Incoming ... Joseph Audio Pulsars

Congrats on acquiring a fine pair of loudspeakers. I've only heard Joseph  Audio speakers once, briefly, at the '07 RMAF, and was very impressed by them.

Enjoy, regards,
Dan

Well done!

I only discovered Joseph Audio speaker within the last year or two (always hear of them, never heard them) and they are now among my favorite.  I auditioned the Pulsars and the Perspective and still crave a pair of Perspective (which I hope to own some day).

Joseph speakers have an incredible tone/midrange/highs - as grain free and liquid as I've ever heard, super clear, and they produce a rainbow of timbral colors from instruments and voices better than most speakers I've heard. 

Thanks. I'm using a JL Audio e110 Subwoofer with the Pulsars and high pass it to my power amp. When I turn off the cross over, the bass coming from the sub becomes louder. Is that because it's just taking a direct signal and doubling the speakers? Does this do any harm to the sub, or should I keep the cross over engaged?

how much were they ?

Joseph Audio speakers sound great every time I hear them.  Usually among my favorites at audio shows. 

It was MSRP, but I got a very competitive trade-in credit for the 17 year old B&Ws, so that saved me a lot of trouble in putting ’em up for sale privately and perhaps waiting a long time for a local pick up. Sure, I probably left a few bucks on the table by trading them in instead of selling them here, but it’s done, I’m happy, and the Pulsars are not going anywhere for a long time, if ever.

Congrats!  Love the sapele finish too.  Would be interesting to know how much the sub adds once you get it dialed in. 

since you didn't want to tell me, I found a review that mentioned the price..  WOW.

Yeah, I know. But, I look at it this way ... I got on a trade-in almost 60% of what I paid for the B&Ws new, 17 years ago. So, factoring in my net cost (i.e., purchase price less trade-in amount), I essentially rented those speakers for about $9 a month over a 17 year period. Not bad. With the trade-in credit of about 60%, the Pulsars became less expensive new than some of their competitors used. And, I’ve loved their sound for a long time, but always was reluctant to pull the trigger ’cuz I didn’t want to spend the dough. Finally, I decided that since I rarely buy anything for myself, it was time to make ME happy for a change. The wife was all for it, so nothing to stand in the way but me, and that became a non-issue.

Well if you makes you happy, then its worth every penny.. Everything is expensive in audio if you want something real nice.. I'm wanting the new Paradigm Persona B and that's the same price as yours.. I have the Signature S2v3 right now.. Waiting for a used pair to come up..

Right. This hobby is an expensive one since generally we go through a lot of equipment over time before we find the "right one," or so we think. Upgradeitis is a curse to which we all succumb. I've been pretty lucky over time in that I haven't changed equipment much, although I have gone through a bunch of cables along the way. The Persona B is an excellent speaker; I hope you can get it for the price you want.

The Pulsars are excellent speakers and respond to the quality of the electronics and recordings. They reproduce what they are feed. I owned them and now have a pair of Perspectives. 

The Perspectives are great, but were out of my budget and likely would not have worked well in my tiny 10x10x8 room. Does anyone know the -3dB rating of the Pulsars? I'm trying to dial in the sub, and the -3dB number will help with the crossover setting. Thanks.

enjoy !
this hobby is inexpensive relative to chasing fish....

@rlb61 You can find the Stereophile review with the specs and measurements here.

Congrats.  Great speakers.

@djohnson54 ... unfortunately, the Stereophile measurements don’t give the -3dB rating. But, that's OK. I spoke to Jeff Joseph himself who told me that the Pulsars work great with the sub xover set to 80Hz. So, that's where I set the xover and it sounds fantastic. 

Glad you found the information you were looking for.  FWIW, from the graph in figure 4 of the measurements section, you can see that the -3dB point would be somewhere in the neighborhood of 44-46 Hz.

@djohnson54  ... thanks for the approximation of the -3dB point. I'm not very good with those types of calulations.

very nicely done, congrats!  dont they look like a million as well as sound that way too?  beautiful speakers.
dealers have to he careful because the pulsars make everything else in their store sound like crap.i heard the othe ja speskers, the perspectives, the prisms and the profile.  none of themhave the magic of the pulsars and i downright did not care for the prisms or the profiles.  but the pulsars?  among the best ever made.  

@avanti1960 ... thanks. The Pulsars are really a cut above the rest. Paired with my JL Audio e110 subwoofer, the sound is sublime. Everything sounds "right," and I now appreciate the superiority of a fabric dome tweeter over an aluminum dome one, like in the B&Ws. And, the looks are just amazing ... absolutely beautiful. I wish I would have bought the Pulsars years ago; however, better late than never.

I extensively auditioned the Pulsars and the Perspectives.  The Pulsars were fabulous but once I heard the Perspectives they blew me away even more.  I still hope to own a pair in the (not too distant) future. I also find them to be among the most elegant looking speakers I've ever seen.

BTW, Jeff Joseph will be demoing the Perspectives in the upcoming Montreal Audio Show if anyone here is going.

Congratulations on your purchase - as a Pulsar owner I am quite confident you will be happy with your decision. 

