Support the cause: Patreon: www.patreon.com/erinsaudiocorner Contribute via PayPal: www.paypal.com/donate?hosted_button_id=CLHSW4L9SBSLY A simple request: If any of you find yourselves shopping for anything sold by the retailers below please consider using my generic affiliate link. These can earn me a small commission which goes a long way toward helping me review items and make content. It is a great way you can help me continue doing what I enjoy doing without costing you anything extra. It is truly appreciated! Amazon: amzn.to/3v6i6ov Audio Advice: www.audioadvice.com/?referral=erins-audio-corner Best Buy: howl.me/ck2IPpcOp1h Crutchfield: shop-links.co/cgZmmT81jmh Newegg: howl.me/ck2IQg52L5b Samsung: howl.me/ck2IQ5qe16w Target: howl.me/ck2IRDNsIqn Thomann: www.thomann.de/de/index.html?offid=1&affid=2577 Emotiva: shorturl.at/pBEU9 Monoprice: bit.ly/3yAY6NH Arendal Sound: arendalsound.com/store/?refer=hardisj Purchases through these links can earn me a small commission - at no additional cost to you - and help me continue to provide the community with free content and reviews. Doesn't matter if it's a TV from Crutchfield, budget speakers from Audio Advice or a pair of socks from Amazon, just use the link above before you make your purchase. Thank you!
Great review. JBL went for the classic look, offset tweeter rather than centered over the woofer, and it hurt performance. Snare drum sound is so great. Unfortunately drums are almost always compressed and heavily filtered in the mix of every commercial recording so that they are very tame. I attended a local AES meeting five years ago where a professional drummer demonstrated the sound of maybe 20 different drum heads on one drum. The dynamic live drum sound was amazing and nothing like what appears in recordings. They had a real time spectrum analyzer running with a huge display on a screen for all to see. The snare drum had a nearly perfectly flat response from maybe 50 Hz out past 20,000 Hz. It looked like a perfect white noise signal. That was not expected as that bandwidth is almost never found in recorded music after the mixing and mastering has neutered the drum sound to fit behind the vocals etc. Keep up the great work Erin. BTW Have you ever looked at Visaton's free Boxsim speaker design software? I think you might really enjoy it. It produces many of the baffle diffraction effects and produces the directivity plots similar to what the Klippel does. It's fun to move drivers around, change the baffle size and shape and see what happens. It only has Visaton brand drivers in the library, but those can be over written in the project files with any driver parameters or measurements you like.
I remember we did some installation at a guy who played drums in his basement. Boy it was stinking loud, the dynamics, speed were nothing like even on the best recordings. He wore closed back headphones when drumming. Most home speakers and amps would get roasted in the first minute if one would want to play at this level of SPLs in the living room. I then realized how far is recorded audio from the actual event in it's sense of reproducing live music. I did Co-op at one of the Pro-Audio places in Ottawa, some 30 years ago. The stage guys would set gates and limiters so their JBL stacks wouldn't get smoked. And I learned there how to recone woofers, replace dome-voice coil assemblies, etc. There was guy that they always called when aligning the replaced dome in the tweeters because he had very sensitive hearing and could pick up distortion. Interesting place and a lot of things to learn. As for the loudspeaker CAD programs, Vituix is kind of a norm today, and free for diy use. Amazing how great it is and how it grew since it's introduction. One of the best free loudspeaker design tools. It will accept the drivers FRD data from Klippel, like the one Erin did for the Dayton kits last year.
Hi Erin. I have the L100. It’s not the same speaker, granted, but I realized that I could get rid of the bass hump and extend the roll of by plugging the port. Which in turn increased the sweet spot distance range to the front wall. thank you for a great video, again.
Looking at those response traces, and from Erin's description .... I'm guessing the distortion and output peaks in the 3-4k range is due to woofer breakup. The rise at 1k to 2k is probably an artifact of poor crossover design. The low end bulge without much low frequency extension is due to the port being tuned too high, probably about 90hz when it should be at 50 or 60hz. Also with a port that big, below the Helmholtz frequency there's going to be a considerable amount of air moving in and out that is out of phase with the woofer, causing cancellation and the cliff-like drop off below the port resonance. As a suggestion, when this happens, a near contact (like 5cm or so) test of the individual drivers and ports at lower SPLs would be very revealing...
Just a follow up to this. For my desktop system, I didn’t want linear speakers, I wanted “fun” speakers for mostly rock and metal, and some gaming. I also typically listen at pretty low volumes (say mid 60’s dB, with peaks in the low-to-mid 70’s) as I have them on pretty much all the time when I WFH. After seeing the review, I went back to listen to the Centerfold, which I hadn’t heard in years. I can hear what you were talking about with the clapping sound, but it wasn’t bothersome at all to me.
