Speaker Asylum: REVIEW: JMLab Chorus 706 V Speakers by strangebrewpr

Model:	Chorus 706 V
Category:	Speakers
Suggested Retail Price:	$750
Description:	2 way bookshelf speaker
Manufacturer URL:	JMLab
Model Picture:	View

Review by strangebrewpr on July 23, 2013 at 21:22:04
IP Address: 70.45.251.49 Add Your Review
for the Chorus 706 V

Hi guys . I was for quite a while looking to buy an inexpensive bookshelf speaker . Came upon a auction on Ebay for a pair of JMlabs Chorus 706V in perfect condition with a beginning auction price of 199.00 .
It's cost when they came out on the market (very recently) was 750.00 . Right now they can be bought for 500.00 new . I won the auction and received the speaker which was in perfect , mint condition . Looked brand new . The speaker has turn out to be quite a decent performer which has motivated me to write a review .

It's 15 3/8 tall , 9 3/4 in depth with 9 inches wide . Top , bottom , sides , back and front are all made of 1 inch MDF with internal bracing . It is very solid , so much so as to make the knuckle test a very unpleasent experience . It's construction for the price is excellent . On the back it has a pair of very sturdy , big five way binding post made of plastic but seems to be solid . As I understand it JMlabs don't believe very much in bi wiring so their speakers come with just a pair of binding post only . On the front baffle we have a port which seems to be design to avoid air distortion , woofer and tweeter . They work at a 24 DB per octave crossover being 12 DB electrical and another 12 DB acoustic . The finish on the speaker is a bit poor as it is vinyl and looks like the type of vinyl paper you can buy at walmart . They look ok from a distance but when you get close to the speaker they are a slight let down .

The drivers are totally design and built by JMlabs . The woofer is a 6 1/2 inch paper cone which has been impregnated with micro spheres of glass to enhance its solidity without adding weight for good transient response . The same woofer is used by JMlabs for many of their upper and more expensive speakers . On the tweeter there is a story to be told . JMlabs engineers wanted to develope a tweeter that had the caracteristics of their famous berylium tweeter used on their Utopia but with a lower price tag . As many of you know JMlabs uses a inverted type tweeter which used to be made of titanium . Many found the tweeter to be extremely detail but slightly bright . They came up with a combination of aluminum with magnesium , an alloy sort that gave the tweeter a sound comparable to their expensive offering but with a much lower price .

I've been in audio for about 40 years and have seen them come and go , Tubes and transistor , phono and digital . My musical taste is ecleptic , as long as if it's nicely perform I might hear it , well , except rap music and some heavy metal music which instead of making me dance and move to the music makes me run to my medicine cabinet and take some Xanax . At this moment my system comprises of a Project Expression II turntable with a speed box and an Ortofon Salsa Moving coil cartridge . I have two amps and two preamps and change them depending if I want to experiment or just plainly have fun .

Mccormack DNA 125 and a Michael Elliott from the late counterpoint modified NPS 100 using nos tubes . Preamps are the Audible Illusions 3A with optional gold moving coil phono board and a PS Audio P.S. 5.0 with modified power supply . Cd source is by a Consonance Turnadot Cd player and a Cambridge Audio Azur 640C .Speakers are Spica TC-50 with modified crossover using clarity caps and Magnepan 1.6 which are being repair right now by myself after my cats used it as a scratching panel and destroyed the tweeter part (luckly the panel was not pierced) Power conditioning is by Van Evers . Sub bass duty is called upon one HSU subwoofer mack III . All power and signal cabling is by JPS Labs Superconductor Cables (except the Ps Audio which is captive).Everything mounted on a Lovan shelf system which uses MDF on all their shelfs which are individually spiked on four points one over the other .

Room has the duty of kitchen and living room is rather small . It's retangular in shape , 22 feet long by 14 feet wide on one side getting to 10 feet on the other end which is where my system and speakers are on the short wall for bookshelf speakers and on the long side for my planars. Speakers were or are placed on Lovan metal speakers stand , 25 inchers with it's center column filled with acrylic sand (black beauty) . One speaker is about 2 1/2 feet from the side wall and the other is about 3 feet from the side walls , 3 1/2 feet from the back wall . Asymetrical placement is done to avoid standing waves from forming .

Why do I go into so much depth on my system and room ? Because to review a speaker without giving the reader what it was reviewed with and where is futility in it's maximum expression . At last , let's get to the nitty gritty , the sound . Knowing that the speaker must have been already broken in I went straight to how it sound . I don't think it was fully broken in as the sound of the speaker change for the better the more I heard it or it might have been put away without use for some time , what ever the reason the speaker did not sound all that good at the beginning of my audition . Bass was rather a bit boomy with a foward top end , not very coherent . I first started to hear the speakers on the long wall where I usually have my planars. As usual I heard and moved the speakers a bit , heard again and moved again , but this constant moving around is a sure sign that I wasn't very happy with the results I was getting . If placed to close to the wall it was boomy , to far off bass was a bit lean . Finished placing the speaker at 28 3/4 inches from the back wall where the bass was pretty deep for a bookshelf but a bit boomy . This bass boom robbed bass instruments of some of their attack and detail , the good thing being it did not intrude in the critical midbass and lower midrange which were pretty well defined with a warmish tone , to warm for my taste . The top end was a bit bright but did not intrude on the music as it's quality was very good , with very low coloration and distortion . But there was a splashsiness on the very top which showed its face sometimes and did distract me from enjoying the music . It started to fade the more I used the speaker but never really went away .

