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JBL 4309 Review (Speaker)

ROOSKIE

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Interesting. Do you still have the A130s?

I’ve been doing a good amount of listening to the A130s and with the EQ posted by Presently42 I find them seriously good. The harshness that you and others noticed I feel is more a mid and not a tweeter issue. The eq he posted does a good job imo cleaning up the response. Sans maybe 10Hz on the bottom imo they will not be embarrassed when compared to the 4309s.
I don't have the A130's anymore.
No, the the 4309 blow them away in just about every way. No question at all, it isn't even really worth wondering about. I used the A130's primarily with PEQ applied. The A130 is excellent for the price.
I am not using any PEQ yet with the 4309's though I plan to play with it soon on them.
Even without having the A130's around here anymore I know they can't compare to the 4309's for my tastes as other speakers still here that I preferred over the A130's can't ultimately compete with the 4309's.
The bass on the A130's is not even remotely as deep or fulfilling as the 4309's nor can they even begin to handle the same volumes before requiring a HP and a sub and that tweeter starting to compress audibly. Nope not the same speakers. Still for $150-250 on sale those A130's will satisfy many folks, add a sub or two with a HP on the A130's and that is a damn fine lowish priced set-up.
 

rebbiputzmaker

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I don't have the A130's anymore.
No, the the 4309 blow them away in just about every way. No question at all, it isn't even really worth wondering about. I used the A130's primarily with PEQ applied. The A130 is excellent for the price.
I am not using any PEQ yet with the 4309's though I plan to play with it soon on them.
Even without having the A130's around here anymore I know they can't compare to the 4309's for my tastes as other speakers still here that I preferred over the A130's can't ultimately compete with the 4309's.
The bass on the A130's is not even remotely as deep or fulfilling as the 4309's nor can they even begin to handle the same volumes before requiring a HP and a sub and that tweeter starting to compress audibly. Nope not the same speakers. Still for $150-250 on sale those A130's will satisfy many folks, add a sub or two with a HP on the A130's and that is a damn fine lowish priced set-up.
What amp are you using to drive them?
 

Eetu

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JBL 4309 Hi-Fi News review + measurements out:
222jbl.lab1.jpg

https://www.hifinews.com/content/jbl-4309-loudspeaker-lab-report
 

ROOSKIE

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Awesome,
I wish there was some way to communicate on an objective focused forum how fricken' good these sound subjectively.
They are so good. I have every reason to believe these passed the blind testing at Harman despite the predicted 3.8 score. (I hope they still do this before releasing)
Just so much more than the sum of the data parts here. (though much of the data is excellent, some is iffy)
I deff prefer these to my reference speakers for all my testing. (the KEF R3)
 

ROOSKIE

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Thanks, misread the chart. But it actually is 10 dB in one of the speakers they tested. Too much.
IDK.
How old are you?
Unless you are 15 I doubt you would hear it but who knows.
Even at 15, as I understand it, frequency's that high need to be in very specific environments and volumes to even hear, plus you would need content with a lot of energy up there.
Maybe you would perceive it but I am very doubtful, kind of like saying such and such speaker is 80db down at 10hrz so the bass is disappointing.
Doesn't matter anyway as I'd be surprised if their gear was accurate at those frequency's, and of course one would just Eq it out if it bothers either audibly or psychologically.
To each their own though, that is the fun part.
 

testp

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i kinda feel JBL is missing a sale-hit version here... while i consider this speaker serious contender for my next speaker, i feel an 8" or 10" woofer would've been a perfect version for this type of a speaker, size and price wise not as big as the 4349
 

MarkWinston

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IDK.
How old are you?
Unless you are 15 I doubt you would hear it but who knows.
Even at 15, as I understand it, frequency's that high need to be in very specific environments and volumes to even hear, plus you would need content with a lot of energy up there.
Maybe you would perceive it but I am very doubtful, kind of like saying such and such speaker is 80db down at 10hrz so the bass is disappointing.
Doesn't matter anyway as I'd be surprised if their gear was accurate at those frequency's, and of course one would just Eq it out if it bothers either audibly or psychologically.
To each their own though, that is the fun part.

On a side note, Im 39 this year and I can hear to mid 16khz on my right ear and lower 15khz on my left. The worst thing is my left hears a db or 2 lower than my right throughout the entire spectrum and its audible especially at the higher mids to lower treble.
 

Chromatischism

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IDK.
How old are you?
Unless you are 15 I doubt you would hear it but who knows.
Even at 15, as I understand it, frequency's that high need to be in very specific environments and volumes to even hear, plus you would need content with a lot of energy up there.
Maybe you would perceive it but I am very doubtful, kind of like saying such and such speaker is 80db down at 10hrz so the bass is disappointing.
Doesn't matter anyway as I'd be surprised if their gear was accurate at those frequency's, and of course one would just Eq it out if it bothers either audibly or psychologically.
To each their own though, that is the fun part.
I might hear it and I might not. Mid 30's but capacitor whine still bothers me.
 
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Thinking 5-7 of these 4309s (or R3s or M106s) along with a pair of beefy subs would make a very nice multichannel-centric music setup (been geeking out over at QuadraphonicQuad way too much). Using a 4309 as a center channel on its side would work fine?
 

doug s.