With respect to avanti1960’s post I am surprised by your opinion of the Prisms.  Having owned the Prisms prior to upgrading to the Pulsars, I thought they had a remarkable family resemblance and although a little more difficult to dial-in than the Pulsars in my medium sized listening room they always sounded great. I used them with a REL subwoofer and they were only moderately less impressive than the Pulsars once the set up was optimized.   That’s the tricky thing about listening at dealers - it’s still hard to replicate how much better a speaker can sound when completely dialed into a room and the room optimized to the system.

With the Pulsars however no need for the sub in my room so I sold it and someday maybe will add back in a pair of JL Audio Fathoms or similar sub that offers DSP giving me a homegrown version of the Pearl 3’s.  :-)

I had the pleasure of hearing the pulsars with some Solutions amplification.  It was remarkable.  Clean and clear as day.  Have never stopped looking for a pair of used pulsars but they never seem to be on sale here in Agon...for good reason.  

@mlschneid ... I find it interesting that you use the Pulsars without a sub. I've tried it both ways in my small room, and have found that the sub really adds a lot to the sound of the Pulsars in terms of depth and dimension of instruments. There's just so much a 5.5" midrange/bass driver can do. Since you have a medium sized room, what was it about the sub that you didn't like in that environment?

Welcome to the JA family. 
I have the Pulsars in Sapele finish as well for less than a year and enjoy every minute I listen to them. I owned Merlin TSM and Audio Physics Sitara right before the Pulsars and the Pulsars bested them all in every respect except for the imaging recreate on the Audio Physics (these things image like ghost) but the Pulsar high is so extend and airy w/ no fatigue, mid range is spot on.
I drive the Pulsars w/ PL DiaLogue Premium HP integrated KT150's mostly in triode mode and complement the low w/ a REL R528SE where crossover is set at 60Hz To my ears they are very well matched. The Pulsars by themselves don't need sub on most music passage, they sound bigger than their sizes indicated.

Good to see the Joseph Audio vibe going on here.

I really wish I could be in Montreal to hear the JA Perspectives Jeff is bringing for demo this weekend.

I have yet to hear even faint praise for the Pearl 3. 

"I have yet to hear even faint praise for the Pearl 3. "

Are you joking?  You must not be paying attention then.

There is plenty of praise for the Pearl speakers, including the Pearl 3.  In fact I don't think I've ever read anything but a positive, if not positively glowing, report on the Pearl 3 and the earlier Pearl models.  Just a quick google brings up these:

https://audio-head.com/joseph-audio-and-the-pearl-3-ces-2017/

https://www.soundandvision.com/content/joseph-audio-has-pearl

https://positive-feedback.com/Issue64/rmaf12dr.htm

https://www.stereophile.com/content/munich-high-end-2013

https://parttimeaudiophile.com/2013/11/04/rmaf-2013-joseph-audio-jeff-rowland-vpi-soundsmith-cardas-...

http://www.vpiindustries.com/single-post/2017/12/05/HW-Review-3---Joseph-Audio-Pearl-3

https://audio-head.com/joseph-audio-and-the-pearl-3-ces-2017/

http://audiophilemusings.blogspot.ca/2017/06/munich-high-end-2017-alluxity-joseph.html

https://parttimeaudiophile.com/2010/11/01/joseph-audio-pearl-2/

I've never heard a bad word said about the Pearl 3 and I suspect you'd have to work much harder to dig any up relative to how easy it is to find plenty of good notices.

Yes Jafant, that has intrigued me as well.  We hear of very few Pearl owners (though there's a nice report in the links I gave from the VPI guy.

"I have yet to hear even faint praise for the Pearl 3. "

That’s the single worst -- and in fact the only negative -- thing I’ve ever seen written about the Pearls. Hearing Satchmo’s "Saint James Infirmary" on vinyl through them (original Pearls BTW) at a NYC show remains one of my top audio reproduction related experiences of all time.

@jafant -- if I was fortunate enough to own Pearls I'd be listening rather than wasting my time writing posts, so no surprise we don't hear from them often.  The fact that they very rarely come up for sale here is telling. 

I think markalarsen was a "drive by."  I doubt he will be back to support his comment.

Btw, I just had the opportunity to purchase, at a very good price, the Joseph Audio Perspective speakers used at the Montreal Audio Fest.
As much as I really want a pair of the Perspectives, I know that any speaker I buy I may end up selling, and I figured a white speaker would be much harder to re-sell than the other finishes.  (And besides, I want one of the other finishes to match my room).

@rlb61 with respect to your question about the use of subs in my room with the Pulsars, a number of factors were at work in this decision.  First by playing with placement, I was able to get in room response flat to about 35hz with the Pulsars and no sub vs 42hz with the Prisms (without the sub).  And that makes a big difference between acceptable and not - particularly given that the Pulsars are more dynamic anyway.   Secondly - I have a strong room mode at 31hz so with a sub (even with tube traps etc.) I need to use a DSP system (DSPEAKER Antimode in the case of my REL with the Prisms) to deal with that.  And lastly, I always felt like I wanted a pair of subs vs one and felt that was true even more so with the Pulsars.  So bottom line, I decided to sell my DSP and the sub for now and, as mentioned, will probably add subs back when I can afford a pair that has DSP built in - like the Fathoms. 

