Jenzen Illuminator,
built by Sébastien/France
Copyright 2014 © Troels Gravesen
Dear Troels,
First I have to admit, such 3 ways are pretty hard to optimize in a
living room and the bass driver seems need more than a year break in
(with my average 10 hours a week) to be at its climax. The current paper
driver has only 4 months - worked only 200/300 hours.
The build phase : The loudspeakers were made by a friend, he who made
the Illumina 66 : Fredéric
http://www.troelsgravesen.dk/Illumina-66-Frederic.htm
It takes a long time to build them, a little more than 100 hours. One of
the reasons is Frederic has no workshop and not much time to do them
each day. After discover the bass driver chose was the aluminium version
instead paper, we changed the bass driver 3 months after start burning
the Illumina. The sound was like inverted phase before in the bass range
and perfectly integrated after. So guys, don't put the alu drivers on
these!
About finishing touch, I chose a real wood layer which is stick by heat.
On back and front, we made test with black paint but if not perfectly
done, too many cosmetic defects are visible so we chose a primer layer
to be the grey final colour of the loudspeakers.
The Break in phase : Each month I notice the sound open more and more.
Now, the upper case start to have great transparency as a high end
loudspeakers. The bass seems to need more hours cause some frequencies
around 35 and 80Hz are still a bit boomy depending the music and the
week after could be worse than the one before, seems a lack of break in.
The listening phase :
The first 5 months, I used a solid state integrated power amp. It drived
all speakers pretty well but my new valve mono block amp are more
convincing and put more juice to drive bass like "a iron hand in a silk
glove" (does the translation is good for this idiom ? Yuks...)
Currently I can't put the speakers more than 40cm away from side walls
and it's seems 80-130cm would be far better. I change home by the end of
this year, I could confirm that.
So about the sound, I agree with Troels about great transparency and
spicy taste in medium range. These speakers seems also to react more
with room than others I tested before. The music was very lively in my
firends'room when just finished and the sound far more dark at home.
The imaging is bigger, deeper and more open than I used to have.
Orchestral sounds more detailed and in an easy way on 3 ways than 2 ways
indeed.
The future : Like to make the ATS-4 to compare with current ones...
+3-4dB sensibility and more transparency could be greater.
Keep going your great and exciting work. Sharing your knowledge is so
great for all DIY workers around the world !
Best, Sébastien
