Of all the legendary hi-fi products, one of the best known is the Marantz 10B FM tuner. Renowned for its fabulous performance (and its built-in oscilloscope), the 10B was designed by Richard Sequerra, who later went on to launch his own DaySequerra tuner (updates for which are still available).
Dick Sequerra has also produced some innovative loudspeaker designs over the years, one of which was the Sequerra Pyramid Met 20, designed in collaboration with Ted Jordan.
The Met 20 was released around 1990 and features the Jordan JX53 and JX150 drive units. As far as we know, only seven pairs were ever made.. The JX150 is used over a wider bandwidth than usual, being allowed to roll off naturally until the crossover kicks in around 5 kHz. The JX53 crosses over at 2 kHz, instead of the 500 Hz Ted Jordan used to recommend. That greatly increases the power handling of the entire system, which is quoted at 200 watts (peak).
The unusual cabinet shape (it’s a truncated trapezoid or trapezium in the UK) is instrumental in spreading internal cabinet reflections, giving a cleaner sound, free from resonances. At 58 cms tall, it’s large for a stand-mounted speaker, but the shape would look well on top of a suitable subwoofer – as in this Eikona design from one of our customers.
Dick Sequerra has had a long and interesting career in hi-fi and there is a fascinating interview with him on the Stereophile website. At one point he says something which Ted Jordan would certainly have agreed with:
“The notion that audio is simple and easy to do is a big fantasy. There are very few people who have ever done it really well.”
If you would like to buy a rare piece of audio history, the very first production pair of the Sequerra/Jordan speakers are currently for sale on eBay in the US.
Postscript: We received a message via Facebook from the seller of these Sequerras:
“When I spoke to Dick 3 weeks ago he told me the ONLY reason he designed them was to show what the Jordan drivers could do in a single sealed enclosure. He said “Ted Jordan was an absolute genius”. Dick is 90 now and selling his studio.”