Jamo

S7-27F Floorstanding Loudspeakers

£949

Jamo has been making loudspeakers since 1968 when brothers-in-law Preben Jacobsen and Julius Mortensen got together in a tiny fishing village in Denmark. Within two years, their company had its own purpose-built research, development and production facility – and was churning out around one million boxes a year. By 1994, Jamo could lay claim to being one of the largest speaker manufacturers in Europe.

When it was acquired by US loudspeaker company Klipsch in 2005, Jamo extended its range to include Dolby Amos models and custom-install speakers. Both Klipsch and Jamo are now both owned by Premium Audio Company, a wholly owned subsidiary of VOXX International Corporation, which also has brands such as Heco, Onkyo, Pioneer and Magnat under its umbrella. After Klipsch took over it, Jamo, by its own admission, spent the next decade treading water. It had, it admits, lost its pioneering spirit…

The Studio 7 series, of which the S7-27F is part, is the first chapter in what Jamo proudly proclaims to be its rebirth and revitalisation – what it heralds as “a new beginning”. The worldwide head of Jamo, Franck Blondel, says its mission is to “offer contemporary speakers that are easy to use and deliver high performance… exceptional audio solutions to satisfy a modern audience”. Fighting talk, indeed!

UP CLOSE

Jamo doesn't pull any punches when introducing the Studio 7 series, pointing out that it has been developed to revitalise the brand. It is described as visually striking, thanks in some part to the seven-degree tilt of the cabinet, which gives the series its name. The Studio 7 Series comprises six models, all priced for budget-conscious buyers. There are two floorstanders, the S7-25F and S7-27F, two bookshelf models, the S7-17B and S7-15B, plus two centre-channels speakers, the S7-25C and S7-43C.

The good news for those on a tight budget is that the S7-27F floorstander retails at a modest price and is a lot of speaker for the money. Standing 855mm tall, 230mm wide, and 380mm deep, it's a reflex-loaded design with its single 25mm vented fabric tweeter crossing over at 1.6kHz to two 170mm paper cone woofers. Its cheaper brother, the S7-25F, is slightly smaller and uses two 140mm woofers. Nominal impedance is put at a lower-than-normal 4 ohms, and amplifiers from 40 to 250W are recommended. Valve fanciers will be happy to learn that it has a highish quoted sensitivity of 90dB, so it should pair well with lower-powered amps with decent current driving ability.

The all-new 25mm fabric dome tweeter features a copper Faraday ring that's said to increase sensitivity and reduce non-linear distortion. Its high-frequency waveguide was apparently subject to hours of real-world testing and is said to ensure consistency and reliability for extended periods at high volumes. The woofers are embossed paper cone types with high-strength motor assemblies that feature aluminium inductance-shorting rings to reduce distortion and increase power handling. The cones also feature what Jamo calls 'Thor's hammer' embossed detailing to increase rigidity and improve transient response.

The crossover is housed in its own sealed plinth to avoid any interaction between the bass driver's magnet and the circuit's inductors. Mylar and non-polarised electrolytic capacitors are used along with both air-core and iron-core inductors and 25W resistors.

The wedge-shaped base of the S7 pitches the speakers back at a jaunty seven-degree angle, which Jamo says helps to time-align the acoustic centres of the drive units. The cabinets have been designed to be quiet, with walls made from 15mm MDF and an 18mm thick front baffle. They also have bracing panels inside to reduce internal cabinet noise. On the outside, the cabinet edges have been rounded to help avoid sound waves being reflected back to the drivers when they encounter hard edges.

All speakers in the Studio 7 series come finished in a light grey or dark blue vinyl. My review pair of S7-27Fs was finished in grey, and the colour would blend well into many contemporary room decors, while the blue finish is dark enough not to be garish. The finish may not have the same look or quality as a real wood veneer or a nice piano gloss black, but what do you expect for this money? The speaker looks modern and clean, and I would rather the money was spent on the inside rather than the outside.

