JBL 306P MK II Review (Studio Monitor)

[JohnBooty]

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

To contextualize a bit, a normal conversation is roughly 60dB... though perhaps much louder if you're from NYC. Spending time with my in-laws from NYC feels like standing on a busy airport tarmac with no hearing protection sometimes. At 85dB, you must shout to be heard over the noise.

There's perhaps some misunderstanding regarding the old "standard" of 85dB and its safety or lack thereof: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5308171/

Eighty-five decibels is not a safe noise exposure level for the public.

[...]

At 85 A-weighted decibels time-weighted average exposure, an employer must implement a hearing conservation program, including serial audiograms and provision of hearing protection.

It seems hard to believe our ears evolved to withstand 85dB on a regular sustained basis. For the vast majority of human existence such loud noises were heard only fleetingly. Perhaps we lucked out and indeed our ears are overbuilt.

I'm sure we won't settle the debate on this thread. But, I'm sure we can agree that these JBLs aren't the speakers for those seeking absolute gobs of output - if your average listening level is so loud that one must shout to be heard over it, and you want some more clean headroom on top of that... these speakers will not cut it.

 

[restorer-john]

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

Sure. If your "studio" is your walk-in-robe draped with blankets, or your Mom's basement.

A "studio monitor" should be able to shatter your sunglasses, punch you in the gut and dislodge a dental filling or two...

 

[Xyrium]

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

Hey Amir,

What are the chances that the $10k rules can do IMD plots? Perhaps, not for every speaker, but for the standout units with glowing reviews.

The distortion on this 306 sure is ugly, and I wonder if IMD would be even worse.

Thanks!

 

[beagleman]

Those distortion figures are crazy high. Really something. I suppose it's pretty obvious these speakers don't like being pushed hard much at all.

We have owned a cheapo JVC shelf system for about 15 years. Its distortion measures pretty much similar, BUT it has been used in our dining room, literally every day for that time, has hosted numerous family get togethers and tons of small parties and so on.

Never once, even at fairly high levels, has it not sounded engaging and fun and actually quite decent sounding!

I know it defies expectations, but it is the one little stereo we actually love the sound of cranked up!

(yes I TRULY realize its not great Hi-Fi, but every year it does christmas tunes cranked up and everyone still loves how it sounds??)

 

[PeteL]

To contextualize a bit, a normal conversation is roughly 60dB... though perhaps much louder if you're from NYC. Spending time with my in-laws from NYC feels like standing on a busy airport tarmac with no hearing protection sometimes. At 85dB, you must shout to be heard over the noise.

There's perhaps some misunderstanding regarding the old "standard" of 85dB and its safety or lack thereof: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5308171/


It seems hard to believe our ears evolved to withstand 85dB on a regular sustained basis. For the vast majority of human existence such loud noises were heard only fleetingly. Perhaps we lucked out and indeed our ears are overbuilt.

I'm sure we won't settle the debate on this thread. But, I'm sure we can agree that these JBLs aren't the speakers for those seeking absolute gobs of output - if your average listening level is so loud that one must shout to be heard over it, and you want some more clean headroom on top of that... these speakers will not cut it.

Fair enough, May not be a good idea to get this level in your eardrum 8 hours a day, I'd say it's a level that yes, you have to raise the level of your voice a bit to be understood, and yes, if the ambient noise is that high in your work environment, probably a good idea to wear ear protections. So let's agree that this level should be enjoyed with moderation. But again, live concerts are all louder than that, movie theaters are louder than that. Should we quit enjoying all the good things in life? On stage levels, for hard working musicians are much much louder than that, and yes, some of them suffer earing loss by the end of their career, not all of them tough, so I guess we could navigate with what's confortable for us. Sometime, loud is cool.

 

[Pietro]

Distortion has been classically high in this series and the 306P carries the family signature:

Definitely not usable as real studio monitor

 

[PeteL]

We have owned a cheapo JVC shelf system for about 15 years. Its distortion measures pretty much similar, BUT it has been used in our dining room, literally every day for that time, has hosted numerous family get togethers and tons of small parties and so on.

Never once, even at fairly high levels, has it not sounded engaging and fun and actually quite decent sounding!

I know it defies expectations, but it is the one little stereo we actually love the sound of cranked up!

(yes I TRULY realize its not great Hi-Fi, but every year it does christmas tunes cranked up and everyone still loves how it sounds??)

It's funny, I wouldn't know which model, but I do remember around this time a friend made me listen to his JVC mini system, and having a wow reaction. It was the only time then, and still, having heard one of these all in one that sounded half decent, I remember clearly it was JVC. I had forgot about that.

 

[Sonny1]

Amirm, thanks for another impressive review. I can’t imagine this hobby/obsession without the excellent analysis of ASR. If you had to pick, which speaker would you choose, this one or the similar prices Kali Audio?

 

[dominikz]

Fair enough, May not be a good idea to get this level in your eardrum 8 hours a day, I'd say it's a level that yes, you have to raise the level of your voice a bit to be understood, and yes, if the ambient noise is that high in your work environment, probably a good idea to wear ear protections. So let's agree that this level should be enjoyed with moderation. But again, live concerts are all louder than that, movie theaters are louder than that. Should we quit enjoying all the good things in life? On stage levels, for hard working musicians are much much louder than that, and yes, some of them suffer earing loss by the end of their career, not all of them tough, so I guess we could navigate with what's confortable for us. Sometime, loud is cool.

