The Jäger Loudspeaker

[Doc B]

We are very proud to announce that we are now taking pre-orders for the Jäger Loudspeaker kit. We are accepting pre-orders through Sunday, September 17th. Price is $2799 plus shipping. We estimate that shipping will begin 4 to 6 weeks after the end of the pre-order period. At this time we are taking orders for domestic shipping only. We are researching ways to ship this rather heavy kit internationally, and will post info if and when we find a way to. When you order you will also receive a coupon for 15% off of any Bottlehead loudspeaker amp kit - Kaiju, Stereomour II, Seductor, S.E.X. or Quicksand. And, the first five people to order will receive a special thank you gift.

https://bottlehead.com/product/jager-speaker-kit/

 

[Hank Murrow]

Dear Doc; I would love to order a pair of the Jager speaks, and pick the kit up @ Bottlehead instead of shipping. how do I order if this is an option? i would of course like to be among the first five if that is possible. 8pm Wednesday.

Cheers, Hank in Eugene, OR

 

[fullheadofnothing]

Several people have expressed interest in this. I would recommend going ahead and placing your order online, and we will refund shipping as necessary.

I will say you will need at least a car with fold down seats; the cabinets will not fit in a trunk. Also, once you factor in fuel costs, ferries, (and especially time), most people are not going to save any money picking up. Plus by the time kits are ready to ship, you might want to just get rolling, and ground shipping to much of the PNW is 1 day shipping. Like I said, we can refund shipping if that's the road you choose, but that's not a decision that needs to be made today (but getting into the queue is).

 

[Hank Murrow]

Thanks for the caution Full Head;

However I have business north of Seattle that would make a trip a good thing to do in a month or so. Stopping in Poulsbo to hear them and catch up with Doc, Eileen, and the Gang would be a plus.

Cheers, Hank in Eugene

 

[Doc B]

Just a reminder that we are now into the last week to pre-order one of the first run Jäger speaker kits. Don't miss out!

 

[Doc B]

First kits shipped yesterday afternoon! We are able to get one or two packed each day, so we hope to have all of the kits on order shipped by the end of next week.

I took the prototype pair that we built for the assembly manual home last night, and installed them as the new main speakers in our small ~10x14 home theater. The setup is 5.1 surround and has until now used Blumenstein Orcas with Dungeness subs for the mains. An Orca center is used for the center channel, Orcas for the surrounds, and two Dungeness subs stacked for the FX channel. All channels except the FX are driven by Stereomour amps. We sit about 10 feet from the main speakers. Projector is a Sony G70 CRT projector with a 95" screen. Source is an Oppo BDP-103 running at 1080P.

My fear that we might be at the nearfield limit for the Jägers was totally unfounded. They sound really, really good in this small room. Top end extension is most welcome and the bass is just WOW. Between the installation of a new green CRT in my projector and these speakers I can't come up with any good reason to go to SeeFilm or Cinerama anymore.

 

[kgoss]

Wonderful news Doc!  I can't wait to read impressions of these speakers from the first group of builders.  I was planning to get in on the first order, but unplanned medical bills prevented it.  I hope to order a pair next year though.  From the impressions I have read so far these have the potential to become your biggest selling product.  There are a lot of folks out there who love their low power amps but have never been happy with their speakers.  Once word gets out, I believe the orders will pour in, including lots of orders from outside the Bottlehead community.  Thanks for keeping us posted on the progress.

 

[Doc B]

We had a bit of a last minute curveball regarding the grade of baltic birch ply we could get. After some searching our cabinet maker turned up some really excellent material.
Here's the run of panels, lined up in the hallway for packing.

And here's that very first kit, fresh off the packing bench. The big boxes are custom made for the job and each holds the panels for one speaker, surrounded by custom die cut foam supports. The third box holds the drivers, hardware and all the other stuff. Total ship weight is up around 140-150 lbs. 

 

[Doc B]

This is how the cabinet panels are shipped. We spent a ton of dough on custom made boxes with die cut foam corner protectors so your panels will arrive in the same shape as when they left the factory. Many thanks to Josh, who has been working exceptionally hard to develop the packaging regimen and who is personally packing each kit to make sure it's as perfect as possible.

 

[adeep42]

You all are doing an amazing job. Now I feel even worse about not ordering, even though I have no reason ton too.

Alan

 

[Doc B]

The first of these kits should be at or near their destinations. We are anxious to hear how the kits arrived. Do let us know if the fancy shipping boxes did their job.

 

[Doc B]

All of the pre-ordered kits have shipped. We tried to up our game a bit on this one and I would love to see a post from you early adopters about how the kits arrived, and what you think of the package.

 

[Trevor]

Picked up my kit today, and everything was in perfect condition.  The packaging was rock solid: the large panels don't appear to have moved at all after traveling halfway across the country. 

Also, the wood Bottlehead-thumbdrive-assembly-manual is a very nice touch! 

 

[Doc B]

Thanks Trevor! It's a relief to hear everything arrived in good shape. Josh gets the credit for finding the cool custom engraved wood thumb drives for the manual.

 

[Doc B]

I had to share the responses we have gotten to the thumb drive image after I posted it on social media -

Now, that is good form!

Sweet nicely done!

Thats sweet!!

Fancy schmancy! Looks good Doc

Nice touch!

Jesus loves you

 

[Trevor]

It IS cool.  And thanks for the blu-ray as well.

 

[Doc B]

Ah yes, our little thank you to the first five who pre-ordered was a 4K edition blu ray of Pacific Rim. Just in case they didn't get the Kaiju/Jäger reference. 

 

[Doc B]

Do any of the first run participants have more feedback for us? We're getting ready to announce another run and if there is anything we can fine tune we would love to hear about it.

So far the only issue I am aware of is one hole on one panel being machined a millimeter or two too shallow. Seems to have been a random glitch that was easily fixed by the builder with a Dremel tool.

 

[pjnestor]

Doc,

I can't believe I'm the first to complete or post about the speakers.  I finished mine the weekend after Thanksgiving and am about 15-20 hours into the break-in period.  But they sound fantastic already.  I was using a 4" fostex full range driver in a back loaded horn, and the Jagers obviously have much greater bass.  They are maybe not quite as sensitive, so i have to turn the volume from 9:00 position to 10 or 11 in order to annoy my wife.  Mids and highs are not as emphasized as with the Fostex, which is better with most music, but just different for some others.  I can't tell much difference is sound stage but am experimenting with placement still.

The kit went together pretty easily.  Instructions as always were excellent.  The instructions/thumb drive was cool.  One of the baffle pieces has a slight curve and took a while to align with the rest of the cabinet, but a few clamps took care of it.

Thanks for a great kit, Doc.

Pat

 

[Doc B]

Woo Hoo! Thank you!

That setup looks awesome. I'll take your description that the imaging is close enough to single driver speakers that you haven't noticed much difference as a mark in the plus column. I suggest modeling your room in Room EQ Wizard to determine a sweet spot for the speakers. Even a couple inches one way or another can make a big difference in tonal balance of the bottom end. And, of course, the bass will wake up after 50 or so hours as the woofer suspension breaks in. Drapes over those windows will improve imaging too.

We've heard from several other Jäger owners who are waiting for the holiday break to begin construction. So there should be more feedback/reviews in a few weeks.