The North West Audio Show in Cranage, Cheshire is turning out to be an increasingly popular event. It has an atmosphere and charm which eludes some of the larger, more international shows
This year’s was held on 18-19 June and it was a very enjoyable show with lots of exhibitors and enthusiastic listeners. The exhibition organisers did a fabulous job. The faux London road signs to guide visitors around the hotel were a splendid idea.
And yes, there was dancing in this one.
EJ Jordan Ltd was taking part as a guest of the Music First Audio. As usual, Jonathan Billington ensured that the Jenna suite was one of the most relaxed and enjoyable rooms. The music played came from his tiny HP Linux laptop or a very cute Akai GX-77 open reel machine. Jonathan was using his latest remote control, transformer passive preamp. The Music First Audio Reference v2 is, like all his designs, essentially transparent to the music and this one has some very clever remote control features, with a clear readout of source and volume level.
Incidentally, one thing we don’t think Music First Audio makes enough noise about is that Stevens-Billington is a company famous for making the audio transformers used in recording studios around the world. So if you’re listening through one of Jonathan’s preamps, you’re using transformers that could be directly related to those used to record the music you’re hearing.
But back to the Audio Show – what, we hear you ask, were the loudspeakers we were using?
Meet the new Jordan Greenwich. These have been a year in development, following on from the success of the Marlow launched last June. They follow a similar formula with a high-quality birch thin-wall cabinet, heavily damped and aligned for a fast transient response to match our unique Jordan Eikona full-range drivers. The Greenwich uses two Eikonas in a 16-litre cabinet to provide greater power handling and dynamic range whilst retaining the same, delicate, high resolution sound quality.
The Greenwich is very new and won’t be launched until the Autumn; the examples at the North West Audio Show were the very first production pair.
It’s always nerve-wracking to unveil a new product to the public, especially in the harsh glare of an audio show, but the reactions to the new Greenwich were extremely encouraging:
“How can speakers that size sound so big?” [show visitor]
“These are better than my Harbeth SLH5s” [show visitor]
“The [Greenwich are] essentially a twin driver version of the Marlows and they sounded quite excellent.” [LencoHeaven forum]
“The little EJ Jordan speakers, using a brace of full-range Jordan Eikona drivers on the back of a Lampizator DAC and more Longdog mono amps. A seriously addictive, natural and smooth sound. Definitely one for LS3/5A fans. No party music here, but on small scale acoustic these were just phenomenal. And very reasonably priced too.” [WAM forum]
“EJ Jordan speakers & MFA/Longdog & Lampizator DAC – another wow!” [WAM forum]
“This year at North West Audio Show Jonathan was showing off his REF2 preamplifier at £6600 and using a Lampizator Baltic DAC. Speakers were [EJ Jordan Greenwich] … with dual full range drivers …the sound in this room was much bigger than the modest speakers would have had you think and Malcolm McClaren’s “I Like You in Velvet” sounded fab. Also sounding rather splendid was a recording made in a chapel/church *, with this system (using Longdog Audio amps) presenting the captured atmospherics wonderfully.” [HiFi Pig show report]
[* Available from MA Recordings ]
Price and specification of the Greenwich is still being finalised but they will be available this Autumn.
This is a substantial addition to the Jordan range and once again shows off the exquisite performance of Ted Jordan’s full-range drive units. Subscribe to the EJ Jordan Newsletter for more announcements.