Choosing the Best: NEW JBL Studio 630 vs OLD Studio 530 Comparison
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- čas přidán 5. 09. 2024
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it looks similar to your stage a130 measurements. interesting. maybe there is some internal research showing perceived details between 800-2kHz. I heard sean olive suggest this in his headphoneshow interview a while back.
That FR is inexcusable from a company like JBL, especially on a newer product - they should know better... I wonder how they missed such an obvious flaw in the design. Thanks for an awesome review as always!
I was perplexed as well. In a way I was kind of hoping that maybe it was just a bad sample, but the other one measures the same.
@@ErinsAudioCorner Quite often its down to cost issue, maybe they don't have enough budget to spend on crossover components they need to have fewer component counts and make compromises on the resulting response. If they have to increase the cost, they will have to increase the price and they could start to get too close to a higher-grade series. This happens quite often inside the industry.
Wonder if they went with a large VC in the woofer to get the power handling/compression up, but the inherent higher inductance is punishing the midrange/HF output.
One reason the SPL curve isn’t smoother is that they would need to sacrifice average efficiency which is already low. Marketing dept would demand a certain level so the curve smoothness is deliberately sacrificed.
Built to a price, with obvious sacrifices, the balance of design choices looks reasonable. Just imagine what this could have been with a much better woofer.
Most of JBL's most experienced engineers were forced into retirement in the last 5-10 years. According to them, most of the younger engineers were more concerned with aesthetics than sound fidelity.
@@airyfidelity475That's quite possible. We have seen Klipsch reuse the same exact crossover despite drivers being redesigned or replaced. I suspect that's what MartinLogan did with the new B10 and B100.
So sad that they won't make a better implementation. Based on distortion and compression data, the drivers and cabinet themselves seem really well put together. Makes me think this is a deliberate choice in the crossover.
The new EQ chapter of the review at 15 minutes is very nice. Let's keep that going in future, if time allows 👍👍
My Master Restored And Resto modded Sansui Au 717 by Prime Hifi (utuber) sounds amazing with 530s blows me away in my treated Nearfield room - The 530s love Real power @ 82-83db efficacy thanks Aaron ' Sansui is a monster ! Pure D.C. power '
Smooth n lush '
The crazy part is this line has been around since like 2019 in foreign markets.
Weird indeed!
I will just jump here and be subjectively subjective and biased. My theater room is LCR 590s, sides 580s, and rears are 570s with 4x 530s as my atmos layer run off a rack of qsc CDX4.3 and a pair of CX404 using a Marantz 7706. Subs are SVS right now. Its an epic set up and the dynamics are just insain. I got the JBL studio series at some absilutley stupid prices and for what i paid... i dont know how anything would come close. Z's review got me onto them.
That is all... completely worthless and bias post from a guy that ran JBL pro kit for pro work for along time. Oh.. and in theater... the 590s looks evil!!! Maybe wrong for the living room.. put theater its like batman's speaker.
Awesome work as always.
The JBL 530 response was quite linear when Amir measured it. The high frequency is slightly downwards sloping. Having owned that speaker, I would not call it bright at all. I do consider the Triangle Borea speakers very bright.
Yeah. The two I had measured very similarly so it’s not easy to explain the difference between my results and ASR other than QC or potential design tweaks in the production timeline.
I have the 570s and they always were "bright" to me and some songs were hard to listen to. Soundstage was on point though I'll give it that.
On another note. JBLs warranty is awesome. I had a defective tweeter after a few months and a few emails later they sent me a new one totally free. Pain to replace the tweeter but great warranty.
Below here is just me rambling so you can ignore it lol.
I'm not sure what happened to the tweeter but I had it in the closet for a month or so while testing another pair of speakers and pulling the JBL out of the closet to give them another go for a few weeks I could hear something wasn't right.
Distortion was higher with one of them (after testing the bad one was in the 3-7% distortion area vs the good one in the 0.1-0.3% range for 1.5kHz+) and SPL went down 1.5dB which I'm shocked I even noticed that.
i like the look of this studio 630 speaker, even better then the expensive JBL hdi 1600.
that it can play loud is great and you can eq it with ease.
