JBL Studio 590 Speaker Review

[ocinn]

Not doubting you felt that way, but what makes them this stunning exactly?>

I should add I was blown away - in context of the price. I was not expecting a $800/pair (cheaper used), set of speakers to have the sense of scale, clarity, and ability to handle huge dynamic transients across the range without breaking an audible sweat.

I work in live sound and it’s very difficult for me to come home from tuning a high end PA system and feel satisfied with my monitors. Sure, my monitors can play at the same level and likely lower distortion as I was listening to the PA system but am I getting tactile sensation in my whole body from even snare hits, let alone a kick drum or bass guitar? No. But a compression driver horn, high cone area, efficient speaker like the 590 gets you way, way closer.

These are unique in that they can be had for $800/pr new and cheaper used. And they aren’t completely broken like many horn speakers of the past. I cannot think of a pair of speakers that you could buy for $800, let alone $550, that can hang with these.

 

[musicforcities]

Sadly, you insist, but cannot be so.

Place any tested device into a group, be it amplifier, dac, server, whatever, and say specifications it is to deliver to say bad, poor, fair, good, excellent. Then see if you can afford it anytime or at a sale if interested.

I am looking for performance, money is another
issue.

Or I don't need to read anymore as all my electronics are presents from my friends and family. Lowest price ever. Great performance ?
Great performance/price ?

A smartphone delivering 0.1 volts is great because it was a present..?

Specious reasoning I think.

Speakers are not like DACs, which now have very little excuse not to have excellent measurements at almost any price point. There are more variables with speakers.

I don’t get your mobile phone analogy. a .1 volt output at the headphone jack (I guess that’s what you mean) may still be a fine phone in every other aspect. , Apple moves tons of phones with 0v because there is no headphone jack. lol.

Now, if one is comparing d/an amp combo dongles for an iPhone…. 0.1v means it fails for intended use. However, different dongles can exist that deliver a standard reasonable voltage but measure differently in other respects. then price is totally reasonable to factor into acceptable performance. If a $100 dongle measures well in all respects but Not as well in a few areas as its competition at that price point but better those usually priced at $50, it’s reasonable not to recommend it at $100 but to recommend it at $50, especially if it us often available at that price.

it seems fair to consider. Price.


Nothing is broken here. There is an issue with high end distortion.

 

[musicforcities]

(If the speaker cover is an integral part of the waveguide then it needs to be redone, although I have no idea if this is actually the case - but if it is then it should be redone, as speaker cover is an integral part of the speaker. Can understand why most people would review without speaker cover because normally they're supposed to be transparent or detrimental.)

EDIT: my casual observation suggests the speaker cover is not an integral part of the waveguide though:

Studio 590 | 250-watt, dual 8" floorstanding loudspeaker

The JBL® Studio 590 floorstanding loudspeaker brings professional-quality sound to the home experience. The Studio 590 uses the technology that JBL engineers developed for pro-audio loudspeakers to deliver accurate, powerful sound to your living room. The Studio 590 is a perfect complement to...

www.jbl.com

Yes, i think it’s a must to have the replacement plastic panel in place when measuring. At the very least to know if it does affect measurements and if so how.

Indeed, I really think these studio lines speakers should be measured with the grill cloth covers on in place AND with them removed but the replacement waveguide piece on. Or at least it would be good to be able to know if it matters. and how it does.

Because the grill covers seems pretty integral in this case. They include not only lower Part of the tweeter wave guide, but also a frame for the covers that (at least on the 530) change the mid woofer’s surround geometry.

Both aspects could measurements of each driver and interaction between the drivers I suppose.

The tweeter and woofer are relatively far apart on this design, so the the way they interact may be rather dependent on the geometry of both woofer and tweeter AND the materials used (a piece of plastic anchored to an mdf frame may be different than plastic stuck into plastic.


On my little studio 530s, the frame for the woofer grill cloth is pretty chunky . the mid woofer diver is deeply recessed into what is a quasi wave guide With the cover in place, that shape is different than without. That could in turn alter not only the woofer characteristics but also how the woofer and tweeter interact. And even that the little plastic waveguide replacement could be different than the plastic waveguide integrated into the mdf woofer grill cloth frame.

the studio 530s seem designed to be used with the grill cloth in place both aesthetically and acoustically.

 

[ROOSKIE]

I work in live sound and it’s very difficult for me to come home from tuning a high end PA system and feel satisfied with my monitors. Sure, my monitors can play at the same level and likely lower distortion as I was listening to the PA system but am I getting tactile sensation in my whole body from even snare hits, let alone a kick drum or bass guitar? No. But a compression driver horn, high cone area, efficient speaker like the 590 gets you way, way closer.

This.

I think a lot of people just don't listen that loudly nor do they actually want realistic reproduction of instruments at scale.
They want a cute little KEF LS50meta window into the thing.

