Jamo R 909
Last weekend, while visiting the Portland area, I was able to get my ears on a pair of Jamo's reference speakers, the R 909. They are a dipole, open baffle design and were finished in Ferrari gloss yellow as pictured below. Each speaker baffle holds a 1" ScanSpeak Revelator tweeter, a 5.25" SEAS magnesium mid driver, and twin 15" woofers. The combination of these four drivers produces a nominal impedance of 4 ohms and a sensitivity of 89db; a fine load for any SS amp or any mid-powered tube set. They stand an impressive 4' tall, look very impressive with their flawless paint job, matte aluminum rear brace, and very sexy exposed drivers.
As far as the sound goes, I will preface my statement with what the salesman told me when I inquired about the speakers. "This is really bad placement for these speakers since they are dipoles and in the middle of the store with 30' of wall and other electronics in between." Well, that wasn't a statement of confidence to begin my listening session. Hearing this made me realize that this shop was more concerned with how the speakers looked, then with how they sound; which IMO isn't how you sell a $15,000 pair of speakers. Or maybe it is... When I finally got to listening to them, the sound was as disappointing as I expect from the salesman preface. The highs were very crisp and the lows were tight and powerful, but there was no focus to the sound. It sounded good, but was not pleasant to listen to. I can imaging that these speakers, set-up properly, would sound amazing. The highs and mids were classically, uncolored open baffle sound, and the lows were as powerful as most boxed floorstanders I have heard; the combination was accurate and powerful. I would love to hear these speakers in their correct setting, and I'm sure they would be dead on.
If a speaker can impress me in its worst case scenario, that's impressive. The build quality was first rate and look is what I would expect for paying that kind of dollar; big money. For under $20,000 you get a (assumably) great sounding pair of speakers that have a look to justify the price; win win.
http://www.jamo.com/Default.aspx?ID=5966&M=Shop&PID=17139&ProductID=17649
As far as the sound goes, I will preface my statement with what the salesman told me when I inquired about the speakers. "This is really bad placement for these speakers since they are dipoles and in the middle of the store with 30' of wall and other electronics in between." Well, that wasn't a statement of confidence to begin my listening session. Hearing this made me realize that this shop was more concerned with how the speakers looked, then with how they sound; which IMO isn't how you sell a $15,000 pair of speakers. Or maybe it is... When I finally got to listening to them, the sound was as disappointing as I expect from the salesman preface. The highs were very crisp and the lows were tight and powerful, but there was no focus to the sound. It sounded good, but was not pleasant to listen to. I can imaging that these speakers, set-up properly, would sound amazing. The highs and mids were classically, uncolored open baffle sound, and the lows were as powerful as most boxed floorstanders I have heard; the combination was accurate and powerful. I would love to hear these speakers in their correct setting, and I'm sure they would be dead on.
If a speaker can impress me in its worst case scenario, that's impressive. The build quality was first rate and look is what I would expect for paying that kind of dollar; big money. For under $20,000 you get a (assumably) great sounding pair of speakers that have a look to justify the price; win win.
http://www.jamo.com/Default.aspx?ID=5966&M=Shop&PID=17139&ProductID=17649
Post edited by zingo on
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I don't know how build quality of a board constitutes a $15k pricetag, but that's just me........comment comment comment comment. bitchy.