Getting it to play loud with the 83.5dB level Erin points out will require almost twice the amplifier power of the HDI-1600 and you’ll likely need an external amp if you like moderately loud music.
@@brandonandrews4009 i have had speaker at 85 db before, i get loud enough at a few watts for most of my use.
any buying should now what kind of power they have and how loud they want it.
the 630 can play louder with less compression and i value that.
Seems these could benefit from active DSP biamping, which makes me wonder whether some of JBL's less expensive powered monitors at only around $300-$400/pr could give them a run for their money soundwise.
I dove into my 590s one day. The horn driver diaphragm and magnet structure is from their pro line (eon I believe). The bass drivers are stupid overbuilt. I would bet active xovers would dial things in to a whole other level
I guess with EQ it could be a nice speaker.
Would be interesting with distortion with eq also to see how it change things.
Having a broad band boost in the mid might bump up the distortion. Similarly bringing that peak at 1500 down would reduce the dist quite alot in that region.
Thank you Erin,, 👍😎👍
I think the studio 530 unit you had was faulty. From my own measurements and the ones I've seen online, the woofer level should be around 84dB
Both measured roughly the same. ASR results also show a 2dB difference from mid to HF (but they drew a line in the FR which is visually misleading; not at all saying that was their intent).
I have had the Studio 630 for over a year now - One notable issue i have - a substantial resonance/vibration from that plastic ring around the woofer, 300hz. if i run a sine wave frequency, it REALLY gets audibly vibrating/resonating at frequencies around there. if i touch/push that plastic ring with your hand, it can be made to stop. and then it might stay stopped, mostly. but it'll come back - that plastic ring seems not suitably bonded to the cabinet.
Depending on actual source material/music being listened to, I don't notice it in practice. but it's really disappointing.
To a lesser extent, the horn/waveguide sometimes also resonates at certain narrow frequency range.
I measured/oom corrected the pair with UMIK-1 - Regarding the mid-dip Erin measured - that looks susbtantial - but for me? Measured @ listening position ~2m away, my measurement doesn't find that dip. My final correction has almost no correction there at all to get to "flat". curious difference.
There's the 15th post on audiosciencereview thread with title "JBL Studio 6 alive on USA JBL site 698, 690, 630, 620, 610, 665c, 625c, 650p" with some other words...
Oh, also, maybe not unique to this model, but calling it 6.5" woofer is generous - the part that moves and makes sound is really 6". measuring that resonating/vibrating plastic ring around it certainly doesn't sweeten the deal :-P
I would try bonding the ring to the cabinet with silicone caulk.
Thanks for another great review that was informative about more than just the speaker you were evaluating. I particularly appreciated your description of how poor directivity control can effect the imaging of a speaker, as well as the tonality at the listening place.
Quality review Erin. Hope you had a good Christmas.
It would have been great to see distortion and compression data with the corrective EQ applied. My concern would be that the amount of midrange boost required, the peak dynamic capability of the speaker will be compromised.
I think that’s a physical necessity. You either need to cut gain at the preamp or apply boost and pray nothing hits the clipping point in that frequency range. Pretty unlikely in the midrange.
Thanks for measuring them!
That’s really disappointing. I have HDI-1600’s still within their return window and wondered if I could get away with these instead. Thank for you saving me the effort of finding out.
The HDI-1600 are pretty awesome if you ask me! For the sale price they sometimes go for, I don't know what's better ! Enjoy them 😎
Man! I'm happy and sad with that review because I really was hoping that the 630 was a more affordable HDI-1600 but unfortunately it really isn't 😅
Thank you (again) for your great work and ethic.
Keep it up! 😎
in my country the studio 630 cost 10 and hdi 1600 cost 23. price per pair.
@ErinsAudioCorner
Another good review, including comparisons and a good takeaway. 👍
To replace the McIntosh amp you might want to give the DIYclassD Hypex Nilai500 stereo amp a go.
