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F/S: JBL Professional - SCS8 - Spatially Cued Surround Loudspeakers (Pair)

DubbyMcDubs

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JBL Professional - SCS8 - Spatially Cued Surround Loudspeakers (Pair)

$1,250 AUD (Pair)

Mint condition. I imported 8 of these speakers from the USA for my home theater. Two of these are for sale as they are not fit for purpose as side surrounds in my room, the outside seats are too close to the wall and will alternatively use bipoles in those locations. These are an amazing full range surround/atmos speaker that has a huge 120 deg radiation pattern with great off axis performance. Very hard to get hold of in Aus. If someone needs a second pair, I may consider selling another set and swap out my rear channels to something else. The atmos speakers however will not be sold.

Price includes brackets and orignal mounting hardware.

https://jblpro.com/products/scs-8

Spatially Cued Surround Loudspeaker 2-Way Coaxial with 8" LF​


The SCS 8 is a coaxial-driver, 2-way, full-range cinema surround loudspeaker ideal for multi-channel surround formats and is designed for overhead installation as well as for standard on-wall installations

Features​

  • 250 Watt power handling (average continuous pink noise) with high sensitivity provides high SPL capability.
  • Consistent 120° x 120° broadband pattern control
  • Extraordinary clarity cinema surround with extended frequency response for special effects
  • Components:
    • 200 mm (8 in) woofer with Kevlar-reinforced cone and 50 mm (2 in)
    voice coil.
    • 25 mm (1 in) exit compression driver with unique patented design
    and high temperature polymer diaphragm.
  • 70 Hz – 20 kHz frequency response
  • High-power passive crossover network
  • Overload protection

Specifications​

Frequency Range (±3 dB) 90 Hz – 20 kHz
Frequency Range (-10dB) 70 Hz – 20 kHz
Coverage Pattern 120° x 120°
Directivity Factor (Q) 8.1 (1 k – 16 kHz)
Directivity Index (DI) 8.4 dB (1 k – 16 kHz)
Power Rating 250 W 2 hrs.200 W 100 hrs
Sensitivity 94 dB (Ave. 90 Hz – 20 kHz)
Maximum SPL (1m) 118dB
Crossover Network 2.1 kHz, 3rd order (18 dB/oct) high-pass plus conjugate to HF, 2nd order low-pass to LF
Nominal Impedance 8Ω
LF Driver Kevlar-reinforced cone with weather treatment, 50 mm (2 in) voice coil.
HF Driver 25 mm (1 in) diaphragm and voice coil diameter, high temperature polymer diaphragm, patented design, fluidcooling.
HF Driver Protection Minimum audibility SonicGuard™ HF overload protection
Enclosure ABS with Glass enclosure, heavily braced
Attachment Two M10 points for included U-bracket. M6 secondary safety attachment point on back panel.
Grille Corrosion-resistant zinc-rich steel grille.
Input Connection CE-compliant covered barrier strip terminals. Barrier terminals accept up to 9 mm outside 4 mm inside openlug (#6, #8 or #10) plus bare wire up to 2.5 mm2 (12 AWG) wire or spade lugs.
Dimensions 300 x 300 x 305 mm (11.8 x 11.8 x 12.0 in), cabinet 359 mm (14.2 in) including bracket extending to back
Colors Black
Net Weight (each) 8.2 kg (18 lb), 10.0 kg (22.0 lb) with U-Bracket
Shipping Weight 11.4 kg (25.0 lb)
Included Accessories U-bracket, steel.
Horizontal Coverage Angle (-6dB) 120°
Vertical Coverage Angle (-6dB) 120°
Power Handling (2Hr AES Rating) 250 W

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Shame you're not in the UK as I'm after some ! Are you not using on L&R as they are too 'close' to the ear, have you gone for something more 'defuse' ?
 
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DubbyMcDubs

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Yes I have moved to infinity RS152’s for both side and rear surrounds. They are much better suited to the job in my smaller room, which is 4m wide, and are not like a point source as the SCS8’s were at the same location. Once I add some hybrid diffusers to the room, as planned, I think it will be even better.

I have retained the other 4 SCS8’s for atmos and are working well.
 
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RayDunzl

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What does "Spatially Cued" mean?
 
