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JMC Soundboard The loudspeaker made out tonewood

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The mission of JMC Lutherie is to ensure that lutherie puts down solid roots in 21st century reality and, wherever there is noise and sound, to harmoniously transform it into music.


JMC Soundboard

Sound at its most natural The “Soundboard” is named after the truly crucial vibrating part of certain musical instruments. The JMC Soundboard is a loudspeaker with a resonance spruce membrane built using lutherie techniques. The result is aesthetically pleasing with an airily-mounted, slightly curving square-shaped membrane. The sound is amazingly accurate, warm and brilliant, pervading the entire open space due to the fact that its wave is not of the focal type, but is instead omnidirectional. Thus, whether a home if an open-plan, two-floor building or U-shaped, the music can be heard and felt throughout. The verb “feel” is entirely justified for this musical sensation akin to that experienced in

attending a concert. Since the music is literally “played” on an authentic musical instrument, the perception of the instruments and voices gives hearers the impression that the musicians are actually in the same room, or a sense of being whisked off to the place where the concert is being performed. This is true with any type of music, of which a single stereophonic Soundboard is able to convey the three-dimensional nature of music. At JMC Lutherie, listening pleasure lies at the very heart of our profession and our daily concerns.


Technical information

The illustration compares the auditory impression when listening to music with the Soundboard or with loudspeakers.

Soundboard wave Wave from two loudspeakers

Technical description Loudspeaker type Plane, stereophonic, 2 x 3-way Bandwidth 35 Hz to 20,000 Hz Distortion 0.05 % Impedance 8 Ohms Average level at 1 m 105 dB Nominal power 2 x 60 WattsRMS Wave shape Hemi-directional, similar to a

plane-wave Attenuation - 3 dB each time the distance doubles Sound 95 % air-borne, 5 % structure-borne Number of vibrators 8 Filter Low-loss splitter Cables Litz 0,942 mm2 Dimensions 890 mm x 890 mm x 100 mm Wall space occupied 890 mm x 890 mm x 210 mm Fixture Central mount, secured to the wall by

four screws. The Soundboard may be placed either flat or in a corner.

Anchorage Approx. 1.2 m to 1.5 m from floor level Weight 15 kg (depending on the model) Amplifier power Minimum 2 x 60 Watts on the 8 Ω

output Inputs Stereo Connexions 4 plugs (to be screwed in or inserted) Operating temperature 15 to 45 °C Humidity level 25 to 85 % Some models may feature certain variations.

According to reports by several acoustic laboratories including those of the EPFL (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne), the HEIG-VD (School of Business and Engineering Vaud), and other private labs, the Soundboard has exceptional technical and sound qualities, featuring: “an extremely low distortion rate,

extremely fine restitution, a very natural stereophonic effect (due to its restitution by a single speaker), extremely long persistence of the sound in a large area while maintaining high precision in a low volume, as well as a sense of intense emotion on certain recordings.” With regard to the harmonic distortion: “The harmonic distortion rates fall within a range 5 to 10 times lower than a traditional good-quality loudspeaker, meaning around 0.05 % compared with 0.5 %.” And as for the stereophonic effect: “The Soundboard is a speaker capable of single-handedly reproducing the stereophonic sound environment contained in records. One thereby achieves an extremely natural restitution of the original stereophony. This system also serves to eliminate the interferences engendered by the fact that each recorded sound source is reproduced from two separate speakers. This quality results in far more natural tones.”


Press and customer comments

The beauty of sound. Le Figaro The true nature of sound. L’Illustré Green Pure Sound. JMC acoustic loudspeaker Pianist An acoustic loudspeaker born of lutherie techniques. Le Temps The Soundboard, a revolutionary acoustic loudspeaker. Open Magazine Listening pleasure is growing every day for the entire family. P. N. The Soundboard is the most beautiful thing to which I have ever treated myself. I listen to music all day long and it fills my whole house.

M.-H. M. I have never seen such a simple, pure and natural concept. The Soundboard by JMC Lutherie SA is a new way of listening to music. N. I. We are extremely happy to have this Soundboard at home and we daily savour its wonderful sounds… J. + J. L. The Soundboard is doing well; it’s been almost a year now! It’s really great on all levels: the sound quality, the visual effect, the impression it makes on people… We simply couldn’t go back to anything else. N. H. We realise that the sound is everywhere at once, that it pervades us and elicits beautiful emotions. N. G.

Your Soundboard is truly exceptional; what a tremendous pleasure to listen to music in this way! It has become a source of real delight. My parents were won over and have ordered one for their new house. S. R. When I first had a chance of listening to the Soundboard, I realised it was a musical instrument and not a sound “reproducer” like other speakers. It’s another whole world! An authentic discovery! The sound is never aggressive and completely surrounds you, restoring the spatial sense that only a musical instrument can convey. There’s no point wasting time on words; you absolutely must experience it for yourself, and after that the question of whether or not you wish to own one will be irrelevant. A. M.


Options and accessories

Colours

The Soundboard is available in a natural shade, a violin-type progressive version (darker brown), black or white – as well as with a personalised colour. In all cases, lutherie varnishes are used in order to preserve the lightness, the vibration and thus the sound quality. It is possible to have a silk-screen-printed or printed reproduction made. An artist can also express his talent on this surface, while complying with our extremely strict criteria. Oils must never be used, since they would seep into the wood fibres. Other colours, Marc J. Pasini’scollection and reproductions visible on next page.

