Jim Rogers - Formed a new company after the collapse of the original company that was well known for the BBC monitors LS3/5A.
These JR 149's use the same KEF drivers, a T27 tweeter and B110 for bass/mid-range, as the LS3/5A. They are normally covered in a neoprene? open cell foam with a fluted pattern, but just like some speaker surrounds that foam has perished and needs to be replaced. They stand around 14 inches high and are heavy. The sound is very transparent and open with a lot more bass than I expected from small non-ported cabinets. There was also a sub woofer and separate amplifier designed to match these. Some say they sound better than LS3/5a's but I don't have any to compare and have never heard them. These are keepers though, they are among the best very small speakers I have heard and work exceptionally well with the Gemsonic Valve amplifier.
So! having moved to a new place I connected these speakers up to the Gemsonic and found a problem, the tweeter would cut in and out on one of the speakers, I checked connections and swapped speakers left and right and it was definitely the speaker not the amp. I had a look at the crossover and sure enough one of the black ELCAP, electrolytic capacitors, was reading very bad, pico-farads instead of micro-farads, the others were out of spec but not completely gone; time to change the capacitors. I decided to get the replacements from Falcon Acoustics in the UK, they sell kits specifically for the JR149's, and at a very reasonable price. The parts arrived within two weeks. The parts supplied were metalized poly, 3.3uF 100 volt, made by Expotus, to replace the original 3.3uF 50 volt electrolytics and electrolytic 1.5uF 100 volt and 2.2 uF 100 volt, made by Alcap, to replace the 50 volt versions of those.
All installed, reinstalled into the system and...amazing absolutely fantastic, obviously an improvement.
The system: Thorens TD115 turntable with Stanton 681 cartridge, Philips CD850 mk2 CD Player, Fountain Gemsonic valve amplifier (New Zealand made marvel) and of course the Rogers Jr149 speakers freshly re-capped.
These JR 149's use the same KEF drivers, a T27 tweeter and B110 for bass/mid-range, as the LS3/5A. They are normally covered in a neoprene? open cell foam with a fluted pattern, but just like some speaker surrounds that foam has perished and needs to be replaced. They stand around 14 inches high and are heavy. The sound is very transparent and open with a lot more bass than I expected from small non-ported cabinets. There was also a sub woofer and separate amplifier designed to match these. Some say they sound better than LS3/5a's but I don't have any to compare and have never heard them. These are keepers though, they are among the best very small speakers I have heard and work exceptionally well with the Gemsonic Valve amplifier.
So! having moved to a new place I connected these speakers up to the Gemsonic and found a problem, the tweeter would cut in and out on one of the speakers, I checked connections and swapped speakers left and right and it was definitely the speaker not the amp. I had a look at the crossover and sure enough one of the black ELCAP, electrolytic capacitors, was reading very bad, pico-farads instead of micro-farads, the others were out of spec but not completely gone; time to change the capacitors. I decided to get the replacements from Falcon Acoustics in the UK, they sell kits specifically for the JR149's, and at a very reasonable price. The parts arrived within two weeks. The parts supplied were metalized poly, 3.3uF 100 volt, made by Expotus, to replace the original 3.3uF 50 volt electrolytics and electrolytic 1.5uF 100 volt and 2.2 uF 100 volt, made by Alcap, to replace the 50 volt versions of those.
All installed, reinstalled into the system and...amazing absolutely fantastic, obviously an improvement.
The system: Thorens TD115 turntable with Stanton 681 cartridge, Philips CD850 mk2 CD Player, Fountain Gemsonic valve amplifier (New Zealand made marvel) and of course the Rogers Jr149 speakers freshly re-capped.