JBL 705P / 708P

[Soniclife]

I will at some point try and record it, it sounds a bit nasty . Unlike soft “hiss” .

Does it do it on the digital input?

 

[Thomas savage]

Does it do it on the digital input?

It does it with nothing but the power lead connected, Iv not tried the digital connection but can’t see how that would attenuate this noise as it’s origin is the speaker.

I can try and select digital input on the back rather than analog..

Still there.

 

[SPFC]

Ah the sound, they sound like small monitors. Great for desktop use I’d imagen, fairly bright out the box but clean and detailed and They image really well. As for using them as fronts for tv Audio they are a little inadequate even in my modest room ( 4 meters by 6 ish) , they just don’t throw a big enough sound but they are small and do make ‘sense’ with my 40” screen in my small room just more scale would be my preference . You’d need the 708’s for a substantial movie/tv setup certainly as your fronts .

If you want a meaty pair of small but high performing monitors I’d suggest these are worth a listen.

What they are not is terrible cold anti music devices that destroy all feeling, in their own scaled down way they convey what’s on a record in as accurate a fashion as one could wish. If the emotion is on the recording and your used to relating to that its likely these JBL’s won’t deny you the pleasure.

They are setup in my tv room, not plugged them into my main system and I get the feeling they can be driven much harder than the little arcam ir DAC2 that I’m using right now.

Can’t plug them into the main system as the rca-xlr cables were shipped the wrong length

( I know, all the shit falls on my head right)

Thanks for posting your impressions. From what I have read (mostly from the 705i) I was not expecting them to sound small. The perceived brightness is something I was more concerned with, having heard other JBL design with similar style wavegards (JBL 4367s).

 

[Thomas savage]

Thanks for posting your impressions. From what I have read (mostly from the 705i) I was not expecting them to sound small. The perceived brightness is something I was more concerned with, having heard other JBL design with similar style wavegards (JBL 4367s).

I’m used to listening to a pair of vivid G3’s so these jbl’s Sound small because they are but they kick out still right up to maximum volume on my arcam ir dac2. There’s no fatigue in them, it’s just a scale thing. Iv found people go a little over the top praising small speakers regarding scale , a small box is a small box.

If I listen to my vivids Iv really no idea the music is coming from some drivers in the weird looking leprechaun things in front of me, the only other speakers Iv had that with is other vivids the Devialet phantom . To me everything else Iv heard sounds boxy to varying degrees.

The jbl’s Can sound tinny and the drivers can seem like they are not intergrated it’s weird but raising the level of the speaker so the tweeter is parallel to your ear this disappears. Iv found they are best if the tweeter is slightly above your ear level and they are crossed a few inches in front of your nose. Other than that you’ve got user EQ settings so tune to taste.

They image fantastically within their presentation field, il know more when I get them into my main listening room.

They dump all over my old proac D1 stand mounts that are the same size, if you have £2000 for some speakers and a amp Id listen to these. Personally I think a pair of elac b5’s and a decent amp would do just as well, in fact you could buy a computer run all the room correction and dsp you want buy some elacs and some decent amps and have change.

Just don’t come back here as if you don’t own any pro gear the guys won’t play nice with you (joke)

 

[Sylafari]

Does your JBL 705P hiss when nothing is being played?

 

[oivavoi]

The perceived brightness is something I was more concerned with, having heard other JBL design with similar style wavegards (JBL 4367s).

The jbl’s Can sound tinny and the drivers can seem like they are not intergrated it’s weird but raising the level of the speaker so the tweeter is parallel to your ear this disappears. Iv found they are best if the tweeter is slightly above your ear level and they are crossed a few inches in front of your nose.

This is really interesting. The "passive" version with external DSP/amps was reviewed a bit over a year ago by the Swedish Ljudtekniska sällskapet (audio engineering society) in their magazine. Their review was quite brutal, actually. When I read it, I almost struggled to take it seriously, it appeared silly to me. Seemed to me that either the reviewers were biased in some way, or there could have been something wrong with the DSP settings. But their main concern was exactly a certain "tinniness" (or something like that) in the treble. They also said that this was position dependent, they perceived it in certain positions but not in others.

Given that you have the same impression, maybe there is something to it? Can it be a slight horn/waveguide coloration that people who are not used to horns/waveguides are more sensitive to hearing than people who are used to horns?

