(NEW) Jamo Studio Series S801 Bookshelf Speakers (Pair)

The Jamo S-801 speakers arrived packed in a single carton protected by styrofoam inserts. The shipping carton and speakers were undamaged. The sound of the S-801 speakers, right out of the box, was just OK. EQ helps. EQ can improve the overall balance of the Jamo S801, especially bringing up the level of midrange and vocals. Although on wall mounting is possible, even encouraged for surround use, as evidenced by the installed wall hanger bracket, the sound of the S-801 speakers improves when the speakers are some distance from the rear wall. I found that 30 inches (2.5 feet/76cm) measured from the wall to the back of the S-801 speaker's rear slot port sounded best in my room/setup. The soundstage widened and the imaging improved. The sound of male and female vocals improved as did some instruments. The S-801 speakers provide good detail in the upper range. Listening to the Miles Davis recordings of So What and Freddie Freeloader I could clearly hear the brushes moving on the cymbals. The Jamo S-801 speakers do not sound like box speakers. With the exception of some percussion sounds most of the music is not heard as coming directly from the speakers. This is probably due to the small size of the cabinets minimizing diffraction. The slightly trapezoidal speaker cabinets also reduce box resonances. If you follow the recommended amplifier power (60W) and keep under the maximum amplifier power (120W) you should not have any issue with overloading the Jamo S 801 speakers, especially if you use a high pass filter when using a subwoofer. For this review I used the WiiM Amplifier (rated at 60 Watts RMS into 8 Ohms) that I purchased from Amazon. Although you can use the Jamo S 801 speakers by themselves I obtained the best overall sound when I added a subwoofer. [Update: If you have been on a fence about whether to purchase the Jamo S 801 bookshelf speakers sold on Amazon and want to try music streaming using one of the WiiM streaming products (also sold on Amazon), there has never been a better incentive than room correction. The lastest version of the WiiM Home app includes room correction. * (* Note: Room correction is not currently enabled for the WiiM Mini, only for the WiiM Amplifier, WiiM Pro and WiiM Pro Plus. The recently released WiiM Ultra streamer/preamplifier also features room correction.) I tried using the WiiM Amplifier's room correction with the Jamo S 801 small bookshelf speakers that I previously purchased on Amazon. Room correction greatly improved the sound of the Jamo S 801 by precisely boosting the midrange frequency levels (which are significantly reduced as delivered by Klipsch/Jamo). I use a WiiM Amplifier (also purchased on Amazon) with a 10" subwoofer. The WiiM Amplifier's subwoofer output features bass management with both low and high pass filtering when listening to the Jamo S 801 speakers. Note: For comparison, the Jamo S 801 speaker and ELAC 4" passive wired (model BS41) bookshelf speakers (also sold on Amazon) are very similar in size but not in sound. The Jamo S 801 and ELAC BS41 are very small bookshelf speakers. These two speaker models are almost the same size. The Jamo S 801 needs to be used with a subwoofer to enjoy full range sound. By comparison, the ElAC BS41 plays down to below 50Hz, by design. (Kick drums have a fundamental frequency right around 50Hz.) You don't need to use a subwoofer with the Elac BS41 speaker unless you want to extend the bass response even lower. The Jamo S 801 is more efficient than the ELAC BS41. The Jamo S 801 needs less power for the same sound pressure levels (dBA) than does the ELAC BS41.]