Jordan Eikona 2 Driver

[Dauntless]

Has anyone any experience of building a speaker around this driver? Wilmslow Audio offer a kit for a floorstander built with this driver, the VTL. I wondered about the results? Looking at the frequency charts it gets a little up and down and I wondered how this would impact on listening? The kit itself looks easy enough to make. Has anyone built this speaker?

[Pharos]

There is a long ongoing thread on this on the old AVI forum, (HDDaudio). Worth a look.

[ianlenco]

I have a pair of Jordan VTLs with the older JX92s drivers and they work very well. Treble can be a bit lively but the general advice to toe them in well works. I'm told the Eikona 2s are a smoother driver with more bass so should sound very good in the VTL.

http://i5.tinypic.com/3y67kt4.jpg

[Dauntless]

I have a pair of Jordan VTLs with the older JX92s drivers and they work very well. Treble can be a bit lively but the general advice to toe them in well works. I'm told the Eikona 2s are a smoother driver with more bass so should sound very good in the VTL.

http://i5.tinypic.com/3y67kt4.jpg

Thanks, Nice speakers. Shouldn't be too difficult to fit the new drivers if you decide to go that way!

[ERICLIMPIT]

I am currently constructing my second pair of speakers with Eikona 2 drivers, the first (a Jordan VTL) worked impressively well & was easy peasy to construct, the current ones are my take on the Eikona DCR using 2 drivers per speaker but as a standmount I will post pics of them on here in a few days. If you want to build your own speakers then the Jordan Eikona 2 is a superb quality driver I would highly recommend using.

[Dauntless]

I am currently constructing my second pair of speakers with Eikona 2 drivers, the first (a Jordan VTL) worked impressively well & was easy peasy to construct, the current ones are my take on the Eikona DCR using 2 drivers per speaker but as a standmount I will post pics of them on here in a few days. If you want to build your own speakers then the Jordan Eikona 2 is a superb quality driver I would highly recommend using.

Looking forward to that!

[ERICLIMPIT]

http://i1364.photobucket.com/albums/r737/swancraft1/1316E786-C879-4374-8B67-561766FAEF81_zpsmhaoh8ym.jpg (http://s1364.photobucket.com/user/swancraft1/media/1316E786-C879-4374-8B67-561766FAEF81_zpsmhaoh8ym.jpg.html)
Ready to be polished this week will post more soon as they are

[ianlenco]

Very nice Roger but I think you should go back to VTLs and sell me the drivers you'll have spare :lol: Seriously, they look great.

Do you have a pic of your VTL cabinets?

[ERICLIMPIT]

Now back from the polishers, drivers installed & wired in parallel (no nasty crossovers!)
http://i1364.photobucket.com/albums/r737/swancraft1/Mobile%20Uploads/2015-11/FF3DD12F-1F1A-46F4-B86B-2956765B0D24_zps6ohjbtux.jpg (http://s1364.photobucket.com/user/swancraft1/media/Mobile%20Uploads/2015-11/FF3DD12F-1F1A-46F4-B86B-2956765B0D24_zps6ohjbtux.jpg.html)http://i1364.photobucket.com/albums/r737/swancraft1/Mobile%20Uploads/2015-11/5EC570E9-A028-4168-B6A6-C1ED2989441F_zpscqovgbcn.jpg (http://s1364.photobucket.com/user/swancraft1/media/Mobile%20Uploads/2015-11/5EC570E9-A028-4168-B6A6-C1ED2989441F_zpscqovgbcn.jpg.html)

[danilo]

I have a pair of Jordan VTLs with the older JX92s drivers and they work very well. Treble can be a bit lively but the general advice to toe them in well works. I'm told the Eikona 2s are a smoother driver with more bass so should sound very good in the VTL.


Attractive speakers.
Few years back I was on about building a pair of those (or their fraternal twins) speakers (gray ones).
I liked the look of them .. Still do.
It was suggested (repeatedly) Not to. As that design was allegedly flawed.
Shoulda ignored the naysayers.. I suspect.