I just love how musical or music is the driving factor that puts out this video. Right after this vid I quickly watched "Centerfold". Thanks @Erin for sharing not just the gear but also the music / music passion.
Actually if you look at the graphs, pay attention to the scaling, they are within the general plus and minus 3db guideline. The reason some of those artifacts became obvious is that at one point it goes from +3 db at about 3500hz directly to -3 db at 4300 hz ... that is a 6 db difference which can be audible in some cases. Trust me... I've seen far worse for a lot more money.
well just my opinion guys, but very disappointing performance for $1000 pair of bookshelf speakers .. I can't help but think the first mistake was that three-quarter inch tweeter, but overall seems like a cheap design. At this point in time, I expected better from the JBL name. Thanks Erin.
Erin in the thumbail already tells how this speaker is going to perform. Had you consider putting ratings on the amps and speakers that you review? Build quality, features, frequency response, distortion, price/value, etc
@@alexw890 I think it depends on the baffle width, but in most cases the waveguided tweeter is going to offer benefits that make it worth going for even if it's integration isn't perfect. I found on my large ATC clones the waveguided ND25FW helped a lot to hide the dome from the baffle. It's response on and off axis was better than all the flat faceplate tweeters I tried. I think on a smaller baffle the offset may not provide much benefit.
Curious on how much play time were on these before you tested? I have a set of them and i was about to send them back for the same reason when i first got them but after 40+ hrs of play time i started to really enjoy them. Ive had them now 2 years paired with a rel sub and they do really well. This system was never meant for a main listening system, mostly for the wife factor and some sound for a living room that has the mid century look, It does really good for how we use, I have no complaints.
I remember these speakers all the way back from 1972. Back then, they along with Bose, Bozak, ESS were the ultra premium brands. At the time I listened at a store in Cleveland, Ohio called Audio Craft. I was a struggling student then, with very little money to spend, and I remember they were very nice to me. They're still in business, btw. I wonder why? Oh, I know...
Interesting bc Napier had an excellent write up including measurements of the slightly bigger brother in the L82 and he loved that one. I’m actually looking to get the L82 MKII. Hoping it’s better than the L52!
Am I crazy for thinking outcomes like this should deter me from considering a vintage design or vintage speaker over modern designs ? I would hate to see people buying speakers with a high price tag that are very challenged by the performance of cheapo SS-CS5. This is why we need you Erin.
Not all vintage designs are bad. The Linton is one of my overall favorites (considering sound, price, looks) and it’s a vintage looking design. The MoFi SourcePoint 8 also sounds really good to me and I’d consider that a vintage looking speaker as well.
@@ErinsAudioCorner Agreed. I have been drooling over Lintons and Sourcepoint for a long time. Favorite bookshelf so far, SVS Ultra, Favorite overall, Muh Timbers, JBL Studio 590. Your other video got me wondering if the Big stage characteristic of the 590's over RP-8000f II and similarity to the SVS Ultra Bookies, could be symptomatic of a flaw sounding big. I hope not. I am guessing learning to detect good big, versus false, bad big isn't trivial ??
I've never understood why a lot of these retro era speakers have drivers that aren't in line w/ each other, is there any downside to this driver orientation?
When you mount a driver centered on a baffle, the (unwanted) interferences caused by diffraction add up because they are symmetrical. By moving the driver away from the baffle's center axes, you can reduce that effect. One of the downsides of that 'not in line'-layout is that it affects the off-axis response, i.e. it can get non-symmetrical as you can see in Erin's video above.
Hello, I have a question, I come from Germany. What is the best way to set up the speakers? Should the bass opening look outwards or should the tweeter look outwards? because the speakers are not labeled left or right.
From what you describe about their sound, they’re pretty much like every vintage JBL I’ve ever owned or heard. Super ragged response, don’t image or soundstage well (or at all). Basically the classic JBL boom & tizz with pretty cabs. I heard the Sony SS-CS5 at a friend’s house and was amazed how smooth and balanced the sound was, very listenable. Not just good for the money, but good period. I bet the Sonys spank these JBLs. Anyone heard both?
I had it on good authority that these "Classic" series are nothing more than a JBL money grab. They are hoping to go after an emotional connection rather than a best value. Not for me.
Sadly, they could easily have done both. Wide baffles are integral to the vintage look but also offer certain design advantages - they assist bass and simplify the crossover.
@@ChicagoRob2 Wide baffles have advantages and disadvantages. The Lintons I believe were designed by Peter Comeau, who is excellent. It seems that the L52s didn't get Harmon's top team...