Accessories The Soundboard is delivered with a short wall mount for installing it flat, or a longer one for installation in a corner. It is fixed at a height of 1.2 m to 1.5 m from the ground along its axis. We recommend good quality cables (at least one-inch for the empty tubes), and an amplifier with minimum 2 x 60 W power.

Maintenance tips The JMC Soundboard should be considered like a full-fledged musical instrument or an objet d’art, which should thus be cared for in a similar way. It must therefore not be installed near a radiator or in the sun. Although the construction of the Soundboard enables it to withstand humidity and temperature variations, the humidity rate should ideally be maintained at a level of at least 40 %. Public areas The Soundboard is the ideal solution for creating a pleasant acoustic environment in public areas. The Soundboard provides an extremely pleasing acoustic environment. In addition to the sense of musical immersion and the emotions that are generated much like in a live concert setting, it also serves to create intimate and harmonious spaces where customers and personnel feel good. There is no need to set the volume too high in order to perceive each detail of the music, encompassing the entire sound spectrum and pervading the entire physical area. While the Soundboard can adapt to all kinds of use for broadcasting music, it is nonetheless important that the amplification should be appropriately sized to match the context.


L’épicéa de résonance

Resonance spruce is the heart of a tree speaking to the heart of a man.


Resonance spruce in the Soundboard

Resonance spruce is the fundamental type of wood chosen by stringed instrument makers. This wood combines lightness, ensuring an excellent response to vibrations, with rigidity and tonicity guaranteeing substantial mechanical resistance. We find it in particularly really close to our workshops, in the Risoud Forest, one of the largest and oldest in Europe. Even in the age of Stradivarius, specialists sourced tonewood from this forest which, thanks to its poor soil and its harsh climate, produces wood of exceptional quality. Hundreds of selection criteria are taken into consideration when choosing such a rare tree. It is said that only one tree in ten thousand is

suitable. The predominant factors are its location, its exposure to sunshine, the regularity of its bark, its perfection without any knots or resin pockets, and the straightness of its fibres. To find the perfect candidate, we benefit from the rich experience of the tree gatherer. It is “gathered” in late autumn, by a waning moon. It is then cut into quarters and prepared as thin planks that are dried for three to ten years. These thin planks are then matched and glued to create the membrane. The latter is curved by bracings that are sculpted to balance out the frequencies, as is the case for guitar tops. These are lutherie techniques that are the very heart of this musical work of art.

Lorenzo Pellegrini, tree gatherer


Jeanmichel Capt The inventor

A noble 350 year-old material, centuries-old lutherie techniques and contemporary audio technology lie at the core of this creation by Jeanmichel Capt. What could be more natural than to listen to music on a real instrument? It represents the culmination of years of research and development based on trials conducted in our workshops and in collaboration with three Swiss schools: the Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne (EFPL), the School of Business and Engineering Vaud (HEIG-VD) and the Vallée de Joux Technical College (ETVJ). The result is simple, self-evident and imbued with extraordinary quality. Jeanmichel Capt is the inventor of the Soundboard. He is a sound designer. A worthy heir to the tradition of the famous watchmaking inventors and creators of the Vallée de Joux, Jeanmichel Capt invented and fine-tuned this tonewood loudspeaker that is a full-fledge auditory sculpture. This daring choice stems from a magnificent approach to life guided by a passion for nature, for music and for freedom. Perhaps it was indeed an extreme taste for freedom that inspired Jeanmichel Capt to build his own guitar 30 years ago. His successive attempts led him to become a self-taught luthier: first by making his own instruments, and then through gaining an in-depth understanding of the noble material represented by resonance wood that delivers such a pure and magnificent sound. No less than 200 guitars have emerged from his workshop, to the delight of connoisseurs. Jeanmichel Capt has also developed and crafted a number of resonance supports for striking watches for the most prestigious watch brands such as Audemars Piguet, Breguet, Blancpain, Vacheron Constantin.

Jeanmichel Capt, Luthier and Co-Founder


JMC Lutherie SA

JMC Lutherie SA is a Swiss manufacturer of acoustic speakers in tonewood, resonance supports for striking watches and guitars. It is based in the Vallée de Joux, located in the Swiss Jura and the historical cradle of Fine Watchmaking. Born from the founders’ shared desire to share their passion for music and to promote the rich treasures of the Risoud Forest which harbours the resonance spruce, it was created in 2005 by master-luthier Jeanmichel Capt and Managing Director Céline Renaud, and now comprises a seven-strong team. The exceptional resonance spruce and lutherie techniques are the beating heart of the company, which conveys an image of authentic values rooted in its magnificent history.


The heart of JMC

Céline Renaud, CEO and Co-Founder

At JMC Lutherie,

our deepest wish is

to make musical listening

pleasure our core concern.


If a picture paints thousand words, a sound conveys a thousand times more information…


JMC Lutherie SA HQ Route du Risoud 23

Showroom Route de France 6 Case postale 42 1348 Le Brassus Switzerland

T +41 21 845 56 10 F +41 21 845 56 30 [email protected] www.jmclutherie.com

jmc soundboard the loudspeaker made out tonewood · jmc soundboard the loudspeaker made out...

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