[ianlenco]

Roger, they look great. I've just stripped the paint of my VTL's back to birch ply and plugged them back into the system. They sound great! Danilo, you should have ignored the naysayers. Balance is good, maybe a tiny touch treble shy but that suits me as I find tweeter fitted speakers just a bit too bright on some material. Bass is surprisingly deep and weighty and I just love the immediacy of the single driver setup. I'm currently driving mine with a World Designs KEL84 - a mere 15 watts but they go plenty loud despite their apparent lack of efficiency. The sweetness of EL84 tubes suits them very well. Still thinking about upgrading to the Eikonas though, perhaps Roger can give us his listening impressions.

http://i.imgur.com/yV3B4i2h.jpg#gWPQG

[willbewill]

Nice job you did on the stripping Ian, they look great.

[ERICLIMPIT]

Thanks Ian, I'm pretty pleased with the way they turned out, just have to make the grille surrounds and cover them & they're done:carrot:
The first impressions were fairly promising, articulate with lots of detail but with a slightly harsh treble when pushed, but as the drivers only had 30 hours on them I gave them a long weekend non stop with various amps.
So today I plugged them in to my newly acquired Graaf power amp for a good listening session:popcorn: and Wow these are good... the great thing about wide bandwidth single driver speakers (yeh I know there are two in each cab but as they're wired in parallel with no crossovers so it doesn't count !) is their speed, more natural sounding & more articulate in the bass. The harshness in the treble has now receded and as there are two drivers there is plenty of bass, I've not heard the jx92 driver so can't compare the two, but the Eikona2 is superb!

[ianlenco]

I received my Eikonas today and fitted them into the VTL cabs after the rebate had been enlarged for the new driver. Only played them for an hour but initial impressions are good. Bass goes deeper and they are very smooth at the top. Actually I'm finding them too smooth at the moment, the JX92's have more life but of course they can shout a bit on some material. Early days but I think I'm going to enjoy them.

http://i.imgur.com/1qfDWheh.jpg#gWPQG

http://i.imgur.com/GI9egCVh.jpg#gWPQG

Interesting that the old driver (left) appears to have a bigger magnet than the new Eikona.

http://i.imgur.com/czjAOzHh.jpg#gWPQG

[ianlenco]

Has anyone any experience of building a speaker around this driver? Wilmslow Audio offer a kit for a floorstander built with this driver, the VTL. I wondered about the results? Looking at the frequency charts it gets a little up and down and I wondered how this would impact on listening? The kit itself looks easy enough to make. Has anyone built this speaker?

Going back to Michael's original question - yep they do work well but have you seen BK Electronics kit? Cheaper and more or less built.

http://www.bkelec.com/Jordan/Eikona_VTL.htm

[danilo]

The cone is also substantially smaller on the 'new and Improved' version.
Frugality in MFg .. at it's finest .

[steve-z]

Hi everyone, I'm not sure if this is my first post or not, if it isn't then the last one must be a while ago, apologies.
Came across this thread with interest as I started using a pair of Jordan Eikona 2 VTLS a few months ago, got mine from BK Electronics fully built up in bare mdf and I finished them off myself in gloss white, I diverged slightly from what you've seen of this model by swapping the rectangular foot of the speakers for a larger circular foot which I find much better from a stability point of view. I've been highly delighted with the sound quality of the VTLs particularly in the last couple up of days since buying a Cambridge CXA60 amp to drive them. They are one of the most well sorted and best sounding DIY design around imo. I keep in touch with Jordan via Facebook where a lot of the Eikona 2 designs are posted but I have never seen the intriguing twin driver ported reflex shown in this thread, could the owner give some background on the design.
Steve

[steve-z]

The cone is also substantially smaller on the 'new and Improved' version.
Frugality in MFg .. at it's finest .

The truth of the matter is that the Eikona 2 is more than twice as costly to produce as the JX92, I mentioned the comment to Colin at Jordan designs who is in the process of registering on the forum, once he's able to post he will be able to elaborate on that in person


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[YNWaN]

I would strongly recommend you look at the Mark Audio drivers before committing yourself.

[danilo]

The truth of the matter is that the Eikona 2 is more than twice as costly to produce as the JX92, I mentioned the comment to Colin at Jordan designs who is in the process of registering on the forum, once he's able to post he will be able to elaborate on that in person
Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Might also mean that the manufacturing enterprise decided to charge More for this run.
Actually that's a fairly plausible scenario.

