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JBL LSR305P MKii and Control 1 Pro Monitors Review

Robbo99999

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Just a maybe stupid question. Considering that JBL have an internal DSP... i think that no matter dac you use..they will sound always the same as the signal sent to xlr input will be anyhow converted...am i wrong?
DACS aren't really gonna be changing the sound of any speaker really, certainly not if they are well measuring DACS that have been measured here on ASR. If you hook up some super sh*tty DAC to your JBL's then I suppose it could make them sound worse. The fact that the JBL speakers do their own ADC-DAC conversion in order for them to have internal DSP shouldn't affect the sound negatively beyond the background hiss that these speakers have, which is not audible when playing music. I'm not sure what exactly causes the hiss in these JBL speakers - I don't know if it's something to do with the amplification it uses or it's internal DSP or a combination of both, but either way the hiss doesn't get louder when you turn up the volume on the back of the speaker so maybe it's not the amplifier that is causing it. There's maybe a few folks here that would know which elements within the JBL speakers create the hiss, or maybe they can make an educated guess, but I don't know specifically what is causing that hiss. Just use a good measuring DAC with any of your music playback equipment to ensure that it's not adding to any lack of transparency in your audio chain.
 

Sal1950

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There's maybe a few folks here that would know which elements within the JBL speakers create the hiss, or maybe they can make an educated guess, but I don't know specifically what is causing that hiss. Just use a good measuring DAC with any of your music playback equipment to ensure that it's not adding to any lack of transparency in your audio chain.
AFAIK it isn't the DAC that's responsible for the hiss, but the analog amp. Someone had explained earlier that a passive speaker which has a crossover between the amps output and the drivers which tends to pad down any amp noise, the active doesn't. I think he may have hit the nail on the head with that reasoning.
 

Robbo99999

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AFAIK it isn't the DAC that's responsible for the hiss, but the analog amp. Someone had explained earlier that a passive speaker which has a crossover between the amps output and the drivers which tends to pad down any amp noise, the active doesn't. I think he may have hit the nail on the head with that reasoning.
Strange that the hiss doesn't get louder when you turn the volume up on the back of the speaker though, it's always at the same level unless you turn the volume to zero (which is mute).
 

Sal1950

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Strange that the hiss doesn't get louder when you turn the volume up on the back of the speaker though, it's always at the same level unless you turn the volume to zero (which is mute).
Volume is most normally controlled at the input or in the DAC's digital domain. The hiss you hear from the final power anp wouldn't vary under that arrangements.
 

Robbo99999

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Volume is most normally controlled at the input or in the DAC's digital domain. The hiss you hear from the final power anp wouldn't vary under that arrangements.
Yes, I can see that would explain why the hiss doesn't change with volume setting, but it seems like a low quality way of doing things for the volume knob on the back of the speaker to be controlling volume in the digital domain, as it doesn't seem like optimal gain staging. Also it's an analog volume knob with indents for different positions so to me (and it also varies in "stiffness" throughout the movement, and differently between the speakers, so it seems like each volume pot is not manufactured to exactly the same tolerance, so that feels like analogue to me) that doesn't marry that logically with being tied directly to digital domain. I'm not sure, I'm just playing Devil's Advocate with you.
 

Sal1950

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Yes, I can see that would explain why the hiss doesn't change with volume setting, but it seems like a low quality way of doing things for the volume knob on the back of the speaker to be controlling volume in the digital domain, as it doesn't seem like optimal gain staging. Also it's an analog volume knob with indents for different positions so to me (and it also varies in "stiffness" throughout the movement, and differently between the speakers, so it seems like each volume pot is not manufactured to exactly the same tolerance, so that feels like analogue to me) that doesn't marry that logically with being tied directly to digital domain. I'm not sure, I'm just playing Devil's Advocate with you.
I said it could be either/or analog input or digital domain. I don't know for sure which but you could very well be right that it's an analog input pot.
Just as an FYI, in audio most generally, overall volume control has almost never been done after the power amp - between the speakers, in an attempt to pad down those high power levels. Just mostly wrong on many levels.
Your right that level pot quality can vary tremendously and probably the sourced ones for these speakers are super cheap ones and could have wide lot to lot variances.
Sorry no disrespect meant but how much can you really expect from $295 a pair speakers? As it is, they punch way above their weight class in SQ, near or at 'best in class". ;)
 

Robbo99999

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I said it could be either/or analog input or digital domain. I don't know for sure which but you could very well be right that it's an analog input pot.
Just as an FYI, in audio most generally, overall volume control has almost never been done after the power amp - between the speakers, in an attempt to pad down those high power levels. Just mostly wrong on many levels.
Your right that level pot quality can vary tremendously and probably the sourced ones for these speakers are super cheap ones and could have wide lot to lot variances.
Sorry no disrespect meant but how much can you really expect from $295 a pair speakers? As it is, they punch way above their weight class in SQ, near or at 'best in class". ;)
I don't have a problem with the speakers, I was just responding to that guy earlier and then pondering what elements within the speaker were responsible for the hiss.
 
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