AXPONA 2025

@prof ”Live, unamplified music has unmistakable presence and clarity. Yet, at the same time it also sounds relaxed and warm.”

Yes, I could agree with the above statement, but with a clarifier...

I agree that live unamplified music has an "unmistakable presence and clarity" but when he says  "Yet, at the same time it also sounds relaxed and warm.”   I would say that live unamplified music can also sound very dynamic.  I think what he may be implying is that it still sounds unforced, instead of relaxed.  I would also maybe replace warm with natural/organic.  At least, that is how I hear things when I performed music, whether when playing my cello in classical venues or my tenor or bass trombones in jazz venues.

I do believe that Jeff Joseph has really done a great job in recreating sound in that manner with the Pearl Graphene’s.  Although I do not have any experience with his Perspective speakers, I would have to believe that they are cut from the same cloth, so to speak.

Best wishes,

Don

I went to the show and listened to the JA room and left pretty quickly.  The music was too loud and the bass was overwhelming the sound.  Bass overhang negatively impacted the mids.  Unfortunate.  The speakers were beautiful to look at and the room was full of folks enjoying them so perhaps I am the minority opinion on this room.  

We had a great time at the show and the time just flew by! 

@grannyring 

Yes, absolutely... I can agree with your statement that it did sound that way to me at times.  Which is why I stated in my earlier post "....The bass at times could sound a little boomy depending on where you were sitting in the room and depending on how loud they pushed the volume (show room conditions), but when not pushed too loudly, everything gelled really nicely...."

However, there were many times that I was there where they were not pushing the volume too high and everything sound quite magnificent.  I was there all three days and spent quite a bit of time in that room at multiple times throughout each of the three days.  

Best wishes,

Don

Understood Don.  I went to Axpona last year and heard the same bass heavy sound in the JA room.  These two times are my only experiences with JA speakers so I assumed they just sound that way and did not look for a different seat or come back. Yes, shows can be a difficult place to really hear gear as we all know.  
 

I was impressed with the Pearl Acoustics room and the beautiful music coming out of those 4 inch single driver speakers.  Wow! Loved the Wolf Von Langa Ultima room with Sw1X tube  gear.  Finally,  the PS Audio room sounded great regardless of the particular model speaker playing.  From monitor to the biggest floor stander, they all sounded just terrific!

Don,

I believe Jeff’s description relates essentially to tonality and timber and detail.

I’ve been sort of obsessed with live versus reproduce sound for as long as I can remember.  I used to do live versus reproduced tests of recordings through different speakers in my own home, and I’m constantly closing my eyes when the presence of un amplified sources, and taking in what to me are the salient characteristics.

Certainly there are the type of  life like dynamics tend to distinguished live, even just somebody fingerpicking a guitar.

But in tonal and timbral terms, it is always struck me how relaxed and unforced and unmechanical and organic the detail is in voices and instruments.  And the other thing always strikes me is how much richer, in terms of the sense of body and fulness, and the thicker richer level of harmonics. Even a single pluck string of an acoustic guitar or a single high note on a violin sounds thicker and harmonically richer and in that way warmer than what I hear through most reproduced sound.  

So my may take away it’s just like Jeff’s:   Real voices and instruments have an effortless clarity and presence, no technology between you and them, while the detail doesn’t seem heightened or mechanical or artificially boosted, but just “ there” and relaxed, along with the greater richness and warmth of harmonics.

So often in high-end reproduced sound, when we are struck with the effortless clarity of a system it can come from systems that are exaggerating detail, or that are tonally or harmonically lean.

Jeff’s trying to capture that combination of effortless clarity it doesn’t come with the expense of aggressive or lean/cool, but which combines both.

That’s what I feel. I’m getting in my system.   So that’s helped along even further by using CJ tube amplifiers.