Do you look forward to being dazzled every evening by an aria or piano concerto? Or is your thing jazz riffs that have you bobbing your head? Or is bodacious rock the spirit that moves you?

Or really, is it all of the above and more?

If so, you might have found that most loudspeakers truly shine on only one or two genres, or at only one loudness level. It's rare that any loudspeaker can make every genre come to life at any volume level with impeccable nuance, force, and clarity.

We've gone to extreme lengths to create loudspeakers that do just that.

The absolute immediacy and transparency of electrostatics are the foundation of this versatility. Whereas conventional loudspeakers deliver music through heavy, complex drivers, sound just flows effortlessly through JansZen's ultra-light, ultra-simple electrostatic drivers.

With no voice of their own, they serve as open windows into your recordings, leaving the music exactly as it was recorded. Immediate. Pure. Intoxicating.

Musical instruments make sound by vibrating the air in all kinds of wonderful ways. The challenge for loudspeakers is that they're supposed to imitate that whole range of musical expression in just one way, by vibrating diaphragms. Convincing execution of this imitation is only possible when those diaphragms are so light that they essentially disappear.

The only loudspeakers with such vanishingly light diaphragms are electrostatics, and the only way to vibrate such light diaphragms is with electrostatic force.

Electrostatic diaphragms are thinner than 1/10th of a human hair, making them lighter than the air they vibrate against. Wispy, virtual air barriers make the sound, rather than heavy, complex, vibrating mechanisms.

You can read more here about what makes lightness matter, and here about how conventional loudspeakers distort the sound. The TECHNOLOGY menu above also has further information about how electrostatics work.

In JansZens, electrostatics cover the midrange and treble, which is where the magic is. To that essential magic, we add the satisfaction of deep, clean, punchy bass by way of fast, low distortion, seamlessly integrated woofers.

At this point, you're probably wondering, if electrostatics are so great and cones are not, why do we use cones for the bass? Well, first of all, making deep bass and palpable impacts is not a delicate operation. At least in our case, woofers must execute a tricky combination of grunt work and nuance, and getting it right depends on which woofers we use and how we use them.

The first thing is for the woofers to act as solid pistons, even though they're not made that way. Nowadays, the best woofers can do that, as long as they're not asked to make sound above bass frequencies, where they'd break up, nor pushed beyond their linear excursion limits, where they'd make noticeable distortion. Our crossovers are set at a very low 500 Hz (just above middle A), so not only is all the tricky stuff on our high purity electrostatics, but our woofers are as free of breakup coloration and distortion as those electrostatics are.

To attain our famously undetectable transition between the two types of driver, we do employ a few tricks, as well as use the best woofers for this sensitive job. We also have ways of getting deep bass from our compact, sealed enclosures, without employing transient-wrecking ports.

Between the low distortion, the lack of coloration, the seamless integration, and our careful attention to crossover design, the woofers give no clue that the entire loudspeaker isn't electrostatic.

Good looking, easy to place, and musically transportive

Last but not least, the attractive cabinets suit a wide range of decor, so arbiters of household furnishings tend to welcome them into the home. They're also easy to place, partly because they don't emit the space-demanding back wave that dipolar electrostatics do.

These loudspeakers have controlled dispersion, which means the sound projection is narrow enough to cut way down on wall, floor, and ceiling splash, yet wide enough for a few people to sit together and all get about the same sound and imaging,

Controlled dispersion without "beaming" is rare. It minimizes the amount of sound that would otherwise be bouncing around the room, and does so without making you sit in just one exact spot. This reveals an enveloping sense of the original spaces where recordings were made. This sense of space gives you a convincing you-are-there experience, and you'll probably find the feeling of being transported to the sites of original performances is a new thing for you.

The minimal room interaction also reduces the need to prioritize living space considerations over acoustics. Room treatments and furniture arrangement are thus relatively unimportant, although of course they do matter for optimum performance, as with any speakers.

If you're a woman, you may be glad to know that the critical range of frequencies, where conventional speakers tend to sound harsh, is instead as smooth as silk. This is because that range (1 kHz – 3kHz) is on the electrostatics, which are incapable of making peaky sound.

With JansZen hybrid electrostatic loudspeakers, you get the best of big electrostatic performance, without the usual drawbacks, plus the deep bass and concussive dynamics of a traditional loudspeaker, all in a deceptively compact, space-saving design. Audiophiles will especially appreciate the deep, wide soundstage and the realistically sized instruments floating above the speakers.

The advent of JansZen hybrid electrostatics means there's basically no reason left on Earth for anyone to live with the drawbacks of conventional loudspeakers or accommodate the space requirements of full range electrostatics.

As many satisfied music lovers have discovered, a pair of JansZens can fulfill your quest for musical authenticity and consistent enjoyment, and still satisfy the general preferences of the rest of your household.

Stand-mounts, too

Our stand mount loudspeaker is called the Carmelita, starting at $4850/pair.

Both the Valentina floor-stander and the Carmelita stand-mount are available in passive or active versions. Both models are compact at only about 40" [1m] tall. Both have the sonic hallmarks of much larger speakers. You might feel that having speakers that go all the way to the floor are worth the extra approximately $5000, but the sonic signature is practically identical, and the main differences are the bass depth, punch, and maximum loudness.

In both cases, the actives feature a high grade, on-board DAC and five independent inputs -- two analog and three digital. The analog inputs are sensitive enough not to need a preamp. The inputs automatically self-activate, based on which one has a signal, A remote control comes standard for volume and other functions. The Valentina A8 is bi-amplified with two 500W/4Ω Hypex NCore amps in each cabinet, and the Carmelita A7 has two 250W/4Ω Hypex Ncore amps is each cabinet.

If convenience and simplicity are your thing, imagine eliminating your amplifier, preamplifier, DAC, and speaker cables, all at once, and getting exquisitely clear and natural electrostatic sound, all for a modest premium of $3000/pair (Carmelita) or $3500/pair (Valentina). If you currently own JansZen passives, either model can be upgraded to active for those amounts plus a bit.

There's a new special option available on the Valentina, called Sound Everywhere (SE). You get real-time, remote control selection between directive vs. omidirectional sound dispersion. In the sweet spot, the difference is between a you-are-there vs. a they-are-here experience. In omnidirectional mode, the sound is uniform throughout the room, so you still get great sound when you're not in a listening seat. The SE option can be added to Valentina A8 loudspeakers as a factory mod.