GETTING GOING

Positioning loudspeakers in a room always takes a bit of trial and error. I know my listening space very well and have found over the years that for speakers of this size and type, there is one particular sweet spot that always works best – roughly 30cm from the rear wall and 30cm to 40cm from the side walls. This proved ideal for my review pair of Jamos. I used the metal spiked feet provided as they were sitting on a carpet in my room, but rubber feet are also provided for those with wooden floors who would prefer not to damage or scratch them.

As previously explained, Jamo has built in some tilt to the S7-27F to provide time alignment, but I did experiment a little with that. I suspect that listener seating height and distance from the speakers may be a factor here too, but I found that raising the rear of the speaker ever so slightly helped to better focus the sound for me. The key is always to experiment, so don't be afraid to try some minor tweaks.

To put the S7-27Fs through their paces, I used an Audio Note TT3 turntable with AN tonearm, cartridge and step-up transformer through their Meishu Tonmeister integrated valve amp. Compact Discs were played on their CDT-Five transport and DAC Five Special, with some streaming through the Pro-Ject Stream Box S2 Ultra and PreBox RS2 Digital DAC.

THE LISTENING

This is a lively, vibrant and musically engaging sounding speaker, with a good deal of control and impressive dynamics considering its modest price. As soon as I lowered the stylus into the groove of guitar ace Larry Carlton's Discovery album, I knew I was going to like the S7-27F. On A Place for Skipper, the guitar playing was full of life and body, and I could hear how each note was being shaped and the mastery of Carlton's technique. The bass line was full and tuneful without any boom and had a good slam to it but with excellent grip. The drums were clean and tight, and the delicate cymbal work was well conveyed, while the rhythmic lilt of the track came across really well. A great start.

Obviously, you can't expect reference levels of insight and accuracy from a modestly priced loudspeaker such as this – so its general character is what it gets judged on. The S7-27F is all about imparting the emotion of a performance; it really gets to grip with the musical expression within a recording. For example, a favourite track of mine by jazz singer and pianist Ben Sidran is his cover of the old classic On The Sunny Side of the Street from his Enivré d'Amour album. Originally written by Jimmy McHugh for a 1930s Broadway musical, it was also famously covered by Louis Armstrong. Sidran's version is a brilliant reworking, as the Jamo showed…

I was impressed by how well this speaker handled his vocals, capturing the delicacy and character I know so well and also conveying well the characteristic lustre and sparkle of his classic Yamaha DX7 synthesiser. The saxophone part had body and composure, and the Jamo gave a good insight into how the different instrumental strands combine into a musically compelling whole. The same feeling was noted when playing Dark Night of the Soul from Van Morrison's Three Chords and the Truth album. Cymbals and guitar in the intro were intimately portrayed, as was Van's characterful vocal style. The power in his voice when he really pushed a note was also nicely done, without any shouty unpleasantness.

The S7-27F also soundstages well and delivered a surprisingly expansive recorded acoustic when playing The Bright Side from sax player Dave Koz's wonderful album The Dance. This man is a master of his instrument, and his virtuosity was there in all its glory via my pair of Jamos. His saxophone playing had bite, fluidity and power without being glaring. The sound was pleasingly 'out-of-the-box', this speaker creating a great sense of presence in the room considering its modest price.

THE VERDICT

Jamo's S7-27F is a high-functioning floorstander, considering its modest retail price. During the audition period, my review pair hardly put a foot wrong. This speaker majors on rhythmic and dynamic integrity, conveying the heart and soul of the music. It's also surprisingly detailed and lets you hear how a track's individual strands come together into a coherent whole. Lesser loudspeakers just fire random detail at the listener, divorced from any musical context, but not so this – it is musical through and through.

Its good sensitivity also makes it a good partner for lowered power amplifiers – especially valve amps, if you are that way inclined. Combine a pair of these speakers with something like a Leben CS300F valve integrated, and you have the makings of a modestly priced yet very musical system, for example. As such, I recommend this speaker wholeheartedly. Hear it if you can.

Visit Jamo for more information