JBL LSR305P MKii and Control 1 Pro Monitors Review

[Valentin R]

To bad it’s kid of difficult to send it from Mexico

 

[sweetchaos]

@MZKM Have you calculated the preference rating for JBL 305p Mkii yet, by any chance?

I'd like to compare to latest Neumann KH80 review.

 

[MZKM]

@MZKM Have you calculated the preference rating for JBL 305p Mkii yet, by any chance?

I'd like to compare to latest Neumann KH80 review.

Amir did not post the data files; I just asked.

 

[vitalii427]

JBL 305P MKII Preference Rating
SCORE: 4.36
SCORE ignoring LFX: 6.43

They are very similar except for Smoothness of the Predicted In-Room; however, when looking at the smoothness graphs, they are both very smooth; the only way I can think of as to why it has a score thats ~1/2 as good for Smoothness is the tonal balance, the target slope wants a slope-down, whereas the JBL is almost flat. Now, Amir listened to these on a desk I believe, so that is likely the reason he preferred the wider soundstage; the preference rating is for a listening room. Or, my formula is borked somehow that I can't see (but my formulation matches the one that's generated via the graph).
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1MDuE6hFfo9pofi2063s6IXqYcxtXMph8gqLLkL9X8pA/edit?usp=sharing


KH80 Radar:
View attachment 46860

305P MKII Radar
View attachment 46861

KH80 Smoothness:
View attachment 46862

305P MKII Smoothness
View attachment 46863

 

[TLEDDY]

A little bit of humor:

I ordered two JBL 305P MKII off eBay from Reputable seller. Indeed, I received two - one black and one white!

I note that he has one more in stock... logic suggests that it is either black or white. You can understand why I am sore puzzled.

Since I am only interested in sound quality, it is almost irrelevant to me. My only concern is that one will be darker than the other in spectral response ;-).

 

[TLEDDY]

The ballad continues... I ordered RCA to Unbalanced XLR cables on Amazon.

I am partially disabled, so running the cables required considerable effort. An odd thing happened after making the connection - nothing! WTF? I performed my usual troubleshooting process, finally opened the XLR termination. Incorrect jumper wiring.

Caveat emptor.

Deep sigh... will continue the tale of Woe after I locate my soldering iron-it is stored in the equivalent of the government warehouse seen in The Lost Ark finale. (Obscure reference to Indiana Jones).

Feck!!

 

[TLEDDY]

The saga continues...

New cable arrived and worked.

Right channel worked as expected ; left channel had a bonus- a hive of bees! Loud buzzing, volume control related. Turned the volume down to “3” to eliminate the buzz.

Now, with that issue defeated, I was at last able to audition the speakers. I attached my neural cerebral functions directly, using my esoteric $10,000 interconnects, and listened. My sillyscope analysis is simple: really pretty good (purely objective ). Reflects the Amir review and comments.

I will return the bee hive for another while another one, sans bees, speaker sans bees replaces it.

Will continue the ballad...

 

[Pio]

Amir, I would be willing to ship my 705's to you.. I also have a pair of 708Ps. I can only be w/o one at a time. PM if you have interest, LMK how much time you would need them, etc..

 

[lonewolf]

All of this has be thinking though that perhaps there’s another variable in the research that (at least, as un-educated as I am in this particular field) might be significant... notably, listener’s hearing response relative to the speaker’s frequency response. I note that Toole mentioned that all listeners (skilled listeners, non-skilled listeners) seemed to rank speakers with the same trends (albeit different magnitudes and different consistencies) during blind testing. But did the listeners have generally the same hearing frequency response? I’d suspect they likely did not - so maybe it doesn’t matter as well. That actually seems like as surprising result to me though - one that my simplistic intuition wouldn’t expect.

According to Toole, listeners had all manner of hearing, barring of course those with extreme hearing issues. Even tho some listeners may not have hearing as good as other listeners, they always experience the world through their imperfect hearing. Drums, guitar, voices, ambient noise, footsteps, everything, is all experienced through the same perfect or not-so-perfect hearing. When listening to speakers, they listen with the same hearing they experience the world through, so more accurate speakers will reflect how they hear in the real world. Listeners with less-than-perfect hearing are able to rank speakers just as well and as consistently as those with "perfect" hearing. This all according to Toole, and probably MUCH better explained than I just did above!