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DubbyMcDubs

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Yes I have moved to infinity RS152’s for both side and rear surrounds. They are much better suited to the job in my smaller room, which is 4m wide, and are not like a point source as the SCS8’s were at the same location. Once I add some hybrid diffusers to the room, as planned, I think it will be even better.

I have retained the other 4 SCS8’s for atmos and are working well.
Oddly enough. I'm looking at going up to a 9.x.6 or 11.x.8 in a small ( 3.8m x 5m ) room. Perhaps the increased speaker count and Atmos set up with work. But your concern was mine with the speakers L & R of MLP and had considered more radiating speakers ( Tripole ) to minimise the direct sound. Alas being UK based I would not be able to assist with the sale. But from my research anyone buying these would be VERY happy with them. If you want to chat off-line it would be nice to know your additional thoughts on these... ( I will be running JBL 3677's LCR ).
 
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DubbyMcDubs

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I will send you a PM later tonight, Australian time.
 

nandan

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HI, I was looking at these speakers for my Atmos and came across your thread with pictures which were good to see them actually installed on the ceiling. So based on your true experience how do you like them as Atmos speakers? Are they really very good? How do you compare these with in-ceiling speakers?

Currently I am using in-ceiling speakers for Atmos, but thinking of moving to an on-wall type. Especially these JBL SC-8's.
 
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HI, I was looking at these speakers for my Atmos and came across your thread with pictures which were good to see them actually installed on the ceiling. So based on your true experience how do you like them as Atmos speakers? Are they really very good? How do you compare these with in-ceiling speakers?

Currently I am using in-ceiling speakers for Atmos, but thinking of moving to an on-wall type. Especially these JBL SC-8's.
Back in Jan 2022 I wanted these but could not source a supply. From my research they look like great value for money. I ended up with some second hand Procella P5's. These would have been much better.
 
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DubbyMcDubs

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HI, I was looking at these speakers for my Atmos and came across your thread with pictures which were good to see them actually installed on the ceiling. So based on your true experience how do you like them as Atmos speakers? Are they really very good? How do you compare these with in-ceiling speakers?

Currently I am using in-ceiling speakers for Atmos, but thinking of moving to an on-wall type. Especially these JBL SC-8's.

Sorry for the delay in replying.

I have since sold all the SCS8's. They were a fantastic sounding and measuring speaker and did an excellent job. However, my room was not really big enough for them and due to their proximity to the listening positions, I ended up with localization problems.

Since selling them I have replaced the side and rear surrounds with Infinity RS152. The RS152 did not receive a favorable rating on ASR, however I took a gamble and purchased them anyway, thinking that the testing method used may have contributed to poor measurements. When I measured them with the minidsp/REW I did not see any of the big problems seen in the ASR test and I am very very happy with them. They are a very good option if your listening positions are close to the surrounds as they have a large hemispheric sound field which makes the speaker much less of a point source. They use JBL's HST technology to create a hemispheric sound field around the speaker, which can be seen in the CLF files JBL published. HST product page: https://jblpro.com/products/control-hst

As for the atmos speakers, I only recently sold them and received my replacement speakers. This time I went with Revel C763's. The reason being that they measure well, are relatively low profile, and have a swiviling tweeter. The C763's will be installed on-ceiling in custom boxes because I dont want to compromise the sound isolation work done to the room. The further you can get your atmos speakers away from the listening position in Z axis, the better IMO, but you have to correctly set out the speakers to spec (more on that next). Even though the boxes will be 135mm deep, thats far less that the SCS8's protruded on the brackets (something like 350mm, can't exactly recall).

The C763's are not installed yet as I am going through a full review of the the placement of my atmos speakers after discovering that Dolby have a more comprehensive technical guideline document and accompanying spreadsheet that Dolby supply for studios, which looks to address some of the separation issues I have experienced after originally using the home version of the same document. For anyone interested, the spreadsheet is good but really only useful to confirm the math you do on paper because the macros don't fully implement the rules outlined in the Dolby document. You just need to use simple trig functions to work it all out.

For example, here is the before and after for my atmos layout. The new version employs a 55/57 deg elevation angles which should result in much better separation from the bed layer and more realistic panning of sounds overhead.

image.png
image.png


The document and spreadsheet can be found here:

Document:

Spreadsheet:
 

nandan

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Sorry for the delay in replying.

I have since sold all the SCS8's. They were a fantastic sounding and measuring speaker and did an excellent job. However, my room was not really big enough for them and due to their proximity to the listening positions, I ended up with localization problems.

