Well done!
I only discovered Joseph Audio speaker within the last year or two (always hear of them, never heard them) and they are now among my favorite. I auditioned the Pulsars and the Perspective and still crave a pair of Perspective (which I hope to own some day).
Joseph speakers have an incredible tone/midrange/highs - as grain free and liquid as I've ever heard, super clear, and they produce a rainbow of timbral colors from instruments and voices better than most speakers I've heard.
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I extensively auditioned the Pulsars and the Perspectives. The Pulsars were fabulous but once I heard the Perspectives they blew me away even more. I still hope to own a pair in the (not too distant) future. I also find them to be among the most elegant looking speakers I've ever seen.
BTW, Jeff Joseph will be demoing the Perspectives in the upcoming Montreal Audio Show if anyone here is going.
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Good to see the Joseph Audio vibe going on here.
I really wish I could be in Montreal to hear the JA Perspectives Jeff is bringing for demo this weekend.
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Yes Jafant, that has intrigued me as well. We hear of very few Pearl owners (though there's a nice report in the links I gave from the VPI guy.
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I think markalarsen was a "drive by." I doubt he will be back to support his comment.
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Btw, I just had the opportunity to purchase, at a very good price, the Joseph Audio Perspective speakers used at the Montreal Audio Fest.
As much as I really want a pair of the Perspectives, I know that any speaker I buy I may end up selling, and I figured a white speaker would be much harder to re-sell than the other finishes. (And besides, I want one of the other finishes to match my room).
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I just noticed markalarsen mentioned he has the Perspectives, so maybe not a drive-by as I suggested. I'm still interested in anything negative he has heard about the Pearls, as that was a most unusual comment.
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FYI: Stereophile just put up a new binaural video: https://www.stereophile.com/content/bed-stuy-ci%C2%B7n%C3%A9%C2%B7ma-v%C3%A9%C2%B7ri%C2%B7t%C3%A9Herb Reichert reviewing the Joseph Audio Pulsars! You can "hear" the Pulsars play in the video. It does capture some of that special JA sound, IMO. Herb speaks of a "quiet" character to JA speakers and that is exactly what I hear. There is a really special lack of grain and black background that seems to let an amazingly pure vocal and instrumental tone through. |
@maralarsen,
Ok, thanks for the clarification. Makes sense now. I'd love to have room (and budget) for Pearl 3s. But if I buy JA it would be the Perspectives.
@astewart8944
I've been interested in owning the Perspectives since I demoed them at a store and in my home. They are very expensive though! And I absolutely require the right finish on them to match my room. I can have
a custom finish done if I want, but that increases the price.
I could have bought the white ones used in the recent Montreal show, through my local Joseph Dealer. I was seriously contemplating the purchase as it was a great price, and I figured I could have the finish altered later if I decided to keep the Perpectives. Unfortunately the fact they were all white put the kebosh on that idea. It would mean even if I had the wood finish panels changed, the the front and top would remain white - yuck! So, if I want a pair of Perspectives it looks like I'll have to buy new.
I have a pair of Thiel 3.7s I'll have to sell before going down that road, though. (I also have a pair of Thiel 2.7s that I'm keeping, because I can't totally give up the Thiel sound!)
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@astewart8944
I would love to be able to grab a used pair of Perspectives, but I am committed to buying from my local Joseph Dealer. The finish I really want, that I would get custom, is either Macassar Ebony or Tiger Ebony. Not only are they dramatic grains, the color tends to be more black/brown with yellow highlights which is the exact color scheme of my room. Speakers that are too orange don't look right, and Rosewood as nice as the grain is often can be orangy-red. I had a pair of Harbeth Super HL5 Plus speakers in Rosewood and it was, in of itself, an absolutely gorgeous finish. But it clashed with the room.
So my plan would be to order a pair in Rosewood, and given the variation in color, ask for a pair that is tending more towards brown. If I live with them for a while and decide I want to sell them, it would be a good finish for re-sell. But if I decided to keep them I'd later on have them re-finished to the Ebony wood. Whoever does the woodwork for Joseph is amazing and I drool over the idea of how an Ebony wood Perspectives could look, done by Jeff's cabinet guy.
Sorry...more than you wanted to know there. But the Perspectives have been on my mind for almost a year since I demoed them.
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The sapele is an amazing finish. Deep and luxurious. That's the pair I had in for demo. (Just didn't match my decor).
I have to say I really enjoy audio-jewelry, where I look at an item with and think it's beautiful and adds to the room, rather than detracts. The Josephs are one of those items - for my money, the Perspectives being among the most elegant floor standing speakers I've seen.
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@markalarsen
Since you've had both, could you give a bit of detail to compare the Pulsars vs the Perspectives?
It's been a year since I demoed both. The first time I ever heard Joseph speakers was the Pearl 3 at the Montreal show last year, playing a vocal acapella track. I was stopped in my tracks because it wasn't simply that the sound was incredibly clear - plenty of high end speakers do that. It was the tone and timbre - voices actually sounded warm and human in an exceedingly real way where you recognize "that's what people singing in front of me sound like." Totally grain-free and unmechanical.
