New Joseph Audio Pulsar Graphene 2

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I believe that, in the right hands, the problems with metal drivers were mitigated long ago.  In fact, it was Paul Hales' Transcendence series of speakers in the late 90's, using the Seas drivers of the time,  that ameliorated my "fear" of metal drivers.

I'd never heard sound so smooth, so utterly grain free and timbrally beautiful as when I encountered those speakers (I ended up with the Hales T5 floor standers, now gone, but I still own the Hales T1 and T Center channel speakers using the same seas drivers, similar to the Josephs, and they have this purity.  I find the Joseph speakers improve on this with some greater dynamics and clarity).

Righto...

So today I dropped in to my JA dealer (who sold me my pair of original Perspectives a few months back), for a listen to the new Perspective2Graphene.

Before I get to that: taking user reports and show reports all together, the consensus seemed to be "stronger, tighter bass, more refined and resolved midrange and highs, though most of the changes noticeable in the bass.
I love my Perspectives, though of course no speaker is The Perfect Speaker for me. For instance, I know I’d also love the fuller, bigger, richer sound of the Devore O/96 speakers as well. And my Thiel 2.7s are also a bit richer/fuller sounding toward the top end as well.

Since I’d consider upgrading my Perspectives to the graphene version when I have the money, I had a couple of concerns: Did the bass change so much that it would now overwhelm my room? My current Perspectives are just on the edge of doing this sometimes, though most of the time they are well controlled and I love the bass quality.
Also, the new Perspectives measure flatter in the high end vs the uprising highs of the original. I wondered if possibly the descriptions of "smoother, more relaxed, easier on the ears" may have resulted in a darkening of the tone, less airy. And would they be a bit reticent dynamically in the upper mids/high frequencies?

Unfortunately one aspect I could not get a handle on was the bass performance. The speakers were hampered by being too close together and too close to the wall behind them, making the bass sound overwarm and exaggerated on tracks with deep bass. So that was a bummer to not get a good handle on that.

But aside from that, when the music wasn’t exciting the room bass nodes, the bass was nice.

What I heard generally speaking was, yes, what seemed to be a somewhat more refined, resolved, clearer sound. The clarity and cleanliness and that grain-free quality was remarkable. I heard bits and pieces, say an acoustic guitar part in a familiar mix etc, seem to be more vividly resolved and tonally separated in the mix. And the high end weren’t at all dark sounding - they kept essentially the same tonal signature of the original. But it just felt like the level of resolution and clarity had taken a step forward. This was especially evident in some tracks with layered electric and acoustic guitars where the highs were realistically extended, grain free and very present. The layers of shimmering harmonics heard between all the guitars and the guitar strings were the best I’ve heard. The sound had a sense of "luxuriousness" in it’s ease, clarity and gorgeous tone of each element in a mix.

To make sure they could rock I spun Rush’s 2112. The sound was rich, full and very punchy. All the track elements super clear and separated, and the tone of Geddy’s bass and especially Alex’s guitar, electric and acoustic, were rendered with a upper midrange/high frequency beauty...the guitar tone just shimmered with more complexity than on most speakers.

Also, the electric guitars did seem a bit thicker and more substantial than back home on my Perspectives (this is where my Thiels give a bolder presentation in the upper mids with electric guitar). Not sure if this was a trait of the new speakers, or the large Sim Audio amps driving them.

Back home, spinning several of the same tracks on my Thiels (currently in my system), the Thiels were as usual a somewhat richer, thicker sound, with very dense, round imaging, very organic and relaxing, but also dynamic. The main thing missing in the Thiels vs the Perspectives is the exquisite refinement of timbre up in to the higher frequencies. They miss that gorgeous sparkle and aliveness of the Perspectives. I love the Thiels’ bass which is both super in control, but dense and punchy. But the Perspectives (my Perspectives anyway) bass has even more roundness and punch/kick toward the listener, which makes bass guitar and drum kits (kick drum especially) feel more impactful and "in the room."