It can be assembled in a few hours with just basic tools and no soldering.
Plenty of power on tap, and another advantage of this amp is that they are impedance load agnostic...IOW they remain very linear regardless of the impedance load and swing.
IIRC, the kit is around $1,300 USD shipped and it is regularly put up against some $7k+ big name "audiophile" amplifiers.
Good suggestion! Also, maybe you could look for a Monoprice 2X amplifier.
They measured well on audioholics and rumors say they are made by ATI!
The midrange with its wide dip in the lower area and the bump in the upper area is truly weird. That being said, I like my JBL Control 1 monitors, and if this treatment of the midrange is part of of the "JBL sound", maybe it's not such a big deal after all.
Definitely not part of the JBL sound. The 698 and the HDI series don’t have this characteristic.
@@ErinsAudioCornerthe HDI speakers also cost twice as much. Please make a video of great alternative speakers in the same price range
Do the revel m16 please.
ASR has a measurement + review.
Good directivity and "downslope" FR with a bass boost around 80-100hz.
Personally, for the price they sell for, the only thing that I didn't like to see was the resonances (it has 2 if I remember correctly).
I liked my time with the 5 series. Owned the 580's and matching center. Really wanted to love them since I loved how different the look was of those speakers. Overall they were pretty good, but I always felt like something wasn't quite right and I could do better. Ended up moving on and jumping up in price point to Paradigm's premier series and couldn't be happier. End game for me.
INXS New Sensation will throw some speakers into complete disarray! Busy passage mayhem!!
That's a throw back to my teen years... Devil inside though...
Great review Erin! I don't necessarily agree that you get more issues with placing all speakers near a wall, I find that i get more suck out and peaks from moving my stand mount speakers out from the front wall. I have done several measurements with the speakers near and away from the wall and it is always is smoother nearer the wall. I can just bung the port if need be to reduce the excess.
You can calculate the suckout. It’s relative from the baffle to the wall. If it’s a deep speaker then it’s further from the wall than a speaker that isn’t deep. IOW, it depends.
Quite disappointing...I mean at this price point, dealing with small resonances and higher distortion is par for the course, but there's no reason for this frequency response. It's too bad the JBL division resorts to "showroom" sound at this price point.
I’ve heard them, they really don’t have that “showroom” sound, they sounded quite nice and laidback. Measurements are great but I’d be interested to see how many people liked these ones before seeing the measurements. They sound less bright than my Arendal 1723 towers which measure much better.
@@sturdyvw I've had my 620s for about three weeks and "nice and laidback" describes them well. Still it's disappointing to see such measurements especially from JBL, who should practice what they preach.
Doesn't JBL do blind listening test? Maybe this is what the listeners thought was best and didn't take into consideration how they measured.
@@Uuur10 If you like them, why does it matter how they measure?
I’m still rocking the studio 230s… when EQd with Yamaha they are pretty good
They are not bad, but they are bright and have sibilance.
@@proksaleventeMy 220 and 270 measured ruler flat iirc 🤯
Sure they know how to do it right. If they didn’t , it’s a bean counter or a market decision.
I almost bought Studio 620 a couple months ago to use as my computer/desk speakers instead of my current B&C/Seas.
Hi Erin, great drivers, cabinet & looks but poor crossover, that's a common problem. It's fixable if you can pick them up cheap. I suspect the woofer series inductor value is too high causing the upper bass dip. Removing windings from that inductor would fix that. The prominent lower midrange is fixable by adding a Zobel network across the woofer or if a network already exists, increasing its capacitor value. The required changes, based on access to the crossover schematic (or parts list) & your measurements, can be modeled in SPICE, keeping a keen eye on phase changes to ensure to ensure no dips or peaks at the crossover frequency! Voila!!!
Fantastic review! As always. Do you think the 610 on-wall has similar horizontal and vertical beam widths? I ask because I'll be following JBL's recommendation to place slightly above and behind the MLP, facing each other. This puts the MLP right at the edge horizontally and vertically. Alternate option is to switch to Chane A4.5s and point at the MLP.
