JAMO STUDIO7 15B LOUDSPEAKERS REVIEW

Jamo’s Studio7 15B is a compact little two-way affair that costs £449. Janine Elliot takes a listen.

I love Danish furniture; such intricate and minimalist lines and gorgeous colours, with famous designers such as Arne Jacobsen and Frits Henningsen. To be sent a pair of speakers by Jamo, also from Denmark, was going to be a further discovery of art. The company has always put together speakers of unique visual design, a sort of B&O on the cheap, and which – as with the furniture – you’ll either love or give it a wide berth.

Started in 1968 by cabinet maker Preben Jacobsen (not related to the furniture maker) and his salesman brother-in-law Julius Mortensen (hence the name “Ja-Mo”) their speakers offer a rare combination of aesthetics and audio performance at a good price. Based at Glyngøre, a tiny fishing village in Denmark, they have produced a number of significant designs over the years, and by 1994 they were Europe’s largest speaker brand. Major awards include Speaker of the Year in Europe for their Concert Series in 1997, and again later with my favourite, their skeleton R909, voted European High-End Loudspeaker of the Year 2006-7 by EISA. In 2005 the company was acquired by Klipsch Group Inc. With the rebirth of Jamo in 2020 their Studio7 series was launched.

The Jamos are a good looking and compact loudspeaker

JAMO STUDIO7 15B LOUDSPEAKERS DESIGN STRATEGIES

As a tribute to their Scandinavian roots, the mid/bass drivers in the Studio7 series are embossed with the symbol of Thor’s Hammer, a “T” shape. Thor is the god of thunder and, apparently, his hammer (Mjölnir) has the power of lightning. Of course, the letter “T” has a dual purpose as it also increases the rigidity of the paper-coned drivers and improves the transient response. The name “Studio 7” relates to the fact that all the speakers in the series are angled with a 7-degree tilt.

The S7-15B, up for review here, is the smallest bookshelf speaker in the series with a 14cm woofer and comes in at £449. Others in the series include the larger S7-17B bookshelf (with 17cm woofer), two centre speakers and two floorstanders, therefore making them particularly suitable for a surround sound setup. All speakers come in the choice of two vinyl finishes representing the chromatic palette of Scandinavian landscapes; Norwegian fjords inspire the dark blue vinyl surround, while the grey finish channels the hue of fog hanging over a Finnish forest. The corners of the baffle are similarly curved to represent the pebbles on the Danish coast as well as to reduce diffraction and prevent colouration of the sound. It also gives the speaker a unique look. The speaker does look excellent and would look good in any living room or bedroom.

RINGS AND HAMMERS

The 1” tweeter features a copper Faraday ring to reduce non-linear distortion, and the tweeter and surround are made up of fabric. The tweeter lies at the centre of a small waveguide and this helps to give it a uniform top end, which was optimised using Jamo’s exclusive COMSOL software. The bass driver is an embossed paper cone with increased rigidity due to the Thor’s Hammer. An aluminium inductance ring increases power handling and reduces distortion, acting also as a heat-sink. It also gives it a distinctive look.

The tweeter is aided by a wave-guide.

The cabinet is mounted on an angled plinth which also contains the crossover. The reason for the 7-degree angle is to improve time-alignment for the listener. The cabinet is 15mm MDF with an 18mm front baffle. The cabinet is well braced and is a 2-way reflex design with a port at the rear.

The crossover uses Myler and non-polarised electrolytic capacitors and 25W resistors. I did find the unit rather smart and rigid despite its light weight. The unit comes with rubber feet and these are to be fitted into holes at the extreme edges of the base, so some will find this means the speaker won’t fit on certain types of narrow speaker stands. It would have been better if on the stand-mount speakers they were self adhesive so that you could attach them appropriately yourself. Indeed, this “small” speaker has a large width and depth, at 20 and 34 cm respectively. Its depth is larger than its height, due to the horizontal wing at the rear extending to connect the cables. This makes attaching the speaker cables a lot easier than conventionally placed sockets.

The layout of the speakers at the rear makes cable attachment easy.

SOUND OF THE JAMO STUDIO7 15B LOUDSPEAKERS 

To start with, I played some good old progressive rock from the 70’s in the form of Yes and their “Rhythm of Love”. Immediately I was aware of the excellent soundstage. Music was tight and clear, with instruments placed well around the stage. Instruments and vocals in Supertramp’s “Crime of the Century” (also 24bit/96kHz) were similarly well placed and fun to listen to; the Rhodes piano was clear and realistic, and cymbals were particularly clear, though not quite as extended as some tweeters can go – cymbals here were still good, though, remembering the cheap price for this loudspeaker. Tops were tight and controlled; the hand clicks in track 3 were very well-paced. Where mids and tops were very clear – perhaps very slightly too prominent a midrange in some of the music I played – the bass was very forceful, extended and well-timed, just slightly lacking clarity.

Turning to something completely different, the mellow Katie Melua’s ‘In Winter’ (LP) which includes the Gori Women’s Choir. Here, the Choir played well, but it wasn’t quite as velvety a sound as I have heard before, though on pricier speakers. The bass wasn’t bad, just lacked control at the extreme.

Pink Floyd’s ‘Dark Side of the Moon’ (24/96) was accurate with good tops and a particularly good and detailed soundstage, making them ideal as part of a 5.1 set-up.

