So, what can the Joule White 3 do?
Can the Joule White 3 rip your head off? Yes, it can, and with style. It can put out so much clean, powerful force that it seems your body is being compressed into the listening chair, but you will enjoy it because it is so beautiful.
Smack down bass is what I’m getting, a force with linearity I’ve not heard in any three-way speaker in my room. Many companies are going with puny bass drivers of about 5-6” made of very fine materials. These may be precise but lack the impact necessary to convince me I’m hearing serious bass. The Audio Technology 10” driver is a curious mix sonically of the generous 15” woofers of the Nimbus or Legacy Whisper and the smallish drivers used in arrays. The Audio Technology is big enough to do bass impact well, but it’s small enough to be extremely tight sounding. The result is bass that hits like a jackhammer, but sacrifices nothing in terms of cleanness to smaller bass drivers.
Nestle this Audio Technology driver in a cabinet of great density and internal volume and you get bulldozer-like power to push notes whichever musical direction they need to go. I dislike the popping character of small drivers; the moment you demand more from them they “pop,” as you can hear the limits of excursion being tested and the cone tortured to produce the lower frequencies at higher volume. My ear hears the speaker crying, “Distortion!” At the first hearing of the Joule White 3 I thought, “Oh, no! It’s popping!” But, as I listened more closely I realized it was not popping, it was properly pulsing the note out, albeit forcefully. It does so with apparent ease, the resultant curious mix of ease and intensity drawing my ear to enjoy the bass line of the music.
My room is a vault, constructed and tuned such that when a system plays it seems there is not much contribution from the room. The floor is cement and it takes a lot of output to make bass notes tactile. In ten years of reviewing this is the only 3-way speaker I recall with ability to challenge my 15” powered subwoofers in their impact. However, this required use of the 1,00wpc Red Dragon S500 amps in Mono. The Joule does this not by pounding the ground with large, looser waves, but by launching tight, powerful waves at you with such precision that your body feels them. Your ears, of course, can’t help but be put on alert by this bass cannon.
Saved by the bass impedance circuit!
Usually such intense bass bothers me, as my ear tends to tell me, “The bass is too strong, it’s overwhelming the rest of the spectrum!” Not in this case, for as powerful as it is presented, the bass is so clean that there is zero overhang, no encroaching upon the midrange. I did have to call upon a secret weapon of the Joule 3, the bass impedance circuit, to make the bass behave exactly as I wanted. This feature, found also on the Perfect Storm, inserts a simple circuit into the bass driver’s signal path to cut by 2dB the bass output from about 60Hz to 150Hz. In a small to moderately sized room the prodigious output of the Audio Technology driver coupled with the generous bass port below can overwhelm a room. The mid-bass can seem overcooked, and the hearer concludes the speaker has “too much bass.”
Ryan stated simply that most speaker designers do not bother with an impedance compensation circuit because it’s more costly and not well understood by the community. He is not willing to turn a blind eye to it, and I’m most grateful he did not! In my moderately sized room the Joule White 3 would have been problematic due to this band of intense mid-bass output. When I first received the speaker and set it up I was concerned that the bass was too powerful. I thought I would have to wrestle with it via components and cables.
Then I inserted the jumpers for the compensation circuit. Well, actually, I inserted a different set of jumpers I had on hand, as the Vapor jumpers made with Verastarr silver OFC wiring had not arrived. They were sent later along with two sets of spikes, one set of aluminum and the other of Delrin – and a passport. I must admit that I now lack the motivation to pull off the casters and wrestle the speakers onto spikes in order to listen to the spikes’ effect. Perhaps someday, but with apologies to Ryan, not at this time.
Oh, what a necessary feature the compensation circuit turned out to be! I sing the praises of Vapor Audio for including it! This was the feature that locked the speaker’s performance into place. Now there was perfect symmetry between not only the ribbon and ceramic mid, but also the bass driver. Now I could get lost in the beauty versus concentrate on the contribution of any one driver. The mid-bass emphasis I was struggling with had vanished.
To implement the Impedance Compensation Circuit one end of the jumper is connected to an additional unlabeled post just to the left of the negative bass speaker cable binding post. The speaker wires are connected normally; however, the “odd man out” post when connected via the jumper to the Joule White 3’s negative bass speaker post engages the compensation circuit. I encourage owners to assess the effect of this circuit, even if you do not think your room is problematic.
