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Old Janszen E-stats sound very good

I was visiting this morning with my Dad at his home. Its all his fault anyway I am in this nutty hobby!

We were listening to his system which consists of mostly my old hand me down sources... VPI Aries/Dynavector...Rega Planet...and his own older 60/70's Mcintosh gear MC-2105 and C-28 Pre amp. and MR 71 tuner. Nothing special with cables..some AQ midnight speaker and Radio Shack or Monster IC's.

His speakers are the old KLH Model 1 bass driver cabinets which are designed to accept either Janszen 131 Electrostat modules ( or other types made for the KLH's back in the 60's..) which sit on a shelf within the cabinet, just above the 2- 12" KLH paper type wofers. They are 16 ohm type and use only a mechanical wire to crossover to the woofs..so basically ..no crossover used. The speaker looks and resembles a Klipsch Cornwall in apearance and size.

Man..I could not believe how nice this speaker sounded. Ill say up front..They wont be replacing my system any time soon..but, just the way it was so utterly midrange transparent, coherent and the inner detail was astounding!! We were listing to FM on the MR 71..classical station. The Violins came through with complete tonal honesty and had their attack and decay intact. What they lacked in imaging and soundstage..which is to say "non exisitant "..they made up for in tonal abilities and inner detail that was truly amazing. I had Martin Logan's a few years ago... and heard Quads and Sound Labs at various dealers that didn't have this quality. so rare to find this amazing tonal accuracy and honesty.

My Dad used to say when I was a kid, that the Electrostats made by Janszen and Quad were way ahead of their time sonically. The up and coming Advents, JBL's, AR's and Allisons; just could not portray the clean and honest tonal accuracy in the critical midrange of these E-stats.

Had to share this as it made me realize in as far as we have come with todays sound( and its very, very good!)..listening to these 1960 technology Janzsens was a very sweet and satisfying experience! Its too bad they are not around anymore as a company...Boy, if they could just throw a soundstage!!
128x128kehut
kehut's avatar
kehut OP
668 posts
 
Checked it out! Interesting indeed. The 130 tweeter array is what dad has. Im sure the fact that they beam quite noticably all the way into the midrange, just kills the soundstage and imaging of these..but do they ever provide the best tonal quality these ears have heard in some time.

Intersting to note also the history of development after the war years and affiliations with KLH, Koss, AR and others including Roger West of SL fame.

The prices of the new models certainly reflects the time and expense put into the new models and updated technology. I may not be so quick to rush out an bring them home..but it was very nice to see A.A.'s son David take over and continue on his fathers passion with the new company.

Thanks much for this info and link to the site!
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autospec
478 posts
 
I had a friend that had a pair of "Bozak-Janszens"back in the early 70's.......They really sounded good..
kr4's avatar
kr4
3,693 posts
 
I once had Janszen 130s (and 65s, too) and I agree with Kehut's assessment of them. What I did was to construct a vertical ladder-frame and stack the elements. This widely opened the radiation pattern and vasatly improved the soundstage. However, it was at the expense of the low end requiring me to add a cone midrange to the system, going from 2way to 3way. Lovely sound, though.

Kal
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