I have listened these speakers in the late 90's on a several short occasions and was absolutely impressed every time I have heard sound coming from them. I was a very early audio enthusiast back than, but young with very good ears. Just heard them in the store, connected to a very good and often top of the line Yamaha, Technics and Denon separates. Back than they were the best sounding speakers I have ever heard in my life. There were 2 models, early and later. The later model had an improved crossover ( don't quote me here but i do believe original crossover was 100Hz and 3kHz, whilst later models had a 200Hz or even 300Hz for the low and mid range and 2kHz for the tweeter...I am not 100% sure about those numbers ) and the mid range speaker was a but different and was bolted in by 6 bolts as oppose to 4 in the original design. I can not tell how much better the later model really is as i did hear them both in a different environment with different components powering them, but every time I have had hear Jamo Oriels they seamed to sound better. I haven's forgotten about them and more than 20 years later, I can finally afford them. Still remember the clarity of the vocals, the crisp highs and that deep and breathtaking bass. Can not remember the exact price, maybe close to 20000DM back in the day and that was way out of the elementary school boys budget living in a country that was in the war in the 90's and average income was roughly just a north of 200 DM's. I do hope to find a very good pair of the later design that will blend in with the rest of my vintage Hi Fi/High End equipment.

The jamo oriel is simply outstanding to the price range of up to 30000 euro to todays, 2014 standards,(remember their cost was about 9000 euro). I heard various ultra hi end speakers and my last pair of speakers was watt puppy 8. Jamo oriel is well above w/p 8 performanne. And to give some specific points in contrary to the nonsense I read about these speakers, their response is fast and clear, the bass response is the cleanest you can ever hear wherever you try, midrange and hi freguencies are sharp and natural (only outperformed by the highest standard of horn speakers), and are most of all pleasing sounding. They are not difficult load to drive. They need some try to find their best location(bear in mind that they are big speakers), but when placed correctly their response from bottom to top is ultra clear without distortion, hearing only your room limitations, which you will hear with every speaker anywhay and consider that the majority of the other speakers will treat you with their amount of distortion. Often people consider distortion as bass. I learned during my many years of listening that any sort of undefined bass or booming effect is distortion and you hear it in moovie effects, recording distortion or added sounding techniques but NOT IN REAL MUSIC. The person who said the oriels sound like woofers and sattelites, is probably becouse this is what he is mostly used to listen to. Finally they are pleasing art objects and even though not easily available nowadays obtainable for the lucky ones that buy with open and unbiased mind for around 3000 euro. The lucky ones who own it enjoy, For the millionaires who can afford speakers above 50000 euro good luck to their journey towards perfect sound which may be long one.

The sound!
Rock-solid low base and wonderful midrange.
Appearance.

Demanding perfect placement and high-end amplifiers.
Inconvenient placement of speker terminals.
Size.

Listening to this speaker with second-rate equipment will certainly generate the reaction of some of the previous reviewers. These speakers need powerful high-end amplifiers to perform to their full potential. I use them with Copland CSA-303 and KRELL FPB 400cX. I do not agree they are any more room sensitive than other speakers, but very demanding of the perfect placement, to the centimetre. Sweet-spot is small, but so much sweeter. Give them the amplifier and other gear they deserve and they might just be the last speakers you'll ever buy.

Customer Service

I mailed Jamo for a manual and a PDF arrived the same day!

Similar Products Used:

Absolutely none!

Everything.

None.

After careful room placement these speakers are simply superb sounding. These speakers work the full range without effort. There is simply no words to describe the best sounding speaker I have heard. Unlike other speakers like B&W and Wilson they look very pleasing to the eyes.

Customer Service

Excellent with number and name of engineer responsible in Denmark. Excellent assistance from dealer I purchased from.

Similar Products Used:

Wilson Watt Puppy.

Build quality and finish. Phenomenal gut-wrenching bass performance.

Sensitivity to room positioning and pre-amp selection.

Jamo Oriels have to be positioned carefully in a correctly shaped/treated room and they need to be driven with a quality front end and with plenty of grunt that is correctly driven. AND YOU HAVE TO SIT IN THE RIGHT SPOT. The negative reviews here are probaly from people who have either never even heard them, or have not set them up properly due to the tremendous difficulty in moving them around (you need three people just to lift them!). They have 6 binding posts each, but ought to be SINGLE-wired with quality jumpers. One pair of posts is "NC" (Not Connected) and serves as a position to mount an attenuating resistor if wanted. Once set up properly, the performance is spectacular -- beyond comparison with any speakers I have ever heard. Bass is lightning quick, IN SYNC, and phenominally deep (Octaves lower to quake the earth beneath your house!). Midrange is smooth and precisely focused. Soundstaging is holographic - even behind you. High frequencies (triangles for eg.) are out of this world! But move the speakers just an inch and all is lost. Symphonic recordings have you AT the performance - especially on Mercury Living Presence and RCA Living Stereo CD. I also found that choice of preamp was critical. I use a Conrad Johnson Premier 10 with NOS Tung-Sol 6GK5 valves and this really helped to get the Oriels going.

