Jones Audio PA-M300 Series 2 Solid-State Monoblock Amplifiers Review

With the Daedalus Ulysses speakers in Landscape Orientation

I have been experimenting with my latest “toy,” the Daedalus Ulysses speakers, but with a twist, a 90 degree twist that is, placing them on their sides! Due to their symmetrical driver configuration they are able to be used effectively horizontally, which I call landscape orientation or landscape position.  I had Sound Anchors make me stands with built in aluminum 20”x22” amp stands so that I could shorten the speaker wiring as the amps are cradled immediately below the speakers.

The Ulysses is a non-fatiguing, somewhat more laid back speaker which benefitted broadly from the power and clarity of the PA-M300 Series 2’s. At 91dB sensitivity, there was a fair bit of hum from the amps in the speakers, but this is not unique to the Jones amp. I recall using solid state amplification with the Tannoy Glenair and hearing a similar hum. As then, so now when the Jones amp was used with all but the most highly efficient speakers the hum vanished.

The hum was a bit of a trade-off for the vastly improved punch in dynamics over the King ESL. When I turned again to the Kodo drums there was even more extended decay on the note from the drum skin and its reverberations gave clues that the hall in which the recording was conducted was much larger than previously thought. The hum may have been due to a feedback loop. Sam had me test the amp by hooking it up directly to speakers sans preamp and see if any noise emanated from the speakers; they were silent. I would not recommend such a test for any amp/speakers, but PAM proved quiet, and my conclusion is that the noise resided in the rig elsewhere.

Little constellations

One of my perennial favorite sets of solid state components at shows has been the Constellation line. These are cost-no-object efforts and they sound like it. The Jones Audio amp strikes me as a “little Constellation,” with similar looks and sound. At the California Audio Show as a demo to see how the Constellation electronics would handle an artist who uses compression in recordings, I played some Trombone Shorty. If looks could kill! Based on the reaction of some attendees you would have thought I had insulted someone’s mother! My thought was, “We’ll see if this fancy gear can handle some more difficult material…” The Constellation gear was fancy and it did handle Trombone Shorty quite well.

I couldn’t resist testing PAM similarly and I wasn’t disappointed in the result. The Ulysses with the Jones amps had the capacity to render even the most dense, entwined, overextended recordings in a humanized fashion. Even with dynamic compression abounding from the first note of “Hurricane Season,” I knew I was going to be hearing something beautiful. The PA-M300 Series 2 can groove to the degree that Lenny Kravitz’s “American Woman”, which normally drives me out of the room, was not just listenable but downright fascinating. Who would have thought distortion could seem euphonic? PAM worked her magic, turning a passage which normally scrapes over the ears into one which tickled the ears. The PAM has the kind of refinement I have heard in designs in the $80-100K range.

I will close my listening impressions with a reference to the 70’s band Toto:

Side by side, I’ll be yours forever

Rain or shine, any kind of weather

Eye to eye, a blinding confrontation

You and I are a deadly combination

Where else would this quote be but from the hit “Pamela”? If PAM was transformed into a woman she would be a combination of Beyonce’ and Angelina Jolie, super-sexy and as dangerous as they come! Thankfully, you have little to be afraid of and everything to gain by getting to know PAM.

HAL in 2001: A Space Odyssey was a heartless SOB. He tried to kill all the crew onboard the ship. Sometimes I wonder if PAM is a distant relative of HAL. She’s after you, too; she’ll slay you tenderly, affectionately as she stares at you with her unflinching blue eyes. It’s not her look that will get you to succumb, but her voice. Listen too long and there’s no hope for you!