How y’all doing. Sitting here on the (what feels like) first day of fall, listening to a pile of weirdo 70’s UK punk LPs: The 999, Steve Harley, The Stranglers, and The Doctors Of Madness. What better match than some musty old paper describing some oddball British speakers of the era: Jordan Watts. This is the first of what will be many uploads of late-70s speaker ephemera, both HiFi and pro-audio. I have 100s of pieces of this stuff to go thru, and finally a free minute to do it. So get ready… and remember to check if Orange County Speakers has re-edge kits available for any foam-edged 35 year-old-speaker yr thinking of buying. Anyhow, download a complete late-1970s JORDAN WATTS hi-fi speaker catalog:
DOWNLOAD: Jordan_Watts_spkrs
On offer: the Jordan Watts models Juno, Juliet, Jumbo, GT, Jodrell, Jupiter, TLS, Jericho, Centurion, Qubique, and Flagon.
The Jordan-Watts speakers used a very unusual 4″ metal-coned driver unit that came in its own integral mini-enclosure. Even stranger tho are their Arabesque and Romanesque “Qubiqe” and “Flagon” models:
5 replies on “Speaker Week(s) Begins with Jordan Watts”
I came upon your excellent website by doing a Google search for Sidney Smith. In the mid-1970s, I was a Jordan Watts dealer. The unique aluminum driver sounded superb in the low-diffraction ceramic enclosure called the Flagon (see above). It did many things brilliantly, but was limited dynamically, and didn’t bounce. I still have a single Flagon, its mate shattering on a customer’s floor many years ago. Best regards,
–Chef Henry
It’s nice to see these on the web. The Jordan-Watts module was advanced for its day and many thousands were produced. They have become highly collectable, especially in Japan. If you have no objection, we have added a link to your site to the current E J Jordan website.
EJ Jordan Designs continues to manufacture single driver, fullrange speakers and we are always interested in seeing examples of older units in use.
Best regards
EJ Jordan Designs
I was recently given a pair of faulty (but cosmetically almost perfect) Jordan Watt Speakers. I’m pretty sure I have repaired them successfully.
Now I wish to identify them and find out their specifications.
They are about 5 feet tall and piano black, they have 13 (that’s NOT a typo) metal drivers each, in a line vertically. (arranged 2 lf, 9 hf, 2 lf).
As far as I know they date from the mid – late 80s and were purchased in a closing down sale.
I have not been able to find a picture on the web, I have seen a unit with what appears to be the same cone, but just the one, in a similar style.
In 1980 I bought a pair of Jodrells direct from Jordan Watts and coupled them to twin mono 25w ultra-linear valve amps. Pre-amp was a phono-only, dual mono all triode valve job. Best combination I ever had for classical music.
A year after purchase a passing car blasted a CB radio signal through them and killed one of the drivers. Jordan Watts replaced it free of charge.
Not surprised to hear of their present day cult status.
Ive just discovered a set of Gemini Speakers and will be doing a full write up and restoration log on my website http://www.iandwynn.com its was great to find this information here! great website!
Ian