Todd’s Jordan Eikona 2 system

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We recently sold a pair of Jordan Eikona 2s to Todd in the USA. He admitted from the start that he hadn’t put them in ideal enclosures, just a pair of sealed cubes he happened to have around which had previously done duty as woofer enclosures. However we think they look pretty neat and Todd is certainly impressed with the sound:

“Oh my….word….it’s glorious sounding! In over 20 years of being an audiophile I have never heard a stereo sound this amazing, ever. And I mean that. And I’ve heard B&W systems, Avalon with spectral gear and many others. Granted not their highest of the high end systems but probably $50,000 stereo systems in dedicated large rooms.

“I literally listened to music for 12 hours straight late into the night. No fatigue whatsoever either. It’s the most real, fluid, organic, 3D sound I’ve ever heard. I can’t even believe it every time I listen. It’s like the best of what people like about vinyl, the best about tubes, the best about electrostats, combined with the best about solid state. And then it just blows that away. Incredibly powerful too. Very dynamic. Sounds like I have a small sub hidden somewhere.

“Obviously it can’t do a perfect kickdrum. If I could get that bottom end I would honestly say that I have an entire reference quality system better than I’ve heard anywhere else. And I really need a more robust cabinet so I don’t hear the sound through the walls. One thing I have to watch with these speakers is they tend toward the slightly darker side so it takes careful adjustments to keep it just right.

“When I finally can I’m going to build a very thick cabinet, and make a granite baffle. Then add a bass unit with a 12” Eton driver. The same ones the most expensive Avalon speakers use. And cross it over fairly low so I don’t have to add anything to the Jordan.

“My mom came to visit. She’s heard pretty much every system I’ve ever had. Usually she just chats and doesn’t pay much attention when I sit her down in the listening chair. This time however she sat quiet, intently looking into the music soundstage, “wow, that sounds so good!”. She kept saying that. She started looking around the soundstage where the instruments would float in air. Then I put on some Roger Waters, she looks over real fast to the left of her, “where is that coming from??”. The voice on the song is floating directly left of her, she can’t figure it out since there is no actual speaker there. She looks back but with her head cocked slightly to the left intently listening to what the voice is saying into her left ear, as the music plays and unfolds in the front.

“The speakers are totally gone 100%. It doesn’t even look like they are on. Every bit of sound is massive and floating in space. Far above, far behind, far to the left and right, and sometimes in front and even behind in certain select instances. The even more exciting thing is I know I can get even more refined sound and improvements with what I want and need to still do.

“I know, I know, I sound like a salesman. But it’s just that exciting and engaging every single time I listen. I feel very few people, even fellow audiophiles, get to experience what I’ve managed to set up with this system.”

When we asked Todd if we could quote his post, he generously agreed and added:

“Every time I do upgrades to the rest of my system these speakers just keep getting better and better. They are able to resolve any and every improvement I do to an astonishing level. And I’ve improved my system a lot since then.”

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2 Comments

  1. Todd, I enjoyed your enthusiastic review. You are correct in looking to improve the enclosure rigidity in order to get the very best out of this fabulous drive unit. A granite baffle will be difficult to cut the right diameter hole and fix t nuts. There is a ready made alternative. Check out the Aspen HDL at matteisloudspeakers. I have sent out 2 pairs of baffles this week and will be publishing more detailed instructions on how to build shortly. These speakers create a sense of presence to music conventional wooden speakers can not approach.

  2. Some nice positive comments from these posts which I feel describe the qualities of these drivers accurately.Although I’ve not actually heard the Eikona I do run a pair of JX53 and JX125 with 1st order crossovers.These portray the same sense of 3D space and ”in the room” presence and are very revealing of system changes and recordings,good or bad.Good luck to Todd with the baffle change and integration of the bass unit.I’m sure this will then be a very resolute wide bandwidth speaker system free of the phase problems and loss of information(music!) introduced by complex crossovers especially when working at the high 2.5k range as used with dome tweeters.

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