I demoed the Pulsars and found they had the same family sound, a delight to sit in front of those speakers. Then the dealer asked if I wanted to hear the Perspectives. I first objected because I wasn't in the market for that price. But he set them up - a perfect "upselling moment" - and after listening to the Perspectives they utterly grabbed me. It seemed like the Pulsars...but more of it (and somewhat more even in the mids to lower mids, as they have the additional driver and don't need an additional boost in that area like the stand mounted Pulsars do).
But I was awestruck at how utterly different and accurate every instrument sounded as they entered a mix.
Anyway, enough of my thoughts. What are yours?
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@rlb61
You mentioned your admiration for the Pulsar's cloth dome tweeter.
I agree. It's special, or the implementation of that tweeter is, anyway.
Though all the cliches about tweeters don't always hold true, in general I tended to find metal tweeters did metal sounds more convincingly - e.g. drum cymbals. The soft dome JA tweeters really blew me away because metal, cymbals, sounded so solid and metallic. And yet like everything else in the high frequencies, totally pure and grain-free. The JA speakers provide one of the best high frequencies performances I've ever heard. Like Michael Fremer said in his review, they sound so open and extended, yet unmechanical.
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@rlb61
Ha!
We really are on the same wavelength.
I just recently got my new Transrotor turntable up and running - my leap into high end vinyl playback - and last night my album of choice was...
Regatta de Blanc!
My old copy. It actually sounded incredible. Both the recording and performance of Stewart Copeland on drums makes for an awesome "drum sound demo" album. So much snap and aliveness in the playing (and recording).
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@markalarsen
Thanks.
Any reason you chose Perspectives vs Pulsars with a subwoofer?
When I was shopping the JA speakers I wasn't thinking subwoofer (because I usually hate subs) but I'm giving some JL subs a go soon in my current set up with my Thiel speakers.
Did you also find the Pulsars to be a bit noticeably warm in the upper bass (goosed up a tiny bit)? As I said, that's one thing I noticed with the Perspectives, a more even sound through the mids/lower mids/bass.
And in the store auditions, the Perspectives general bass presentation really grabbed me - really fun and tonal and energetic.
So it was the Perspectives that I demoed at home. They had the most ravishing midrange and general presentation and if I had one question mark it was actually the lower bass. I noticed on some material a bit of "puffy" quality attached to the bass, something that sort of reached out and mildly annoyed my ears occasionally. I didn't have time to find out if this was something that I could dial out, or if it wouldn't be an issue on most material, but it did leave a question mark. (And my room is generally good with bass response - my big Thiels for instance are quite smooth in the bass in my room).
My thinking is that if I get some experience working subwoofers into a system, then if indeed the Perspectives aren't as linear as I'd like in the lower bass, crossing them over to a sub (and some room correction - I have a Dspeaker Anti-node) could be the fix.
Of course I also think about the Pulsars with a sub, which would be less money. But for one thing it's hard to shake the Perspectives as they made such an impression on me. The other is I much prefer the Perspectives aesthetically.
(I just found out I have a Devore Fidelity dealer nearby so I'm going to check those out as well, since they get great reviews.)
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markalarsen,
So do I understand you are using the Perspectives without a subwoofer now?
As for speakers: I find pretty much every speaker sounds better if the source, or associated equipment, is providing a better signal. Certainly every of the very many speakers I've owned, large and small, have been that way. So I'm very used to the upgraditus ;-)
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Motoman
Great, let us know your impressions.
Those focals are very high end monitors too, if I recall.
I would suggest you don’t get overhyped about the JA Pulsars (I loved them!). By that I mean, I wouldn’t expect them to be a revelation on terms of detail vs the focals.
You may even hear a more detailed sound from the focals - focal loves to push that tweeter you paid big money for :)
Rather it should be more of a “different character” thing. The Joseph speakers have a certain super smooth, lack of grain that to many ears allows them to be highly revealing but in a non-etched, clear organic presentation. I
preerred then to the Focals but of course that doesn’t mean you will like them better. I’m certainly curious to read about your comparison.
btw, if you already have a great pair of focals, why did you go for the Pulsars? |
moto man,
I hear you.
I scratched my Harbeth itch by grabbing a used pair. They were great but didn't sway me from what I already owned so I sold them.
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Cone material not the only upgrade. From the latest Soundstage report on the new Pulsar 2: "Updated from the old is a new 5.5” midrange-woofer, which has a layer of graphene added to the magnesium-based midrange-woofer cone. But that’s not all. Joseph told me that the driver’s entire motor system and suspension have also been improved, all for much better bass and midrange performance. " BTW: Apparently in the past, when he has upgraded a speaker, Jeff Joseph has offered those upgrades to existing owners. |
@bubinga
I had MBL 121s and now own the Joseph Perspectives.
I’m sure I have a pretty good idea which areas you thought the MBLs exceeded the Pulsars, but I’m curious what parts of the Pulsar sound you liked better than your MBLs?
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