This is a remake of the 70's version, which is why it looks interesting. This is before a lot of the research into speaker cabinets and drivers. The original was not a great way to build a speaker, thus the new one is also not so great. Vintage is not about sound quality, as far as I can tell. Although, companies like PSB and Wharfedale are doing NEW versions of their vintage speakers, using actually science to at least try and achieve some good sound quality. They use good driver material and build crossovers that help alleviate some of the problems if the vintage appearance. JBL is also asking a lot of money for a poor performing speaker. Also, if best measurements are middle of woofer, try using the speaker upside down with ears at woofer level.
It's those drivers cause they are not like the original vintage design, with the original magnetics and crossover. Titanium tweeters, some like them and others don't. Now if vintage JBL is no good, then why are my 1979 4311's still working fine, still today?
The entire JBL line is all over the place. Leave it to corporate incompetence to destroy a brand that was hifi royalty. The legacy that still remained when Greg Timbers retired is now in serious jeopardy.
I saw a TH-cam video of a pair of giant, vintage JBL 4343 studio monitors from the 70s that measured +/- 1.5 dB across the range. They could do it then; they can certainly do it now.
Personally I have never liked JBL speakers. Their plastic "Pro" speakers are the worst I've ever heard, and your video confirms my suspicions. To me, they have muddy bass and very shrill, sibilant treble. And they distort, almost as much as the old Bose acoustamass. I took an old JBL pro apart once and was very unimpressed with the cheap construction. They stuffed 4 5" drivers into a tiny TINY enclosure and claim response to 45 Hz. Sure it will do that with distortion. I took one of those drivers out and ran it free air and it sounded better. Maybe I'll build a Proper enclosure and see what happens. Thanks for the review video.
Be it the ragged peaky 1k-3k energy, distortion profiles, or polars ... Curious about the vent's proximity as a contributing factor. All said, the baffle's a mess. Appears aesthetics and nostalgia were the driving force here. It's a shame, they could've had both.
Lol - No need to re-sing Erin - lol - I do know the song very well already. I think the hand-clap was artifically embellished (and distorted) to have a "sharp" sound in the mixing of the song, and not meant to be a "typical clap". Keep in mind that these are just large bookshelf speakers. - Cheers!
Ha ha. I have a few different speakers on hand, so I went back-and-forth a few times. On a speaker that was more linear. The handclap didn’t sound at all sharp like they did with these so I think I’m gonna have to default to it being the speaker. Either the frequency response or the distortion. I’m not entirely sure. Which one is the real driving factor here.
@@ErinsAudioCorner Thanks Erin - You are way more experienced than I will ever be. - Going from past listenings it seemed to be more front-and-center than would have been expected from an average group of clapping people, infact it could one clapping person with overtracks with themselves - Who knows what goes on in the studio/mixing? - lol Thanks for your awesome content - It gets my brain a-rolling! - Cheers!
3/4 Titanium dome tweeter... Right away reminds me of '90s JBL sizzle in some their speakers. My guess they are pushing this little dome too low and doesn't like it.
I'm surprised you didn't mention the "Harman Target Curve" based on research to see what people's preferences were for good sound. This EQ curve is baked into many of JBL's speaker and headphone product. It would have been interesting to see how that correlates with the measurements you got. I'm personally not a fan of it.
@@ErinsAudioCorner Oh good to know. I always thought they also applied that to speakers. I once had a JBL column PA speaker that just didn't sound right an I thought it was probably that Harman Curve
I believe their is a curve for loudspeakers( Harman In-room) also!? Maybe not. Then there is over ear and in ear curves. The In-ear study is considered flawed by some/many. In "The Headphone Show" interview with Sean Olive not long ago this was pointed out and he admitted less rigorous testing with the in-ear group. Just rambling take care! @udioCorner
lordy what a disaster. any elac, emotiva et al will blow this away for less money. just sloppy work. the tweeter should have been fixed beforehand. nice review as always. fwiw my lrs plus are the same price and looks like not much harder to drive.. enuff said.
Nice review. I think JBL still makes some very nice speakers but they're trading off their name doing this "Classic" series. Being owned by a large conglomerate now (Harmon I believe) hasn't done them any favors within the good sound crowd (I hate the term "Audiophile") . Selling an inferior sounding "Classic" L-100 at $5600/pair is obscene. This is coming from someone that used and enjoyed an ugly but great sounding original pair of L-100s from 1979-1984. The other issue is technology has progressed enough that a decent pair of $500 dollar speakers can sound just as good or better than any early 70's higher end brand names (Polk, NHT, SVS, some Elac's, etc). I'm sure I'm forgetting some but I can't think of any company that has updated their line except Magnepan or some of the Klipsch Heritage models (which still sound the same to my old ears).