Don't get me wrong the LS50metas sound good and put out an amazing effect given the diminutive size.
In many cases it is more than many folks need.
When it it isn't it isn't.

I like to make the projection to TV analogy.
Usually I'd MUCH rather watch a film on a 100" projection screen even if just HD vs a 50" 4k TV.

Of course I would take a 100" 8k image but the benefit over the regular HD is not nearly as important to me as the benefit of the 100" screen over the 50"

 

[Sokel]

Yes, and the compression tweeter allows for high SPL playback at the expense of 2nd order HD.
There are $600+ for a single pro compression tweeters/guide combo with this level of 2nd HD and higher.

It really comes with the territory of the design for some reasons.

I see it as like with woofers, ported enclosures have noise issues that sealed box designs do not. Yet porting allows for much better bass extension and much more output with less power. A trade off.
That is the type of engineering choice.

However, the ultimate SPL ability of the 'pro' tweeters is not tested here objectively. That said subjectively, Amir did not complain and I beleive he would find the speakers can play very loudly. Like many others, he found for some reason they are not bright like might be expected. I felt the same way about the 530's and 570's.

The shaming thing is not always off the mark, some designs have been bad. And it is also sometimes not on the money. Many folks here have never made any designs or know what all the possible trade offs are, so in that way it makes it hard. I mean we are all learning, most here are not beyond the informed novice level. Myself included of course.

I'm all about high SPL,I'm even of the few ones that has posted the distortion of my rig at 100db+ as I don't like pampering things,all of this are here to serve us.
Talking about money,does anyone know how much this tweeter costs? :





Note,that is106db,not 96db.

I honestly expected the great JBL be better that this with a compression driver famous about it's SPL.

 

[musicforcities]

No, the grill extends up into the horn--look just below the tweeter. You wouldn't normally put a step in a horn like that. The grill may have a solid portion there that smooths it out somewhat.

exactly. And look carefully at photos with grills on and off. the lower wave guide geo is different even when that replacement plastic part is in place than when the covers are on. And how the geo from the woofer to that waveguide would be different. And the cloth vs hard plastic might even matter vis a vis dispersion.

 

[amirm]

Sadly, you insist, but cannot be so.

Place any tested device into a group, be it amplifier, dac, server, whatever, and say specifications it is to deliver to say bad, poor, fair, good, excellent. Then see if you can afford it anytime or at a sale if interested.

You can't apply that in absolute. A speaker has major constraints as far as cost, size and weight. Compromises need to be made as you shrink one or more of those. You can't replicate a 500 pound, $100,000 speaker in a 50 pound $500 one.

 

[musicforcities]

I think they look excellent with the grills. Very elegant. Without them I can’t help but wonder why those woofers are so small

Yeah, these things are designed to have the grills on.

The woofers have their own “wave guides” of sorts but really, they are recessed to create more time alignment with tweeter driver.

 

[ocinn]

This.

I think a lot of people just don't listen that loudly nor do they actually want realistic reproduction of instruments at scale.

I’ve heard Kii, Genelec, all the speakers that are considered state of the art. All impressive.

I did a Danley J3-94, DBH218 (beamsteered arc array), BC218 (center cluster) system for a DJ show here in LA. I was using techno and UKG songs, etc… to dial in the tune, to match the show . Just for shits and giggles I threw on some “audiophile” demo tracks and there is really nothing in this world like hearing a female voice at 105db(A) crystal clear coming out of probably the best engineered point source in the world and then immediately getting the breath knocked out of your lungs the instant the drums and bass guitar come in.

That was far more exciting and impressive for me than the Kii+BXT or whatever I’ve heard. And it scaled down well, even at 90dba, it had this sense of effortlessness that is really hard to replicate.

The 590 gets a hell of a lot closer than the, also $800, qef q350 for example.

 

[ROOSKIE]

I'm all about high SPL,I'm even of the few ones that has posted the distortion of my rig at 100db+ as I don't like pampering things,all of this are here to serve us.
Talking about money,does anyone know how much this tweeter costs? :



View attachment 306764

Note,that is106db,not 96db.

I honestly expected the great JBL be better that this with a compression driver famous about it's SPL.

In the USA the Neuman set is $10,500(for a pair) vs common sales of $800 or less for 2, JBL 590's.

Well the tweeter is JBL OEM. It could cost them $5 for all we know. Any cost on the open market is a fiction as this is not meant to be a regular retail product. (repair only)

You seem to be confusing HD with SPL.
Yes, you could have low HD and high SPL, however higher HD is not always an indicator of the system limits.
There are other factors that can create HD/non linear distortions, not just output limits.

In your example the tweeter is down several DB @106db, that distortion/deviation from flat is far more important that HD(according to the perfromance norms). Yet it is also an engineering trade off, add a compressor/limitor on the tweeter or let it explode.