Anyway, my hour-long demo of the Perspective2s left me with the impression that they are a slightly more refined version, which seem to retain what I like in my Perspectives. I’m a bit haunted by some of the sound quality I heard today so I’ll certainly consider upgrading my Perspectives when I have the money. Though for me the jury is still out about the bass quality.

Thank you for the mini review and comparison. I have never heard the Perspective so I cannot make a comparison but the Perspective2 I heard had zero flaws for me in Jeff’s room/setup at the show. 
Maybe being too close to the wall caused that issue for you. 
I really think that if I can buy the Perspective2s one day, I would be set for life in the speaker department. 

prof

"..the Thiels were as usual a somewhat richer, thicker sound, with very dense, round imaging, very organic and relaxing, but also dynamic. The main thing missing in the Thiels vs the Perspectives is the exquisite refinement of timbre up in to the higher frequencies. They miss that gorgeous sparkle and aliveness of the Perspectives."


I wonder if that difference might be, at least partially, down to the use of aluminium drivers in the 2.7s against the magnesium drivers of the Perspectives.

In any case I have also noticed that exquisite timbre in the higher frequencies, (perhaps 5-8kHz?) that most metal drivers seem to bring, along with an almost crystal clear leading edge speed which can make other drivers appear slightly blurred in comparison. It’s not night and day, but it’s there.

Of course, as you found in your response to the differences in comparitive bass reproduction, all loudspeakers seem to present a balancing act of various strengths and unfortunately unavoidable compromises.

Even so, it’s still those strengths we all ultimately strive for.

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I've had to unlearn some intuitions along the way, or at least modify them.

I agree there does seem to often be a certain character of cleanliness and clarity with metal driver speakers.  And this can come with something of an acidic or metallic aftertaste on the tone.  I also had the belief that metal dome tweeters did the sound of metal more authentically.   That was undone when I heard a speaker like the Josephs, which use a soft dome tweeter but on which drum cymbals jumped out to me as particularly authentic and metallic-sounding.
But if we are to stick with presuming for the moment the intuitions of how certain speakers sound due to their materials and build: something like the big fat ol' Devore speakers with their paper drivers sound particularly "organic," "woody/papery" where I just hear the wood in the body of an acoustic guitar, or the reedy tone of a reed instrument, or the vibrating wood of a cello.  The sound is not electronic-edged, hard, metal-tinged.

The Joseph speakers do an excellent job of providing the sonic benefits of a modern-sounding speaker with great metal drivers (woofer/mids anyway) so you get as you say that super clean, pure, "fast" sound.But Jeff Joseph has cannily designed in, or kept, a richness in the lower mids down that, gives some richness and body, which combine with the grain-free smoothness and clarity of the upper frequencies to make a very attractive, sensuous sound.

They don't sound as bang-on organic to me as the Devore (or my Spendor) speakers overall.  But they do surprisingly well and give a lot back by the sheer amount of beautiful harmonic content they dig out of a mix.


My Thiels, particularly driven by my tube amps, are a sort of in-between the Devore and Joseph sound.

I was listening to the opening track of the Bullit soundtrack which is great because it has guitar, drums, bass, and all sorts of different instrumentation, muted horns, horns, sax sections etc, flashing in and out out very dynamically.   On my Thiels it's a big, rich, dense sound, satisfying in it's own way.  There is what I'd call a "generalized organic tone" to everything.

However, that same track played on the Joseph Perspective2s had a timbral aliveness, variety and vividness the Thiels can't seem to match.The exact tonal difference of the muted trumpets appearing, the wood/metal sound of the saxes, the guitar, are so timbrally distinct and vivid it's sort of like beholding a timbral display of fireworks.My original Perspectives also do this.  Though my sense is the new Perspectives go a bit further.
(Playing Rush on my Thiels last night was a blast.  They go very loud without  strain and do rock with a dense, punchy balls-to-the-wall energy).