Maaan. This kinda sucks to see. I've been really interested in this speaker for a while. I love the retro speaker grilles in blue. You don't see too many speakers in blue.
I was looking at these to buy, but the price to the review does not match up. One can tell who is getting paid to promote compared to individuals like yourself who don't rate these. It's put me off them, which I thank you for. I think I'm better off just buying older speakers and testing them I'm going larger up into 30-inch x 12 x 14 or more and 3-way. Oh i forgot the Zu audio seem a better choice for just above a £1200
Another great job. How would it compare with....................... JBL JRX215 @ $359ea. w/ 10 watts from Gjallarhorn @ $299 Acid Jazz, Funk & Brass 🔈🔉🔊
I was excited to watch this video but frankly after watching the subjective I don't know if I need the objective. Frankly your "subjective" segments are more objective than most other sites' reviews, because they focus on specific sound components and what variations you're witnessing. I saw mediocre reviews of this speaker on other sites so I wasn't actually considering it, but it was in my "oh that's interesting" list. After seeing this review, yikes! Dodged a bullet. There's no reason to buy the black version of this speaker. The color pop plus retro look in a more modern home decor is the only reason to buy this speaker. Plenty of speakers do their best to blend in and sound good, and plenty sound good and look retro, but in a conventional (read: not positive for an interior designer) kind of way. I am realizing though that we are probably all looking at these speakers wrong. These are not bookshelf speakers or standmounts at all. These are surrounds to go with the L100 Classic and their only real purpose is to look the same and be slim enough to be wall-mountable. Picking up extra sales as a bookshelf speaker is just icing on the cake. That 10-75W power rating in my opinion is the giveaway.
Don't want ya to sing it again but ya still get a thumbs up from me 😁. At this price point I'd expect something a bit smoother in freq response. And I don't care who makes what, I've never heard a titanium dome tweeter that I liked. Those things are just harsh, they all scream at ya and I pretty much hate them. Cheers man🍻
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Thanks. It’s Jay Giles. Hard G and I (eye). Rock on!
👍👍
No.
It's J. Geils; named after John Geils guitarist & founding member.
You misunderstood. He was correcting Erin's pronunciation. Hard "G" as in "guile."@@saint6563
Highlights the power of marketing and customer inference.
Great review. JBL went for the classic look, offset tweeter rather than centered over the woofer, and it hurt performance. Snare drum sound is so great. Unfortunately drums are almost always compressed and heavily filtered in the mix of every commercial recording so that they are very tame. I attended a local AES meeting five years ago where a professional drummer demonstrated the sound of maybe 20 different drum heads on one drum. The dynamic live drum sound was amazing and nothing like what appears in recordings. They had a real time spectrum analyzer running with a huge display on a screen for all to see. The snare drum had a nearly perfectly flat response from maybe 50 Hz out past 20,000 Hz. It looked like a perfect white noise signal. That was not expected as that bandwidth is almost never found in recorded music after the mixing and mastering has neutered the drum sound to fit behind the vocals etc. Keep up the great work Erin. BTW Have you ever looked at Visaton's free Boxsim speaker design software? I think you might really enjoy it. It produces many of the baffle diffraction effects and produces the directivity plots similar to what the Klippel does. It's fun to move drivers around, change the baffle size and shape and see what happens. It only has Visaton brand drivers in the library, but those can be over written in the project files with any driver parameters or measurements you like.
I haven’t seen that program, at least that I recall. I’ll check it out!
I remember we did some installation at a guy who played drums in his basement. Boy it was stinking loud, the dynamics, speed were nothing like even on the best recordings. He wore closed back headphones when drumming. Most home speakers and amps would get roasted in the first minute if one would want to play at this level of SPLs in the living room. I then realized how far is recorded audio from the actual event in it's sense of reproducing live music. I did Co-op at one of the Pro-Audio places in Ottawa, some 30 years ago. The stage guys would set gates and limiters so their JBL stacks wouldn't get smoked. And I learned there how to recone woofers, replace dome-voice coil assemblies, etc. There was guy that they always called when aligning the replaced dome in the tweeters because he had very sensitive hearing and could pick up distortion.
Interesting place and a lot of things to learn.
As for the loudspeaker CAD programs, Vituix is kind of a norm today, and free for diy use. Amazing how great it is and how it grew since it's introduction. One of the best free loudspeaker design tools. It will accept the drivers FRD data from Klippel, like the one Erin did for the Dayton kits last year.
Love how you always say what you think at the beginning of the video! Thanks!
