Stereophile – Herb Reichert
“I had forgotten how much havoc an energy-absorbing, phase-twisting, signal-molesting loudspeaker crossover could wreak. Within minutes of replacing my Falcon LS3/5a Gold Badges with the Marlows, I was stunned by how direct, quiet, and transparent the Jordans sounded. The Marlows evinced a crisp purity that made the Falcons seem a little misty-grainy. Reverb on Areni Agbabian’s reverb-drenched album, Bloom (24/96 FLAC, ECM/Qobuz) came through as purer, less homogenized, and more minutely textured with the Marlows than it did through my Falcons …
“The Marlow satisfied my hunger to peer into recordings as directly and excitedly as possible. I fell in love with its petite, truth-telling charms …
“If I were not a professional reviewer, I might marry this fetching full-range speaker, settle down, and live happily ’til death do us part.”
The Audiophiliac – Steve Guttenberg
“I think the EJ Jordan Marlow speaker is not anything like the LS3/5a type speaker. This speaker is going in the opposite direction … the Marlow is more exciting, it’s more a immediate sounding speaker, and I love it for that.”
HiFi Pig – Janine Elliot
“The clarity of that top end was excellent on The Eagles ‘Hotel California’, played both as my 192/24 FLAC and also from vinyl using my tangential arm Pre-Audio turntable. Both enabled me to carefully place the guitars in the soundstage with vocals equally well defined, showing the single driver allows for very accurate performance and positioning …
“This was not the most efficient pair of speakers (just like the LS3/5a’s) but I only needed around 1W from my KT88’s to drive them well …
“This is a very able speaker and I was able to listen to the Marlow CE for long periods without fatigue and found it very musical even with the pin-sharp speed of the notes.
“I certainly felt valve amplifiers work excellently with the loudspeaker and suggest that if you need a small loudspeaker, whatever your amplification, you should give the Marlow CE, or its cheaper sibling the Marlow, a listen.”
ToneAudio – Jeff Dorgay, issue 108
“I’ve never thought of LS3/5As as wooly or boxy (though they are a bit colored, especially through the mid bass range), but always as fun, very engaging, very musical small speakers that deliver a certain magic in a small room – in a near field situation. Thanks to my friend Erik at Gig Harbor Audio, I’ve even heard the LS3/5As rock in a medium sized room with a good subwoofer. However, going back to my pair of reference LS3/5As, I’m now ruined by the clarity that the Marlows provide …
“Whether you are building a compact, yet high-performance system for a small room, a second system, or even just want to keep a pair of these around for when you’re in the mood for a different drive, the EJ Jordan Marlows are one of the most enjoyable speakers we’ve had the pleasure to listen too. These may just end up back here at some point on a permanent basis.“