[steve-z]

I received my Eikonas today and fitted them into the VTL cabs after the rebate had been enlarged for the new driver. Only played them for an hour but initial impressions are good. Bass goes deeper and they are very smooth at the top. Actually I'm finding them too smooth at the moment, the JX92's have more life but of course they can shout a bit on some material. Early days but I think I'm going to enjoy them.

http://i.imgur.com/1qfDWheh.jpg#gWPQG

http://i.imgur.com/GI9egCVh.jpg#gWPQG

Interesting that the old driver (left) appears to have a bigger magnet than the new Eikona.

http://i.imgur.com/czjAOzHh.jpg#gWPQG

In reply to your comment about the smoother top on the Eikonas, from my own experience it depends a lot on what you are driving them with. When I first got my VTLs I was driving them with a Yamaha AS501 amp which although it gave a pretty decent overall sound I did feel it a little lacking at the top end, hence my recent acquisition of a Cambridge CXA60, this has proved to be a noticeable improvement (and so it should be, being almost 3 times the price) particularly giving back the treble level that seemed lacking with the Yamaha as well as giving an across the board improvement in detail and better bass grip. The Eikonas deserve the best amplification to really show the breadth of their abilities.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[steve-z]

Here's my system with the modified bases.
https://c1.staticflickr.com/5/4175/33994858973_c6ae4c3064_b.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/TN1xda)Jordan Eikona VTLs + Cambridge CXA60 (https://flic.kr/p/TN1xda) by Stephen Zarczynski (https://www.flickr.com/photos/139629765@N06/), on Flickr

[EJJDesigns]

Hi to those here and thanks for the interest in Ted Jordan's Eikona 2 drive unit.

To clear up a couple of misunderstandings - the cone in the Eikona is exactly the same Controflex cone Ted used in the JX92, so same size, profile and material. It is manufactured specially for us by the same UK supplier.

The apparent decrease in magnet size is because the JX92 had a second, 'bucking' magnet to cancel out its external magnetic field. The JX92 was produced when CRT screens were commonplace. With the advent of flat screen TVs, there's no need for the cancellation magnet. But it's still worth keeping memory sticks and credit cards well clear of the Eikona :-)

I hope that helps.

Colin

[ianlenco]

Hi Colin,
You are of course right about the apparently larger magnet assembly on the JX92S, apologies for my misinformation. I was using a World Designs KEL84 with my older Jordans and this worked well despite the low 15 watts available. However, I suspected the WD was a little underpowered for the slightly less efficient Eikonas so have recently switched to a Leema Acoustics Pulse and the extra power available (80 watts) has improved things considerably. Yesterday I had a friend round who also has the JX92's at home and he went off muttering about raising the money for a pair of Eikonas - enough said. :)

[willbewill]

Hi Colin,
You are of course right about the apparently larger magnet assembly on the JX92S, apologies for my misinformation. I was using a World Designs KEL84 with my older Jordans and this worked well despite the low 15 watts available. However, I suspected the WD was a little underpowered for the slightly less efficient Eikonas so have recently switched to a Leema Acoustics Pulse and the extra power available (80 watts) has improved things considerably. Yesterday I had a friend round who also has the JX92's at home and he went off muttering about raising the money for a pair of Eikonas - enough said. :)

Hi Ian - I believe our friend has EAD E100 drive units, which I remember sounding different to my JX92 although his drive units were quite new when I heard them.

[ianlenco]

Yes Malcolm, that is quite true - never heard them so assumed they sounded similar. I've just put the drivers in properly so the logos are upright and also checked on the wiring of one which I think was vibrating on the driver frame when playing deep notes. Looking for something with that goes low I came across a track called Heart by Bo Stief Dream Machine on a Chesky demo disc. Never played it before and wow does it go deep! The Jordans played it with no trouble. I knew the Jordans in VTLs were capable of going low but this really surprised me - this was seriously low and powerful. :)

[Mike2000]

Hi Colin, Yesterday I had a friend round who also has the JX92's at home and he went off muttering about raising the money for a pair of Eikonas - enough said. :)

Was I really muttering Ian?

Listening to your Eikonas has galvenised me into putting the Jimi Chang speakers back into my system and I'm wondering why I ever took them out?

Malcolm, you are correct I'm using EAD's take on the JX92, the E100.

[ianlenco]

Sorry Mike, artistic licence :) Glad you've re-installed your Jordan Jimi Changs as a result.