Hi Erin. I have the L100. It’s not the same speaker, granted, but I realized that I could get rid of the bass hump and extend the roll of by plugging the port. Which in turn increased the sweet spot distance range to the front wall. thank you for a great video, again.
Looking at those response traces, and from Erin's description .... I'm guessing the distortion and output peaks in the 3-4k range is due to woofer breakup. The rise at 1k to 2k is probably an artifact of poor crossover design. The low end bulge without much low frequency extension is due to the port being tuned too high, probably about 90hz when it should be at 50 or 60hz. Also with a port that big, below the Helmholtz frequency there's going to be a considerable amount of air moving in and out that is out of phase with the woofer, causing cancellation and the cliff-like drop off below the port resonance.
As a suggestion, when this happens, a near contact (like 5cm or so) test of the individual drivers and ports at lower SPLs would be very revealing...
Totally agree with your assessment.
I want Erin a capella on every video
I know a guy.
I have these for my near-field/desktop system and really enjoy them.
Just a follow up to this. For my desktop system, I didn’t want linear speakers, I wanted “fun” speakers for mostly rock and metal, and some gaming. I also typically listen at pretty low volumes (say mid 60’s dB, with peaks in the low-to-mid 70’s) as I have them on pretty much all the time when I WFH. After seeing the review, I went back to listen to the Centerfold, which I hadn’t heard in years. I can hear what you were talking about with the clapping sound, but it wasn’t bothersome at all to me.
Heheh! JBL should know better! They are part of the Harman group!!! I mean they can just learn from their sister brand Revel! Nice work as usual Erin!
They are Samsung actually
I just love how musical or music is the driving factor that puts out this video. Right after this vid I quickly watched "Centerfold". Thanks @Erin for sharing not just the gear but also the music / music passion.
You've mentioned EQ'ing on this video, what brand / model do you use? And is there another brand / model you would recommend?
Very insightful and intelligent review. Thank you for your honest opinion. Much appreciated.
Far superior to most TH-cam reviews.
Most are enamored with the "Classic" & proclaim it's good.
Congrats & thanks.
So basically you pay for the vintage look and less for the performance?
Other brands use these kind of binding posts on entry level speakers...
Emailed JBL for the spinorama a few months ago... I understand why they didn't send it to me 😅
Incredible vocal stylings.
A shame these JBL's frequency response was all over the place / especially for the asking price.
Spoiler alert….
Edit: lol nvm
@@lekmannen9990 ????
Actually if you look at the graphs, pay attention to the scaling, they are within the general plus and minus 3db guideline. The reason some of those artifacts became obvious is that at one point it goes from +3 db at about 3500hz directly to -3 db at 4300 hz ... that is a 6 db difference which can be audible in some cases.
Trust me... I've seen far worse for a lot more money.
jbl have some kind of sound signature on the tweeters. i owned one before. some people like it some do not.
in my area, there a lot of jbl pa speaker
well just my opinion guys,
but very disappointing performance for $1000 pair of bookshelf speakers .. I can't help but think the first mistake was that three-quarter inch tweeter, but overall seems like a cheap design. At this point in time, I expected better from the JBL name. Thanks Erin.
I wonder how the L100 Classic and 4312g are.
Erin in the thumbail already tells how this speaker is going to perform. Had you consider putting ratings on the amps and speakers that you review? Build quality, features, frequency response, distortion, price/value, etc
Nah. That’s a death trap. 😂
The asymmetrical horizontal dispersion is from the offset tweeter placement.
Indeed. And the 4 large knobs that stick out to attach the grille don’t help matters.
Is there any point in doing that with a waveguide? No, right?
@@alexw890 I think it depends on the baffle width, but in most cases the waveguided tweeter is going to offer benefits that make it worth going for even if it's integration isn't perfect. I found on my large ATC clones the waveguided ND25FW helped a lot to hide the dome from the baffle. It's response on and off axis was better than all the flat faceplate tweeters I tried. I think on a smaller baffle the offset may not provide much benefit.
Elac has congured and perfected this segment
Curious on how much play time were on these before you tested? I have a set of them and i was about to send them back for the same reason when i first got them but after 40+ hrs of play time i started to really enjoy them. Ive had them now 2 years paired with a rel sub and they do really well. This system was never meant for a main listening system, mostly for the wife factor and some sound for a living room that has the mid century look, It does really good for how we use, I have no complaints.
I remember these speakers all the way back from 1972. Back then, they along with Bose, Bozak, ESS were the ultra premium brands. At the time I listened at a store in Cleveland, Ohio called Audio Craft. I was a struggling student then, with very little money to spend, and I remember they were very nice to me. They're still in business, btw. I wonder why? Oh, I know...
