JBL 306P MK II Review (Studio Monitor)

[pavuol]

Thank you for another piece to the LSR puzzle, so only 310S left now

Anyway, in terms of measured distortion, it has "better" tweeter than both 308P and Adam T7V?
When the ribbon one should be a modern tech achievement?

 

[JohnBooty]

Hmmm. I look at the measurements and see a distortion factory. Yet they 'sound great' and are recommended

Because so much of the sound that reaches your ears is reflected from the environment rather than coming directly from the speakers, consistent and tonally correct dispersion trumps a lot of the other (not insignificant) flaws you see in the graphs.

This is the "the science of proper sound reproduction" factor Amir alludes to in his conclusion.

If you improved distortion, etc. at the cost of poorer off-axis performance, you would actually wind up with with a speaker that performed worse once placed into an actual room. Unless you had taken great pains to deaden the room and remove it from the equation I suppose.

Thank you for another piece to the LSR puzzle, so only 310S left now

I'd be interested to see how it measures. In an absolute sense it's a bit anemic. But as far as I know it's also one of the cheapest subs with a built in high pass, so you don't need external bass management.

For the ASR crowd that's not a big deal but for a "starter" objectivist audiophile setup, the level of objective performance delivered by a 305P+310S combo for a total of just $500 is very, very formidable. Shocking, even. If anybody knows of a $500 retail setup that comes anywhere near it, I'd sure love to hear about it.

 

[YSC]

Because so much of the sound that reaches your ears is reflected from the environment rather than coming directly from the speakers, having consistent and tonally correct dispersion trumps a lot of the other (not insignificant) flaws you see in the graphs.

This is the "the science of proper sound reproduction" factor Amir alludes to in his conclusion.

If you improved distortion, etc. at the cost of poorer off-axis performance, you would actually wind up with with a speaker that performed worse once placed into an actual room. Unless you had taken great pains to deaden the room and remove it from the equation I suppose.

this is exactly what I want to ask in the first place, say we all know technically the Genelec, Neumann, Focal etc. have better distortion yet similar off axis performance in directivity is technically better, but what this difference will subjectively sound like is of my interest, like it can actually tell ppl more than pure figures or spinorama plots alone as that last bit of correctness often reflect in price measured by how many times.

 

[pavuol]

let's just ease all that stressful data flow throughout the year shall we?

 

[MZKM]

Preference Rating
SCORE: 5.2
SCORE w/ sub: 7.0

Frequency response: +/-2.9dB 47Hz-20kHz

​

 

[Robbo99999]

Yes, lot's of similarities between the 3xx series, and so it should be considering they come from the same family, although 306 & 308 seem generally better than 305, but I guess that should be the way.

 

[Biblob]

Could the distortion peak at 250hz be caused by panel resonance? These walls are only 14mm thick and aren't braced (AFAIK)

 

[Feyire]

This is exactly my experience as well.

I also have a dislike for dips in the 1kHz - 2kHz range for this reason, but also because it will unbalance the phantom center / stereo imaging for voices. Do you have your speakers toed-in towards the listening position or not?

 

[lashto]

Hmmm. I look at the measurements and see a distortion factory. Yet they 'sound great' and are recommended. If both observations are correct, what else can I conclude but 'distortion doesn't matter'..

A corollary conclusion is, obviously, ' distortion sounds great'...

Confused..

Distortion matters. And yes, distortion can (also) sound good. Or even great.
There is no confusion, just a lot of distortion

 

[staticV3]

Thanks for the review!

Now we have 2 great contenders for a US$300/pair budget.
So the question becomes...these or Kali LP-6?

The MR524 is another very popular option
EDIT: just saw that you've talked about them on another thread already. Sorry for the unnecessary comment.

 

[TheMarshal]

The MR524 is another very popular option

I have the MR624 in my secondary setup. I am really curious to see how they end up measuring. Subjectively, I love them. Although, it will be awesome if either the manufacturer or some of the forum members can send them to Amir that will be awesome.

