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Similarly with the JE's handling of KD Lang's transcendental voice. On Hymns of the 49th Parallel, the VL10 once again reproduced KD's tones in a most life-like and present way, forward of the speaker plane and the rest of the instrumentation. Ditto for Young's "Helpless" and Cohen's sublime "Hallelujah". Setup care with the right cabling and isolation devices diminished the sibilance issue.


Bruce Jenner (BJ) and Jez Ford are the musos and muses behind B'Jezus, a Sydney "northern beaches" outfit. In their 2007 Walk
into the Sun release, BJ's growl and Jez's flowing keyboard instrumentations were once again well resolved via the VL10. This is the type of tight, lively and layered recording the VL10 relishes and which fully shows off its scalpel-like separation abilities.
During its time chez Kramer's, the JE VL10 operated faultlessly and quiet in what is a fairly high-gain system. If I was left wanting for anything in terms of its operation or features, it would be a remote control. But that is just my couch potato side.


The VL10's audiophile intentions require a bit of care in setting up. My advice in order to do this well-engineered preamplifier justice would be as follows: use a good quality source that is as neutral as possible -- as most good CD players are -- hooked up with good copper interconnects throughout (including the speaker cable) and to a neutral amplifier that passes the pure signal the VL10 delivers to -- and this is the crucial part -- a pair of high quality speakers that err ever so slightly on the warm side. That set of ingredients firmly in hand combined with the JE's lively and slightly upfront sound will push the pendulum back on the center path of neutrality where the VL10's resolution, bass punch, powerful dynamics and frequency-wide detail will flower for a superb final result.


I'd have to say to Mr. Lam that for a company's first effort, this is one mightily well thought-out, engineered and voiced product. We look forward to JE Audio's soon-to-be-released mating amplifiers. Kudos.


Quality of packing: Good.
Reusability of packing: Numerous if care is taken.
Ease of unpacking/repacking: Easily done.
Condition of component received: Demo model but as new.
Completeness of delivery: All was as it should be.
Quality of owner's manual: Professional manual with clear instructions.
Website comments: Professional and developing website.
Human or web interactions: Company principal is prompt, knowledgeable and courteous in all interactions.
For inside photos, proceed to Sidebar 1.
JE Audio website