My audition experience/review - s718/606 jamo

corElement

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Greetings,

I have been lurking here for a few months and learnt a good bit and made a few decisions and now is the time I present what I've gone ahead with..

I had been going around listening to speakers and reading reviews all over the net and understanding the internals of audio components, frequencies, paper cones, the metals used, the transformers used etc, and how none of them really matter yet also matter in the quality of sound.

My budget was around 50k MAX for speakers but I refused to spend on just normal stuff for that range. I like my things to be unique in quality value and looks.

The brands I had auditioned for were

Pure acoustics, klipsch, philips, hollywood, tannoy, polk audio, wharfdale, tannoy, Sony, Samsung, yamaha, elac, onkyo - Almost everything which had good products for the sub 50 brand and also heard several +50 brands to understand what sets them apart and how to catch something worth more than 50k.

Floor Pieces:

When I was auditioning for the floor pieces, I tried to understand and recognize and differ between bright, warm, deep, cold, rich, fatigue, punching, shrills, etc sounds.

I wanted the floor standers to have a bright high, warm mids and deep lows. To question myself about this view and how drivers matter, I went to Bose. I listened to all their present models. I went to bose to try out what I learnt of all these other brands and what the fuss was all about.

The Instant I heard the highest model bose on their avr playing lord of the rings and any audio I instantly realised something, the sound was TERRIBLY WARPED, it felt all over the place, it was horrible to my ears. I couldnt believe the price of that sound was worth over 2lakhs. I ran out of the showroom seriously disgusted and went to klipsch.... PAINful sound, again I was really disappointed at how... cold the sound was no doubt.. the sound coming from a klipsch on an onkyo was far superior to any of the consumer htibs. It may have been my preference but the sound of klipsch is too crisp to listen and feel happy at home.

Various onkyo and pure acoustics experience.. onkyos amps from what I have researched seem to be loaded with features but have build issues but that is too subjective again so I'll just stick with my view on their htib models.. they're just ok... not worth their value 1 cent. I'd rather buy a z5500 from logitech than spend 55k on onkyo Htibs. Pure acoustics front pair and rear speakers, I'm not aware of the model number but they had glazed fronts and brass drivers around the 4-5i range, I knew they wouldn't be able to put out what I'm looking for.. but I heard them nevertheless, The towers themselves were near to the quality I was looking for but they were missing the highs and lows, the satellites were just ok if im being overly critical..however the pure acoustics sub was an epic fail at 150-200watts.

I went around auditioning with a select set of high quality recorded songs all over the place in ncr then I landed at the gurgaon MGF metropolitan mall cinebels showroom. They were loaed with JAMO towers and around my budget they presented me with the s405/6 5.0 set and s407/8...at first it sounded very bland but the sound was smooth and had a certain harmony, it was certainly more enjoyable than the harsher sounds like klipsch, not as articulate as wharfdale and not as sharp as yamaha. This was around 13k for the 5.0 set, so I asked the guy what they had for above this price range but not over 50k. Lo and behold he showed me the Jamo s606 and s718. Two models I had read about on this forum at this url

http://www.hifivision.com/speakers/2714-review-jamo-606-718-a.html

Let me tell you this, this guys review.. its true the 718 is better than the 606's but dont be put off by it, both sound superb! The s606 and s718 both were warm, harmonic and had the combination of "rich, deep and articulate" I was looking for. The 606 and 718 might have similar specs but they're very different in each other, the s606 and s608 are very famous online for being a budget 5.0 set but the s718 as speakers themselves the quality of sound was far superior. The difference was the s606 sounded far away while the s718 felt like like the singer was right infront of you and the music happening along side him. I asked the guy whats the thing on the side and he pointed out to a 10" driver built in to the pair, thus the s606/608 and s708/s718 ( S 718 Floorstanding Speaker - Description )had

1 tweeter
2 mid range the 6's had 5.5 hard cones the 7's had 6.5 softer cones
2 woofers - 8 on the 6's and 10's on the 7's