 

[RickS]

It is a $10,000 ruler....

Makes me want be buy them even more!

 

[F1308]

Frequency= 1516, gain=3, Q= 3.

So F1=1284.245 and F2=1789.578
And 0.47869 octaves affected (barely three keys,12 making an octave).

I am finally understanding equalization !!!!
Immensely grateful.

 

[muslhead]

It is a $10,000 ruler....

at that price hopefully it measures both in us and metric standards

 

[RickS]

Would these seriously be considered "Studio Monitors" or is that just JBL marketing?

 

[PeteL]

I don't notice it. To put it into subjective but perhaps useful terms, the JBLs + subs can play cleanly (to my ears) loudly enough to the point where I don't realize they're loud... until my wife and I realize we have to shout to be heard over the music. This is in a somewhat small room though, like 200 square feet.

I would mention three things about that 200hz distortion "spike" --

1. It's rather narrow. If you're distorting at 5% across the entire frequency range that's one thing, this is another - perceptibility of narrowband stuff like that tends to be much lower than we'd think when we see those sharp peaks on a graph.
2. Keep in mind that Amir measured this distortion at 86dB which is fairly loud - into danger territory, even. Hopefully nobody is listening at an average near 86dB. Though we would indeed like to have plenty of headroom to push higher than 86dB for those brief dynamic peaks.
3. 200hz is right in the middle of the female vocal range so it is not like the deep bass region where we want enough power to shake the foundations of the house.

I would not use the phrase "high-output monsters" nor "oodles of effortless headroom" for these speakers, but crossed over to a sub or two I don't think too many folks would find them lacking for horsepower in a small or medium room.

If you are shooting for massive SPL or have a focus on classical music with a truly ginormous dynamic range then these JBLs would not be the weapons of choice.

85 dB spl, is the loudness level most audio professionals use as a reference for mixing or mastering music, it's not loud, not in danger territory, It's a good level loud enough to hear details, but quiet enough to be able to listen for extended period without too much listening fatigue. Some like to mix louder than that.

 

[Pio2001]

I've got the 305P. They have a lot of distortion too, mostly H3.

I can be easily heard on sinewaves. When I run a swep measurement, I always think omg ! It's playing two sinewaves at the same time !

It is much less audible with music. It might make female voices and recorder sound a bit bright, but it is difficult to tell if this brightness is actually distortion or the effect of a low tilt of the sound power directivity index between 1000 and 8000 Hz.
And if the listening volume is low, the distortion is low too.

 

[Pio2001]

85 dB spl, is the loudness level most audio professionals use as a reference for mixing or mastering music, it's not loud, not in danger territory, It's a good level loud enough to hear details, but quiet enough to be able to listen for extended period without too much listening fatigue. Some like to mix louder than that.

I rarely listen that loud. My usual listening level varies from 55 to 75 dB(A).
85 dB(A) is the absolute max for me. It happens for short times every other day.

EDIT : the above numbers are valid for pop music with no dynamics.
I just measured in fast mode with a symphonic track. The peaks are at 80 / 85 dB.

 

[PeteL]

I rarely listen that loud. My usual listening level varies from 55 to 75 dB(A).
85 dB(A) is the absolute max for me. It happens for short times every other day.

Yes, I have to admit that I was more talking in professional environment, larger room with heavy sound dampening, and not really the use case for these small speakers. Most small rooms would start to really mess up the bass response at 85. Still it is not in dangerous territory, anybody who seen a live music concert has been exposed to more, even the quietish ones

 

[F1308]

I rarely listen that loud. My usual listening level varies from 55 to 75 dB(A).
85 dB(A) is the absolute max for me. It happens for short times every other day.

EDIT : the above numbers are valid for pop music with no dynamics.
I just measured in fast mode with a symphonic track. The peaks are at 80 / 85 dB.

The very same here... Well done. Congratulations.