Categories: Antique Hi-Fi Archive

Speaker Week(s) Begins with Jordan Watts

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:

chris

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View Comments

Henry M. Summers says:

11/07/2013 at 6:57 pm

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
Colin Shelbourn says:

01/03/2014 at 7:30 am

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
Jess says:

01/15/2014 at 10:10 am

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.
steve cashmore says:

04/13/2019 at 12:10 pm

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.
Ian says:

05/16/2020 at 11:09 am

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