I tried these two different sets of jumpers on the Impedance Compensation Circuit, and they impacted the speaker in an unexpected but efficacious way. The contouring of the bass in the affected frequencies was accompanied by a sea change of the tonality and weight of the bass. It tweaked the sound of the bass relative to the mid and treble. When I used the first set of jumpers the Joule 3 was warmer and thicker at bottom – not flabby, but thicker. However, with the Vapor supplied jumpers a lessening of that thickness and an increase in golden hued tonality came through. Yeah, I know, golden hue via silver OFC conductor. By using the jumpers one places an additional wire in the bass driver signal path. The characteristics of that wire impact the outcome of the bass, and the bass relative to the rest of the drivers. The beauty of all this is the availability of a tuning mechanism to address when one feels the room or a component has contributed too much mid-bass to the sound.
Swinging in the Legacy Audio Xtreme HD Subs
Why not swing for the fences and swing into action the Legacy subs? If the Joule 3 was formidable on its own, why not make it unstoppable with subwoofers? My concern was that the subs would not be able to keep up. I was wrong; the actively, internally powered Legacy EXTREME HD with its 15” powered forward firing driver and 15” downward firing passive radiator may have been running to catch up with the Kingsound bass panels, but it sauntered just under the Joule 3 to support it. I needed only the lightest touch from these subs, but that light push was welcomed.
With this rig I had created the “Great Pyramid of Giza” approach, wherein the foundation of the music was massive and tapered to the most miniscule point at the top. The sheer weight, but with sharply defined lines, much like the pyramid, was gratifying. I get a similar, though not as clean, result in terms of presence in the bass when I use the Legacy Audio Whisper DSW Clarity Edition, however a pair of those speakers employ eight 15” drivers!
A lighter touch
The Joule White 3 excels also with an amp having a lighter touch; in this instance the Nelson Pass designed First Watt J2. I used a pair of them arranged in a vertical passive bi-amp configuration. I returned to listening without the Legacy subwoofers to assess the sound as the Joule White 3 presented it. At first I could not get accustomed to the lack of dynamic power. I was so used to ripping electric guitars, gut punch bass and up in your face power lyrics on rock music, even without the subwoofers, that the system with the J2 amps lacked jump factor. However, there was a smidgen more airiness and warmth. Things improved when I received the second pair of TEO Liquid interconnects. Having them on the entire frequency spectrum transformed the sound of these lower powered amps. The presence of more liquid conductive material in the Standard interconnect brought richness to the sound, which compensated somewhat for the diminished macrodynamics.
Vocals were recessed more than with the Red Dragon amps, however they were not obscured in any way. The effect on the ears of the Red Dragon amps in the system might be compared to the water fountain show at Bellagio in Las Vegas, while the First Watt amplification scheme was like sitting in front of the Trevi Fountain in Rome. With these gentle amps the music could not overwhelm the senses but passed gently across the expanse of the room to the ears.
Which is better? It depends upon my mood, and as with any system I establish it takes a couple days and system adjustments to create the optimum outcome. It is surprising to realize that a speaker can behave so differently as to create entirely distinct experiences, yet do so with such excellence that either scheme is recommendable. That is precisely what I hoped for with the Joule White 3, a speaker that whatever direction I go I am going to have riveting listening experiences.
What are you waiting for?
Perhaps the question should instead be asked, “How long will you wait for a Vapor speaker?” I cannot tell you how long your wait equity will be. I can tell you that when it arrives the wait for gorgeous aesthetics, but especially extreme sound quality and premium listening experiences will be over. In several respects Vapor Audio will have beaten the big audiophile boys at their game. You will own a speaker that performs competitively with some of “the best,” meaning names like JM Labs, Wilson, Vandersteen, YG Acoustics and Magico, and you will have done it without vaporizing tens of thousands of dollars from your bank account.