Perhaps a bit of topic, but wanted to pitch-in on this. At university (admit this was 10-15 years ago ) we were taught the following *maximum continuous* safe exposure limits to avoid *permanent* hearing loss / audibility threshold increase (quote from CDC article):

Time vs Exposure level per NIOSH REL
8 hours -> 85 dB(A)
4 hours -> 88 dB(A)
2 hours -> 91 dB(A)
60 minutes -> 94 dB(A)
30 minutes -> 97 dB(A)
15 minutes -> 100 dB(A)

Note that maximum exposure time halves with each 3dB increase in SPL. Also, we were taught that you need double the exposure time for your hearing to recover/reset (so 14h recovery if you were exposed to 85dB(A) noise for 7h to get your audibility threshold back to pre-exposure state).

Seems to me these recommendations are a bit over-simplified, see e.g. this article which states that noise from gas-powered lawnmowers and leaf blowers at 80-85 dB (is this dBA?) can cause damage to hearing after only 2 hours of exposure.
Again I would assume that 3dB increase in noise level halves the maximum safe exposure time.

In any case the trick with loud noises and hearing preservation is limiting exposure time appropriately, and wearing ear protection when that is not feasible and not necessarily to avoid concerts / cinema / being a musician altogether

 

[waynel]

It seems hard to believe our ears evolved to withstand 85dB on a regular sustained basis. For the vast majority of human existence such loud noises were heard only fleetingly. Perhaps we lucked out and indeed our ears are overbuilt.

I take this as you don’t have kids or a dog?

 

[F1308]

Fair enough, May not be a good idea to get this level in your eardrum 8 hours a day, I'd say it's a level that yes, you have to raise the level of your voice a bit to be understood, and yes, if the ambient noise is that high in your work environment, probably a good idea to wear ear protections. So let's agree that this level should be enjoyed with moderation. But again, live concerts are all louder than that, movie theaters are louder than that. Should we quit enjoying all the good things in life? On stage levels, for hard working musicians are much much louder than that, and yes, some of them suffer earing loss by the end of their career, not all of them tough, so I guess we could navigate with what's confortable for us. Sometime, loud is cool.

I stopped long ago going to the cinema, tired of asking them to lower the volume every single time. Home, sweet home...

 

[F1308]

I take this as you don’t have kids or a dog?

Regardless of how many, they should be very well educated. No voicing, no shouting, unless strictly necessary.

 

[Jaimo]

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?

The 708i/p and M2 remain untested. Testing these will make things truly complete - but then again, there's still the 4367's

 

[Jaimo]

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

Likely "Home Studio" monitors

 

[dfuller]

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

Well... They're cheap as hell. Asking much of these as studio monitors is a tall order. But they sure as hell are marketed that way. The distortion is crazy high for a studio monitor, though - Adam's TxV series are around the same price point (maybe a bit more expensive, but not out of reason) and are overall much better behaved.

 

[Colonel7]

I take this as you don’t have kids or a dog?

Imagine what this was like in a cave...caveman acoustics and high decibels

 

[BYRTT]

Great thanks for review Amir ..

Thanks for the review. It does appear in order of performance the order is LSR305, then 306 and then 308 as the best.

Close to agree there opinion here based Amir's objective data is 305P MKII / 308P MKII then 306P MKII, 306P MKII looks have some crossover region inteference 1000-3000Hz that lead to directivity index curve miss the clasic XO-region hump and there is interference right above that missing hump as seen in left spinorama, right side spinorama is a manipulated estimate had it been perfect XO-region, but in the end probably not something to cry over because JBL ask so low a cost for these goodies..

306P MKII side by side to little & big brother 305P/308P MKII..

 

[escape2]

Well... They're cheap as hell. Asking much of these as studio monitors is a tall order. But they sure as hell are marketed that way. The distortion is crazy high for a studio monitor, though - Adam's TxV series are around the same price point (maybe a bit more expensive, but not out of reason) and are overall much better behaved.

Also, what about hiss? How does the hiss on these JBL speakers compare to Adam TxV?

 

[PeteL]

Also, what about hiss? How does the hiss on these JBL speakers compare to Adam TxV?

Amir reviewed t5V and t8V and said no audible hiss.
edit: no audible hiss for him, it was a listening assessment.

 

[JohnBooty]

Should we quit enjoying all the good things in life?

Certainly not. I have a bit of high frequency hearing loss. Not sure it was from all the live shows I enjoyed.... but if it was, I'm still glad I saw those performances.

I take this as you don’t have kids or a dog?

Two dogs. And I do recall reading that the barking of dogs can briefly hit 90+ dB at close range or something like that. Prolonged continuous exposure to that would surely not be a good thing for your hearing.

However, like most dogs, mine bark occasionally. They are not continuously barking directly into my ear for minutes, let alone hours, on end. So that's quite a different thing than exposing one's self to 80, 85, 90+ dB or whatever for long periods of time.

If your dogs are just barking and howling into your ears at max volume for hours at a time maybe things are not going so well. Or maybe Lassie is just trying to tell you something important... maybe Timmy fell into the well again?

Jokes aside, I don't understand this line of thinking. Just because there are some unavoidable overly loud sounds in our lives, we shouldn't protect our hearing ever? I guess I should just skip the ear production next time I make it to a shooting range, then, because my dogs are also loud? I know that's not what you mean, but I'm not sure what you mean.