Joseph Audio: Perspectives and Pearls

I’m using Cardas Clear speaker cables with my Perspective 2’s. I bought them used from the Music Room. They sound excellent. 

@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?

@prof -- I listened to the Perspectives yesterday for almost two hours and really had a chance to run through a range of different LPs and hear how they responded. Music ranged from UHQR copies of Bill Evans (Portrait in Jazz) and Miles Davis (Kind of Blue) to the first Dire Straits album to an original copy of "Blues and the Abstract Truth." While the room was quite different than mine and the source table and arm much better, I was impressed on all fronts. 

I was not able to hear the Pearls as this is a new JA dealer and he doesn't have a pair yet. But with the size of my room and the fact that I have a downstairs neighbor, I am not convinced that I will be able to take advantage of the Pearls (especially at 3x the price including the jumpers I would need to buy.) I suppose I will hear them at some point, but I suspect spending the "saved" money on cables and treating my room will produce a bigger improvement all around. 

Still waiting to see some decent photos of the wood options before the order is placed, but I expect to be able to do my own review shortly. On a slightly related note, I was able to see and hear the new Kuzma Safir arm and was really taken by its role in presenting the Perspectives. More on this once I lock down the speakers!

@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!

I love me the Sapele - game, set, match.  But I’d take’em in any finish I could get’em in my price range.