JPW Sonata.

[southall-1998]

Chaps,

My cousin has a pair of JPW Sonata, and they do sound very good for the money.

Did JPW ever recommended a particular power/int amp that blends nicely with the Sonata?

[hifi_dave]

Not as far as I remember but we used to sell them with the Creek 4040 and very nice they sounded too - far better than the mags recommended Wharfedale Diamond.

[Puffin]

How spooky. I was speaking (cyber style) to Covenant only today as he said he had put some new tweeters in his JPW mini monitors. I inherited a pair of Sonatas that I had purchased for my dad many years ago. He only used them at a whisper and as a result the voice coils were rubbing. I tried to cure it by blasting them with disco music with a Pro amp at ridiculous levels. They took all I threw at them and sounded brill, but the rubbing was unfortunately still there.

Stupidness aside, IMO they are can give a very respectable sound.

[Covenant]

Yea that's a bit creepy Rob. The JPW's are way better than the Quad 11L's I had been using as a stopgap. The only thing with mine was that one speaker had no acoustic wadding and the other had too much.

[Alan]

That's funny - on both counts!

I have Sonatas, they are much better than they have any right to be, given the price they go for. Mine were £27 from eBay, BNIB! They are the smallest infinite baffle speaker I have used, really simple crossover & decent (ish) drivers. A no-nonsense, sensible designed simple loudspeaker.

Guy (of Puresound) knows a bit about JPWs, I think he supplies some of the spares. I am sure he once wrote that they were assembled by inmates at one of her majesties prisons!! Hence the fastidious attention to detail.....only makes them cooler to me! :lol:

[Covenant]

That's funny - on both counts!

I have Sonatas, they are much better than they have any right to be, given the price they go for. Mine were £27 from eBay, BNIB! They are the smallest infinite baffle speaker I have used, really simple crossover & decent (ish) drivers. A no-nonsense, sensible designed simple loudspeaker.

Guy (of Puresound) knows a bit about JPWs, I think he supplies some of the spares. I am sure he once wrote that they were assembled by inmates at one of her majesties prisons!! Hence the fastidious attention to detail.....only makes them cooler to me! :lol:

Surprised I didn't find a file inside mine! :)

[The Grand Wazoo]

Dartmoor

[DSJR]

That cheapo nasssssty tweeter (£1.50 Audax as I recall) can make itself too obvious if you get it wrong though, but they sounded fab on jazz.

[Covenant]

That cheapo nasssssty tweeter (£1.50 Audax as I recall) can make itself too obvious if you get it wrong though, but they sounded fab on jazz.

Any suitable better ones you know of Dave?

[Audioman]

I remember the JPW Sonatas getting plenty recommendations in the magazines of the day so not surprised they sound good.

Paul.

[spendorman]

Any suitable better ones you know of Dave?

The ones in the JPW Gold Monitor, nice tweets

[southall-1998]

Will the Sonata's be suitable to use on a desk, and for near field listening? Or is this job more suited for the JPW Mini Monitor?

Sorry to be asking, as I don't know much about these interesting small JPW speakers.

[Alan]

Hi Shane

I haven't heard the mini monitor on a desk, sorry! The thing is, plonked on a desk isn't ideal IME. Mine sound thick in the bass if I do that.

Mine sit on small home made stands (two bits of chipboard in an 'X' shape) about eight inches off the desk. This lifts the tweeters so they are just higher than my ears but gets the bass reflections tamed a bit from the desk surface.

My office system isn't set up at the moment, and I am having an almighty sort out so the desk is a mess (and I am wasting time on hifi forums..), but give me a minute and I'll photograph one for you.

[spendorman]

To my ears, both the JPW Mini Monitor and the Gold Monitor, sound better with a little more damping material inside the cabinets. Cleans up the bass a bit and reduces mid colouration.

[Alan]

Here it is Shane, stand was a shelf from a bookcase.

7643

[Alan]

To my ears, both the JPW Mini Monitor and the Gold Monitor, sound better with a little more damping material inside the cabinets. Cleans up the bass a bit and reduces mid colouration.


That's interesting, I haven't played with the JPWs. The last time I messed about was with large Goodmans from the '70s (also infinite baffle), and they improved with better bracing, and much less damping. In the end I ran them almost empty, no foam but heavy carpet on the internal surfaces.

[southall-1998]

Just one more question chaps.

Are the Sonata's hard to drive? Do they need power etc?

[Alan]

Nah, they're very easy even for a low powered valve amp, a T-amp, and they absolutely sing on the end of a little NVA AP20 I still have.

[Gromit]

I've a pair of Mini Monitors on the end of a Denon mini system in our family room at home and they're great fun. Had them for a number of years now, and for a short time they were actually my main speaker. Did also have a pair of Gold Monitors but even though that different tweeter was cleaner than the non-Gold's, it was bright enough to strip paint.

Contacted Guy about this (funnily enough I had a Puresound A30 at the time) who agreed that the Gold's tweeter could be a tad 'enthusiastic'. Tbh I preferred the std Mini Monitor's despite its faults. Placing the MM's as close as you can against the back wall with no toe-in (a la *cough spit* Linn Kans) helps to fill their sound out a bit, lessens their tendency to howl.

Alan - if you ever want to sell those Sonatas you have a buyer right here. ;)

[Alan]

Hi Richard - good to see you're around!

