WHOOPEE!!!!! Today, I parted finally with my beloved B&W N804s in favor of a pair of JA Pulsars in the Sapele Finish. Using temporarily a pair of Target stands until the Sound Anchors come in. I only have a couple of hours on these speakers, but they image like crazy and the sound is exquisite and non-fatiguing. They are much better suited to my 10x10x8 room than the B&Ws. Will post a more in-depth review after they’re broken in a bit more. This has been SOME St. Patty’s Day!
Pulsars are better to my ear in speed, imaging and mid / lower bass definition. Caveat is the comparison is based on the MBL's in my previous house experience in a much smaller room versus the Pulsar with sub in my current house which has larger living space. Also, was not willing to optimize the 116’s in my current house because they would be too visually dominating. I wanted something less visually prominent which is why I tried the Pulsars. Really not apples to apples per se.
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?
I’ll add my two cents. I have the Pulsar and a single REL T7i sub in a 25’ X 35’ room. This replaced the MBL 116’s. I was very surprised how close the current combo came sonically to the MBL’s in all areas and, in fact, bettered the MBL’s in some areas. Having said that, no speaker I’ve heard can fully "energize" a room like the omni MBL’s.
This is my last speaker system. They do so much so welI in a very small physical footprint. I will be getting the graphene driver upgrade this summer.
Also from the latest Soundstage report ... "The new Pulsar 2 Graphene is priced at $12,000 per pair ..." That’s an increase of $4,300 over the price of the original Pulsars. Unless the upgrade is a spectacular game changer, and unless an upgrade would be offered to existing Pulsar owners at a significant discount, I likely would pass.
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.
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.
As far as I can tell, the new SEAS cone is still cast-magnesium (like in the original Pulsar), but is now "coated" with graphene. Not sure that this is a night and day difference; however, the fact that they are using the same base material (i.e., magnesium) with a mere coating of graphene leads me to believe that any sonic improvement may be slight. I wonder if existing Pulsars can be upgraded to the new woofer and, if so, whether it would be worth it. See www.audioxpress.com/news/seas-announces-new-excel-graphene-woofer-series
As reported towards the end of this Stereophile show report there is a newly updated version from Joseph Audio called the Pulsar 2, which has been upgraded with a new SEAS Excel woofer featuring a graphene-coated cone.
Since there are no Joseph Audio dealers anywhere near me, I figured that the only way to see how good they were in my music room was to buy a pair and see how they are! If the Focal's sound better -- and I have not pre-judged this -- then the Pulsars will go back up for sale and I will stop lusting after them. If not, the Focal's will go up for sale or move into the HT system! I'm lucky to have the flexibility!
@moto_man Congratulations! The JA sound is worth the price and then some. I bought the JA Perspectives a couple of years ago and they sound great with every music genre I have thrown at them. Enjoy Regards Al
@prof, the Focal's are indeed high end monitors and absolutely gorgeous -- very high WAF. I asked myself what I was doing too, but honestly, I have been hyped on the Pulsars for a few years. Every time I see a pair of Pulsars come up for sale, I wonder if they meet all the hype about them. I got a used pair on here for a good price, and I decided that I would put them in my music room (10x10x10) next to the Focal's and finally see how they are. Since my tastes run to 40's-60's jazz and classic rock, I thought that they might have a smoother presentation. I also have not seen even one bad word about them. When I stepped up to the PrimaLuna DiaLogue Premier HP, the soundstage and imaging went up big time. I am hoping that the Pulsars will be another step closer to audio nirvana! Especially with the I will post my critical listening observations after I get them hooked up!
I always wondered if you could build your own given they are Seas Excel drivers. IIRC Salk actually has sold speakers with the same drivers in the past.
I have a custom speaker with the Seas diamond tweeter and Excel woofers and wonder how they would compare...
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?
At long last, after years of waiting, I have finally pulled the trigger on a pair of Pulsars! They are incoming! I currently have a dedicated music room with Focal Utopia Diablo III's powered by a PrimaLuna DiaLogue Premier HP amp and an MSB Analog DAC with volume control, and a REL Strata sub. I am really looking forward to hearing how the Pulsars compare to the Focal's. I am ready to see what the hullabaloo is about. :). All of my music has been digitized and resides on my server. Roon is my media server. Lots of jazz and classic (generally poorly recorded) rock. I have always liked the Joseph Audio sound and have a pair of RM25XL's and Cinergy center in my HT setup. So I am ready! :)
BTW, while I agree with you, generally speakering, some speakers are more sensitive to their source than others. The JAs are on the far right side of this bell curve.
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 ;-)
@prof The Pulsars and Perspectives sound good with less expensive electronics, but beware of the upgrade junkie effect of speakers that sound better and better with more expensive electronics.
Excellent question -- Pulsars with subs v. Perspectives -- and
I have done both. The third option is
Perspectives with subs. Using the
Pulsars with a set of subwoofers, if they can be integrated, works well. I used a DEQX to integrate them.
I was running the Perspectives with a DEQX and dual subs in
an awful room. Seven foot ceilings,
strange shape, slate floor, culminating in an incredibly bright room. I decided to replace a pair of Magnepan 20.1s with the
Perspectives in an easy room. I am
running the Perspectives without a DEQX.