We all had very little amount to spend. I wanted the L-300's, but had to settle for my still alive
4311"s.
Interesting bc Napier had an excellent write up including measurements of the slightly bigger brother in the L82 and he loved that one. I’m actually looking to get the L82 MKII. Hoping it’s better than the L52!
Am I crazy for thinking outcomes like this should deter me from considering a vintage design or vintage speaker over modern designs ? I would hate to see people buying speakers with a high price tag that are very challenged by the performance of cheapo SS-CS5.
This is why we need you Erin.
Not all vintage designs are bad. The Linton is one of my overall favorites (considering sound, price, looks) and it’s a vintage looking design.
The MoFi SourcePoint 8 also sounds really good to me and I’d consider that a vintage looking speaker as well.
@@ErinsAudioCorner Agreed. I have been drooling over Lintons and Sourcepoint for a long time.
Favorite bookshelf so far, SVS Ultra, Favorite overall, Muh Timbers, JBL Studio 590.
Your other video got me wondering if the Big stage characteristic of the 590's over RP-8000f II and similarity to the SVS Ultra Bookies, could be symptomatic of a flaw sounding big.
I hope not. I am guessing learning to detect good big, versus false, bad big isn't trivial ??
I've never understood why a lot of these retro era speakers have drivers that aren't in line w/ each other, is there any downside to this driver orientation?
When you mount a driver centered on a baffle, the (unwanted) interferences caused by diffraction add up because they are symmetrical. By moving the driver away from the baffle's center axes, you can reduce that effect. One of the downsides of that 'not in line'-layout is that it affects the off-axis response, i.e. it can get non-symmetrical as you can see in Erin's video above.
Hello, I have a question, I come from Germany.
What is the best way to set up the speakers? Should the bass opening look outwards or should the tweeter look outwards?
because the speakers are not labeled left or right.
From what you describe about their sound, they’re pretty much like every vintage JBL I’ve ever owned or heard.
Super ragged response, don’t image or soundstage well (or at all). Basically the classic JBL boom & tizz with pretty cabs.
I heard the Sony SS-CS5 at a friend’s house and was amazed how smooth and balanced the sound was, very listenable. Not just good for the money, but good period.
I bet the Sonys spank these JBLs.
Anyone heard both?
B-but the SS-CS5 fr looks even more ragged iirc.
Possible to review Rockville APM6W 6.5" 2-Way 350W Active/Powered USB Studio Monitor Speakers?
I enjoy all of your reviews, but now I'm afraid to put a like, because you may sing again 😀😃
Too late. Already done sang. Twice.
I had it on good authority that these "Classic" series are nothing more than a JBL money grab. They are hoping to go after an emotional connection rather than a best value. Not for me.
Sadly, they could easily have done both. Wide baffles are integral to the vintage look but also offer certain design advantages - they assist bass and simplify the crossover.
@@davido4872 Wide baffles don’t hold back Lintons.
@@ChicagoRob2 Wide baffles have advantages and disadvantages. The Lintons I believe were designed by Peter Comeau, who is excellent. It seems that the L52s didn't get Harmon's top team...
Can we have tannoy or fyne speakers please Erin
The only drawback of the L-Series JBL's is the fact they do not come with magnetic grilles.
It's a BAD speakers for the price, unless you want to pay for the brand or the "classical" looks.
Thanks for another honest review.
Is this simply a case of system matching? I wonder what you are using as your amp, source etc?
Cannot judge the JBLs’ performance from its model number/appearance/price. Cheap model like 308p provides linear response.😳
For the price, I would hope they were sold in mirror pairs?
They are. Two in the same box. 👍
@@ErinsAudioCorner
I hope they do better than the big A does with shoes ... I don't actually have two right feet. 🙄
@@ErinsAudioCorner Okay, I didn't see any images of both without their grills.
This is a remake of the 70's version, which is why it looks interesting. This is before a lot of the research into speaker cabinets and drivers. The original was not a great way to build a speaker, thus the new one is also not so great. Vintage is not about sound quality, as far as I can tell. Although, companies like PSB and Wharfedale are doing NEW versions of their vintage speakers, using actually science to at least try and achieve some good sound quality. They use good driver material and build crossovers that help alleviate some of the problems if the vintage appearance. JBL is also asking a lot of money for a poor performing speaker. Also, if best measurements are middle of woofer, try using the speaker upside down with ears at woofer level.
It's those drivers cause they are not like the original vintage design, with the original magnetics and crossover. Titanium tweeters, some like them and others don't. Now if vintage JBL is no good, then why are my 1979 4311's still working fine, still today?
The entire JBL line is all over the place. Leave it to corporate incompetence to destroy a brand that was hifi royalty. The legacy that still remained when Greg Timbers retired is now in serious jeopardy.