These are rear-ported loudspeakers.

Turning to jazz and Duke Ellington’s “Rockin’ in Rhythm” (LP), this was tight and with excellent definition between the left and right. Including persuasive trombones and trumpets, and a clear top end from the cymbals, the Jamo held tight reign on the music, and was very good for such a small speaker. My only concerns were that the very top cymbal sizzles and the very lowest lows weren’t quite as controlled as I would like, though, again, we are talking about a sub-£500 speaker here. The sound is energetic and with excellent soundstage making them compete well with anything costing well over the price. Having the tweeter set in its own waveguide allowed the top frequencies to dissipate uniformly, allowing me to move off-axis but still get a good top-end. I also found the speakers played better at louder levels. Playing quietly just didn’t quite inspire me, despite the “thicker” 18mm MDF front baffle being designed to increase resolution at low listening levels.

Playing the Kate Bush ‘Aerial’ (CD) the sounds of birds chirping worked very well across the stage, and the mechanical noises from the pianoforte came across clearly; if anything, the bass was a little too much here. It just lacked timing skills that more expensive speakers should achieve. These speakers were good, though; nothing like the Jamo I remember from the 70s when I first got into HiFi.

The angled front babble created by the integral stand makes for good time alignment.

Time then to go back to the 70s and play reel-to-reel and even some cassette tapes! Now if only I had a Nakamichi Dragon, though my Tascam cassette recorder isn’t bad, claiming 19kHz on metal tapes. Now I wasn’t going to seriously review the speakers playing cassettes, but the format does give a very analogue sound and gave an excellent performance on the 15B’s. Incidentally, the format is starting a revival, but if it is ever to come back seriously it will take 10 years to even relearn the mechanics and motor design skills. Oh, and Dolby B and C don’t exist anymore.

Getting back to serious matters, I played some pre-recorded reel-to-reel albums made in the ’60s-’70s including The Beatles and Dave Brubeck. These ¼” quarter-track tapes at 7½ ips on 7” spools were excellent at the time and played well on my Akai reel to reel; energetic and with excellent soundstage particularly on the Beatles, just that precision was somewhat lacking at times. Having said that the tweeter had extremely low distortion and accurately showed any flaws in the recording. Turning to a recent tape release ‘Diamond Voices’ from STS (T6111198) on my Nagra iv with incredible vocals from Doris Day, Peggy Lee and the likes, the music was highly engrossing, the Jamo holding itself well against the competition, particularly with its mid-frequencies. It really did perform. The only negativity I found with the Jamo was a slight lack of that velvety sound on the vocals; just as the Katie Melua album, which is full of the most beautifully smooth vocals and guitar,  just left me short of excitement.

CONCLUSION

The Jamo Studio7 15B really does have much to offer for the price and is an excellent series of speakers to mark the company’s comeback. It is certainly unique in looks and design and gave an excellent account of the music during my long listening sessions. It was good from the bass all the way up to the tops, and with all types of music. Now that can’t be bad for £449.

I am giving the Studio7 15B loudspeakers our 5 Heart award because they offer such low distortion and an excellent soundstage at a low cost.

AT A GLANCE

Build Quality:

Very well put together speaker with novel use of vinyl wrap

Sound Quality:

Well-extended bass and distortion-free top end

Value For Money:

£449 gets you a lot of music per pound, so it is highly recommended if you have limited finances

We Loved:

Bass extension

Excellent soundstage

Mid-frequency detail

Distortion-free top end

We Didn’t Love So Much:

Some might not like the vinyl wrap or the angled shape of the cabinet

Elevator Pitch Review: Jamo from Denmark is back! A speaker manufacturer I remember from my early childhood. I was particularly interested in seeing how good they would perform based on my memories from youth, and wasn’t to be disappointed. Designed with a typical Danish minimalistic appearance, I got down to listening to music I remembered from my youth, so much that I even got out my cassettes.

Price: £449

Janine Elliot

SUPPLIED BY HENLEY AUDIO

Review Equipment: Pre-Audio GL-1102N/Audio Technica AT33sa (turntable/cartridge); Manley Steelhead (phono stage); Krell KPS20i (CD); Ferrograph Logic7, Nagra iv-sj, Akai GX-635D (reel to reel); Tascam 202 mkiii (cassette) Astell and Kern SE180/iFi xDSD (DAP/streamer) Synthesis Roma 98DC (amplification); Esprit and Townshend cables, Coppice Audio stand and Townshend rack.

15B specification

DESIGN 2-Way bass reflex

HF 1’’/2.54 cm Vented tweeter with a fabric dome

LFSingle 5.5’’ / 14 cm woofer – Embossed paper cone with thor’s hammer

Sensitivity* 86.3 dB @ 2.83 V/1 m

Frequency response (±3 dB) 71 Hz – 22 kHz

Frequency range in bass section (-6 dB) 54 Hz – 29 kHz

Crossover frequency 1 700 Hz

Impedance 4 ohms

Enclosure material Mdf

Enclosure type Bass reflex

Inputs Single binding posts

Dimensions (unit)

(H x W x D)

32 x 20 x 34 cm

12.6 x 7.9 x 13.4 inches

Product Weight (unit) 5.93 kg / 11 lbs

Blue Fjord vinyl

Grey Cloud vinyl

Included accessories Rubber feet (8)