Everyone online told me a tower have such woofers on the body would make it have boomy overly bassy sound, let me tell you THIS IS NOT TRUE. if you wish for sound that feels like a jam session infront of you and harmonic notes flying infront of you YET not coloured! , very few speakers can beat the s718's. It's rich, its harmonic, its got the audiophilic look and more importantly the sound feels alive and not like a slap on your face!

s718_xl.jpg



If anyone has any questions or opinions on the s606 and s718's I'd love to hear em. Cuz mine are arriving on the 16th of Jan, 2010:D

Rear and center:

I auditioned for the e770 towers which I did not like as towers but then I found a listing on ebay US for a pair of e700's, the price of those are 25k+ so without battling an eyelid I bought em, 2 black rear e700's, excellent value for money and high end EISA award winning rears with 1st gen dtt tweeters!

jamo%20e%20700.jpg


Next in line was the center piece, I was looking at polk and tannoy but I found another cinebels on mehrauli road ghitorni in gurgaon which wasnt listed on their website and the guy there said he had one old stock e-7center and the store was closing, price 16k, Originally was 18-19k.

acustics_jamo_E7CEN.jpg


Overall the speaker audio quality I am superbly happy with and I feel it is indeed a very unique combination that rivals far more expensive ones!

End of the day.. its all subjective but if my kind of talk makes sense to you then you know I'm not talking just like that, its backed up by a lot of indepth research and hands on auditioning.


Now... someone help me out with avr's.. lol I'm about to start my research on them.. I want an hdmi one which has power and under 30k and dosnt cut off the front low frequencies since I'm not about to get a sub for a few months till wallet is fat again.. HELP!

AVR-793 Electronics - Description this one seems like a good one for playing off the comp but it dosnt have hdmi, analog dvd inputs and optical.. any suggestions pls.
 
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Thank you for the review.

It's a shame the Jamo S718 is not available here in America. I'll never have an opportunity to hear them.:sad:

I will tell you one thing.

All of my Jamo speakers (the C603, C607, C803, C807 and the marvelous C809 ) have a sweet warmth and richness to their sound, with the amplifiers, preamps and sources (Rega Saturn and SOTA Turntable) that I use with them.

In my experience, the components used with speakers have an effect on the resulting sound, of the systyem as a whole. As does room acoustics. Every room has different acoustics.


Thank again for taking the time to write your review and share your experiences.:clapping::clapping::thumbsup:
 
Okay i'm going for the Jamo 693 amp, the cinebels showroom said the s718 runs fabulously on the jamo amp if not the better than any other amp for its price and theyll try to find me an old stock.

For the moment im running it on an old sony amp... what sound omg so harmonic!
 
Greetings,

Two models I had read about on this forum at this url

http://www.hifivision.com/speakers/2714-review-jamo-606-718-a.html

Let me tell you this, this guys review is bogus, his testing amp is futile and his wording of "orchestral" is nonsense. the s606 and s718 both were warm, harmonic and had the combination of "rich, deep and articulate" I was looking for. The 606 and 718 might have similar specs but they're very different in each other, the s606 and s608 are very famous online for being a budget 5.0 set but the s718 as speakers themselves the quality of sound was far superior. .

Seems to be a nice review from your view... Please note that views recorded here are of individual taste and connected with different amps what you could have listened.

No need of bashing the review is bogus and please use your word carefuly and gently:mad: You are pointing to an senior member here:sad:

Please stop quoting other threads and put your views gently..:)

Thanks being around...:)
 
Seems to be a nice review from your view... Please note that views recorded here are of individual taste and connected with different amps what you could have listened.

No need of bashing the review is bogus and please use your word carefuly and gently:mad: You are pointing to an senior member here:sad:

Please stop quoting other threads and put your views gently..:)

Thanks being around...:)

hmm youre right but i didnt wanna offend anyone, and yes its individually subjective so if anyone who gets put off by that one will be able to relate to this one, *waves to that guy no OFFENCE INTENDED!* :D *edits origina*
 
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To be frank the C series at a nominal jump in price offer far greater value for money as compared to the S series of Jamo. But yes, if one were to look for building a HT setup, then the S series may makes sense because one can use the left over cash for the centre and surrounds.

