) 12 drivers each
Crown K1 - Subwoofer amp
Outlaw ICBM - crossover
Beringher BFD - sub eq
Where is the remote? Where is the $%#$% remote!
"I've always been mad, I know I've been mad, like the most of us have...very hard to explain why you're mad, even if you're not mad..." -
Link
The Vifa XT18WH0908 and XT18WO0908 are 7" wood cone drivers that have been out for some time.
A bit on the pricey side, but they are 'out there' nonetheless.
The JVC look NEAT, good to hear they sound decent too.
Cheers,
RussCheck your lips at the door woman. Shake your hips like battleships. Yeah, all the white girls trip when I sing at Sunday service. -
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The system definitely does not put out 30Wx2. I think 15Wx2 was right around the power at 1% THD. Other than that, its definitely a nice little system, especially for $500 and all of the features.Brian Knauss
ex-Electrical Engineer for Polk -
"30 watts per channel, min. RMS, driven into 4 ohms, at 1kHz, with no more than 10% total harmonic distortion"
10% THD!!!Political Correctness'.........defined
"A doctrine fostered by a delusional, illogical minority and rabidly promoted by an unscrupulous mainstream media, which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a t-u-r-d by the clean end."
President of Club Polk -
10% total harmonic distortion!
ya but it has great damping factor
Dodd - Battery Preamp
Monarchy Audio SE100 Delux - mono power amps
Sony DVP-NS999ES - SACD player
ADS 1230 - Polk SDA 2B
DIY Stereo Subwoofer towers w/(4) 12 drivers each
Crown K1 - Subwoofer amp
Outlaw ICBM - crossover
Beringher BFD - sub eq
Where is the remote? Where is the $%#$% remote!
"I've always been mad, I know I've been mad, like the most of us have...very hard to explain why you're mad, even if you're not mad..." -
Those Vifa speakers are wood fiber cones. The JVC cones are a sheet of birch wood. Just as Mother Nature made it.
Even looking at the two photos, it's apparent they they are not the same.
I didn't really comment on the quality of teh amplifier either. I just said that those speakers sounded damn good for thier size. I was impressed.Expert Moron Extraordinaire
You're just jealous 'cause the voices don't talk to you! -
Please check this thread out at head-fi.org
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It's neat and I really like the woodgrain on the driver. The line will most likely be overpriced, and have fun with warranty claims.
It's not the future of audio, but is definetly "out of the box" engineering. It's very fresh to think of this application and design AND bring it to market.CTC BBQ Amplifier, Sonic Frontiers Line3 Pre-Amplifier and Wadia 581 SACD player. Speakers? Always changing but for now, Mission Argonauts I picked up for $50 bucks, mint. -
I've got the first JVC micro system they did, the FS-2000 (mentioned in the Head-fi thread). I can tell you that if the new system is anything like mine, it's a winner. There's a nice warmth that the FS-2000 has, and it's got some authority with volumes. It impresses people when they come over and I've got it playing.
I bought it before I started college, about 7 years ago
(I've graduated since then, heh) LSi 9/C/FX
Arcam AVR-200
