New Joseph Audio Pulsar Graphene 2

Some update after living with my Perspective 2 for few months.

I bought/sold 5 speakers in last 1.5 year - Daedalus Athena V2, PAP Horn1, Wilson Sabrina, Harbeth 30.2 and JA Perspective 2. Except Sabrina, I was happy with all the other speakers. Sabrina is great except that it’s really high maintenance and fussy - you need top notch front end for it to not sound harsh and fatiguing on bad recordings. I just couldn’t deal with it. In this 1.5 years - I’ve attended 3 audio shows, went to at least 10 dealers for extensive demos and listened to hundreds of speakers of all price classes.

The 5 speakers I’ve went through (except Sabrina) - they all have these traits in common - very organic, non-fatiguing, rich, musical sounding. However, all of them were missing something in different ways albeit very satisfying. I had the Athena for longest - 4 years. So obviously it’s a fantastic speaker. But I wanted to try something new and that led me down this path. All the rest of the speakers, within few weeks of playing - I could feel it in my guts that I was not going to keep them eventually.

But with Perspective 2 - it’s a different story all together. I’ve owned JA Pulsar in the past. But wasn’t my type - too soft and polite on rock music. Not enough oomph. So, I wasn’t really considering JA speakers during my search. However, RMAF and CAF visiting JA room changed all that. I know show conditions are not ideal. However, I just couldn’t be apart from that new JA sound. I had to have them. I’ve never felt that way about any speakers in recent times. I just couldn’t get the sound out of my head.

So, after the honeymoon phase is over - does it live up to my initial infatuation?

The answer is - YES, a resounding yes. And you know what’s encouraging - I’ve not really put enough time to optimize the speaker or have the electronics (except my source) worthy of the Perspective 2 yet. So, it can only get better and better from here.

I’ll try to be brief. Some important characteristics that makes me smile everytime I listen to them:

- Music sounds effortless and relax (regardless of the type of genre).

- Even bad quality recordings are immensely enjoyable. This one is the holy grail for me. Example: "Night shift" by Lucy Dacus. Modern pop/rock album. Wonderful song. However, around 4:11 - the noisy/lo-fi electronic guitar riff used to pierce my ear even on my previous Harbeth. However, on JA Perspective 2 - it is immensely listenable without taking away the rawness of the track. I honestly do not understand how JAP2 does this balancing act.

- Female art pop/folk songs are rendered with all the right emotions and timing. Angel Olsen’s "Never be Mine" or "Chances" - sounds as haunting as ever.

- Voice and acoustic music has the elusive soul. One of the best album of last decade - "A Crow Looked at Me" by Mount Eerie, I get swept up in the emotion that the artist went through with teary eyes. Not that other speakers didn’t have the same effect on me. But on JAP2 - I think it feels more real; as if I can empathize him better.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Crow_Looked_at_Me

- Modern rock songs have the proper punch, authority, drive, meat on the bones. The song "Air" by Waxahatchee from the album Ivy Tripp, sounds as dynamic as I’ve ever heard on any speakers.

- Classic rock: One of my go to song for speaker auditioning is T. Rex - Main Man, and The Slider. I’ve played these on system costing north of 6 figures. But I don’t know why the sounded the absolute best on JAP2. Obviously, the max SPL, life like dynamics room filling capability of JAP2 is not going to be like the Avantgarde super horn I played them on. But it wasn’t as musical as it is on JAP2 in a real world setting. JAP2 has rich, juicy bass that lends itself really well to older rock recordings I think.

- Electronic music: Thom Yorke’s Anima, the new Tame Impala album, Air - they all sounded really really good. Electronic music doesn’t have the nuances/refinement for JAP2 to highlight. But it’s an excellent speaker for this genre given their impactful bass, warm and accurate midrange and wonderful macro and micro dynamics.

I wanted to write some of the traits that of JAP2 that I’m looking to improve. But it’s getting too long. Probably in a follow up post.

Has anyone compared the prospective 2 and the pearl 20.20 with an audition?   I heard the former at CAF and fell in love.   They might be the only speaker that can pry my Thiel 3.6 and cs6 out of my system.

i have a large room and although the prospectives blew me away they were in a very small room.  Wondering what the step up factor would be with the Pearls.

@pops I've heard both but in a different room, different systems, different times. Not very meaningful impression. But, Pearl 20.20 being driven my top of the line Doshi and reel-to-reel SOTA front end sounded better than Perspective 2. The later was being driven by much more modest system. But the difference was less than you'd expect.

Jim Smith (author of Get Better Sound), recently sold off his mega buck Tannoy system and replaced it with the Perspective 2s. You can see his room here: https://www.audioshark.org/audioshark-members-systems-101/my-roomplay-reference-sound-room-18528.html.

The room looks really big. I don't think Perspectives will have any problem filling a large space. It comes with a foam liner in the port that you can remove to extend bass frequency and impact. I think in a medium room Perspective 2 would have an advantage over Pearl and may actually sound little better.

I had spent considerable time auditioning the Devore Super 9 (IMO better sounding than Orangutan). Devore speakers are great esp with how they handle midrange and human voice, sort of like Harbeth kind of way. However, Devore is not a speaker for people whose music taste is all over the map. Playing fast paced music showed that it is constrained when it comes to macro dynamics, bit flat sounding (it has BIG bass though) esp if you are playing rock or pop music. In that regard newer Harbeth 40th Anniversaries are a better match.

The new Joseph floorstanders sounds more neutral. I need to spend time with them to give a better opinion. Soon!

I went to CAF and RMAF this year. Both me and my girlfriend (she has better ears than many audiophiles I know including me), thought Joseph Audio Pearl was the best sounding room in RMAF and the Perspective 2 was top 3 in CAF.

I was so damn impressed that I ordered a new pair of Perspective 2 on the spot. I'll get them this weekend. I need some amp recommendation.