In 2018, zS809 HCS Home Cinema System gained considerable awareness and was awarded the EISA 2018 prize. I wish to know if the S809 tower speakers, master of Studio 8, are of sufficient quality enough to talk extremely (hi-fi). We’ll see what they both deserve together.
Contents
Design of Speaker Jamo S809
For once, it’s the speaker that decorates your interior
Since the eye can see your layer, either tube or transistorised, before you attach and turn on our marvelous amplifiers, those columns are of real benefit by choosing a Scandinavian style that appeals to everybody. Those who like stylish furniture. It was fascinating to find that the walnut/black finishes are combined in traditional or more industrial decoration, and I chose the white version to help this kind of style.
In brief, Jamo hit hard by offering a speaker who can stand confidently when dressing in your living room.
Good finish, but not high end
These are pretty thick MDF coated with the vinyl layer of this price range, like many speakers. At the bottom of the box the joints of the bass-reflex door are in PVC. At the feet of the tweeter is a wood piece which also tends to be covered by MDF in wood-effect vinyl. However, can we really blame them on this price range?
The finishing is decent overall, but it remains incomplete. We are on cost-effective speakers that must be mass manufactured from machines, so the width of my two speakers is a tiny gap of one millimeter.
Ingenious, thin and wide shape
The Jamo S 809 speakers are very slight towers with a front diameter of 16cm and rear 19.1cm. And yes, the speakers are in the form of a trapezoidal isosceles (we take geometric lessons)!
What’s nicely about this unique form is that, without being visually visible, you can easily turn columns 7° inside or outside. Personally, I have a 15-20 degree inward tilt and visitors are not aware of an audio not being initiated ( the effect of surprise after indicating it ).
Sound quality of the Jamo S 809
Optimal design
In order to maximize the price / output ratio, Jamo seems to follow best practice in contemporary audio engineering: a ‘twin half’ design.
- By using 3 identical small 5 ″ woofers playing in unison to reproduce all the low frequencies
- While one extends to higher frequencies to blend with the tweeter
The key feature that makes this configuration more comparable to a traditional 2-way device is a guideline that minimizes the intrusion of additional speakers, while at the same time optimizing the surface of the column and offering more reserve power thanks to the loudspeaker motors, for the more stringent demands from the deepest bass.
In addition to being discreet, smoother, a 1″ soft dome, which governs the path of the high-frequency speaker for a better fit to the woofer below, the 1 inch soft dome tweeter is put into a simple radius wavelength guide.
Jamo s809 listening
The S809 provides a good overall picture balance, with a big, clear image, and a lot of bass in order to praise the Rap/Hip-Hop/Pop/Dance/Electro commercial music.
Low
When the Lomepal & Romeo Elvis ‘1000°’ heard, it was a little ‘too much,’ so I chose to space the speakers with the rear wall about 20 centimeters to slow this effect down slightly. This may be too many. Fortunately the bass reflex port on the front this time Jamo has not thought of keeping the speakers 1m away from the wall!
The bass remaining present gives you the impression that you can find a “complete” sound on columns you do not want to accompany a subwoofer obviously, as is often the case particularly with Hi-Fi. It is pretty good for a column speaker of this size, particularly at this price.
The medium
Media are a peach, a sound, a velocity… I got no words! I got no words! Let’s understand, it’s not odd, they also seem to be subtly subdued than bass and triple. But something gives them some detail. There is something.
I prefer to think that the material used for woofers, the very light polyfiber that allows for very reactive and lively replacement, is advantageous for restoring higher frequencies and giving a dry bass. and all the top-to-bottom medium advantages.
The bottom two woofers are set to 2 kHz, the third woofer appears to go much higher, but before I could tell you about 4 ~ 5 kHz I had a difficult time.
Middle frequencies are really significant, they’re the ones our ears hear most, so that there’s no midrange presence for a speaker that plays too much on the bass and triple. Here Jamo offers us a speaker who is not absent and supports the feeling of his “full” bass. The product of a beautiful dynamic and a beautiful description of a tone, all subtleties of which we easily perceive.
In the guitar rifles of the “Lonely Train” by Black Stone Cherry and the “Familiar” by Agnés Obel, I wanted to subject these media to many kinds of music, where the low medium is simply incredible! It was with Focal Aria 926s that I rediscovered the sensations I had.
The treble
The high ones are gentle and crystalline to a point or I could hear in the highest sounds (>8kHz), a bit like a trumpet that couldn’t attract even some people. The highs are detailled and well blended with the mediums, but we clearly have the very high sounds (broken glass in the far ahead movies) at a home cinema speaker. Personally, I suggest choosing the positioning and the tendency of these speakers to go a bit off the main axis or to correct the equalizer (EQ).
The spatialization of the sound scene is an issue which often occurs with treble. We also talk frequently of “the sweet spot,” this very directive speaker’s perfect listening point. Here the “sweet point” is quite broad and thanks to the waveguides on the tweeters it remains very accurate. They are well covered in an area of around 45° and note that 7° is easy to tilt them;);
Translation: between you and the Jamo S809 columns you can form an almost equilateral triangle.
Sound signature
I keep the tonic tone, a bit similar to Klipsch (the parent company of Jamo) but better measured, to end on the reasonably marked sound signature of these speakers. The sound is sweet and attractive to many, but not everyone! We have a nice description if we abuse it with low or large volumes (maximum 200W per channel), so far we should not abuse it far enough, in which event it will end up being misleading, since the bass is distorted and treble a little too much…but you would probably be sordide before.
The Jamo speakers are flexible, good at seeing in all, but not especially good at (Hi-Fi) music, where they need correction, either by placement or equalizer.
Conclusion
With this package, I liked all my hearing sessions. Here are some of the songs that I invite you to try if you get the opportunity:
- Moby – Why does my heart feel so bad
- Promise & the monster – Spine
- Rone – Brest
The Home Cinema is bluffing too, here are some very useful films with the 5.0.2 package which I accompanied by the SVS SB12 NSD:
- Whiplash
- Terminator 2
- Interstellar
I note that these columns provide great sound and great value for money in home cinemas as well as an audio-like use of the games. However, this pair of columns can also be used purely for high-tech music on CDs, FLACs, or other, and even on that use the value for money is great.
The design which dresses the interior when not in use is greatly appreciated.
On the opposite, smaller bookstore speakers could be beat them that wouldn’t be any more costly.
My suggestion was to buy a 5.0 S809 HCS package, which is found at about € 599, to make a nice home cinema in the living room with columns that play the game for music purposes. Consider combining an amplifier in “Pure Audio” mode with a stereo that reproduces without a minor alteration of the signal.
This could be the most suggested update if you had a Logitech 5.1 THX set before.