Associated Components:
Source: Macintosh Mac Mini; Sonos Digital Music System; Musical Fidelity M1CDT Transport
Playback Software: HQPlayer; Amarra 2
NAS: Buffalo Linkstation 500G
DAC: Eastern Electric Minimax DSD DAC Supreme with Burson, Dexa NewClassD and Sparkos Labs Discrete Opamp Upgrade; ifi Micro USBPower and Micro DAC
Preamp: TEO Audio Liquid Preamplifier; VAC Renaissance Signature Preamplifier MkII; Pass Labs XP-20; Cambridge Audio 840E
Amps: Red Dragon S500; VAC Phi 200; First Watt J2 (two); Wells Audio Innamorata
Integrated Musical Fidelity M6i
Speakers: Kingsound King III; Legacy Audio DSW Clarity Edition; Kings Audio King Tower omnidirectional; Vapor Audio Nimbus White
Subwoofers: Legacy Audio XTREME HD (2)
IC’s: TEO Audio Liquid Cable Splash-Rs and Splash-Rc; Clarity Cable Organic RCA/XLR; Snake River Audio Signature Series Interconnects; Silent Source “The Music Reference”
Speaker Cables: TEO Cable Standard Speaker; Clarity Cable Organic Speaker; Snake River Audio Signature Series Speaker Cables; Silent Source “The Music Reference”
Digital Cables: Clarity Cable Organic Digital; Snake River Audio Boomslang; Silent Source “The Music Reference”
USB: Verastarr Nemesis; Clarity Organic
Power Cables: Verastarr Grand Illusion; Clarity Cable Vortex; MIT Oracle ZIII; Xindak PF-Gold; Snake River Audio Signature Series; Silent Source “The Music Reference”
Power Conditioning: Wireworld Matrix Power Cord Extender; Tice Audio Solo
Copy editor: Laurence A. Borden
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I feel compelled to add one additional piece of information pertinent to the review, which I inadvertently omitted. Vapor speakers are not high mark up, high discount speakers. Ryan shared that the margins are much lower than many premium speakers which are sold through dealerships. Thus, the audiophile is not to expect large discounts off the MSRP of the speakers. I received less than typical accommodation pricing on my pair of Joule White 3, as I understand the costs to the company involved in the labor, materials and specialized parts involved in the build. This also is a primary difference between a Vapor Audio speaker and one produced in higher volume by a high end speaker factory.
As a Vapor Joule Black Version 2.0 owner I would comment on wait time. It took seven months for me to receive my speakers from the day I ordered them. I would have received them a month earlier but I agreed to let Ryan show them at RMAF 2014. I received them after the show in early November. For a custom build I didn’t think the wait was that long. Communication with Ryan at times was spotty but in the end everything was totally worth it. The custom veneer and high gloss finish along with cross over upgrades is stunning. Absolutely the best purchase I have evr made in this hobby.
By the time you add a few up grades to this speaker…I hardly call it a bargain.
Your are knocking @ the door of those other speakers you mentioned…
JMHO…
Tim,
God’s Peace to you,
Well, let’s look at a few examples; Perhaps the Joule White sits somewhere between the Focal Utopia Scala at $34K and Utopia Maestro at $52K. The YG Acoustics Hailey is about $43K, and the Wilson Alexia is $50K+. Imo the Joule White 3 would be plenty comfortable competing with such speakers, and to me it’s price at about $21K is not quite knocking at the door of the others. Instead, I would suggest my conclusion that to attempt commensurate sound would cost tens of thousands more to be correct.
Blessings,
Douglas Schroeder
Douglas,
You have a point but any component $20k or above isn’t chump change to me .
I do realize some speakers can go way beyond that price,
Hopefully Vapor can keep it at that price point for a while if one so desires .
Regards, Tim
Tim,
God’s Joy to you,
I concur; $20K is serious money and speaker manufacturers had better put some nice work together to deserve that kind of money. I didn’t expand upon the thought in the article, but I noted that Ryan and Pete intended to put more affordable Vapor speakers in dealers’ hands. I expect such to be of similar sound quality, but at a better price point. If anyone can make a more affordable speakers sound good, I have confidence that Ryan can. I do not know the price points of such speakers, but I believe they will be significantly less expensive. You may wish to communicate with Vapor about that development.
