Jordan Marlow Standmount Loudspeakers
Marlow loudspeaker
“…going back to my pair of reference LS3/5As, I’m now ruined by the clarity that the Marlows provide.”– TONEAudio magazine
The Jordan Marlow is a compact, high performance loudspeaker combining the Jordan Eikona full-range drive unit with a furniture-grade cabinet based on pioneering BBC research. It has a detailed, natural sound and large-scale imaging which can do justice to almost any genre of music.
Behind the Marlow’s acoustically-transparent grille is the Jordan Eikona, an advanced, alloy cone drive unit that covers the majority of the musical spectrum. Designed by audio legend Ted Jordan, the Eikona’s apparent simplicity produces a more natural, realistic sound than the more complicated approach of separate woofers and tweeters.
Background to the box
The Marlow cabinet is constructed of thin Baltic birch ply, heavily damped with internal pads and lined with acoustic foam. This type of cabinet looks deceptively simple but is difficult and expensive to make well. The process is closer to making a musical instrument. Each element – wood type, fixture, damping type and placement – is critical. When executed correctly, this attention to detail gives a solidity and naturalness to the sound which is very beguiling.
In developing the Marlow, we kept all the elements of the BBC cabinet techniques and added a few refinements of our own. In particular, we use modern, high-technology damping materials, and the size and tuning of the reflex-loaded cabinet is designed to precisely match the Eikona. At the same time, we have kept the elegant, domestic-friendly proportions of classic UK loudspeaker designs.
This standard edition is wired with Kimber Kable 4TC and fitted with Swiss-made 4mm sockets, which provide a better connection than most binding posts, as well as keeping the appearance clean and fuss-free. Cabinets are currently available in walnut or rosewood real-wood veneer. The loudspeakers are individually numbered and supplied in matched pairs. Each loudspeaker is supplied in a cloth bag which can also be used as a dust cover when the Marlow is installed on a stand.
The Marlow is hand-built in England
“Words like ‘very impressive’ and ‘sophisticated’ were used. Despite their diminutive size (think LS3/5a) they threw up a huge soundstage equal in height, depth and width to the (Eikona Transmission Line) Arrays. Not surprisingly the only real difference was in the bass output but all of us were amazed at how much bass the little Marlows could produce.” Ian, independent group listening session.
REVIEWS
Stereophile – Herb Reichert
“I had forgotten how much havoc an energy-absorbing, phase-twisting, signal-molesting loudspeaker crossover could wreak. Within minutes of replacing my Falcon LS3/5a Gold Badges with the Marlows, I was stunned by how direct, quiet, and transparent the Jordans sounded. The Marlows evinced a crisp purity that made the Falcons seem a little misty-grainy. Reverb on Areni Agbabian’s reverb-drenched album, Bloom (24/96 FLAC, ECM/Qobuz) came through as purer, less homogenized, and more minutely textured with the Marlows than it did through my Falcons …
“The Marlow satisfied my hunger to peer into recordings as directly and excitedly as possible. I fell in love with its petite, truth-telling charms …
“If I were not a professional reviewer, I might marry this fetching full-range speaker, settle down, and live happily ’til death do us part.”
The Audiophiliac – Steve Guttenberg
“I think the EJ Jordan Marlow speaker is not anything like the LS3/5a type speaker. This speaker is going in the opposite direction … the Marlow is more exciting, it’s more a immediate sounding speaker, and I love it for that.”
HiFi Pig – Janine Elliot
“The clarity of that top end was excellent on The Eagles ‘Hotel California’, played both as my 192/24 FLAC and also from vinyl using my tangential arm Pre-Audio turntable. Both enabled me to carefully place the guitars in the soundstage with vocals equally well defined, showing the single driver allows for very accurate performance and positioning …
“This was not the most efficient pair of speakers (just like the LS3/5a’s) but I only needed around 1W from my KT88’s to drive them well …
“This is a very able speaker and I was able to listen to the Marlow CE for long periods without fatigue and found it very musical even with the pin-sharp speed of the notes.
“I certainly felt valve amplifiers work excellently with the loudspeaker and suggest that if you need a small loudspeaker, whatever your amplification, you should give the Marlow CE, or its cheaper sibling the Marlow, a listen.”
ToneAudio – Jeff Dorgay, issue 108
“I’ve never thought of LS3/5As as wooly or boxy (though they are a bit colored, especially through the mid bass range), but always as fun, very engaging, very musical small speakers that deliver a certain magic in a small room – in a near field situation. Thanks to my friend Erik at Gig Harbor Audio, I’ve even heard the LS3/5As rock in a medium sized room with a good subwoofer. However, going back to my pair of reference LS3/5As, I’m now ruined by the clarity that the Marlows provide …
“Whether you are building a compact, yet high-performance system for a small room, a second system, or even just want to keep a pair of these around for when you’re in the mood for a different drive, the EJ Jordan Marlows are one of the most enjoyable speakers we’ve had the pleasure to listen too. These may just end up back here at some point on a permanent basis.“
MingDa importer - Mark Manwaring-White
“Quite a staggering sound from a small box. To be honest, I think they will blow normal LS3/5a to pieces!”
Shipping typically 5-7 days
