Joseph Audio: Perspectives and Pearls

@jafant Where do you think a lot of the parts inside speakers made in the US come from? Stoopid reasoning.

Yeah, unless it’s some sort of political posture, it is pretty silly.

(In fact, given what you wrote, even as a political statement, it's going to be problematic)>

FWIW...

I was at my Joseph Dealer's store yesterday dropping my Perspectives off, to be shipped for the graphene driver upgrade.

To my surprise they had the Pearls in the store. Hadn't seen them there before.

They were not playing but were set up closer to the back wall behind them than what I would think is ideal. I was told that the Pearls worked surprisingly well no matter where they placed them, and that they could even be placed closer to the back wall, as they were, without obvious bass bloat, vs some other tower speakers in the store which they have to pull out more.

Not what I would have expected, but that's what I was told.

Actually the Pearls seemed fairly modest in size and proportion.  Especially for a flagship speaker!   They don't feel dominating at all.  But then, Joseph Audio is known for packing a bigger sound in to smaller speakers.   I can see them fitting in to lots of different rooms without feeling like they are too much. 

stereo5,

Having done tons of research on the Joseph Speakers while I was deciding whether to buy, I looked over years of reviews, user reports, show reports, and audiophile impressions.

I'm not sure I've seen a speaker manufacture get as much uniformity of praise as I've seen for the Joseph speakers.  Even if, as you say they weren't for you, almost everyone praises the quality of the sound. 

It's interesting the brand isn't bigger than it is.  I guess some look at them as just "more drivers in a box" and there's lots of competition out there.  Aside from the luxurious sound quality, I find the craftsmanship in regard to the design/aesthetics/execution of the speakers to enter the realm of 'audio jewelry' and I'm ok paying some more for that type of pride of owner ship. 

grannyring, the Perspectives were measured to around 84dB sensitivity at Stereophile, with a generally even "tube friendly" impedance.

The Joseph speakers had long used a proprietary "infinite slope" crossover design (created by Richard Modafferi).  So not off the shelf in that regard.  Apparently the crossover design has been tweaked over the years and I'm not sure it still fits the original "infinite slope" design.  But it's still quite steep, I believe.

Personally I have no problem with a speaker designer like Jeff Joseph taking the best parts he can find to create his speakers.  Driver makers like SEAS are among the best that exist - they have so much history and expertise.  Some speaker companies brag about creating their own proprietary drivers, but that's certainly no guarantee they are better than a top shelf driver from a far more experienced company like SEAS.

Forum member:

@astewart8944 

Had the Perspectives and upgraded to the Pearls.  He's done side by side comparisons.  We've discussed it in messages.  Perhaps he'll chime in.

In a nutshell his findings were the Pearls had a more solid bottom end, a more convincing soundstage, slightly smoother highs (though I think he had the original Perspectives, the graphene version is smoother).  Basically the "more of the Perspectives" - a more complete and convincing sonic picture.  Which is what I think one would expect.   The question is money and whether the Pearls suite a particular room etc.

@thr1961

If you are in to buying expensive cables I won’t be able to dissuade you.

I won’t try.

But as one of the few JA Perspective owners I’ll mention my own experience, as a data point you might consider: My Joseph Perspectives are in a separate room from my amps. I run standard pro-grade speaker cabling - in this case a 40 foot run of Belden 10awg cable (5T00UP on the Blue Jeans Cable site) from my CJ amps to my Perspectives.

I heard the Perspectives plenty of time at my dealers, with all my usual test tracks, where they were hooked up to very expensive speaker cables. There is no discernible loss of sonic information in my Perspectives at home using the regular pro grade cable. In fact, my Perspectives sound "better" at home than in the store (set up/listening positions etc optimized in my home).

Likewise, I’d owned other high end speakers, one pair of which I sold to an audio reviewer friend. At my friend’s place I would listen to the same speakers hooked up to $50,000 worth of cabling - top end Nordost, Crystal cable, others - and, no, I wasn’t hearing things I didn’t hear at home with those same speakers hooked up to the Belden cables (and my inexpensive interconnects in the rest of my system).

I know well the pull of "wanting to make sure I’m getting the most out of my system" and if one is inclined to believe cables make big differences...well...there’s a market for that :-)

If you are gonna spend a lot of money on cabling: Jeff Joseph is well known to be fond of Cardas Cables. I believe he almost always shows his speakers with Cardas

No prob.

Hey, I'm always looking for plausible upgrades to my system.

My Perspectives are currently at Joseph Audio being upgraded to the Graphene 2 version.  I can't wait to get 'em back and give a listen.

Same for me:  Banana plugs for my speaker cables, using the Cardas Banana-Spades adapter (given to my by my Joseph dealer).