The 530’s have 5.25 inch woofer and new 630’s have 6.5 inch
I have a pair of studio 690 and for the most part, mids and highs sound fairly good.
No problems with scooped out sound. I had worse with my old klipsch rp250f.
Also own pair of Css Audio Criton 1TDX. They sound more cohesive and
I wouldn’t assume the 690 has the same scooped midrange. The 698 does not.
Although I'm looking to get a different pair of speakers that are more engaging and can discern more detail for 2 channel listening.
It's difficult to find one in the $1600 range.
Seems your paying more and more but the quality of the components is going down.
Was even considering a pair of Dynaudio emit 50 or the Q Acoustics 5040.
Great review as always Erin.
I also do like some visceral punch in the mids, don't want to be straining to decipher those notes....😅
@@anthonymiriello5029 I’ve got a review of the Q 5040 coming in a few days. Already posted on Patreon if you’re a Patron. 👍
@ErinsAudioCorner thanks for the reply Erin. I'll check out your review on the 5040, got me wondering if 2 five inch drivers can really handle/ convey that much information , especially in a 2 way crossover design.
Seems like an extended 2 way bookshelf. Lol
@@anthonymiriello5029that’s basically what it is.
I really admire the Harman group for decades, and I’m sure that they can make any loudspeaker behave as they want.
JBL doesn’t depend on external driver manufacturers and have all the means to properly measure both drivers and finished loudspeakers.
I believe that (like many highly competent loudspeaker brands) there has to be a few reasons why this loudspeakers measure as they do (which is not great).
I guess that only the designer (or designers) of this loudspeaker could identify what were those goals in the first place.
While they have what it takes to react positively to EQ, with passive speakers I tend to prefer those who are closer to a neutral frequency response right out of the box.
If I was looking at measurements only without knowing to which speaker they belonged, I would certainly rank them poorly against many of their direct competitors.
That being said, some of your subjective listening impressions were confirmed by measurements, but not all, and some are likely related to your own room particular behavior.
Regarding EQ and the benefit of lower compression when compared to the ELACs, those boosts to correct the dips in the lower end are going to demand a little more from the woofers, so they will hit compression earlier than without EQ, right?
One part of the loudspeaker appears to be designed according to Dr. Floyd research in the Harman group decades ago, but others (like frequency response) certainly don’t look like it came from the same “school”. 😉🙂
Samsung buying Harman wasnt a good move.
You are a bloody godsend because i have these and i was(maybe still am) thinking about buying a measuring mic to optimize them in my room.
Not sure how they consider those " studio"
marketing buzz word Phillip
I would be very interested in seeing an averaged on-axis measurement of both samples for a given speaker. That would be very helpful in developing more general PEQ corrections that are likely to be applicable to a broader range of samples.
i would recommend that no one uses other peoples peq settings, just do it yourself, don't even need a mic to do it.
@@sudd3660 You misunderstand. This is anechoic PEQ. It is not a substitute for room EQ but rather is implemented before it.
@@WeebLabs that is the best case scenario.
but when you do the room correction and by ear adjustments then you do not need that step.
there is also speaker to speakers variance, from age and manufacturer defects.
@@sudd3660 Anechoic EQ is always essential, as an in-room measurement is the sum of many off-axis early reflections and does not properly represent the perceived response. Comb filtering present within in-room measurements also masks driver resonances, drastically reducing the precision with which a speaker can be corrected.
Sample variation does of course exist but is rather small, relative to the characteristic response of a given driver model. Almost all active monitors which make use of DSP implement a singular correction which is derived from the averaged responses of multiple samples. See the recent Thomann A306.
It is easy to demonstrate the relative insignificance of sample variation, given that multiple reviewers have generated CEA2034s of multiple samples and produced extremely similar results (within 0.5dB), despite the impact of both measurement hardware differences and sample tolerances.
@@WeebLabs so you want to do the eq based on speaker output and with a software, then add another software based eq from mic in listening position?
i would just skip all those steps and tune by ear, what you hear is what matters, some of the reason are that you get the equal loudness curve automatically.
and it overrides all the other steps before.
