Soundboard JMC

So, this is primarily for eso but it may interest some other readers.

Having read about them online, I today went to listen to the Soundboard by JMC Lutherie ( http://www.jmclutherie.com/en/Soundboards ). This is a speaker that is using wood to provide a unique sound quality, and is made by a small Swiss manufacturer. They are originally makers of wooden string instruments, but have moved to create some innovative high-end audio things. I was intrigued by the Soundboard, and so had to go and listen to it.

I often find that these days there are several manufacturers that come out with high-end products, but that are actually more just bling. I am not going to provide any specific names here, but there are quite a few. Unfortunately this Soundboard very much falls in this category. It looks great, costs here close to $10'000, but the sound very much lets it down.

The sound is very detailed and crisp, and it is easy to distinguish every instrument on a piece of classical music. However, it is all very flat and lacks warmth. I had been hoping for a warm sound, without the over-hyped bass we tend to get these days, and well it did lack the bass but also really had no warmth. The sound reminded me a bit of what you would get from the old Quad electrostatic speakers. They had an incredible range, but the overall result was still somehow flat.

Seriously, for that kind of money you can so easily do much better, and also much more stylish. It's a pity because I liked the concept...

Mission 753's (Freedom or original - the jury is still out).
Bi-amped and bi-wired - the jury voted unanimously.

And my work here is done...

I have never heard the Missions, but it sounds like I should try and listen to them....

Henrik - I used to have a pair of Mission 734i's.
I LOVED them to pieces...quite literally!

But when I was made redundant back in the day (December 2006), feeling miserable I went onto eBay in search of some proper "Retail Therapy".
I'd read some great things about the Mission 753's, but never actually heard them.
And even if I'd have listened to them in a 'showroom', that would/could never emulate the source/amp/room that I was (am still!) running.

Anyhoo - on eBay and saw a pair of these Mission 753 Freedoms on a 'buy-now' at £240.
Utterly immaculate nick - not a ding or scratch on or to them.
Sod it, I thought: let's go for it!!!
The seller (Carl) lived about 30 miles to the NE of me, and after a 'phone conversation we arranged that he'd drop them off to me on the way to London for petrol money.

Duly delivered, I started to hook them up to my Technics SU-C800UM2 Pre-amp, my pair of SE-A1000M2 Power amps, and HHB CDR850 CD player/recorder.
(I won't bother you with the interconnect and speaker cable details just now).
The following is my email to Carl after the 'listening tests':

Hi Carl,
So, I wired one of the 753 speakers up after transferring the spikes from one of my 734i’s, popped the old stereo into mono and put on a CD that I know well.

Comparing the 753 directly against the 734i, and I could tell only very very slight differences – possibly with the 734i sounding a little bassier and the 734i treble a little crisper. Crikey I thought – what have Mission done? – my original 20yr old speakers sounding arguably better than a pair half the age...!

Anyway, I spiked and wired the other 753 into position, and replayed the same track on the same CD – and I was still unconvinced that they were as good as the 734i’s....

....UNTIL....I stood in my usual listening position (up against the window by the desk / PC)...and that’s when I noticed it. The 734i’s always produced a standing wave at about 100hz, artificially enhancing the bottom-end which I had always put down to speaker placement firing the sound down a narrowish room, and so the sound in my usual listening position was previously way bass-heavier than anywhere else in the room. But with the 753’s, the frequency response sounds exactly the same all over the entire room – totally controlled. The notes of the bass guitar and bass pedals are all exactly the same volume across the octave, so no more room colouration or boominess.

And the treble isn’t in fact less-crisp – there is more warmth and detail from the upper midrange in the 753, whereas the 734i has the top-end quite isolated/exposed and therefore apparently sounding crisper but in reality really only being caused by a lack of information from the midrange – brittle is the phrase that I’m hunting for.

How Mission have achieved this is beyond me...! Possibly something to do with using smaller but multiple bass drivers, and splitting the midrange from the bottom-end via the cross-over. No matter – it took me a while to appreciate these speakers, but I’m now hearing more and more very subtle but better differences. Almost like a fine wine, the initial impact might be understated, but the flavour improves with every sip.

And because they’re SO much smaller than the old 734i’s, I’ve now got even more space for playing air-guitar in...chuckle.

I can’t thank you enough for delivering them – certainly the fastest eBay transaction payment-to-receipt that I’ve ever enjoyed. Shame that eBay Feedback only allows for a paltry number of characters that frankly didn’t allow me to do justice to just HOW grateful I am.

Hope that you got to your London appointment on time, and that the tattooist did his work satisfactorily.

I promise to run these speakers up slowly this evening before window-shaking volumes are reached – my only worry now is what to play first, as I’m going to be hearing the bottom-end of my entire collection with a new and refined relish.

Thanks again.

Louis.

Someone (Eso?) has a pair of Urei's in their workshop for background music whilst they're working...FFS!
Short of ripping out walls and building an extension to the house (on the first floor!), I can't justify a 'built-in' speaker system - let alone stand-alones of that physical size.
Still jealous though...!

Bottom Line: don't buy just on price, or even 'tech-reviews'.
If you get a chance, try something in your own home - with your own amps and source.
(Some specialist hi-fi shops still provide this service here in the UK!)

Thanks for allowing me the opportunity to share...even if arguably TMI?

I hear you Gelert (see how I used a reference to listening there...) Actually, I totally agree with what you are saying, and have always applied that in the past. In testing out the Soundboard I was not in fact looking at purchasing anything new as I am quite satisfied with my current setup. I happened across an article on the Soundboard, and was intrigued by the concept, and the fact that a luthier would turn to producing speakers. The sounds of violins and cellos have always fascinated me, and I was sort of hoping that these speakers may somehow reproduce this magic. The fact that they are produced nearby, and that eso is involved in some exclusive high-end audio stuff, I told him I would check them out.

As for my own setup, I actually got my speakers while in Singapore. There was a mall there exclusively selling audio stuff. It was heaven on earth, and I was able to listen to pretty much anything you can think of. Well, in the end I got a Jamo setup which cost very little, and with a very basic receiver produces exactly the sort of sound I like. It is warm, clear with a perfect bass sound. Initially I had a Jamo receiver for it too, but since that broke I bought a cheap Sony thing, and even with that the sound is still amazing.

I have always liked Jamo products, and tend to find them very underrated.