JTR SPEAKERS was at AXPONA with a beast of a cinema room that could alternately crush bone with action movie impact and sooth the soul with sweet two channel delicacy.
The JTR room was equipped with a 4K HDR cinema with surround sound setup which included:
3 x Noesis 212RT three-way reference tower with two 12-inch woofers and a horn-loaded two-way coaxial compression driver
4 x Single 8HT-LP three-way surround speaker with coaxial 1” compression driver
8 x Slanted 8HT three-way overhead speaker with coaxial 1” compression driver
8 x Captivator 2400 bass reflex subwoofer with an 18” driver and a 2400 watt amplifier
Amplification by Digital Amplifier Company, Tommy O'Brien owner and designer.
Cherry MEGAschino MONO
Cherry MEGAschino Stereo
Cherry Maraschino 60V
5-CHerry
HT PC with JRiver Media Center v25
StormAudio ISP 3D.20 Elite Audio Processor
JVC DLA-RS4500K laser projector
Screen by Seymour Screens
Michael Boeker of High Impact AV LLC provided Audio and Video calibration.
My assessment: I watched the demo movie snippets several times through the weekend, and, as one might expect from such an ensemble of capability, the system rocked with impact, providing thunderous impact through the low and LFE frequencies with dialogue and music clarity galore. A “friends of JTR” showing of the movie
Ready Player One was a real treat, a visual tour de force with a fun music soundtrack. Peaks near 130 dB were reached effortlessly, painlessly. Breathtaking.
I was very interested in hearing music on that system. A brief early listen - before audio calibration - was a little muddy from the strong lows, but the fully calibrated system - PEQ, not room correction - was completely free of that effect.
My Test Tracks:
Radiohead - Burn The Witch
The strings are very present and tactile. Vocals are located well in front of the screen.
King Crimson - Happy With What You Have To Be Happy With
Vocals sound like from a center channel speaker, that clear.
Cymbals are so clear, a beautiful sound.
Imaging is superb.
Belew’s guitar solo is in front of the screen.
Wailin Jennys - One voice
A strong, full sound with no loss of vocal delicacy.
The middle guitar always gets me with its sweet clarity.
Olivier Messiaen - Quartet For The End Of Time
Good separation of instruments.
Violin nice tone.
Tower Of Power - You Know It
The horns and saxes are so much fun, they have IMPACT on this system.
Beethoven - 7th Symphony, second movement
A very delicate beginning and a nice buildup.
Clear L & R string sections on duet between violins.
NO stridence.
Full volume for the crescendo, very full, no loss of fidelity.
B-52’s - Revolution Earth
Lots of detail, even details I swear I have not heard before, even having heard this song probably a couple of hundred times on various systems and headphones.
GREAT imaging, GREAT soundstage.
Delicate and strong and full and balanced and accurate and revealing and impact-crunchy when called for.
King Crimson - Level Five
I love the cymbals and triggered percussion, all very clear and true.
Loud doesn’t seem loud when it is so SMOOTH and CLEAN!
Two guitars, strong imaging and separation, no loss of clarity when strong bass comes in.
No ear fatigue.
Diving bass line reveals no FR peaks, no mush.
Scott Davie - Lilacs
The beautiful piano tone is faithfully preserved, all of its inner delicacy is there.
Porcupine Tree- Arriving Somewhere Not Here in 5.1 Surround
I preferred the front row for most of these tracks, but this surround mix sounded better in the 2nd row.
It is so fascinating to hear mix details that I have missed before, very clear.
Acoustic guitar has its own place in space, great tone.
Bass and kick are strong and present but not tromping on other sounds, NO MUSH.
The JTR system with the superbly clean drive support of the wonderful Cherry amps are simply very difficult to compare to for their ability to handle anything you can throw at them. Gunshots and car crashes, violins and piano, screaming jets and rockets, screaming guitars, delicate female vocals, rock, classical, bluegrass, you name it. Symphony goers who complain that a two-channel system cannot deliver the full dynamic range of a symphony on stage in a grand concert hall, JTR is your speaker company. Come and get it!
========
Additional JTR experience number ONE:
An after-show arranged visit to the home of Jeff Permanian, JTR owner and designer, allowed us to hear the Noesis 215RT three-way reference tower with two 15-inch woofers and the same horn-loaded two-way coaxial compression driver that graces Jeff’s other designs. Horns with compression drivers have been around for a long time, but I have not thought of them as being capable of handling delicate music passages with the accuracy and cleanliness of a reference music system. Much has been learned about horns and compression drivers in recent years, and the JTR systems join a very short list of speakers I have encountered as being able to perform with that level of music-ready quality. I heard excellent imaging, a soundstage that completely freed itself from the speakers, and such clean deliver that one easily forgets that speakers are involved. The cymbal sounds on the King Crimson tracks and the piano and strings all revealed extremely low distortion. The Wailin Jenny vocals tugged at my heart with their delicacy.
Additional JTR experience number TWO:
A few days later I sat in front of a pair of Noesis 210RT speakers with two 10” drivers complementing the horn, set up in the listening room of fellow AV NIRVANA reviewer Dennis Young. Dennis will be first to tell you that the room presents challenges for many speakers. One of the big advantages of a properly designed horn-type speaker is its ability to minimize room effects. The Matte Black lacquer paint cabinets had their position dialed in by Dennis's experienced ear.
I did not expect this session to be my peak JTR experience of the week, but that is what it turned into. Boston’s More Than A Feeling was the first track I heard. I love a pair of speakers that makes you feel like you have been sonically transported into the control room of the studio peering through the glass at the creation of a historic and timeless piece of modern music like that track. The Boston sound was super-clean, super-clear, imaged with stunning clarity, a soundstage that filled the room free of the speakers, and a fun liveliness that had me exclaiming that “This is how music is supposed to sound!” Not just loud - it was - but CLEAN, SMOOTH loud, the best kind of loud, with no sonic roughness or shortcomings, with the dynamic capability to play an action movie at sustained home theater volume - movie theaters rarely come close with this kind of accuracy - and then play vocals like the Wailin Jennys, not a bit of nuance left out.
The 10-inch drivers had no trouble with LFE bass when we threw it at them as a test.
We watched the movie Hanna, at a fun volume that had me worrying that the neighbors might choose to involve the authorities. The Noesis 210RT speakers can do it all, like their bigger brothers in the JTR product line.
========
JTR speakers have been on my radar screen for several years since they first started showing up with 2-channel systems at audio shows. They no longer just show up. They have arrived.