I just noticed markalarsen mentioned he has the Perspectives, so maybe not a drive-by as I suggested.  I'm still interested in anything negative he has heard about the Pearls, as that was a most unusual comment.

FYI:

Stereophile just put up a new binaural video:

https://www.stereophile.com/content/bed-stuy-ci%C2%B7n%C3%A9%C2%B7ma-v%C3%A9%C2%B7ri%C2%B7t%C3%A9

Herb Reichert reviewing the Joseph Audio Pulsars!  You can "hear" the Pulsars play in the video.  It does capture some of that special JA sound, IMO.  Herb speaks of a "quiet" character to JA speakers and that is exactly what I hear.  There is a really special lack of grain and black background that seems to let an amazingly pure vocal and instrumental tone through. 

Congratulations on your excellent acquisition. Curious to know what amp/preamp you’re using to drive them.  I never forget the huge sound I heard coming out of these speakers paired with an Ayre AX-5 Twenty. Probably one of the best monitor size speakers I’ve ever heard and I had not even heard the brand until then. 
Enjoy.

@kalali ... thanks. I'm using an older Musical Fidelity A300cr amp (225 wpc/dual mono ... and made in England at the time) and a BAT VK-3i preamp. The only thing that sucks is the piano black gloss finish on the front, top and back, which is prone to micro-scratches and fingerprints. I guess that's just part of the overall experience.

@prof what I meant, although inarticulately phrased, is that the praise always is strong not faint. There is no criticism. If I sell my Perspectives, big if, it would be to replace them with Pearl3s. 

There is no condemnation through faint praise. 

@prof Rich, hope you are well. I may have read your post incorrectly. Did you buy a pair of Perspectives or decide to forego buying them because they were white?
Regards
Al

@maralarsen,

Ok, thanks for the clarification.  Makes sense now.  I'd love to have room (and budget) for Pearl 3s.   But if I buy JA it would be the Perspectives.

@astewart8944

I've been interested in owning the Perspectives since I demoed them at a store and in my home.  They are very expensive though!   And I absolutely require the right finish on them to match my room.   I can have
a custom finish done if I want, but that increases the price.

I could have bought the white ones used in the recent Montreal show, through my local Joseph Dealer.  I was seriously contemplating the purchase as it was a great price, and I figured I could have the finish altered later if I decided to keep the Perpectives.  Unfortunately the fact they were all white put the kebosh on that idea.  It would mean even if I had the wood finish panels changed, the the front and top would remain white - yuck!  So, if I want a pair of Perspectives it looks like I'll have to buy new.

I have a pair of Thiel 3.7s I'll have to sell before going down that road, though.  (I also have a pair of Thiel 2.7s that I'm keeping, because I can't totally give up the Thiel sound!)

@prof Thanks for the clarification. I'm guessing that your desired finish is sapeli or rosewood? If so I'll keep my eyes open for you. Mine are sapeli and they are a beautiful finish. I think white would be a hard resell, probably why the really good deal was on the table.
Cheers
Al

@astewart8944

I would love to be able to grab a used pair of Perspectives, but I am committed to buying from my local Joseph Dealer.   The finish I really want, that I would get custom, is either Macassar Ebony or Tiger Ebony.  Not only are they dramatic grains, the color tends to be more black/brown with yellow highlights which is the exact color scheme of my room.  Speakers that are too orange don't look right, and Rosewood as nice as the grain is often can be orangy-red.  I had a pair of Harbeth Super HL5 Plus speakers in Rosewood and it was, in of itself, an absolutely gorgeous finish.  But it clashed with the room.   

So my plan would be to order a pair in Rosewood, and given the variation in color, ask for a pair that is tending more towards brown.  If I live with them for a while and decide I want to sell them, it would be a good finish for re-sell.  But if I decided to keep them I'd later on have them re-finished to the Ebony wood.   Whoever does the woodwork for Joseph is amazing and I drool over the idea of how an Ebony wood Perspectives could look, done by Jeff's cabinet guy.

Sorry...more than you wanted to know there.  But the Perspectives have been on my mind for almost a year since I demoed them.

We had the Pulsars in sapeli. My wife picked maple for the Perspectives. Great choices. 

It was a tough choice for me between sapele and maple. I chose the sapele and it's really gorgeous.

The sapele is an amazing finish.  Deep and luxurious. That's the pair I had in for demo.  (Just didn't match my decor).

I have to say I really enjoy audio-jewelry, where I look at an item with and think it's beautiful and adds to the room, rather than detracts.   The Josephs are one of those items  - for my money, the Perspectives being among the most elegant floor standing speakers I've seen.

If I were going for floorstanders, I’d get the Perspectives, too. Also, just a note that Jeff Joseph is one of THE nicest amd most helpful guys in all of hi-end audio. He's a real gentleman all around.