Since selling them I have replaced the side and rear surrounds with Infinity RS152. The RS152 did not receive a favorable rating on ASR, however I took a gamble and purchased them anyway, thinking that the testing method used may have contributed to poor measurements. When I measured them with the minidsp/REW I did not see any of the big problems seen in the ASR test and I am very very happy with them. They are a very good option if your listening positions are close to the surrounds as they have a large hemispheric sound field which makes the speaker much less of a point source. They use JBL's HST technology to create a hemispheric sound field around the speaker, which can be seen in the CLF files JBL published. HST product page: https://jblpro.com/products/control-hst

As for the atmos speakers, I only recently sold them and received my replacement speakers. This time I went with Revel C763's. The reason being that they measure well, are relatively low profile, and have a swiviling tweeter. The C763's will be installed on-ceiling in custom boxes because I dont want to compromise the sound isolation work done to the room. The further you can get your atmos speakers away from the listening position in Z axis, the better IMO, but you have to correctly set out the speakers to spec (more on that next). Even though the boxes will be 135mm deep, thats far less that the SCS8's protruded on the brackets (something like 350mm, can't exactly recall).

The C763's are not installed yet as I am going through a full review of the the placement of my atmos speakers after discovering that Dolby have a more comprehensive technical guideline document and accompanying spreadsheet that Dolby supply for studios, which looks to address some of the separation issues I have experienced after originally using the home version of the same document. For anyone interested, the spreadsheet is good but really only useful to confirm the math you do on paper because the macros don't fully implement the rules outlined in the Dolby document. You just need to use simple trig functions to work it all out.

For example, here is the before and after for my atmos layout. The new version employs a 55/57 deg elevation angles which should result in much better separation from the bed layer and more realistic panning of sounds overhead.

image.png
image.png


The document and spreadsheet can be found here:

Document:

Spreadsheet:
Thank you so much for the detailed reply. Really appreciate it.

So apart from the form factor and the above mentioned changes you wanted to implement, how was JBL SC8's performance and sound output especially for Atmos? Was it really good ?
 
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DubbyMcDubs

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It was excellent. Great sounding speaker. I think it’s a perfect atmos speaker, just as long as you have high ceilings.
 

nandan

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My ceiling is 9 feet high, in your opinion do you think it will look good and perform good for atmos application?
 
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DubbyMcDubs

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My ceiling is 9 feet high, in your opinion do you think it will look good and perform good for atmos application?

That would be the minimum height ceiling I would attempt to use them on as that would roughly bring you to 8 feet between speaker and floor once installed. 8 feet is the minimum recommended by Dolby. My setup will not maintain that requirement, but thats the limitation I am left with. I have not tried in a 9 ft scenario so it would be an experiment.

In my honest opinion, I think what is more critical is the location of the speaker relative to the LCR and surround speakers. If you want convincing fly overs and good acoustic separation from the bed layer, I suggest focusing on that. You may find your in-ceiling speakers are perfectly fine but not currently optimised geometrically. Additionally, make sure you use a decent "full range" speaker. Full range in this context really means something like the freq response of the SCS8, but thats not a professional definition of any sort. A decent amount of information is sent through to the speakers in immersive formats.
 

nandan

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Understood and make sense. Thank you so much for all the responses and inputs. I really appreciate it. As we are all learning and experimenting due to the interest on the topic, its always good to receive ideas and suggestions. Again thank you so much :)
 

zheka

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As for the atmos speakers, I only recently sold them and received my replacement speakers. This time I went with Revel C763's.
What do you think about using HST speakers as tops specifically in low ceiling roooms?
Thank you.
 
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DubbyMcDubs

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What do you think about using HST speakers as tops specifically in low ceiling roooms?
Thank you.

I don't think they are the best option personally. If you use the HST tool from JBL, it highlights that you really need a bit of distance from the listening position to get them working in their sweet spot.
 

zheka

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I don't think they are the best option personally. If you use the HST tool from JBL, it highlights that you really need a bit of distance from the listening position to get them working in their sweet spot.
Can you point me to the tool? I know there is simulation software for the CBT line but I cannot find one for the HST
 
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DubbyMcDubs

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zheka

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Well, that's the CBT tool. There is no choice for the HST speaker.
 
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