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Actually, I firmly believe that the "eternal upgrade cycle" is part of many audiophile's journey - it's an essential component that holds their interest. Buying new gear is in and of itself exciting - reading the reviews, doing the research, setting it up, upgrading other components to match - this is something many actually enjoy.
except for speakers, i've pretty-much stopped chasing the "eternal upgrade cycle" a couple decades ago. i like my equipment, and have enough different types of amps to work with pretty-much any type of speaker - flea-watt amps (both tubed and s/s) for high efficiency speakers, and amps w/enough power and current drive (both tubed and s/s) , to handle pretty-much any difficult load requirements of any speakers.

speakers, regardless of how good they sound, can have such a different presentation, imo; so it's always fun to hear different ones. alas, my budget precludes my experimenting desires quite a bit.

ymmv,

doug s.
 

doug s.

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There is a very clear analysis on that:
index.php

Luckily due to the near-perfect directivity, EQ works wonders with this thing.
and amir stated that, w/double-blind testing he couldn't consistently identify eq'd vs non-eq'd. so, not always do measurements tell the whole tale, imo.

there's one thing that i think distorts (no pun intended, heh!) all the asr speaker evaluations, tho - speakers really need to be evaluated in pairs, when listening. because that's what they're designed for - stereo playback. a speaker could sound much better - or worse - in the stereo configuration it was designed for, compared to listening to just a single speaker in isolation. (unless, perhaps, it's a center-channel speaker? but even then, that should be listened to with its l/r complements.)

doug s.
 

testp

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and amir stated that, w/double-blind testing he couldn't consistently identify eq'd vs non-eq'd. so, not always do measurements tell the whole tale, imo.

there's one thing that i think distorts (no pun intended, heh!) all the asr speaker evaluations, tho - speakers really need to be evaluated in pairs, when listening. because that's what they're designed for - stereo playback. a speaker could sound much better - or worse - in the stereo configuration it was designed for, compared to listening to just a single speaker in isolation. (unless, perhaps, it's a center-channel speaker? but even then, that should be listened to with its l/r complements.)

doug s.
i believe the idea using one speaker is evaluating it's sound source as pure as possible, two will add all different kind of reflections, not to mention every room will add it's own.
no doubt two could make presentation better (for all speakers), but amir has mentioned mono testing pro's vs. stereo con's in his videos and it makes sense
 
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GXAlan

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i believe the idea using one speaker is evaluating it's sound source as pure as possible, two will add all different kind of reflections, not to mention every room will add it's own.
no doubt two could make presentation better (for all speakers), but amir has mentioned mono testing pro's vs. stereo con's in his videos and it makes sense

But you should do both.

Listening in mono lets you identify irregular frequency response better. Plenty of good reason to do that.

Let’s say we have a speaker with A in mono and C+ in mono.

When you listen in stereo, the irregularities can disappear. That makes the A turn into A+ and C+ turn into A-.

The mono versus stereo ranking didn’t change, validating the rationale for testing in mino.

However, what is the worse speaker is 1/10th the price? What if speaker with worse tonality in mono happens to have a lot more bass and in stereo, it gets into “pretty good”?

More data is never wrong. But if you could ONLY test mono or stereo, mono data gives you more information…
 

doug s.

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i've read all the logic about mono vs stereo testing. it might be good to test both stereo and mono. but i strongly disagree that if you could only do one, it should be mono. because the simple fact is no one (or hardly anyone?) listens in mono. it's ridiculous to test only in mono when speakers are never used that way. i think amir is rationalizing, due to the cost of shipping two speakers vs one.

i like asr. but the only time i ever come here for speaker reviews is if it happens to show up on a web search, when i'm looking for info on a particular speaker. it's the last place i'd ever go if i wanted to get outside opinions on speakers. sure, the measurements are interesting. but info on listening to a single speaker is pretty-much useless.

doug s.
 

Chromatischism

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i've read all the logic about mono vs stereo testing. it might be good to test both stereo and mono. but i strongly disagree that if you could only do one, it should be mono. because the simple fact is no one (or hardly anyone?) listens in mono. it's ridiculous to test only in mono when speakers are never used that way. i think amir is rationalizing, due to the cost of shipping two speakers vs one.

i like asr. but the only time i ever come here for speaker reviews is if it happens to show up on a web search, when i'm looking for info on a particular speaker. it's the last place i'd ever go if i wanted to get outside opinions on speakers. sure, the measurements are interesting. but info on listening to a single speaker is pretty-much useless.
All speakers sound better in stereo. But if a speaker is bad in mono, it will still be bad in stereo. With that understanding, there is no need to add more variables and complications to testing. Especially when those perceptions will be impossible to reproduce in others' rooms. Harman went through this years ago and concluded the same.
 

GXAlan

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All speakers sound better in stereo. But if a speaker is bad in mono, it will still be bad in stereo. With that understanding, there is no need to add more variables and complications to testing. Especially when those perceptions will be impossible to reproduce in others' rooms. Harman went through this years ago and concluded the same.

There are averages, but if you look at individual data points, you can see how the spread can change

1702153534993.png
 

doug s.

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All speakers sound better in stereo. But if a speaker is bad in mono, it will still be bad in stereo. With that understanding, there is no need to add more variables and complications to testing. Especially when those perceptions will be impossible to reproduce in others' rooms. Harman went through this years ago and concluded the same.
disagree - a speaker may sound much better in stereo than in mono. and a speaker that may sound good in mono may not sound as good in stereo than another speaker that sounds less good in mono.

and as i said before, i (and most people are interested in how a pair of speakers sound, not how a single speaker sounds.

doug s.
 
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