Personally I would always pick the C405 at around the Rs. 40K mark as a better speaker than most others. And they go well with Marantz amplifiers too.

Corelement - you are not going to use a subwoofer in this setup?
 
As I have mentioned many times across the thread, speaker auditioning is very subjective and the environment is very important. And I have always requested members to listen to speakers themselves and decide. In my thread where I had reviewed the Jamo speakers, I had very specifically mentioned that I was unhappy with the listening environment.

At the same time, I would request the OP to be consistent with his information. In another thread http://www.hifivision.com/speakers/1136-jamo-c605-c607-5.html#post98549, he has quoted 'But yes I agree the s608 and 606 are definitely compromised sound.. just looks nice.. 606 sounds like some kind of music happening far far away.' And in the thread here, he says, 'its true the 718 is better than the 606's but don't be put off by it, both sound superb! The s606 and s718 both were warm, harmonic and had the combination of "rich, deep and articulate" I was looking for.' Of course a little further down the same para he goes on to say the 606 sounds far away.

In the English I am aware of, 'compromised', 'far far away', and 'superb' have opposite meanings.

Cheers
 
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I agree to both of you, its very subjective like I said at the end of my 1st post :p just take it with a hint of salt, didnt mean any offence to anyone, just excitement :D

thevortex thats the same point of view I came accross. =)
 
I agree to both of you, its very subjective like I said at the end of my 1st post :p just take it with a hint of salt, didnt mean any offence to anyone, just excitement :D

thevortex thats the same point of view I came accross. =)

If excitement happened in hearing an Live Instrument to your ears, we never think to offend anyone if we are live:lol:

If somebody has told it is very live and we become dead on hearing that, we will get offended:lol:

It is not your heart throb or your evergreen cinematic hero was reviewed and putdown.... :lol:

Almost most of the members are going for Jamo for the first time and I am on the same band since it is an reliable one and works faithfuly for the investment made for some years.. but my next change is different and I am inclined towards Wharf / ushers.....which i will deceide on auditions..

Have fun of staying here...
 
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My next one maybe 10 years down the line will be b&w or something of that range but I dunno, the sound is the main thing, as long as the sound makes me FEEL food, it dosnt have to be PERFECT but it needs to have that certain unique sound which your soul calls out for.
 
I have a peculiar report to give on the speakers.

The website is saying the speakers only go down to 40hz.
So I set the amp to a crossover of 40hz. I connected a logitech z5500 active sub to the avr with it, everything seemed fine.
Then I did something on the avr, I turned the subwoofer off and the 40hz crossover was removed and to my surprise the s718's limit..
IS DEFINITELY NOT 40hz AS STATED ON ITS WEBSITE. The towers themselves were going as low as the logitech subwoofer which
goes to 33hz. Only I couldnt find anyway to increase the volume of the bass but it was definitely clear and TIGHT bass which was
responding very well to the matrix audio stream. The logitech seemed boomy in comparison to the low frequencies the towers were
pushing even though they were not as loud as the logitech. It's impossible the towers are 40hz...as soon as the crossover from 40
was removed it went much lower..Now I dont know if I should even connect the sub, the towers themselves are pretty clear with
playful tight low frequencies as well as the rest.

Is a sub really needed ? Will I lose all the audio information which goes to the sub if I don't connect a sub for multichannel sources even though
my avr steps in to allow it to run in 5.0? I dont mind having no control on the low freqs because the clarity im getting better than the sub I have
right now. If the speakers actual capability is much lower than 40hz, I can only grant 40hz crossover to it if I place a sub.

Cant decide myself but if I'll be losing any audio information from the source if I dont have a sub connected I suppose I'll have to connect the sub..
 
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