Would you recommend the JBL 630 or the Klipsch rp600 m2? For home theater use
Klipsch 👌
According to Erin's measurements the RP600m2 are about 2.5 to 3db more sensitive than these. For home theater applications where you want things as loud as possible then I would pick the RP600m2 for that reason. The Klipsch has a narrower horizontal radiation pattern, so depending on the room and toe in you might get a bit less reflections, for better or worse. You may be able to pull off better time intensity trading by crossing the speakers in front of you for a wider center image with the Klipsch. And finally, the Klipsch is decently reviewed by the audiophile community while there are almost no reviews for the 6 series.
I say all of this but I'm probably the only guy in Canada with a pair of 680s. I'm waiting for Erin's 698 measurements to comment further (and I'll be getting a UMIK1 in the new year). If I didn't make that choice blind on Black Friday, then this video would've seriously given me pause about whether I should just go for the Klipsch or Polk instead. For HT purposes I would recommend that you decide on your center speaker choice first. If the limitations of the MTM design don't bother you then you have a lot more choices, but if it does then you may wish to decide on the center and then decide on matching LR after. Personally I am using a 625c and it seems to be fine for my usage case, though I do wish it was a bit more sensitive to match the towers (the better match would've been 665c but that's pretty expensive for a MTM design).
On the FR dip of the JBL: Below 500hz you're going to have to use room correction anyway, so that dip doesn't matter as much for home theatre usage case in my opinion.
Thanks for the information I really appreciate it
just for your information : 2 feet is 60 centimeters !! Good review !! Happy New Year !!!
Or 2 human feet one in front of the other, roughly give or take.
I have been in search of some bookshelf speakers. I really appreciate these reviews. It seems so difficult to find a decent measuring speaker. I recently purchased a seemingly well regarded speaker. I’m not going to name it, but it’s normally $600. It lacked clarity and dynamics. I’m not sure if clarity shows up in distortion measurements. I’m not sure how much cheap crossover parts affect clarity. I suspect impulse response might relate to dynamics. You really had to turn the volume up to capture any sense of dynamics. Perhaps sensitivity in relation to peak amplifier current has something to do with it. My gut feeling is that poor crossover parts sucked the life out of it. Yet a lot of people seem to think parts don’t matter much, so I don’t know. I have an experimental open baffle speaker at home. I didn’t put much money into parts. The clarity and dynamics of the open baffle were insanely better, using low level crossover and amplifier channel per driver. I need to EQ or DSP my open baffles though. They lack lower mids until I resolve this. I think will need to increase my price point, but I’m reluctant to go very high because almost everything seems pretty flawed at least until way beyond my budget.
maybe try some ascend acoustic desktop speakers. i like that there’s no mdf to destroy plus great bass. but maybe depends on genres you like most the time. drawback is they need some power like 80 wpc or more.
Sad the mids were scooped out / but isn't it true for the most part that aluminum tweeters have a tendency to be shrill or sibilant?
Once upon a time that was true. But over the past decade (maybe even more) that's not really true. It really comes down to implementation. And on top of that, driver design is getting better.
i rather have a uneven response which i can eq than a bunch of extra crossover parts to fix it.
i am going to apply eq or dsp anyways so just give me a simple crossover and il take it from there, that saves me money.
I have old school JBL Studio series speakers. Circa 2000 with the copper colored drivers. S312 towers L/R, S38 Surrounds, S36 for rears and heights. I have had them since new except the S36s I got off ebay when I upgraded from 5.1 to Atmos. I love them! My setup when listening to music in 2.1 has amazing imaging. I will have to upgrade someday. Your videos are helpful in learning more.
Great review as always. I would love to see reviews of the Kanto YU4 and YU5.25 passive speakers. They seem to be a popular budget option, with quality in mind.
This one vs the JBL Stage a130? Has anyone compared both? People tend to really love the a130. If anyone can comment I'd really appreciate. I'm planning one getting one of them soon. Thanks.