 

[sweetchaos]

Hey @amirm can we get the measurement data for JBL Control 1 Pro?
So @MZKM can calculate the "preference rating" and @pozz can update the database.
I don't see why the measurement for this speaker can't be compared with others.

 

[amirm]

Here it is although I am not sure it is the low resolution data or high.

 

[MZKM]

Hey @amirm can we get the measurement data for JBL Control 1 Pro?
So @MZKM can calculate the "preference rating" and @pozz can update the database.
I don't see why the measurement for this speaker can't be compared with others.

JBL Control 1 Pro's Preference Rating
SCORE: 2.7
SCORE w/ subwoofer: 6.2
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet...S4CkDxfCUuNtApo1GAqj9tzGCGvtQYkApbg4d/pubhtml

 

[TLEDDY]

TLEDDY again with an interim report:

The eBay vendor responded immediately on the speaker. He sent me return shipping label and promised to ship me a replacement ASAP!

After I receive and install the new speaker, I will report back.

BTW, I own Harbeth 40.1s, KEF LS50s and the JBL 305P MKIIs. They’re in order in my music room, bedroom and office. I installed the Audioengine powered speakers in my dining room utilizing a Bluetooth adapter.

The Harbeth are powered by Benchmark DAC/preamp and Amps. KEFs by Cambridge integrated using Bluetooth.

 

[Sal1950]

I also have a pair of 708Ps. I can only be w/o one at a time. PM if you have interest, LMK how much time you would need them, etc..

A review of the 708's would be most welcome, something that has at least a bit of real bass.

 

[amirm]

A review of the 708's would be most welcome, something that has at least a bit of real bass.

He has the 705 and 708 so I asked him to send the 705 first.

 

[lonewolf]

Looking at the preference rating MZKM has calculated, the 305P gets a 4.36 and the Control 1 gets a 2.7 for overall sound quality. Looking at amirms measurements, the 305P has much better bass response. Since 30% of the rating score is for bass response, it makes sense the 305P will get a much better score.

If we look at the scores ignoring bass response, the 305P gets 6.43 and the Control 1 gets a 6.2. I assume that is a "close" score. Looking at the measurements (I'm no expert on spins but am starting to get a handle on them. Amirm, best explanation on how to read spins that I've seen yet, thanks!) I wouldn't expect the Control 1 to be anywhere near "close" to the 305P for sound quality. If I were shopping for speakers, I would immediately disqualify the Control 1 based on the measurements and the 305P might make it on my short list. What am I missing?

 

[q3cpma]

He has the 705 and 708 so I asked him to send the 705 first.

Well, that's good since the 705 is the one whose port is supposedly botched.

 

[Pio2001]

In answer to Xyrium, from the Neumann KH-80 discussion :

I thought that only the 305P mkII had the treble boost, and that the original LSR 305 was more neutral.

Unless there was a legit site performing measurements using professional gear, and knew how to use it, who then measured the two of them within the same control group, I doubt it.

I finally found where this information comes from. It is a spinorama made by Harman on the original 305, posted in a french forum ( https://www.homecinema-fr.com/forum/post180173742.html#p180173742 ) :

The central graph must be ignored. It is an in-room measurement.
The Bottom graph shows the original 305 measured by Harman. The difference between treble and low-mid is about 1 to 2 dB.
The top graph shows the new 305P mkII measured by Amir. The difference between treble and low-mid is around 4 dB !

What happened between the two versions of this speaker ?

 

[thewas]

Here is a trustworthy measurement of the old 305 from Prof. Goertz

it really seems a bit more flat than the MKII, am glad that I didn't swap mine for the newer one.

 

[hardisj]

What happened between the two versions of this speaker ?

Makes you wonder if this was a case of "customer wanted it, so we gave it to them". Otherwise, why would they go against what their own science dictates as being more accurate?