I saw a TH-cam video of a pair of giant, vintage JBL 4343 studio monitors from the 70s that measured +/- 1.5 dB across the range. They could do it then; they can certainly do it now.
So do you recommend a new crossover to fix most of these problems?
I’m not sure that would be worth the effort. I would need to measure the drivers individually to have a better idea and I didn’t do that.
Personally I have never liked JBL speakers. Their plastic "Pro" speakers are the worst I've ever heard, and your video confirms my suspicions. To me, they have muddy bass and very shrill, sibilant treble. And they distort, almost as much as the old Bose acoustamass. I took an old JBL pro apart once and was very unimpressed with the cheap construction. They stuffed 4 5" drivers into a tiny TINY enclosure and claim response to 45 Hz. Sure it will do that with distortion. I took one of those drivers out and ran it free air and it sounded better. Maybe I'll build a Proper enclosure and see what happens. Thanks for the review video.
Sittin pretty with my new Linton's.
I’ll take Lintons over JBLs every day of the week.
Nice!
Would be neat if you were able to interview Sean Olive at Harmon. He seems to be accessible via Twitter/X
Hmmm...snare on far left and high hat on far right? What the 'h' song were you listening to?
What I figured, these have not-neutral response but probably lack the "dynamics" of a large woofer speaker.
Be it the ragged peaky 1k-3k energy, distortion profiles, or polars ...
Curious about the vent's proximity as a contributing factor.
All said, the baffle's a mess.
Appears aesthetics and nostalgia were the driving force here.
It's a shame, they could've had both.
Lol - No need to re-sing Erin - lol - I do know the song very well already.
I think the hand-clap was artifically embellished (and distorted) to have a "sharp" sound in the mixing of the song, and not meant to be a "typical clap".
Keep in mind that these are just large bookshelf speakers. - Cheers!
Ha ha.
I have a few different speakers on hand, so I went back-and-forth a few times. On a speaker that was more linear. The handclap didn’t sound at all sharp like they did with these so I think I’m gonna have to default to it being the speaker. Either the frequency response or the distortion. I’m not entirely sure. Which one is the real driving factor here.
@@ErinsAudioCorner Thanks Erin - You are way more experienced than I will ever be. - Going from past listenings it seemed to be more front-and-center than would have been expected from an average group of clapping people, infact it could one clapping person with overtracks with themselves - Who knows what goes on in the studio/mixing? - lol
Thanks for your awesome content - It gets my brain a-rolling! - Cheers!
3/4 Titanium dome tweeter... Right away reminds me of '90s JBL sizzle in some their speakers. My guess they are pushing this little dome too low and doesn't like it.
I'm surprised you didn't mention the "Harman Target Curve" based on research to see what people's preferences were for good sound. This EQ curve is baked into many of JBL's speaker and headphone product. It would have been interesting to see how that correlates with the measurements you got. I'm personally not a fan of it.
The headphone target curve you speak of is not analogous to a loudspeaker response curve in a room.
@@ErinsAudioCorner Oh good to know. I always thought they also applied that to speakers. I once had a JBL column PA speaker that just didn't sound right an I thought it was probably that Harman Curve
I believe their is a curve for loudspeakers( Harman In-room) also!? Maybe not. Then there is over ear and in ear curves. The In-ear study is considered flawed by some/many. In "The Headphone Show" interview with Sean Olive not long ago this was pointed out and he admitted less rigorous testing with the in-ear group. Just rambling take care! @udioCorner
So you never had them on axis?
How can a JBL JRX225 be hook up to Av Receiver?
Personally, I'd be prone to use speaker wire.
Hard G on J. Geils, think Kyle but with a G.
I can’t help it … I was always mispronounce it! 🤦♂️
Thinking ...
without 70's/80's FM radio DJs, I wouldn't know how to pronounce J. Geils either!
It was on heavy rotation!
lordy what a disaster. any elac, emotiva et al will blow this away for less money. just sloppy work. the tweeter should have been fixed beforehand. nice review as always. fwiw my lrs plus are the same price and looks like not much harder to drive.. enuff said.
Nice review. I think JBL still makes some very nice speakers but they're trading off their name doing this "Classic" series. Being owned by a large conglomerate now (Harmon I believe) hasn't done them any favors within the good sound crowd (I hate the term "Audiophile") . Selling an inferior sounding "Classic" L-100 at $5600/pair is obscene. This is coming from someone that used and enjoyed an ugly but great sounding original pair of L-100s from 1979-1984. The other issue is technology has progressed enough that a decent pair of $500 dollar speakers can sound just as good or better than any early 70's higher end brand names (Polk, NHT, SVS, some Elac's, etc). I'm sure I'm forgetting some but I can't think of any company that has updated their line except Magnepan or some of the Klipsch Heritage models (which still sound the same to my old ears).