Erin, I am a subscriber and I do enjoy your reviews but...
Please pass the thousand islands dressing.
A question, if anyone cares to answer. I have an almost new pair of 620s. I could buy a Umik and EQ them. Or I could sell them for the same price I bought them (there was a heavy discount), and use my old speakers while I decide on something else. What would you do? I've never used REW and was wondering how well it will work - can the FR be corrected to perfection or will there be compromises? I have 35W of power only (from a well-measuring amp) and the JBLs are driven plenty loud enough for my needs, but am I missing something here?
I reckon if you have means to apply eq correction, definitely UMIK + REW is a VERY worthwhile thing to do. The JBLs 620s most likely have great directivity, like these 630, and HDI-1600, so sorting their in-room tonality may transform your experience quite dramatically. You may also define your personal preference to a target eq curve that suits you (eg I don't listen too loud most the time, so quite like a bit more low bass and a bit more treble)
You probably will lose some loudness/level from the headroom required in the corrective-eq, particularly if you are trying to get more balanced bass from them (i.e. no separate subwoofers). That said, if you have subwoofer(s) too, that might actually be where you get a big bonus from getting a UMIK and REW and correction... and if you can, subwoofer(s) with a 5" mid-woof bookshelf is a bit of a "must" for better enjoyment.
I guess all this also depends on what your "old speakers" are - maybe they're great? maybe they have been spin-klippel scanned and have good directivity..? maybe you would get awesome in-room results from UMIK and "correcting" those old speakers? and save money...
I have 630 for a few years now, REW-UMIK corrected. I bought them in the educated guess that they would have good directivity, and that I would be eq-ing tonality anyway. It sounded good - Finally, Erin's measurements here proved my gamble to pay off :-)
@@tubefac3 Wow, thanks for your reply. As of now, the 620s are back in their box but not sold yet. Meanwhile I'm experimenting with my other speakers. They're a notch below the JBLs but not bad per se, Paradigm Atom Monitor v7. Also good directivity, but too bright. The experiment is I took the measurement graphs from the NRC on Stereophile's website for that speaker, and those for the Revel M106, and worked an EQ from there for the Atoms (I still haven't purchased the UMIK). I'd done something similar for a pair of headphones before, EQing them to the Harman curve, to good effect. And in that case while I still have some more listening to do, the results are encouraging too. It seemed to me the sound was not far from being very good. I have never seriously attempted to EQ speakers before, I'm getting more and more convinced. Well, I had done so with a Marantz AVR, but the results were not amazing. I no longer have the AVR nor a sub. (My wife hated the sub. If I can find a small one maybe she'll notice it less). I'm giving myself a little more time. The Paradigms will be unsellable as the rubber on the front has become sticky, nobody will want to buy them for more than a few bucks! But I can sell the JBLs for the price I sold them. I'm guessing once EQd, the JBLs would be better though. Didn't Erin say he'd prefer the EQd 630s over the DBR62s? It's good to know they will respond to EQ well and UMIK/REW definitely is worthwhile. Oh, the first "experiment" I did was applying Erin's settings for the 630s to the 620s, and that didn't work well. Also, the number of settings made me think the speakers would need to much "work" and they were not worth it. Anyhow, it's all good fun. Thanks again for your very informative reply.
@@Uuur10 Seem like good odds that if you can equalizer APO or otherwise apply detailed eq, based on measurements in your room and to a target/preference curve, sounds like you might get great results from your Paradigms! and if you can sneak in a wife-approved sub that you can also correct with the money saved from the JBL 620s, that'd be a win I reckon :-) but yeah, what's the rush - can take your time and enjoy the journey. certainly for me, room correction with good directivity speakers is a great thing. then the main thing is to tell yourself "this is good or good enough", and try just enjoy the music rather than the system.
Yeah, not entirely surprised Erin's 630 correction didn't necessarily suit your 620s - mine measured in room don't seem to have that lower midrange deficiency that he measured. definitely a mic and measuring your actual environment gives better chance to end up somewhere more likely to be favourable.
