RMAF 2013

Designed and manufactured in Columbus, Ohio, the JansZen zA2.1 loudspeaker ($7495/pair) is an interesting design with a side-firing ring-radiator tweeter and two 7” Alnico woofers—one above and one below a pair of stacked electrostatic panels.

David Janszen explained that he was interested in creating a “ground-up design,” made to be extremely room-friendly and easy to partner with other equipment. He especially concentrated on phase coherence, image precision, woofer integration, and rejection of room acoustics. A woofer control provides three settings (+3dB, 0dB, -3dB) and a tweeter control allows for adjustment to -12dB.

Listening to a CD rip through an exaSound e20 DAC, Bryston amps driving the JansZen speakers, I noted a stable soundstage and clean overall sound, with no noticeable discontinuities between the drive-units.