Naim 'n' Joseph Audio
Posted by: Todd A on 01 December 2003
A couple months back I decided to go hit the hi-fi shops again to start comparing speakers. I’d been using Vienna Acoustics Bachs for just under three years, and while they are great speakers for the money, they have short-comings. These became increasingly evident when I bought a 202/250 combo this past spring. The speakers present the illusion of bass weight by using the tried-and-true trick of goosing the mid-bass. They sound warm and inviting as a result, but with the 250, this sonic aspect became something of a liability; it became too much a good thing. (With the Nait 5 the colorations were welcome.) I also became increasingly aware that I was missing a great deal of detail, and that overall bass performance was not all it could be.
I had no intention of buying anything, mind you, I was just going to refamiliarize myself with the goodies available in my area. (There have been no major changes or additions in several years.) First stop was to hear some Joseph Audio speakers. I took a long listen on two systems (Musical Fidelity and Theta) to the RM22’s and RM25’s. The RM25s had greater bass extension, but the symmetrical driver array produced a sound I couldn’t quite come to grips with. The 22’s sounded faster and leaner, but still did good bass. (At least in the Theta room. This was my first encounter with Musical Fidelity, and all I can say is boring.) But then the salesmen told me that the $2900 Rosewood RM22’s I was hearing were an open box item available for $2100, compared to $3500 for the 25’s in ugly black. Since I use a very small listening room (about three meters by four meters), I thought the bigger speaker might be a bit much. So I snapped up the 22’s.
When I got them home I hurriedly plugged them into my main system. Right away I could hear greater detail in the recordings I selected. But the bass seemed so, well, light. Until some actual bass notes were played. There is no excess mid-bass in these speakers so they sounded thinner than my VAs on first hearing, but they actually deliver much more bass. They also played much louder than the VAs. And despite what the salesguy said, I could tell they were not broken in. I was told that the person who returned these moved further up the Joseph line and that these speakers were used for a while and were ready to go, but there was some of that brashness around the edges that always accompanies new speakers. They sounded distant and small. So I just let them run a while. A couple days later I dutifully filled them with sand as recommended – and that made an enormous difference in every aspect of performance except bass extension. And then I played around with the speakers’ positions a bit, and I let them run a little bit more. After about four or five days I did some serious listening and was mightily impressed. They continued to break in for over a month before they hit their stride.
Let me say that Naim and Joseph Audio go together wonderfully. At least with the 250 in my small room, they produce as much bass as I want. I get flat extension down into the 35-40 Hz range, with notable extension below that. All out of 6.5” woofers. More importantly, the bass is articulate and musical; this is not one-note or muffled, indistinct bass. I can hear all of the different notes. They are also amazingly clear. It’s not that I’m hearing more details in the recordings I listen to, but I’m hearing them clearly for the first time. The mid-range sounds almost coloration free. I guess the slightly warm 250 and the slightly cool Josephs combine to present an almost neutral sound. And the overwhelming sensation? Speed, speed, and more speed. These are fast sounding speakers, as metal driver based speakers usually are. Notes burst into life immediately and decay naturally. Strings sound splendid, and now the difference between steel and gut strings is immediately apparent. Percussion sounds percussive. Brass sounds, well, brassy.
Certain recordings have taken on a truly exhilarating quality. Examples? The third movement of Beethoven “Harp” string quartet played by the Takacs quartet sounds breath-takingly daring. Riccardo Muti’s traversal of Scriabin’s Poem of Ecstacy sounds gloriously decadent. (In the penultimate tutti I can now clearly hear piccolo tremolos stage right as the brass and strings explode stage left.) Good piano recordings sound like nothing less than the real thing. (Okay, maybe a little less.) But what a delight it is to have Michelangeli play a private recital just for me! Whereas previously I would luxuriate in a smooth, somewhat soft sound, I now hear a much more realistic reproduction of music.
Being American speakers, the Josephs also do that Round Earth stuff quite well. There is definitely a soundstage, with instruments popping out of space everywhere between the speakers from various depths in the stage. Opera recordings, especially live recordings, now reveal precisely where the singers are standing – or moving from and to. On orchestral recordings, I can now easily distinguish between each wind and brass instrument, provided the recording is up to snuff. I can even distinguish between violin sections in recordings where they are grouped together rather than in a left-right configuration. All instruments and voices now occupy specific locations in space. The actual recording space is now also more apparent. The round earth stuff does not in any way hamper the actual music making; in fact, these things boogie better than the VAs. I have actually increased the amount of rock and jazz I listen to (albeit not by too much). These speakers, when paired with Naim gear, really do provide the best of both worlds.