Blessings,
Douglas Schroeder
Doug, Read your review “Damning with faint Praise”Most of the article seemed to be poor little ol’ me and my”ugly” wait???? Ryan builds truly bespoke speakers like none I’ve ever heard or seen before, and I’ve been at this since 1971. He’s a one man show and what he manages to produce (under difficult situations) are some of the best speakers I’ve ever heard in 40+ years as an audiophile and being in the business. The key word here is bespoke. I’ve known Ryan for some 4 years now (have an order that I’m waiting on and the key word is PATIENCE) If you were trying to do him a favor by reviewing his speakers, it sure didn’t seem like it to me. Plain and simple he doesn’t charge enough!!! You omit the tremendous discount you got and just went on and on about your “ugly” wait. Try ordering a pair of Peale or Lobb bespke English shoes and see how long the wait is. His fit finish and sound quality are impeccable. I remember when I first Dave Wilson’s new speaker in 1981 in San Jose the WAMM’s (or as one audiophile wag put it Wasted all my Money!) 30K$ in 1981 and they stank. Now all the sycophant rags laud him with praise and he can charge 250K$ for them. Of course money talks and the nasty part about ALL of the big rags is they can be bribed!!! These are not off the shelf and you kept changing the specs for them. You almost cancelled 4 times (did anybody need to know that?) I don’t know you and maybe you are a sincere guy, but the damage has already been done! I had to get my two cents in on this one
Tony Petrakis
John,
I read your comment with interest. Your passion for Ryan’s Vapor Audio speakers is palpable. The fact that you are coming to his defense speaks volume of your admiration for his talents, despite the patience needed, and it affirms the value of Doug’s Review.
Thank you for your readership.
Sincerely,
Constantine Soo
Tony,
God’s Peace to you,
I will make two corrections and one observation regarding your message. As I have stated elsewhere, I spent right at 20% of the article’s words on the topic of the timeframe of the project. This is appropriate to a company which does business in such a radically different fashion in several respects than most of the industry. It seems that those who would detract from my review misjudge the actual amount of content of the article regarding the timing of the speaker build.
In regards to your suggestion that I kept changing the specs and almost cancelled four times, those are inaccurate statements. Ryan Scott kept changing the design as it went along, presenting additional options, and I concurred with all the changes, which added zero frustration in regards to the time involved. What added frustration was solely inability of Vapor to meet its own deadlines, ones which were set by Ryan, then missed. THAT was the issue with the length of the build. THAT was why I state there is such incredible patience needed. I have also made clear that such frustration melts away rather rapidly when the speaker is delivered and enjoyed.
Whether you were told by someone that I almost cancelled four times, or whether you misread the article, at NO time did I ever discuss canceling the project.I never spoke with Vapor about canceling the speakers. In fact, I have spent considerable time in the background encouraging one industry member and a customer to hang in there, as they both have seen longer than 1.5 year wait time for speakers. So, far from canceling, I have been supporting Vapor by encouraging people who have had long wait times. My rationale has been precisely as yours; the value and performance is nearly unbeatable.
Finally, an observation. You state that Vapor has “impeccable” fit and finish, yet I don’t believe you have seen my speakers, except for pictures. Nor have you taken possession of yours. That does not put you in a position to speak definitively about the build of vapor speakers. On the other hand, I have owned two of them, and know the fit and finish blemishes on each.
Blessings,
Douglas Schroeder
Greetings all,
God’s Peace,
I would like to continue to reinforce my pleasure at the outcome of the Vapor Joule White 3 project. As the weeks roll on I have opportunity to use the speaker with ever changing combinations of gear. The performance is exceptional, the quality first rate!
I would like for the community to recognize the long term rewards involved in patiently procuring a Vapor speaker. I have heard a great many speakers with systems from $100K on up, and this speaker would be comfortable in nearly any of them (excepting, perhaps very low power setups demanding extremely high efficiency speakers). The configurability of the build is also difficult to overemphasize. Customizing the speaker leads to growing pleasure over time. I am delighted with the speaker in a way that does not typically occur with a stock speaker.
I encourage audiophiles not to be put off by wait time, whatever the length. Resisting the temptation to immediate gratification will have large rewards. You will be seeing the Joule White 3 in many systems going forward because of its exceptional qualities.
I would most definitely do it all over again, and that feeling grows as each change brings even better performance.
As a discriminating audiophile for over 50 years, it amazes me how a high end speaker manufacturer that charges over $20,000.00 for a pair of stereo speaker would first and foremost want a great deal of data and intelligence on the room in which the speakers are going to permanently operate before the speakers are built.
