Jamo 5 and 6" closeouts

[Godzilla]

Just for interest and experimentation, i purchased Jamo closeouts from PE. I built something using the 5" and 6" and listened to the 8" quickly... all promising but in the end i am underwhelmed. I really have not done enough listening on the 8" but having lived with the 5" for a couple months and more recently the 6" i thought i would comment on their sound.

First i apologize, these are not full range drivers... but they spec to 4,000khz so i thought i'd try rolling in a piezo. These drivers are connected to two different piezos (also from PE). The larger piezo is connected to the 5" Jamo and to me sounds bad. It's rolling in around 3 or 4k... i don't remember but no matter what value it always sounded bad. The 6" Jamo is used with the smaller rectangular piezo that sounds much MUCH better to me than the larger one (don't buy the larger one, it stinks!) crossed at about 6k.

These drivers look nice and purposeful but they seem like run of the mill basic drivers. When mounted they look really great and 'hi endie' but just don't perform the way i hoped. They were under $10 but supposedly list for $25... they are ok but nothing special. The 5" Jamo sounds full and deep but needs a xover too intrusive into the musical range for me to go. Probably a dome crossed at 2k would work but that's not the sound i like. The 6" Jamo sounds thinner (totally different sound) and dry as a dessert. No personality. At least the 5" had a fullness to its sound.

On a side note, the Dayton 6" pro sound driver (also in the pic) sounds better to me (but still doesn't perform like even a simple full range driver thru the mids, imo). In a box tuned to around 70hz the Dayton sounded richer than the Jamo's. The Dayton's required a coil (.4mh) to keep their rising response under control. But once in place, they are more natural sounding to me than the Jamo's. I'm not really thrilled with the Dayton but it's better than the Jamo imo.

I have the 5" Dayton full range pro driver on order and should get them soon. I am hoping they will sound nice thru the mids, full enough in the bass in a simple small ported or slotted box and will see if a piezo enhances the sound or can be left off... I am hopeful the little Dayton's offer value for the money... they are also pretty inexpensive. Their 6" big brother sounds good... just not as extended as it could.

Zilla