Jupiter Audio - GANYMEDE speaker

Enter the Ganymede

So I wanted to do a larger speaker. Since I had drivers that I was already using that I was already happy with, it made sense to go in that direction. Clearly, using an eight inch woofer as the midrange wasn't clever, but luckily Silver Flute had a 5 1/4 inch driver that had been very well received. Thus, in theory, the Ganymede was born: Peerless 10 inch woofer, Silver Flute 5 1/4 inch midrange, and Silver Flute 6 inch ribbon tweeter. The next step was the cabinet, and not one of those utilitarian, here's-a-box-to-house-the-drivers-in cabinets either. More like here's-a-box-that-encompasses-all-the-elements-I-find-important kind of cabinet. And that's what I did. The cabinet, like the Subterfuge cabinet, has a sand filled chamber at the base, beneath which is an MDF platform with 5/8 inch cones on the bottom. The body of the speaker is at a 2º tilt relative to the base, which tilts the speaker back just enough to improve the dispersion of the tweeter. And, like the Subterfuge, the bottom half of the cabinet acts as a siphon to bleed off excess energy from the cabinet, but the top half radiates enough acoustic energy to keep the sound lively and interesting, again flying in the face of conventional speaker design. No internal bracing is used. It's a little strange, because when the speaker is playing at a comfortable clip you can touch the cabinet and feel quite a bit of energy coming through it, but when you're seated in the listening position the sound is amazingly free of coloration.

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And this is another design feature that is unusual: nearly all loudspeakers are designed to be as "uncolored" as possible. Except that to a large extent this doesn't work. First, if a speaker is too neutral (especially when coupled with a cabinet that is too inert) the sound is boring. Really, really boring. So, a conscious decision has been made to allow some "flavor" from both cabinet energy and cabinet diffraction to shine through. The frequency response is exceptionally flat, and the drivers used are very neutral sounding too; but it's definitely possible to get too much of a good thing, so a couple of design criteria have been allowed to give the speaker a slight amount of sound of their own.

What does it all mean? The Ganymede is one of the most, clean, clear, and neutral sounding speakers money can buy at any price. It might sound too good to be true, but it will become readily apparent during the first listening session. The first thing one notices when sitting down to listen to the Ganymedes is that the bass response is HUGE. Huge, like "where's the subwoofer?" huge. But, as it is with the Subterfuge it is very accurate to musical notes at the same time. The difference between the bass in the Ganymede and the Subterfuge, though, is that the bass response in the Subterfuge is tuned to a lower frequency, so a tradeoff is made between quality and quantity.

The Ganymede cabinet utilizes a 3 inch PVC port tuned to 35 Hz, making the bass even more concentrated and impactful then the bass in the Subterfuge. But after the bass, the next thing you notice is how even from top to bottom the speaker is. The midrange is exceptionally clear, and the transition from bass to midrange to treble is seamless. I know, I know--talk is cheap and everybody says their speaker is the best thing ever. But the Ganymede in now the third product in the Jupiter Audio line, and a running theme should be detected: exceptional sound for the money, extremely neutral sound quality, and great build quality coupled with intelligent cabinet design. Too many speaker designers get bogged down in gimmicks, in my opinion, and the consumer winds up with a speaker with a cute story attached to it, but something other than the best sound quality for the money. As time passes, and economic conditions get tougher, it seems like the luxury of audio equipment has to offer more and more of a value for it to be considered a necessity. Enter the Ganymede.

Features and specifications:

-10 inch, 3 way design featuring a Peerless long throw woofer, Silver Flute 5 1/4 midrange, and Silver Flute ribbon tweeter

Sand-filled base
Speaker body is tilted 2º relative to its base
Highly polished 5/8 inch metal cones
Biwireable
Frequency range: 32 - 20,000 Hz
Impedance: 8 ohms
Curb weight: 69 lbs. each
Efficiency: 85 dB @ 1W/1M
Internally wired with QED Silver Anniversary cable
Cabinet dimensions: 42" H x 13" W x 11" D
regular price: $2250 per pair, including free shipping anywhere in the continental United States

Speaker Instructions

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