All is not perfect, however. These speakers are far less forgiving than my VAs were. Bad recordings sound bad. My cheap Rotel tuner sounds harsh and bright. In short, these speakers do not sugar-coat anything. They are not hyper-detailed or harsh sounding by any stretch, but they don’t cover up for short-comings elsewhere in the system. And their incredibly clean presentation means that I often listen louder than I used to without even knowing it. I guess I’ll have adapt.
Lucky me.
"The universe is change, life is opinion." Marcus Aurelius, Meditations
I had no intention of buying anything, mind you, I was just going to refamiliarize myself with the goodies available in my area. (There have been no major changes or additions in several years.) First stop was to hear some Joseph Audio speakers. I took a long listen on two systems (Musical Fidelity and Theta) to the RM22’s and RM25’s. The RM25s had greater bass extension, but the symmetrical driver array produced a sound I couldn’t quite come to grips with. The 22’s sounded faster and leaner, but still did good bass. (At least in the Theta room. This was my first encounter with Musical Fidelity, and all I can say is boring.) But then the salesmen told me that the $2900 Rosewood RM22’s I was hearing were an open box item available for $2100, compared to $3500 for the 25’s in ugly black. Since I use a very small listening room (about three meters by four meters), I thought the bigger speaker might be a bit much. So I snapped up the 22’s.
When I got them home I hurriedly plugged them into my main system. Right away I could hear greater detail in the recordings I selected. But the bass seemed so, well, light. Until some actual bass notes were played. There is no excess mid-bass in these speakers so they sounded thinner than my VAs on first hearing, but they actually deliver much more bass. They also played much louder than the VAs. And despite what the salesguy said, I could tell they were not broken in. I was told that the person who returned these moved further up the Joseph line and that these speakers were used for a while and were ready to go, but there was some of that brashness around the edges that always accompanies new speakers. They sounded distant and small. So I just let them run a while. A couple days later I dutifully filled them with sand as recommended – and that made an enormous difference in every aspect of performance except bass extension. And then I played around with the speakers’ positions a bit, and I let them run a little bit more. After about four or five days I did some serious listening and was mightily impressed. They continued to break in for over a month before they hit their stride.
Let me say that Naim and Joseph Audio go together wonderfully. At least with the 250 in my small room, they produce as much bass as I want. I get flat extension down into the 35-40 Hz range, with notable extension below that. All out of 6.5” woofers. More importantly, the bass is articulate and musical; this is not one-note or muffled, indistinct bass. I can hear all of the different notes. They are also amazingly clear. It’s not that I’m hearing more details in the recordings I listen to, but I’m hearing them clearly for the first time. The mid-range sounds almost coloration free. I guess the slightly warm 250 and the slightly cool Josephs combine to present an almost neutral sound. And the overwhelming sensation? Speed, speed, and more speed. These are fast sounding speakers, as metal driver based speakers usually are. Notes burst into life immediately and decay naturally. Strings sound splendid, and now the difference between steel and gut strings is immediately apparent. Percussion sounds percussive. Brass sounds, well, brassy.
Certain recordings have taken on a truly exhilarating quality. Examples? The third movement of Beethoven “Harp” string quartet played by the Takacs quartet sounds breath-takingly daring. Riccardo Muti’s traversal of Scriabin’s Poem of Ecstacy sounds gloriously decadent. (In the penultimate tutti I can now clearly hear piccolo tremolos stage right as the brass and strings explode stage left.) Good piano recordings sound like nothing less than the real thing. (Okay, maybe a little less.) But what a delight it is to have Michelangeli play a private recital just for me! Whereas previously I would luxuriate in a smooth, somewhat soft sound, I now hear a much more realistic reproduction of music.
Being American speakers, the Josephs also do that Round Earth stuff quite well. There is definitely a soundstage, with instruments popping out of space everywhere between the speakers from various depths in the stage. Opera recordings, especially live recordings, now reveal precisely where the singers are standing – or moving from and to. On orchestral recordings, I can now easily distinguish between each wind and brass instrument, provided the recording is up to snuff. I can even distinguish between violin sections in recordings where they are grouped together rather than in a left-right configuration. All instruments and voices now occupy specific locations in space. The actual recording space is now also more apparent. The round earth stuff does not in any way hamper the actual music making; in fact, these things boogie better than the VAs. I have actually increased the amount of rock and jazz I listen to (albeit not by too much). These speakers, when paired with Naim gear, really do provide the best of both worlds.
All is not perfect, however. These speakers are far less forgiving than my VAs were. Bad recordings sound bad. My cheap Rotel tuner sounds harsh and bright. In short, these speakers do not sugar-coat anything. They are not hyper-detailed or harsh sounding by any stretch, but they don’t cover up for short-comings elsewhere in the system. And their incredibly clean presentation means that I often listen louder than I used to without even knowing it. I guess I’ll have adapt.
Lucky me.
"The universe is change, life is opinion." Marcus Aurelius, Meditations