Full Metal Jacket

Chromey and Rupert are truly awed by the jern 11.

In the grand scheme of things, JERN Loudspeakers are a relatively new company, but stem from a long pedigree of Danish engineering and consulting. The Danes in general don't have a bad rep when it comes to speaker design, well known brands like DALI and Dynaudio for example. The raison d'etre for this little design is the superb cast metal enclosure. Not just any casting mind, but a high graphite content cast iron. Although the use of metal for enclosures is nothing new, dating back to the 1950s with the Goodmans Stereo Bowl for example; and through the generations, there have been plenty of metal cabinet designs. However, none have been in an inert cast graphite iron form. Danish JERN, pronounced 'yern' in English, are quick to point out the strong sonic advantages of the material. This, combined with the unique shape, and the rest of this speakers technology have, of course, a huge influence on the overall sound signature of the speaker.

JERN are always going to be a small bespoke manufacturer. Casting a heavy iron cabinet is never going to be something for the mass production mass market.

vibration kill chromey, Don’t panic!!! it’s just a patent

The technical bit…

The Model 11 stands just about 12” tall. It may be small, but they are mighty; they are over 12 kilo mass (each!) and make the speaker feel like it defies gravity, feeling a lot heavier than that! They come in four finishes, Polar White, Casting Grey, Nordic Black and Danish Red. It's shape has been carefully crafted, after the early pioneering work of engineer Dr Harry Olsen.

Olsen carefully measured the effect a cabinet had on sound resonances, and the cast cabinet of the JERN closely follows the ideal. Across their range of speakers there are differing qualities of drive units. The 11 starts the ball rolling, no pun intended! There is a clear synergy across the models. All feature simple 1st order crossover designs, famed for their flat phase response and transient speed.

Try not to get absorbed along with any diffracted sound chromey!

The tweeter is a 22mm Wavecor model with a textile membrane and a foam ring on the mounting plate to help absorb diffracted sound, providing a clearer and more pinpoint sound.

The mid/bass driver has a 146mm chassis and a woven glass fibre cone, the centre pole of the large magnet structure is ventilated to aid dispersion of heat, increasing power handling. The shape of the cast cabinet aids time alignment of the unit. That is to say both the voice coil of the bass unit and the tweeter are aligned, this with the first order crossover allows the two drive units to seamlessly integrate. The design is a sealed infinite baffle type enclosure. It does not have a bass port. All bass ports add some 'colour' to the sound, but at such low frequencies most of us feel it, rather than hear it.

the doughnut will hold you in place chromey.

To aid mounting of this heavy speaker, JERN can supply a couple of round 'doughnut' style rings to help locate and possibly protect any furniture you might like to place your heavy little JERN speakers upon. There is a matching stand available too, at a premium. The base of the speakers is flat, so some experimentation with different speaker stands is possible. The majority of speaker designs are designed to give their most accurate frequency response in a 'free space', that is to say well away from walls or corners. The JERN have huge immunity to coloration, thanks to the inert cabinets, and they are designed to be placed close to a rear wall. Much more convenient than most speakers. Connections are via a high quality set of binding posts / 4mm sockets. The speakers in room response is quoted as 45 hz to 20 Khz, sensitivity is on the low side, at 86dB per watt, and a nominal 4 ohm impedance, does dictate the use of fairly 'punchy' powerful amplification.

Demonstration

With that in mind, the JERN speakers were hooked up to a NAIM NSS 222 streamer/preamp and latest NAIM NAP 250 power amplifier, located on a NAIM Frame lite, Chord Company Epic XL speaker cable and stands from Solid Steel. Our Manchester audition room is fairly large, and with quite huge bass absorbing windows. If any room can test a speaker’s performance, it is in here!

From the onset this speaker truly impresses, with its lack of colouration from the cabinet. Listening was started on George Benson's classic 1976 album Breezin' and the title track. This laid back smooth jazz track is impeccably recorded at the hands of engineer Al Schmitt at the world famous Capital studios in Hollywood. Played back on the JERN this track sounded immense. The sense of space and and openness was just incredible. Benson's guitar just floated in to the room, with real sonic realism. Trying to catch the low bass out, I upped the funk to a track by 'The Headhunters', God Made Me Funky. This track was played in a cinematic way, with a literally huge sound-stage, the bass lean, tight, fast and accurate.

Playing John Cage's latest album 'Solo', featuring Cage playing a retrospective of his past 50 years of work on the grand piano. A simple recording, it is superbly engineered, these little speakers really conveyed a grand piano in our listening room. The sound from both speakers converged so well, they actually manage that rare trick of actually disappearing, and the piano sound genuinely appearing in front of you. Playing various tracks from the ECM label, with their signature reverb sound was just utterly beautiful.

Whatever music was played, whatever genre, there was an underlying sense of accuracy and space. Flicking through a Frank Sinatra compilation, spreading across the years, each track had its own sonic personality, these little speakers providing the widest window on the sound available.

Those that value stereo image should really seek this speaker out. The imaging was just incredible, especially for a sub £1,500 speaker. Put your hand on a cabinet while playing, and there is no sense of vibration from it. The presence on vocals and wind instruments like saxophones is very impressive. The bass, although soufflé light, can convey textures and tones beautifully; rather than a muddy undercurrent to the tune, the bottom end displays real accuracy, individual strings have an open touch that few designs can match.

The speaker is not perfect, no speaker is. But very few speaker designs at any price point come with this sense of accuracy space, pace and absolute clarity... they are so radically different in looks sound and build, a unique, bespoke hand made speaker, refreshingly clean. Do not let the unconventional looks put you off. These little loudspeakers from Denmark are highly recommended.

Be sure to pop along to the Manchester store to view the Jern 11 in the flesh and experience the incredible sound they offer.

If you have any questions about any of the equipment featured in this article, or any other Hi-Fi or home cinema enquiries, be sure to Contact Us.

Thanks for reading

Haden, Munir, Dave and James - Audio T Manchester

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