The midrange was this speaker strenght as it was smooth , coherent and musical , but it still was on the warmish side . I have always believe that proper tone should be one of the most important characteristics a system should have . It does not matter how good the imaging and soundstaging might be , or the highs or bass extension and sweet sound , if the tone is off , for me it will detract from my musical enjoyment , it will sound more like a reproduction and less like the real thing if the tonal quality of the system is off . No amount of fiddling around with the system truly eliminated this warmish quality to the sound .

Then metamorphosis happened . I , all of a sudden thought on putting the speaker on the short wall . Turned off the amp , mute on the preamp , took the speaker cables off and moved the speakers to their new position . As soon as the needle of my turntable started to vibrate I looked at the speaker because the change of the sound was as such as I have never experienced before . They began to sound as totally different speakers

The warmth vanished . The warmth that remain was the one on the recording if it had it . Every recording sounded different , giving me proper insight on the recording engineers perspective on the sound . Bass was now pretty deep for a bookshelf speaker of this size with excellent dynamics . Midbass was well damped , with snap and toe tapping engagement . The midrange was still smooth but now with excellent tonality and just the right amount of warmth when called for . The tonal quality of this speaker verged between the warm and dry side , right smack in the middle , not to much warmth , not to much dryness . On the absolute , the midrange could have had a bit more harmonic content but this could have been my cartridge , the Ortofon Salsa which verges on the analytic and does not give me the harmonics overtone in the midrange some upper price cartridges might be able to reproduced . The upper midrange was very well rendered , with bite and good coherence with the highs .
. The highs were very well extended . It gave the sensation as the limiting factor to be my ears and not the speakers . Not only were they extended but well placed in the soundstage . Instruments with high content placed deep in the soundstage had all of it's extension well preserved and easy to hear . The sound was now so good as to have me toe tapping and dancing to the music , even with a air guitar when rock was playing . It was extremely involving . Prat was excellent .

Now to the soundstage . It was slightly extended out of the speakers on musical content that had this information . Depth was good . The soundstage started behind the speakers and extended towards the back giving a sensation of being in the first seats of an auditorium . With instruments nicely placed one behind the other . The spacing between the performers was not up to upper class performers in this regard as my Spica TC 50 or my Magnepans but in this regard I have always thought that this is an artifact of stereo recordings as I have never been able to apreciate this in a live performance. Focus of the images was more on the natural side of things , with the outline of the performers slightly unfocus and verging on the soundfield as you can hear in a live performance . I confess to like nicely focusing speakers but admit that this is not necesarily natural , but liked very much . If you are in to this part of Hi Fi stay away from these speakers as they dont image as some other speakers do .

My conclusion of these inexpensive speakers is that they are too good for their own sake and many who might consider them will be paring them with Mid Fi equipment not capable of extracting their full potential . They are that good . Tonal quality is excellent from the midbass all the way up to the extreme highs . The deep bass lacks a bit of detail but is very well extended and punchy for a speaker in this price range. They are dynamic all over and can play very loud without complaining or distorting , much more then what you get from other speakers at this price range . Maybe this is because of it's extremly solid constructions , way above its price range . Just one more thing I would like to add . The sound they reproduce just does not sound like a bookshelf speaker as they give you the impression of being a medium sized floor standing speakers in their dynamic expression .

If you audition this speaker be aware that they are extremely sensitive to placement and as they can sound superb they can also sound just so and so if not properly placed .

Product Weakness:	Extremely sensitve to placement.
Product Strengths:	Tonality , high frequencies extension and naturalness , dynamics from lows to highs .

Associated Equipment for this Review:

Amplifier: Mccormack DNA 125 and Counterpoint NP-100 hybrid amp
Preamplifier (or None if Integrated): Audible Illusions modulus 3A with gold phono mc stage and ps audio 5.0 w/modified power supply
Sources (CDP/Turntable): project expresion II with optional controlled speed and Ortofon salsa MC cartridge / Opera Audio Forbidden city series cd player
Speakers: Magnepan 1.6 QR and Spica TC-50 with modified crossover
Cables/Interconnects: JPS superconductor cables all threwout
Music Used (Genre/Selections): Ecleptic
Room Size (LxWxH): 22 x 8 x
Time Period/Length of Audition: 2 months
Other (Power Conditioner etc.): Van Evers
Type of Audition/Review: Product Owner

Amplifier:	Mccormack DNA 125 and Counterpoint NP-100 hybrid amp
Preamplifier (or None if Integrated):	Audible Illusions modulus 3A with gold phono mc stage and ps audio 5.0 w/modified power supply
Sources (CDP/Turntable):	project expresion II with optional controlled speed and Ortofon salsa MC cartridge / Opera Audio Forbidden city series cd player
Speakers:	Magnepan 1.6 QR and Spica TC-50 with modified crossover
Cables/Interconnects:	JPS superconductor cables all threwout
Music Used (Genre/Selections):	Ecleptic
Room Size (LxWxH):	22 x 8 x
Time Period/Length of Audition:	2 months
Other (Power Conditioner etc.):	Van Evers
Type of Audition/Review:	Product Owner