New Joseph Audio Pulsar Graphene 2

"But I think the design and physics really places limits on how far that can go, so I’m not expecting miracles there."

My suspicion from this entire discussion is that the Graphene 2’s may be a moderate improvement over the originals. Not that there is anything wrong with that and, in a perfect world, I might just go for the upgrade; however, in this imperfect world, I’m leaning toward sticking with the originals (at least for now) given that: (a) the sound of my original Pulsars (purchased new last year) are frickin’ amazing; (b) I need to hear the Graphene 2’s to confirm or not confirm my suspicion; and (c) typically, I like to see how things shake out over some period of time after new models/upgrades are offered. I may ask Jeff if I can stop by at some point to hear the new ones.

If anyone is actually in touch with Jeff Joseph, it would be great to get some confirmation, or disinformation as to whether the sensitivity of the speaker has changed.  Mark suggests from his experience the 2 version seems a bit more sensitive.  It would be nice to have that confirmed.

From my correspondence  he said the sensitivity  was slightly higher but the subjective  impression  is greater than the measured  difference.  They had a fuller, richer more detailed sound. 

Not sure what is meant by the subjective impression other than if a speaker has a more detailed sound you will hear the music better which gives the impression the speaker is louder? I know it wasn't  the most cost effective  way of going about it but I bought used perspectives and after some back and forth with JA I  went ahead and sent them for the upgrade. When I bought them I wasn't  aware they had come out with the new version. Still saving a few thousand though. 

djones51,

Thanks for the info.

I think a speaker can sound "subjectively" more sensitive for a number of reasons. One could simply be slightly altering the tonal balance with a fuller bass, so it can sound more complete at slightly lower volume levels, or you feel the bass more at the same volume levels as the old version, giving the subjective impression it’s moving more air at the same volume level.

I’m sure there are other technical aspects understood by others for why a speaker may sound more sensitive than it actually is.

I have a pair of Waveform Mach MC monitors, rated at only 84.5dB sensitivity. But they sound more dynamically alive, within their frequency limits, than pretty much any other speaker I own, including higher sensitivity speakers.