Ferguson Hill Jetstream Speakers Review
Every year I am fortunate enough to be able to spend time down on the south coast as my wife’s parents live in Whitstable Kent. Not too far away is the HQ of Ferguson Hill in Herne Bay, the home of the new Ferguson Hill Jetstream speaker system which really is a high end statement speaker and something that I really wanted to experience. The look and design is incredible and rather beautiful to look at with the horns of the speakers made from a 8mm thick transparent acrylic and really do seem to defy gravity as their size and horn shape seem to float out in front of the drive units which is reminiscent of a jet engine in how it looks and is it any surprise as Tim Hill’s background is an engineer and designer from the Aeronautical industry.
When I arrived I was met by their designer Tim Hill who welcomed me into his premises and it was clear from our discussions that he is a passionate audiophile with a pursuit to perfection when it comes to music reproduction.Tim who has designed the new Jetstream speakers excels as a designer he realised that form really does follow function when experimenting with his early speaker designs, and when you first walk in his first Jetstream speaker the FH001 design which launched over 20 years ago is in the hall way but as he told me nearly every part of the original has been upgraded and greatly improved upon.
The latest Jetstream speakers have upgraded drive units which is in conjunction with Cube Audio of Poland, these are full range drive units which have a larger motor structure and magnets and they really do look stunning. The dampening structures between the metal ring and the drive unit and the internal leg dampening have all been greatly improved and while you cannot see them the results can certainly be heard in the improved sound.
The two bass units have also been reworked and improved with better dampening and improved drive units for overall better performance and to partner the bass units a 200 watts power amplifier designed by Ferguson Hill is also included.
Sound Quality and Performance
With a system of this quality I had so much music that I wanted to listen to through the Jetstream speakers that I could not wait to hear them. I have had previous experience of smaller horn loaded speakers which I enjoyed but these are a completely different experience in terms of how music is projected into the room. I have many favourite artists and so does Tim and in many ways we had similar tastes like Pink Floyd, Jimi Hendrix, Clapton and Santana to name a few so we had so much to discuss and so much to listen to and in the 3 hours session it was just so much fun which is what music is all about and I even got to introduce him to some new music which from the reaction that I recieved I think he thoroughly enjoyed and it proved what his new design can do. Listening first off to Pink Floyd’s iconic Wish You Were Here album was a revelation as this remastered recording is probably one of the their best sounding albums close to Dark Side of the Moon in terms of musical pleasure and the Jetstream speakers managed to throw out in front of us a huge soundstage with perfect imaging, Close to how an electrostatic pair of speakers project music but instead with real power due to the size of the horns but sounding perfectly natural with not a hint of any kind of compression or distortion. These are probably one of the most dynamic sounding speakers and Shine on You Crazy Diamond sounded sublime with the pshycedelic music of Floyd and incredible keyboard work of Richard Wright and power from Nick Mason’s drumming, and the soothing vocals of David Gilmour’s voice this was probably one of the closest feelings of the artists being in the room that I have experienced with this brilliant album, the same can be said when we played Hendrix, Clapton and Santana the power of the horns and how they manage to bring the music alive is quite an ethereal experience and this was at moderate volumes but when I asked to turn the volume up the music intensified and so did the experience. The Jetstream speakers can go really loud because the horns simply amplify the music with hardly any effort at all and the beauty of the 300B tubes powering these speakers is that the quality is never fatiguing or harsh just a warming sound and rich in tone with beautiful harmonics, the bass units are very subtle and not once did they bring any attention or distraction to the music it all just blended in so well. The Mickey Hart album Mysterium Tremendum was another exhilarating experience as the former drummer of The Grateful Dead’s music is a firm favourite to show off a systems ability and dynamic capability and the new Jetstreams handled this with music with ease.
I also got to play some of my favourite Boris Blank music which is from his latest album Resonance and this proved to be what can only be desribed as an immersive experience and an absolute roller coaster of a ride, what Blank does so well is create an ambient world of his music and the Jetstream speakers lapped this up allowing for huge dynamics and stunning imaging of the music, I managed to share some of the demos on my social media channels and the Boris Blank track Vertigo Hero’s went viral with well over 2.5 million views now which is incredible and the positive reaction from my followers for the new Ferguson Hill speakers has been overwhelming with the love shown for this beautiful design.
Conclusions and Final Thoughts
If you are fortunate enough to be in the market at this level of HiFi then the new Ferguson Hill Jetstream speakers have to be on your shortlist as they are one of the most beautiful sounding and looking speaker systems I have had the pleasure of listening to, having listened to systems costing considerably more the new Ferguson Hill speakers are up there with the best of them, visually a delight but acoustically these speakers are on another level.
Price for the system: £105,240
Web - https://fergusonhill.co.uk/
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