Anyone heard Jamo R909 dipole speakers?


I am trying to build a system ground up and have been auditioning some speakers. I recently listened to B&W 800Ds and to Sonus Fabers. I was really disappointed given my cheap JBL L890s sound equal or better than any of these speakers at least to my ears with my gear. However, I have been impressed by my friend's DIY speakers, which have a dipole open design. The lower frequencies are unmatched in terms of definition. So i have been looking for some open cabinet design speakers and came across the Jamo R909. Would appreciate some comments if anyone has listened to these. My current gear includes the Einstein "The Tube" preamp, Oppo-95 as the source and an Emotiva amp, which will be replaced most likely by Mac MC601s.
gago1101
I heard a set using Rowland 501 amps, they are wonderful if you have the space and power. They need room behind and to the side to bloom, otherwise they sould rather unfocused and muddy. They do need power to get going and need to be played at a modest volume. They are not for me as I prefer monitors that bloom at lower volumes, but the tone and soundstage they produce is wonderful.
I own Jamo R909 last 4 years and I try them with lot of different electronic and compare with other speakers in same room. I use to own B&W N802 and when I change listening room unfortunately most speakers interact badly in bas region. I even tried B&W 801D and discover trough Quad that dipole work better.
Since then I`m working on my system to get best of R909.
First, it is true that Jamo measure flat (I can post it),
but in the same time despite being dipole it is very uncommon design. Bas is onored with articulation and slam with natural decay, but cant match control of big B&W.
I my room (7x5m) goes flat to 25Hz. I tried reinforced firs octave with Velodyne DD-18 with no true success.
Seas bas-mid is crossed very low (high pass filter is set 6dB/okt below 200Hz) and low quality Solen 80uF cap compromise midrange dynamics. Still mids sounds clear with good details. Again, tweeter is crossed VERY low (2kHz - 18dB/okt) and while this gives nice transition between mid and high (optimal polar characteristic) Revelator tweeter needs quality source and amplification to preserve top octave.
Generally, sound is timbarly correct, stage is little laid back with good width and different depth (some say phase correct, but I found some speakers better to my taste) and average focus. In comparation Avangarde Uno Nano was more dynamic and live, but Jamo has top-to-bottom more coherent.
In my system there are 1.3m behind front wall, 1.2m from rear wall and 2.5m in between. I`m sitting 3.5m away and rear wall is 2m behind listening position.
I drive them with Pass Labs X250.5 amp, trough Sovter transformer passive pre-amp and source is Teac VRDS25 CD player. I`m planning to upgrade to Berkley Alpha DAC.
Cables are Atlas Mavros, Nordost Tyr and WireWorld Eclipse.
I hope this will help...
Kr4, I just realized that you are the same KR reviewer for Stereophile. I have to say that I have read many of your articles and have enjoyed them.

First, I will tell you the I don't mean to bash either B&W or SF, these are great loudspeakers. I am sure that my novice untrained ear is not able to pick up the purities within the mids and highs that these loudspeakers are praised for. I guess I might have missed them since I auditioned the above-mentioned speakers specifically looking for what I was missing in my own system, which I was able to appreciate with the open baffle design. The material that I asked these loudspeakers to reproduce was a hard one. I am talking about the 1st track of the Trans-Siberian Orchestra's Beethoven's Last Night album. I think there are so many things going on within the 100-250Hz region that it would be really hard for any loudspeakers to separate and reproduce accurately. And that is the region that I had problem with. I have to say that otherwise both B&Ws and SFs were fabulous.

Now going back to the Jamo R909. I am sure these are probably not the most accurate speakers out there. However, I suspect they will be able to satisfy my preferences within the bass region. As an overall package, do you think these speakers worth around 12K a pair?
Kr4, Thanks for the link. As for the B&Ws and SFs, I heard them at the dealer in an acoustically treated controlled audio room with Mcintosh gear (McD500, C50, MC601s). My JBLs are in a slightly smaller room. I am sure there may be many factors playing in such as room size, the source and the pre-amp, but I would have expected to hear significant improvement going from a $1,000 speaker to a $24,000 speaker. I do hear such an improvement though when I listen to my friend's DYI dipole speakers.
Can we assume you heard the B&Ws and SFs in the same system and acoustic environment as your JBLs?

As for the R909, here are my assessment of the smaller R907: http://www.stereophile.com/floorloudspeakers/jamo_reference_r_907_loudspeaker/
I am surprised you found the B&W800D and Sonus Fabers (you didn't state model) disappointing - I have experienced superb demos of the B&W800D and Amati Anniversario speakers. In both cases they were carefully matched to appropriate amplification (Classe or MacIntosh for 800D and Musical Fidelity AMS50 pure Class A for Amati). Both sounded well balanced, articulate and involving.
Back to the R909 - a friend owns these and so I have listened to them many times - they are brilliant. They have best bass articulation of any loudspeaker I have ever heard, one of the most transparent midranges and a very good treble. They measure flat and sound neutral without typical box colourations. Perhaps some might miss the lack of warmth through the midbass, but then they reward you with precision deep bass-lines that only a dipole design can deliver. The only minor short-coming I can detect is that maganesium cone midrange does not reward edgy class AB solid state amplifiers - do consider amplifiers that are naturally smooth and warm (ideally with significant class A bias). My friend uses 30W Marantz class A amplifiers which drive them to more than adequate sound levels.
Do note that because they are dipole design, they need breathing space behind them, but then they reward with a deep layered soundstage that few box loudspeakers seem capable of.
They remain one of my all-time favourite loudspeakers!