New Janszen Audio Speaker Day!

T

tino27

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May 23, 2017
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Ohio, USA
I'm stoked! Placed my order for a new pair of Janszen Audio Valentina P8s back in May and they are finally on the FedEx truck for delivery today!

I visited with David Janszen back in mid-May to audition these speakers and was just simply blown away by their performance. For me, they combine all the benefits of the speed of an electrostatic element (down to 500 Hz) with the benefit of it being a monopole (closer placement to the front wall). While I do still have my SVS SB-13 Ultra subwoofer available, I think I'm going to see just how deep the dual 8" drivers will dig in my room before deciding whether or not to augment the bottom octaves with it. I've had David finish the solid cherry front baffle in a high gloss finish to really make them pop.

While the speakers do come with rubber feet and spikes, I already have a set of IsoAcoustics Gaia II isolation feet on their way. David took this picture yesterday before boxing them up and shipping them out. Once I get everything rearranged with my system, I hopefully will post a new family portrait. :D

(edit: cherry wood baffles, not maple)
 

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The Gaias were not recommended (nor recommended against), but of course during setup and tweaking, I plan on trying it both ways. Fortunately, the Gaias won't get here until mid next week (and perhaps not until after Thanksgiving). So, I'll be using the supplied rubber feet initially.
 
Just to follow up, here is an email I just sent to David Janszen, president of Janszen Audio:

David --

<FanBoy Rant>

Not expecting you to be checking your email on a Sunday night, so hopefully you'll get this happy email tomorrow morning when you get into the office.

I'm not going to beat around the bush, and please excuse the profanity: I waited six months for these bad boys to arrive, and honestly, I would've waited a year and six months. The Valentinas fucking rock! The finish is spectacular, the build quality is amazing (as I expected it would be), and the sound is stellar, even right out of the box.

I have them placed in roughly the same location as my old zA1.1s, with the rear corner about 2' from the front wall. I also toed them in a little less than the zA1.1s at your suggestion. While I initially set the woofer level to 0db, I agree with you that it was missing some of the bass richness to which I've grown accustomed. I've turned off my subwoofer for now and engaged the +3db setting on the Valentinas. This has very nicely filled in the bottom end, at least down into the low 30Hz range. I'm going to give the speakers about 200-300 hours of break-in time and reassess the bass situation then to see whether re-engaging the subwoofer for the lowest octaves will bring added benefit.

The Valentina P8s are end-game speakers in my book. With the Pass Labs XP-22/X250.8 pre/power combo, I feel like there is ample power to drive these guys to realistic levels and I'm definitely hearing more subtle details on recordings that I thought the zA1.1s were doing wonderful things with already! And as I look to upgrade the other areas of my system: the power conditioning, digital, and analog source components over the next couple of years to match the quality of the rest of my system, I am confident that the Valentinas will show me every sonic nuance of those upgrades.

I gotta tell you, I am SO glad I stumbled on that TAS review of the zA1.1s all those years ago. Fortunately, I already have a buyer on the line for my old zA1.1s. Problem is, he hasn't heard these new speakers yet! LOL!

I will send a "family photo" of my system when I get a chance to take a picture. Ironically, another upgrade came in over the weekend ... a Pro-Ject X2 turntable with an upgraded Ortofon 2m Black cartridge. So, with all of the changes, my system is in a bit of a "messy" state at the moment.

Next time I'm in Columbus (perhaps to pick up the spikes?), I owe you lunch.

Thank you! And I hope you and your family have a lovely Thanksgiving holiday.

</FanBoy Rant>

I have to say that Janszen Audio doesn't have a lot of flashy ads in the trade magazines, but they are really building a quality product that just continues to amaze me. The bookshelves are $5k/pr and the floorstanders (with the high-gloss finish) were roughly $12k/pr. Not inexpensive by any standard, but compared to much of the mega-buck speakers out there, they are a great deal. If electrostatics are your jam and especially if you have limited space, it would behoove you to look up Janszen Audio.
 
I'm very curious how Janzen absorbs the back wave from the diaphragm in such a small enclosure. I have some experience designing and building ESL's so I appreciate how ultra-sensitive the diaphragm would be to rebounding waves within the cabinet.

The positive reviews on this speaker suggests that Janzen has succeeded in taming the back wave energy. I would love to cut one open and see how they did it.
 
I can't speaker to any absorption material, but I do know that the two 8"x7" electrostatic panels are built into a separate enclosure to seal them from the pressure of the 8" woofers. Kind of a box inside a box concept.
 
Jazzman53 said:
I'm very curious how Janzen absorbs the back wave from the diaphragm in such a small enclosure. I have some experience designing and building ESL's so I appreciate how ultra-sensitive the diaphragm would be to rebounding waves within the cabinet.

The positive reviews on this speaker suggests that Janzen has succeeded in taming the back wave energy. I would love to cut one open and see how they did it.
Click to expand...

Its not playing full-range jazzman , so controlling the rear wave is not as difficult to control and diffuse , i do agree its not as good as being a full dipole ..!!!


Regards
 
a.wayne said:
Its not playing full-range jazzman , so controlling the rear wave is not as difficult to control and diffuse , i do agree its not as good as being a full dipole ..!!!


Regards
Click to expand...

When I first heard about this speaker I tried to imagine how I would approach creating a monopole ESL. I'm not sure I would want to but I still wondered how it could be done. I concluded that I would use a transmission line rather than a sealed box. Of course; the line would have to be quite long (1/4 wavelength of lowest frequency), but that wouldn't be an issue if the crossover were high enough.
The transmission line would effectively absorb the energy while mitigating the box resonance.
 
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