I change out my speakers often enough, and also even sometimes switch the connections to maintain polarity when I switch between my preamps, so dealing with banana connectors is so much easier.

@thr1961 

I'm guessing you haven't listened to the Joseph speakers yet.  But I'm wondering:

Will you be auditioning both the Pearls and Perspectives?   If so, will you be able to do a sort of side-by-side comparison?   Are you leaning toward one or the other?

@thr1961

Nice! So it seems you’ve mostly settled on trying the Perspectives in your home?

I’m curious about your waiting for wood finish photos. I think you can find photos of the Perspectives in the three main finishes, or are you waiting for Jeff to send you photos of exact wood finishes he has on hand?

I actually went through that. I’m super picky about wood finish and I like a nice wood grain, but though the wood grain on the usual Joseph Rosewood panels look great, I’m not a fan of overly reddish/orange-colored wood. So back in 2017 when I first auditioned the Perspectives I asked about a browner-toned finish. Jeff sent me some photos of some wood he had, as yet to be finished on a speaker, that was more brownish, a bit more reminiscent of ebony, and I quite liked it.

But my finances took a dive and I couldn’t purchase the speakers at that time. It was two years later when I had the money. It was just when the Perspective 2s were coming out, so my dealer was willing to sell me a relatively new pair of his demo original Perspectives at a good price. And...what do you know? They happened to be the very pair with the brown finish that Jeff sent me photos of. So I ended up with those speakers after all! They are gorgeous!

@disc 

I vividly remember testing Rush's 2112 on the original perspectives and the Perspective 2.   The way those speakers untangled the layers of guitar so effortlessly, including that shimmering/ringing tone of Lifeson's guitar (also on Hemispheres album) was wonderful.   They didn't have quite the thickness of the guitar parts as on the Devore O/96 speakers or my Thiels, but it was so tonally beautiful.  I would not own the Perspectives if they couldn't rock, though.

I've been blown away playing tracks like Rush's Hemispheres or Tom Sawyer on the Perspectives in my home.  Amazing punch and dynamics especially in the bass and drums.  From what I've read, the Perspective 2 are even better in that regard, so I'm looking forward to getting my upgraded pair back for a listen!

soix,

Three weeks ago I dropped my Perspectives to my dealer, who was going to get them to the importer, who was going to ship them to Joseph Audio.  I understand they have been shipped Dec 15.  No word or estimate directly from Joseph Audio, but the importer suggested "in the new year" (given it was Christmas season).

Hopefully soon.

@rsf507 

That's great!

It's always nice when other people seem to hear what I hear.

Yeah, that purity of tone!  I wrote in my other thread about listening to an Emily Barlow track with piano, vocals and other instruments, and the authenticity of the piano tone (and vocals, and drums, and trumpets...) blew my mind.

Happy new year!

Wow, it's a Joseph Perspetive-Festival!

We will all be listening to our new Perspectives pretty soon.

Good to hear arafiq.

I'm actually borrowing a friend's Bryston 4B3 again to swap from my CJ Premier 12 tube monoblocks.  I'd tried it before with my tube pre-amp - liked some things but definitely preferred my Premier 12s.  However I'm curious to try all solid state, so this time I'll use my Benchmark LA4 pre-amp.

I was at my dealer yesterday picking up my upgraded Perspectives (breaking in now).

They were setting up the Pearls.  OMG are those gorgeous looking speakers! The construction and finish are just impeccable and luxurious.  And they are such a modest size for a flag-ship speaker.

I didn't stick around to hear them: the last thing I'd want to do is hear the Pearls after having spent a bunch of money upgrading my Perspectives. :-)

I haven't put the Perspectives back in to my system again, but my impression upon unboxing was once again: man what beautiful speakers.  They just look so high end and high class.   I think the graphene drivers are a little darker too.  (Which I would like.  I'm not a fan of seeing most speaker drivers, but the Joseph's are something of an exception.  I find the SEAS drivers with the copper phase plug, and the way it ties in with the copper surround on the Joseph tweeter, to look really nice.  Still,  I dim the lights when listening and prefer the drivers to disappear from view when listening.

@rsf507 

I broke in the Perspectives in a different room for a few days, hooked up to a little radio receiver, wired out of phase playing dance music.   So I've only had them up and running in my system since Monday.  I plan to write about them in my "contemplating Devore" thread.   I haven't got a full handle on them yet, still adjusting things, but so far...promising.

It makes sense from an economic standpoint.  There have been speaker manufacturers who don't believe biwiring makes a difference, but they are selling to an audiophile community in which many think it does, and demand speakers that can be bi-wired.  So...sell 'em what they want.