The Sonatas you might be able to afford, but the bespoke stands? ;)

Actually, although they're not part of my big rig I can't see myself being without them. There's something very endearing about little el-cheapo HiFi components that punch way above their weight!

Still, one day I want to try some decent active nearfield monitors, so you never know.

[icehockeyboy]

The ones in the JPW Gold Monitor, nice tweets

I use a pair of these in my kitchen system, SBT, into a really old but great sounding Nikko amp, I used it once when my expensive Classe CP 47.5 pre was faulty, and bearing in mind the Classe was nearly 2.4K new, it held its head up really high against it!

It's so old all the inputs are 5 pin din, and the speaker outlets are the speaker din equivalent.

[Macca]

I'm a bit bemused by all the praise for the mini-monitors. Yes, for £50 new they were a bargain. But they are not really a hi-fi speaker, although fine for a kitchen or desktop. I have had 2 sets, different bass drivers, and used them as main speakers for a while. They are not as good as JBL control One, which can still be had new for £60. They are not as good as Wharfedale Diamonds (any model). They are not as good as Wharfedale CRS3 which crop up on eBay for about a tenner.

[Covenant]

Better than Quad 11L's!

[Macca]

Better than Quad 11L's!

I've never heard the Quads;)

[Gromit]

They are not as good as JBL control One, which can still be had new for £60.

I'd say that's somewhat debatable, certainly is in my place/set-up but am all too aware of differences brought about by room/rig. The family were away for a couple of days so I've been doing some speaker-swapping here. The JBL's are certainly more neutral on things like speech but the MM's present music with more scale, and using the used-toilet-roll-trick (as we used to do with the old Mission 70 Mk2) they can be susprisingly good. On acoustic piano they work remarkably well, and that sealed box eliminates that artificial hammer/string 'thump' which is present on just about every ported speaker I've heard.

No, the MM's don't sh*t diamonds but they're a huge amount of fun. Like baby Royds they get so many things right it's easy to forgive those which they don't. Best 10 quid I ever spent. :)

[Macca]

I can see the MMs pipping the JBLs with classical music. Fair point. I agree about ported speakers in general, but their faults are a lot less obvious with rock music.

[Covenant]

Had a bit of fun this afternoon (when I should have been decorating) sticking felt around the tweeters on my mini-monitors to help with diffraction. Call it expectation bias if you like but it does seem to improve the SQ although the sweet spot in narrower.

[Gromit]

Had a bit of fun this afternoon (when I should have been decorating) sticking felt around the tweeters on my mini-monitors to help with diffraction. Call it expectation bias if you like but it does seem to improve the SQ although the sweet spot in narrower.

Hang on...are we in a parallel universe Jerry? I've supposed to have been decorating our new music room this weekend but listening to the MM's this afternoon (the plaster still isn't dry on the walls) the idea about putting felt around the tweeters came to mind (cue Twilight Zone music). :D

Time to raid our little Emma's fuzzy-felt kit (being only 2 I'm sure she won't notice). :)

[Covenant]

Two weeks ago my wife said "I am fed up with the kitchen, can you repaint the cupboards?" I just couldn't face it today so have played around with the mini-monitors while they were playing and cheered myself up no end. They are just fun speakers worth nothing so I dont care if I knacker them.
So if it's a parallel universe its a happy one Richard!

[Gromit]

I just couldn't face it today so have played around with the mini-monitors while they were playing and cheered myself up no end. They are just fun speakers worth nothing so I dont care if I knacker them.
So if it's a parallel universe its a happy one Richard!

Amen to that. :)

[Martyn Miles]

That's funny - on both counts!

I have Sonatas, they are much better than they have any right to be, given the price they go for. Mine were £27 from eBay, BNIB! They are the smallest infinite baffle speaker I have used, really simple crossover & decent (ish) drivers. A no-nonsense, sensible designed simple loudspeaker.

Guy (of Puresound) knows a bit about JPWs, I think he supplies some of the spares. I am sure he once wrote that they were assembled by inmates at one of her majesties prisons!! Hence the fastidious attention to detail.....only makes them cooler to me! :lol:

You are correct re. assembly by inmates of her Majesty's prisons.
It is well know in the audio world that JPW stand for 'jobs (for) prison workers.'

[pure sound]

JPW would buy cabinets from HMP Channings Wood where they had a very well equipped woodworking facility. They only did veneered rather than vinyl wrap cabinets there. Vinyl wrap required a very different machine set-up. Some of the real wood cabs were sent to HMP Dartmoor for finishing (spraying). The assembly of the speakers ie fitting crossovers wadding & drivers took place at JPW's Plymouth factory. The vinyl wrap cabinets were made up in Westbury until JPW bought that factory & moved all of the machinery down to a new, large facility in Plymouth.

Sonatas, P1's, AP2's and AP3's had the veneered cabs so were prison made. Mini & Gold monitors were vinyl wrapped.

The Sonata used a particularly good Elac 6.5" bass mid driver which was a cut above what the competition at the time had. The ubiquitous Audax tweeter was also a decent item if used sensibly. There was also a Sonata Plus which had a metal dome tweeter but I can't personally recall ever hearing those.

[DarrenHW]

Alan - if you ever want to sell those Sonatas you have a buyer right here. ;)

I have a pair for sale here http://theartofsound.net/forum/showthread.php?38341-For-Sale-JPW-Sonata-s-(I-think-).