(I think you're remembering correctly that with eq, Erin did mention a slight preference to the JBL 630 with better directivity, compression and distortion.)
eq-ing headphones is a great "upgade" too, i agree :-) i dunno if you've heard of "wavelet" for android devices - nice to be able to eq mobile and bluetooth audio
Happy listening.
It would be interesting to talk to the designer and ask why they decided to design the speaker this way.
It seems odd that a company with the technology they have would deliberately produce a product like this
I wonder if this was a method to get people to put enough mid range when mixing?
BTW - did you try plugging the port?
I did not. To be honest, I don’t recall seeing port plugs in the package. They were dropped shipped directly to me, so if they came with them, then maybe I just missed them.
@@ErinsAudioCorner no, they don't come with them. But it's a thought on my end
I have had them over a year, umik-1 measured and room corrected. Cause I'm rolling them off to subwoofers, fairly high, due to room, i did try plug ports. Didn't make much measurable difference at all, but i have kept them plugged. Except when the cat decides to unplug the port! :-)
Just bought 630 last Saturday, return on Monday. What did i miss? I been listening a 35 yrs Canton Ergo Passiv with Yamaha As801 . jazz and progress rock is my music. Trying book shelf speakers for future downsizing plus dont have energy to move 55pounds anymore. Thanks in advance for suggestions! Cheers from Toronto.
what did you go for .. im also looking for some bookshelf speakers
Hi! I just got these speakers and the Wiim Pro Plus that gives EQ. What would be the recommended EQ settings?
Just my opinion but the horn on the 500 series was the reason I bought the speakers. Not a fan of the horn on the 600 series and I'm strictly talking visually here I have not heard the 630
I returned it, small speakers just can't compare with Floor stand.
Interesting to say the least. The only cheap JBL I have heard (own actually as rear speakers) is the 590. I find them to sound a bit harsh at high volume and assumed it was cone breakup at the crossover point. Otherwise they sound pretty flat to me. But these new ones seem pretty bad. I will be interested to see the measurements from the 698.
Not a fan of JBL....still trying to find a speaker from them that actually sounds decent
Try the HDI-1600. To me, they sound awesome.
Do they make a powered version using this exact same design? Based on the DI, these look like they take extremely well to EQ. At a lower price point, I think these would be pretty awesome for a HT setup.
85 seems so low for the sensitivity rating. i don’t have 100 wpc amp. shame bc they’re decent looking and not overpriced. i have some similarly designed powered jbl’s sounding but they don’t get loud enough unless it’s the radio.
Noone says 2/3rd of a meter in Europe 🤭 they name it in centimeter. Just a FYI.
Not my fault yall are doing it wrong. 😂
@@ErinsAudioCorner lol don't even get me started on the right/wrong of it 🤣 BTW do the KEF R350 analysis please. As you say that this is a genuine passion for you, it surely has to intrigue you that the R150 and R350 of the same series by the same brand, seem to have a night and day feedback from users... not simply just a "bass boost". The R350 seem to be on its own, almost "R3 like"... would be very good if you can give your input on that.
their powered monitors are so awesome that it doesn't make sense their "audiophile" stuff to be so mediocre
JBL Studio 630 Speaker Review, Affordable High End Sound
13:42 Sound Sample
czcams.com/video/P9mCCW5Xq-A/video.html
It seems to confirm what Erin was hearing and of course the FR chart.
11:00 40khz, finally the mice in my attic can appreciate my music better.
A big brand literally selling off of reputation with no real effort, yet again.🤦
I guess it goes to show us how much work the DSP/EQ is doing on the 5-series active speakers...
Studio 530 measurements vs asr measurements
Stage A130 measurements vs asr measurements
I'm curious if the amplifier involved is changing the measurement variances given how people who review amplifiers are always talking about slight perceived differences just like DAC's.
If that were the case then all the measurements would be different. And they aren’t.
@@ErinsAudioCorner you are right. comparing A130 i see side wall reflections and floor bounce differences and not much else so maybe there is something there and not the sources. just speculating
Send it to Danny afterwards lol
Makes me think the amp you’re using is having an issue?