Colored photographs of distant shots of the floor, ceiling, all wall surfaces, door and window openings, furniture arrangement, wall decor, floor covering (wood, carpet, tile, etc.) fire place (if any) book shelves, location of audio components, the room’s size, in feet and inches (height, width, and depth, angle of ceiling), window opening sizes, open entry ways, description of the room’s wall, floor and ceiling construction and materials, draperies, type furnishings (wood, glass, etc.) and sofa and chair surface materials (leather, cloth, etc.), and other sound effecting data would be fed into a high end manufacturer’s computer program. With that data along with photos, etc. a computer program could recreate the audiophiles listening room and accurately configure that rooms sound characteristics, identify nulls, suck outs and general frequency response issues, reverberation, phasing issues and other distortions of sound generated in that room from 20Hz to 20kHz based on where the audiophile wants the speakers positioned and even where he/she will sit in the room to listen to the speakers.
The speaker builder would then go about the business of selecting the right type of speaker configuration and build that speaker to perfeclty interface with the room’s computer model (the real room) to assure utmost accuracy in the reproduction of recorded sound by the speakers.
Cross over net works should be digital, outboarded form the speakers and preset to work perfectly in the computer modeled room. Ditto for the speakers selected. In fact, the type of speaker selected would also be determined by the room’s specifications. It might be an open baffle or an enclosed air suspension unit or ported, perhaps an electrostatic design or a panel or line speaker array.
The point is, when one shells out over $20,000.00 for a pair of stereo speakers, they must work well within the room they are to be installed and operate within. To prepare a room to work with the speakers charecteristics is far more difficult and expensive (plus it usually turns out to look like a padded recording studio rather than an attractive listening room). It is far easier to select the correct type of speaker that would sound best in the computer modeled room and model that speakers cross over network and internal equalization correction to produce a flat frequency response from 20Hz to 15kHz or 20kHz in the room. The computer program could even be structured to select the right type of driver(s) and its or their configuration, plus the enclosure or frame structure for the driver system or drivers selected.
With this sort of purchase possible and within a reasonable lead time to produce such a pair of speakers after an order is placed and all the data provided by the customer to the manufacturer, I would be first in line to make that purchase. And, I think it would obsolete all high end speakers currently available. Why order a $100,000.00 pair of stereo speakers and put them in a room that makes them sound like a pair of speakers you would find in a big box discount store.
Such a manufacturer that offers to build speakers custom designed to work perfectly in the audiophiles listening room (and becomes a permanent part of that home), no doubt would get a lot of business because the speakers delivered to the audiophile that are near perfect for the audiophiles personal listening room are going to sound like “real” music, like you re there at the “live” venue.
The room represents 50% or more of the sound an audiophile hears. If the speakers work with the room to compensate for room issues that distort the sound in such a manner there so no distortion heard and the speakers are, otherwise, accurate music reproducing instruments, the end result is audio bliss. Think about this.
Mr. Dean’s comment having opened the door, I’ll go through it and ask whether you considered using digital signal processing to deal with your tweeter response anomaly. This seems far preferable to buying a pair of cables at a cost comparable to the speakers themselves. It can be done with a variety of hardware or software products currently available.
Jonathan,
God’s Peace to you,
I disagree with some observations/suggestions which my colleague, Robert, made above, and I have discussed them with him. As might be expected, there are quite different perspectives on how to do audio best, even among writing colleagues. I do not wish to engage in a lengthy discussion of that here. Suffice to say that I do not consider active systems to be absolutely superior to passive ones, as so much depends upon the implementation and attending components. Please see my review of the Legacy Audio Whisper DSW for a thorough treatment of this topic.
Regarding the tweeter, I do not consider the unusual characteristics of the RAAL to be inherently an anomaly as in “problem” to be fixed. I merely find an additional benefit by using it in an alternative way. To slap a processor into the chain to attempt a fix imo would be adding more problems than solutions. The crossover of the Joule White 3 is truly extreme, and I would not dream of clogging it up with extraneous gear. In the long run I have not been impressed by add-on processors, correctors, music signal completion devices, etc. It’s relatively easy to achieve similar results with the right combination of gear and cables without the overburden of an added processor.
Finally, simply because I used the TEO Liquid Cables, which are truly extreme, and yes, extremely expensive – at least the speaker cables, but the interconnects are a bargain! – this in no way means that inexpensive speaker cables could not confer pleasing adjustments to the treble. All things being equal, this being a superb passive design , if I were strapped for cash I would rather search the world over for economical cables offering the right balance for the treble than to insert a processor.
Blessings,
Douglas Schroeder
Uhh these speakers are now $33K and up. Wish I could have gotten onboard at $21K!