Seems to me they've crossed over it to low for the tweeter
I clicked like as soon as you started singing.
Awesome. You should record your own album for sure 😂
I made a rap album years ago. It was so good that the record executives got together to stop me!
@@ErinsAudioCorner Lol
@@ErinsAudioCornerLOL, that's hilarious. You have to start doing stand-up Erin :)
dang it, I hoped you would like these
Well, if it’s something you were interested in, you might still like it. It’s just not for me for sure.
Maaan. This kinda sucks to see. I've been really interested in this speaker for a while. I love the retro speaker grilles in blue. You don't see too many speakers in blue.
Well, my opinion isn’t final. You can still try em and see if you like them or not.
Prediction before watching the video: no waveguide so directivity isn't great to begin with.
I was looking at these to buy, but the price to the review does not match up. One can tell who is getting paid to promote compared to individuals like yourself who don't rate these.
It's put me off them, which I thank you for.
I think I'm better off just buying older speakers and testing them I'm going larger up into 30-inch x 12 x 14 or more and 3-way.
Oh i forgot the Zu audio seem a better choice for just above a £1200
You can tell just by looking at them they’re going to sound sh!t 😂
E Dizzle my man yo yo😊
Another great job. How would it compare with.......................
JBL JRX215 @ $359ea. w/ 10 watts from Gjallarhorn @ $299
Acid Jazz, Funk & Brass 🔈🔉🔊
Send him this setup so we can find out!😁
@@patrickmiller4987
. Is that how it works? I threw out the boxes!
yep, the whole range in my opinion are shouty! SHOUTY!!!
BRO! WHY YOU SHOUTING AT ME!!!!!? :D
ha! not at you, thx for the analysis, always super interesting, keep up the singing!
@@ErinsAudioCorner
Erin: "This speaker stinks worse than Puerto Vallarta on a humid August afternoon." Also Erin: "Use my link to buy 'em y'all." 😅
If you're gonna buy it anyway, might as well use the link. :D
Jay Giles with a hard G
Sing "Freeze Frame" :)
Whoooooo!!!!
Giles
Hard G
Hard G. That’s me.
PLEASE DONT SING IT AGAIN
Too late!
Love the pronunciation of J. Geils Band 😆 😆
The last JBL to sound excellent was the L-112 and L-150, after that all are garbage including the new classic L100
I was excited to watch this video but frankly after watching the subjective I don't know if I need the objective. Frankly your "subjective" segments are more objective than most other sites' reviews, because they focus on specific sound components and what variations you're witnessing. I saw mediocre reviews of this speaker on other sites so I wasn't actually considering it, but it was in my "oh that's interesting" list.
After seeing this review, yikes! Dodged a bullet.
There's no reason to buy the black version of this speaker. The color pop plus retro look in a more modern home decor is the only reason to buy this speaker. Plenty of speakers do their best to blend in and sound good, and plenty sound good and look retro, but in a conventional (read: not positive for an interior designer) kind of way.
I am realizing though that we are probably all looking at these speakers wrong. These are not bookshelf speakers or standmounts at all. These are surrounds to go with the L100 Classic and their only real purpose is to look the same and be slim enough to be wall-mountable. Picking up extra sales as a bookshelf speaker is just icing on the cake. That 10-75W power rating in my opinion is the giveaway.
No more 🎤 for you
*Unsubscribed
@@ErinsAudioCorner never 😅
JBLs never impressed me. I guess there are some good ones but I have never heard them.
Don't want ya to sing it again but ya still get a thumbs up from me 😁.
At this price point I'd expect something a bit smoother in freq response. And I don't care who makes what, I've never heard a titanium dome tweeter that I liked. Those things are just harsh, they all scream at ya and I pretty much hate them.
Cheers man🍻
I’m singing it anyway. 😜
These always seemed like a cheap nostalgic novelty speaker to me
JBL is all about LOUD.
Giles, not Jiles.
That didn't help at all. :D
@ErinsAudioCorner it doesn't matter, nobody knows who that band was!
@@Audfile *triggered*. LOL
Geils pronounced like 'guys' with an L thrown in before the s.
Please don't sing.🤭👍
yes thank you for this review, i want less people to buy these so i can feel special for having them lolololo
Algorithm
J. Geils?😃
sing it again 😆
Just did. You hear it? 😂
@@ErinsAudioCorner a tad bit louder and let's double up on the emotion this time, make b me believe it.
Sing more. Really.