Not an issue. If the amp were the problem then I’d have the issue with every speaker. But I have many results that match manufacturer or other third party nearly perfectly.
The real issue was the reference point which I made a video for recently. 👍
I have a mini DSP 2 x 4 HD I use REW for eQ purposes
This speaker is basically mediocre. The Polk xt20 and Kali LP6 v2 measure way better and are cheaper.
nothing a Schiit Loki can't fix
These are less than half the price or more compared to the HDI...just sayin'
My opinion is it's time all these budget book shelfs take a hint from the monitor crowd and go fully active. Buiild in proper DSP based equalization that is reasonably flat for starters, add some basic parametric toggles for taste, and call it done. The fact these things still have such uneven response is getting riduculous. Audiophiles with $10,000 amps aren't buying these things, and most budget buyers are using sound bars. Time to evolve folks.
E Dizzle yo yo😊
maybe by the time they get to a 930 they'll have a flat frequency response😂😂😂
Yeah, unlike true Absolute Goldenears, you normies can't hear 40,000hz but the sub-harmonics are what allow those inner details to really shine, provided you treat the listening room with 100 acoustic dots, have 6 gauge, gold plated power cables and $10,000 cryo-treated speaker cables!!!! (heh, heh!)
Would have been nice to see them side by side to see any visial differences...what type & quality of crossovers & drive units would have been handy, i guess people can look up the full specs on Google, they don't look different in the thumbnail.... very insensitive 83.5db.... you would need an amp with a high bass damping factor which can easily handle 3.75ohm..at 83.5db i would not feel good using less than 100w to power them...are the original Studio 530's as insensitive as the 630's ?
McIntosh amps can drive most speakers right enough but would you use these speakers if you owned an integrated McIntosh amp ,or stereo/mono blocks...old school thinking was source first, then amp then speakers in quality & price...i would be looking for better speakers if my amp was a McIntosh....about £1000 - £1500 min...if you need to eq speakers you really need to find better speakers that suit your room & needs...not easy i know, house/room accoustics etc but good hifi retail shops let people test speakers in their house... ex-displays or demo models, always keep in with the people at whatever retail shop or dealer you deal with is my motto...good review 🎧
Sure, if you have a at 530 to send to me, then I can take a picture of them side-by-side. But I don’t have one on hand.
I also used a Denon AVR to power em.
@@ErinsAudioCorner ....it's called contructive critisism...for the grown ups...& i gave a like..
Your not mates with the Guitarologist on YT are you ? His lack of controling his temper towards critisism got him nicked...means arrested in the UK
@@christopherstorrier5560 do what? I just said if you had a 530 I’d be happy to do a side by side. Relax.
@@ErinsAudioCorner ...to be honest that's what i would have done as to old for unpacking & packing speakers, hifi etc at my age...carrying hifi etc up the stairs is not my idea of fun nowadays...
@@christopherstorrier5560I hear you. I’m only 41 and lugging tower speakers around is not my idea of a fun time. 😅
Nice looking awful speaker. Sad.
Seeing those measurements made me glad I went with the hdi, but at least it's eq-able. Most people will use these for home theater.
I hate to bursts everyone's bubble, but JBL has never made a good speaker (and yes, this includes the 4350a and b). They do a ton of interesting work, and they have a lot of smart guys making lots of really neat parts, but they have never successfully taken those parts and made a truly great speaker and they aren't going to put the money into hiring a proper speaker designer any time soon because that's not where they make their money. They would have to be willing to have a true JBL hifi division again, and that's a risk they don't need to take right now.
That’s definitely not true. 4367. I rest my case. 🙃
JBL “has never made a good speaker)” 😂😂😂😂😂
Great review Erin! Thank you! These Studio 630 look really good for HT use!
@ErinsAudioCorner is there any way to contact you to send you a Polk TL1, TL2 or TL3 for review?
Thanks.
I’ve got a lot of speakers already on hand to get through for the time being.
@@ErinsAudioCorner OK. Some other time then. Cheers.