JTR Speakers
JTR’s products have a way of making you feel small. The Noesis 215RT three-way monster - standing six feet tall (1.83 m) and weighing 215 pounds (97.5 kg) - boasts 95 dB sensitivity and delivers SPLs up to 128 dB. Two 15-inch LF drivers and a high-end 2-way horn-loaded compression driver make one think of big pro-sound systems, which JTR also produces. The 7.0 cinema system will wake up the neighbors in the next county if unleashed. Lacking separate subwoofers does not mean sacrificing strong bass, the 18 Hz LF -3 dB point for the design can reach those deep notes and shake the seats during a good action flick. The $3299 price tag seems relatively small, almost compact, when considering the big-boy theater and music possibilities.
With the introduction of the RT series, Jeff pushed his product line into the minds and onto the wish lists of the very particular listener types who place two-channel listening at the same priority level as bone-crushing home cinema sound. I have been pleasantly surprised by his two-channel demos involving the 215RT at recent audio shows. The choice of efficient drivers with high-end refinement designed in means home theater and surround-music mixes heard without sacrifice or compromise.
Complemented by jRiver and a well-executed setup and calibration by Michael Boeker, the system had an imaging focus to die for. Michael Buble in concert on the very-big screen, a surround mix, was fun and prompted me to dig out a 5.1 mix of Porcupine Tree’s “Shallow.” High volumes are not a challenge for the 215RT system with its Lab Gruppen FP1002 power amps. They can push 2500 W x 4 channels. Sharp imaging of the type I heard on the whimsical “Shallow” mix, and on Midlake’s “Roscoe,” with a chorus featuring an evenly-spaced lineup of voices and guitars across the soundstage, showed what the big system could do. The clear space between those sound images was as well defined as I have heard it. Low-frequency room modes being what they are, they can be tough to tame in a theater-sized room with lots of bass and low drums exciting the air, and ringy nature of the room caught my attention while auditioning the big surround setup. The vertical spread of LF drivers in the 215RT will tend to lessen this effect in most rooms. The 13 ft x 39 ft x 50 ft room insisted on imposing its sonic will on our low frequencies, and we simply had to put up with it.
After “Shallow,” in the mood for more good music from the system, “Perfect World,” by Broken Bells, is a favorite for 2-channel auditions, with a very focused kick drum at mix’s front-center. That focus was a little mushy, but the rest of the mix was very sharply focused. Soundstage width and clarity through the midrange and highs was downright exemplary. Todd Rundgren’s “Compassion” has bells and glockenspiel that each own their little points in space as though they were solid objects. Scott Davies, playing Rachmaninoff’s “Lilacs” on the Overs piano, coaxed forth the piano’s very delicate characteristic tinkle, which was preserved by the 215RT. The voice separation on “Roscos” was perfection. Muse gave us a strong finish with ”Supermassive Black Hole.”
The cinema room included a JVC RS4500 projector ($35,000) and a Seymour Enlightener 4k screen ($5,500).
The smaller demo of JTR’s Noesis 210RT is the one of the speaker setups I enjoyed most at AXPONA this year. Sporting a beautiful red cherry finish. Driven by a Yamaha 801 with 100 W / channel, the 210RT was a knockout performer. The soundstage was not as wide because of the setup, and was not quite as precise as that in the cinema room, but for overall clean, relaxed, natural, accurate sound, the 210RT was easily my pick in the JTR room, and over many other models at the show.
The focused bass I was looking for on “Perfect World” was all I could want it to be. Instrumental clarity and detail on “The House Of Tom Bombadil” by Nickel Creek were right on, the wide soundstage was not quite as dramatic as from the 215RT, but seemed cleaner and more balanced. There was nothing to get fatigued by. Vocals by Mindy Smith and by The Civil Wars were dreamy and drew you into the intimacy of their recordings. The clarity and almost-materialized precision of the imaging was also not quite like the cinema setup, but did not fall far short of the mark. I wager that many a high-standard 2-channel listener would blind-test pick a Noesis over ¾ of the speaker models at the show.
A brief visit to JTR after AXPONA yielded the second photo.
Sonnie's thoughts: Wow! I listened to quite a bit in this room with literal amazement that there were no dedicated subwoofers in the room. Jeff and his gang did a masterful job of setting up their room and it was really rockin'! Speaking of subwoofers... I believe we have a Captivator 118HT in our hands for review and giveaway!!!
Leonards' thoughts: The theater was astoundingly powerful. When the fireworks started after the National Anthem I could feel my shirt moving there was so much air being moved. The degree to which they achieve such power with extremely low distortion is really something to experience.