What I like about them in a big, wide room is the integration of the bass
and midrange.The answer as to which combination you like best, I would
suggest, is going to be room dependent.
The other comment I would make about both the Pulsars and
the Perspectives is that they respond to the input, good or bad. The better the electronics, the better they
sound. The better the recording, the
better they sound. This is my measure as
to what makes a speaker excellent. I
have a friend with Pulsars who is using Bel Canto Black EX (so 4 to 5 times the
cost of electronics v. speakers). My
Perspectives are feed with the very best PS Audio electronics (2 to 1 ratio in
favor of electronics).
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.)
@prof Pulsar vs Perspective. Above 100 Hz they sound very similar. The Perspectives have better, and lower bass. I compared them back to back on PS Audio’s best electronics. The bass foundation makes a significant difference.
Another +vote for The Police catalog. Those "records" were crafted and recorded with such care. The CDs are excellent. The SACDs are outstanding! I own both versions. Enjoy the music. Happy Listening!
@prof ... right on! Copeland is an amazing drummer, and you can really hear every hi-hat stroke through the Pulsars. Also, check out "Walking on the Moon" ... I have listened to that song a gazillion times through my B&Ws and had never before heard Andy Summers' guitar doing the rhythm "chuck" in between verses. Now, it's loud and clear. I love those moments. It's like having a whole new CD collection. Amazing!
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).
@prof ... I agree wih you completely. Last night, I listened to the Regatta de Blanc CD by the Police. I noticed just how lifelike the cymbals and hi-hats sounded. As a drummer myself, I know exactly how they should sound, and the Pulsars did a great job. The fabric dome tweeter is simply a joy. Oh, and listening to Pink Floyd’s Wish You Were Here through the Pulsars reminded me of the good ’ole days at the Hayden Planetarium in NYC, when Laser Floyd ruled the night. Such imaging! Wow! I am really loving the Pulsars.
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.
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.
If I were going for floorstanders, I’d get the Perspectives, too. Also, just a note that Jeff Joseph is one of THE nicest amd most helpful guys in all of hi-end audio. He's a real gentleman all around.
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.
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.
@prof Thanks for the clarification. I'm guessing that your desired finish is sapeli or rosewood? If so I'll keep my eyes open for you. Mine are sapeli and they are a beautiful finish. I think white would be a hard resell, probably why the really good deal was on the table. Cheers Al
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!)
@prof Rich, hope you are well. I may have read your post incorrectly. Did you buy a pair of Perspectives or decide to forego buying them because they were white? Regards Al
@prof what I meant, although inarticulately phrased, is that the praise always is strong not faint. There is no criticism. If I sell my Perspectives, big if, it would be to replace them with Pearl3s.
@kalali ... thanks. I'm using an older Musical Fidelity A300cr amp (225 wpc/dual mono ... and made in England at the time) and a BAT VK-3i preamp. The only thing that sucks is the piano black gloss finish on the front, top and back, which is prone to micro-scratches and fingerprints. I guess that's just part of the overall experience.
Congratulations on your excellent acquisition. Curious to know what amp/preamp you’re using to drive them. I never forget the huge sound I heard coming out of these speakers paired with an Ayre AX-5 Twenty. Probably one of the best monitor size speakers I’ve ever heard and I had not even heard the brand until then. Enjoy.
Herb 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.
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.
@rlb61 with respect to your question about the use of subs in my room with the Pulsars, a number of factors were at work in this decision. First by playing with placement, I was able to get in room response flat to about 35hz with the Pulsars and no sub vs 42hz with the Prisms (without the sub). And that makes a big difference between acceptable and not - particularly given that the Pulsars are more dynamic anyway. Secondly - I have a strong room mode at 31hz so with a sub (even with tube traps etc.) I need to use a DSP system (DSPEAKER Antimode in the case of my REL with the Prisms) to deal with that. And lastly, I always felt like I wanted a pair of subs vs one and felt that was true even more so with the Pulsars. So bottom line, I decided to sell my DSP and the sub for now and, as mentioned, will probably add subs back when I can afford a pair that has DSP built in - like the Fathoms.
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).
"I have yet to hear even faint praise for the Pearl 3. "
That’s the single worst -- and in fact the only negative -- thing I’ve ever seen written about the Pearls. Hearing Satchmo’s "Saint James Infirmary" on vinyl through them (original Pearls BTW) at a NYC show remains one of my top audio reproduction related experiences of all time.
@jafant -- if I was fortunate enough to own Pearls I'd be listening rather than wasting my time writing posts, so no surprise we don't hear from them often. The fact that they very rarely come up for sale here is telling.
I would be curious to learn how many pairs of each iteration were built?
Across many, many, Audio forums, I do not read about many owners of the Pearl, Pearl2 or Pearl3 loudspeakers. No doubt, this is a serious, top-tier speaker.
"I have yet to hear even faint praise for the Pearl 3. "
Are you joking? You must not be paying attention then.
There is plenty of praise for the Pearl speakers, including the Pearl 3. In fact I don't think I've ever read anything but a positive, if not positively glowing, report on the Pearl 3 and the earlier Pearl models. Just a quick google brings up these:
I've never heard a bad word said about the Pearl 3 and I suspect you'd have to work much harder to dig any up relative to how easy it is to find plenty of good notices.
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