Similar Products Used:

Too many to list.

Nice look! Big machoimpressfellowhifinerd factor. :-)

Price/performance ratio, extremly sensitive to placement and room size( acctualy I would say the acoustic performance of the room, but in most cases its the same thing). Jamo has better speakers, and cheaper.

Lots of hard words coming from my fellow reviewers,,,,,,,, but, They are more or less right. Under normal conditions these speakers doesn´t perform. To even come close to the performance youd expect in this price range one has to put them, free standing, in a large room, preferebly "audio treated" ( damping/diffusion an so on). But, even then more modern speakers uotperform them, at a lower cost. I´m not saying they are lousy, just that they demand way to much of the room and the user. I´ve listened to them under the conditions mentioned above and they did sound great, no timelag between the freq´s and realy nice bassextension, but I a livingroom ,belonging to a fiend of mine, everything jsut falls apart!

At about the cost of a VW Polo, this *is* Jamo's top-of-the-line speaker. While Jamo started out as a real
mass-producer, letting quantity over quality, this gave the
company a very solid foundation to realise its current
business plan: to become Number One, and also to sing a
note or two on the high-end scene.

Oriel is a 180cm high cylindrical tower (it is *huge*)
with a double band-pass subwoofer system built-in,
an Eton kevlar driver covering the 100Hz-3kHz range,
and finally the Dynaudio Esotar for the treble. These
speakers are easy to drive, witness of which the Krell
KAV-300i and the 10W SET Unison we used during audition.

Sound quality is neutral, coherent, and above all
effortlessly powerful and dynamic, yet relaxing. They are
also extremely revealing of sources and amplifiers
(Yes, the Krell 300 is not that good at all, as I know
now!). And for what it is worth, I heard the Wilson WITT
in the same (big) room, with better electronics. And
guess: the Jamos are much better...

Regardless when your favorite source to audio nirvana is a ribbon,a honest listener regardless of personal animosity is always open
to assimilate any technology if the same delivers a level o sonic
progress that is indisputable in concrete way...
Unfortunately, Oriel is not a such case and no Latin prowerb could
compliment Oriel existence/value in a manner of praise.
Oriel sounds simply said prosaic.
For any well skilled ear Oriel hardly could command a level of
what is known as the High-End sound.
I simply say this for sake of the cost of the same.
For the halve value of the same you could end-up with world class
studio monitor such as Genelec,Krk or same "light" ribbon design.
Oriel sound listening to my reference material sounded lifeless,
with to-sweet treble of calibre same to be found on samll designs.
Midrange is only area that could be found worth of listening.
Extension,heard by me was hardly authoritative or controlled.
Simply sad average speaker overpriced in no way reflecting any value
then simply to grace your home interior. ;-(
Biggest irony finds the fact that Jamo's price in Europe was initially
set about 8000$ simply because they wanted to bring US model of many
overpriced speakers.
Such value was hardly to find any sence in US market for there was
much more known US imports to justify Oriel sound.

I second to the less-than-acceptable responses on Oriel. The speakers simply don't come close to what you expect at one third their price. I understand that's why the dealer (hopelessly) stuck them in the corners. Even taking into account this setback, the bass was definitely out of sync with midrange, and missing the speed completely. This, along with just average tweeter sound, contributes to muddy imaging. As soon as bass steps in, the image falls apart. And yet the amount and extension of bass is less than those monsters' size could provide. A solid 2 of 5, considering the price.

I will intend to make a review of a nightmare made in speakers. This is called Jamo Orielthis runs for the price of a Pr. of Wilson Whitts around 7,500.00

First, the speakers systems uses I think a dynaudio esotar tweeter and kevlar midrange made by seas (I think)
and 2 8 inch woofers (one located at the top and one on the bottom inside the speakers and a port serves to come trough out the sound of this drivers (kef styles))

The construction: this is a tower speakers around 6 foots tall, cilindrical type and with nice finish
in some ways it looks nice them. but that is all. the crossovers are made with cheap parts and cables inside are 12 ga original monster cables type for the woofers
and some tiny cables for midrange and tweeters. They uses 3 pairs of bindings posts (I don't know for what they uses this) very cheap binding post and this are connected to crossovers by screws.


The sound: a subwoofer with satellites speakers. the woofers never integrates with the rest of the drivers. the delay is huge between them. the highs are niceand the midband seems clear and with good detail but remember that never gets integrated sound.
the soundstage presentation are not focused and you can easily locate the sound of each driver and how range of frequency is covering.Jamos are a good furniture and if you want a speakers that looks like a beautiful furniture this is the one.