Nothing Like A Dane
Sydney Morning Herald
Monday January 1, 2001
Jamo E850 loudspeakers
Price: $1,390
QualiFi Pty Ltd
24 Lionel Road, Mount Waverley, Victoria 3149
(03) 9543 1522
info@jamo.com.au
www.jamospeakers.com
DENMARK is a lovely country, and full of very clever people. With barely one-third of Australia's population, no natural resources to speak of and the strictest anti-pollution laws in the world, Denmark has, nevertheless, managed to establish itself as a leader in hi-fi and loudspeaker technology. Bang & Olufson, Dynaudio, Jamo, Vifa, Peerless, Dali, Ortofon, Gryphon and Electrocompaniet are just a few of its high-tech success stories.
Jamo is Europe's largest speaker manufacturer. Its newest loudspeaker, the E850, is noteworthy for a number of reasons. It uses an unusual driver to cover the bass and midrange frequencies. Its rubber-roll surround covers the entire basket, enabling it to absorb stray acoustic energy from the mineral-fibre reinforced paper cone and the basket. Although the driver is conical, the cone is so shallow as to be almost flat. This, and the narrow profile of the front baffle, ensure excellent sound distribution.
Unlike most speakers, the two bass/midrange drivers on the E850 lack centre dustcaps to prevent dust and grit from entering the air gap between the voice coil and pole piece beneath it. But dustcaps adversely affect the performance of a speaker by introducing pressure variations under the dome, and by causing the cone to bend erratically, a failing known as radial diaphragm break-up.
Many modern drivers have exposed voice coils and pole pieces, and Jamo obviously feels the elimination of radial diaphragm break-up and the removal of air-pressure effects outweigh the dustcap's benefit. It means, however, that Jamo's E850s should only ever be played with cloth grilles in place.
The E850's electrical crossover network is also unusual. Whereas most large manufacturers solder crossover components to a printed circuit board, Jamo fixes them to a small section of wood and hand-solders each one to the next, an assembly method usually found only in expensive loudspeaker designs. The network includes a positive temperature co-efficient (PTC) resistor to protect the 25mm soft-dome tweeter against overload.
In The Guide's listening sessions, the E850s produced a warm sound that was even and consistent across the midrange and up through the higher frequencies. Bass was detailed and rich, but slightly prominent, skewing the spectral balance. Moving the speakers clear of the wall rectified matters, as would the bass tone control.
Jamo's E850 loudspeakers look and sound great. Clever people, the Danes.
© 2001 Sydney Morning Herald