Here is one of my $200 JBL 530's at 96,99,102db@1meter (using a 150hrz HP filter)
Notice the responce is not compromised and the 3rd and 4th order HD is very low(what I personally care about)
It can easily go louder than 102db@1meter but I did not test it on this run as at the time that was not an interest. I can next time if I remember.

 

[Prana Ferox]

I have a pair of the baby brother 530s. Sound aside the fit and finish is mediocre, the black laminate veneer is pretty unconvincing and the edge work isn't wonderful. The walnut finish looks better in pictures but I'm not sure what they're like in reality.

On the other hand they sound great. This speaker family goes on ridiculous sale, I certainly wouldn't pay $1000 each for a floorstander with the black veneer but at a lower price point it'd be a very different matter, if that was a market I was looking in.

 

[ocinn]

I'm all about high SPL,I'm even of the few ones that has posted the distortion of my rig at 100db+ as I don't like pampering things,all of this are here to serve us.
Talking about money,does anyone know how much this tweeter costs? :



View attachment 306764

Note,that is106db,not 96db.

I honestly expected the great JBL be better that this with a compression driver famous about it's SPL.

Ah yes, $10,000 pair of speakers vs $800. Def. in the same conversation

Everyone is talking about that the 2Khz distortion,right?
What about that 10Khz nightmare?

What’s the first harmonic in the series of 10khz. I’ll give you a hint, it’s 20khz. Which practically no adult can hear as a single tone, let alone at -30db in music. Irrelevant. The other issue is more pressing and I believe it is due to an actually broken sample, or from being measured incorrectly without the waveguide in place. Would be nice to get another sample measured.

 

[Sokel]

In the USA the Neuman set is $10,500(for a pair) vs common sales of $800 or less for 2, JBL 590's.

Well the tweeter is JBL OEM. It could cost them $5 for all we know. Any cost on the open market is a fiction as this is not meant to be a regular retail product. (repair only)

You seem to be confusing HD with SPL.
Yes, you could have low HD and high SPL, however higher HD is not always an indicator of the system limits.
There are other factors that can create HD/non linear distortions, not just output limits.

In your example the tweeter is down several DB @106db, that distortion/deviation from flat is far more important that HD(according to the perfromance norms). Yet it is also an engineering trade off, add a compressor/limitor on the tweeter or let it explode.

Here is one of my $200 JBL 530's at 96,99,102db@1meter (using a 150hrz HP filter)
Notice the responce is not compromised and the 3rd and 4th order HD is very low(what I personally care about)
It can easily go louder than 102db@1meter but I did not test it on this run as at the time that was not an interest. I can next time if I remember.View attachment 306769

Price aside that's me at 2.8m,one speaker:

"System" SINAD

Would the concept of "system" SINAD (from source to speakers) be useful in component selection for a good stereo system? Let's assume a listening SPL of 85dB @ 1m, and a room noise floor of around 40dB SPL. Assuming +20dB headroom for signal peaks, and another -20dB noise headroom. A system...

www.audiosciencereview.com

I can understand compromises,price limit's,etc.
What I cannot understand and can only think of it as maybe a mistake of this missing piece's is that the jbl's great engineers let this go through.
Except that is a choice,who knows.
But in 2023 they can surely do better than this at any cost,as small as they like.

 

[Sokel]

Ah yes, $10,000 pair of speakers vs $800. Def. in the same conversation


What’s the first harmonic in the series of 10khz. I’ll give you a hint, it’s 20khz. Which practically no adult can hear as a single tone, let alone at -30db in music. Irrelevant. The other issue is more pressing and I believe it is due to an actually broken sample, or from being measured incorrectly without the waveguide in place. Would be nice to get another sample measured.

I see it more like a 30$ twetter vs a 30? $ compression driver ,or even better JBL vs Neumann engineers integration of parts.
Price does not concern me at this point.
I really hope it's a broken sample,I have enjoyed big jbl's (bigger than this) so much that I refuse to take this as their norm.

 

[restorer-john]

Are these discontinued?

Nobody knows, not even Harman themselves.

 

[amirm]

Well, Harman knows. It says this on their store: "Back Order Expected to ship Sun Sep 17 2023."

Some sites list it as discontinued but that I think is because they can't keep up with these neck snapping sales from JBL.

 

[GabrielPhoto]

Does that 2k distortion mean using the Audyssey default mid compensation wouldn't be a bad idea or is it unrelated?

 

[amirm]

You don't want to pull down that region and screw up the tonality.

 

[amirm]

Adding on, I am always "happy" when I find a peaking resonance/distortion as then I know I can help it a ton by pulling that region down with EQ. But when the response is either flat or down, that doesn't work. This is the reason I did not try to EQ the speaker.

 

[BrokenEnglishGuy]

niceee... floorstanding speaker reviews ! plz more and less bookshelf