With the arrival of the new Firestone Audio products late last week, we had been on the trail of a killer speaker to mate the BigJoe III to, and over the weekend we contacted the Australian Distributor for a brand of a speaker out of Taiwan called John Blue.

Taiwan is fast becoming the dominant supplier of small, high quality audio products for both the desktop and serious audiophiles. No doubt spurred on by the success of Usher in not only the US market but the global market with their affordable high-end speakers.

Today, a new pair of John Blue JB3 Bookshelf Speakers arrived. My first impression after removing them from the box apart from the very obvious quality of finish, was their diminutive size. They are no taller than a paperback novel so they truly deserve the title of bookshelf speaker.

Normally my expectations would not have been too high, after all these are tiny and have a single 3" wideband driver, but having read about John Blue, I was expecting them to be good, very good. You see, John Blue is a company that plays the game differently to most.

They believe that a single wideband driver which requires no crossover network, is a better option than a multi driver speaker. And by doing away with the crossover network, they minimise the flaws and colouration that a crossover network can impart on a loudspeaker.

Now do not for a minute dismiss them as yet another overnight brand, grabbing a bunch of off the shelf parts and throwing them into a box, no John Blue is so much more than that. Company founder and designer Tommy Wu is fast becoming one of the worlds best at designing and manufacturing wideband drivers, no OEM here please!

So, they design and make their own drivers, then design the entire speaker. So how do they sound? To answer that we connected the Firsestone Audio BigJoe III to my Mac Pro via the USB port. Using the supplied speaker cables I connected the John Blue JB3's and started to play some of my favourite music in Apple Lossless Format. Something I believe is not dissimilar to most desktop systems and how these speakers are likely to be used.

Two things jumped out immediately, the huge power reserves of the BigJoe III power amp, and the significant amount of bottom end the JB3 is capable of providing. But this powerful bottom end does not come at the expense of midrange detail, which it has in spades. Unlike the NuForce ICON S-1 Speakers which really do need the support of the matching sub-woofer to sound 'full', the JB3 is an extremely capable stand alone solution.

The entire time you listen to these speakers, your brain is saying, no this can not be right, a 3" driver can not produce bass this low, your ears however tell you it can. The truth of course is that no the driver alone can not, clever cabinet porting is what helps get the bass down below the drivers 80Hz response capability. All of which shows just how clever Tommy Wu is because quite simply, the JB3 is the most astounding little speaker you are ever likely to hear.

So, if you are in the market for an audiophile grade desktop speaker system, or even a system for a small room, you owe it to yourself to come in for a demo of these amazing little speakers. Call us today on 1300 652 802 to arrange a demo.