 

[Thomas savage]

This is really interesting. The "passive" version with external DSP/amps was reviewed a bit over a year ago by the Swedish Ljudtekniska sällskapet (audio engineering society) in their magazine. Their review was quite brutal, actually. When I read it, I almost struggled to take it seriously, it appeared silly to me. Seemed to me that either the reviewers were biased in some way, or there could have been something wrong with the DSP settings. But their main concern was exactly a certain "tinniness" (or something like that) in the treble. They also said that this was position dependent, they perceived it in certain positions but not in others.

Given that you have the same impression, maybe there is something to it? Can it be a slight horn/waveguide coloration that people who are not used to horns/waveguides are more sensitive to hearing than people who are used to horns?

It’s got to be something to do with the driver integration at MLP and how the waveguide effects that as Iv never expirence anything like it. Yes there can be tonal discrepancy’s off axis with speakers but not like what you get with these JBL.

Set them up properly and this is not a issue, I’m intrested in learning what’s going on to create this phenomenon all the same.

 

[Thomas savage]

Hopefully there’s no reflections of my naked form in the tv ( forum joke )

Enjoying streaming 320kb mp3, glad to get the speakers off those frankly terrible isoacoustic stands.they were the wrong hight and the longer poles to correct that leave you with speakers wobbling all over the shop. Bizarre, maybe having unstable stands is good? I thought that was a bad idea, not sure why they are so well regarded.

Heavy stands filled with iron filings , speakers stuck down with frank tac

Two things getting these speakers and using the arcam dac has told me is, streaming is so convenient and having big amps stuck out in your room is unnecessary.

I’d be happy with this sound as my reference if I could scale it up, it’s toally bonkers having all that gear in my hifi room. Bonkers and needlessly expensive, damn!

 

[jtwrace]

If you like them you better not listen to the M2's.

 

[Frank Dernie]

View attachment 10162

Hopefully there’s no reflections of my naked form in the tv ( forum joke )

Enjoying streaming 320kb mp3, glad to get the speakers off those frankly terrible isoacoustic stands.they were the wrong hight and the longer poles to correct that leave you with speakers wobbling all over the shop. Bizarre, maybe having unstable stands is good? I thought that was a bad idea, not sure why they are so well regarded.

Heavy stands filled with iron filings , speakers stuck down with frank tac

Two things getting these speakers and using the arcam dac has told me is, streaming is so convenient and having big amps stuck out in your room is unnecessary.

I’d be happy with this sound as my reference if I could scale it up, it’s toally bonkers having all that gear in my hifi room. Bonkers and needlessly expensive, damn!

What sort of stands are best depends on what you want. Spiked stands actually couple the speaker to the floor and may well make it act as a nice extra bass resonator.
Isolators which isolate over the full audio range need to have a static deflection of around 1" when loaded by the item to be isolated. This always makes the things wobbly and give scary deflections due to impact like low frequency excitation, like walking by on a suspended floor.
Bluetak may damp some cabinet resonance, depending where it is.
Nothing is "rigid" over the full range of audio frequencies, and making things stiffer is as likely to be detrimental as beneficial.

 

[Blumlein 88]

View attachment 10162

Hopefully there’s no reflections of my naked form in the tv ( forum joke )

Enjoying streaming 320kb mp3, glad to get the speakers off those frankly terrible isoacoustic stands.they were the wrong hight and the longer poles to correct that leave you with speakers wobbling all over the shop. Bizarre, maybe having unstable stands is good? I thought that was a bad idea, not sure why they are so well regarded.

Heavy stands filled with iron filings , speakers stuck down with frank tac

Two things getting these speakers and using the arcam dac has told me is, streaming is so convenient and having big amps stuck out in your room is unnecessary.

I’d be happy with this sound as my reference if I could scale it up, it’s toally bonkers having all that gear in my hifi room. Bonkers and needlessly expensive, damn!

Okay, I only see a naked foot. You're much more modest than Ray.

 

[watchnerd]

I paid for the Sound on Sound review by Phil Ward. It's a lengthy and thorough review with lots of measurements, well worth the $1.49 via PayPal if one is seriously interested in these speakers.

Here is the "Final Thoughts":

"When I first unpacked the 705P I had high hopes. I have a thing for compact monitors that are well put together and have some engineering tradition and integrity behind them. Overall, I found the 705P slightly disappointing — if JBL could fix its mid‑range coloration things would be completely different, but as it stands, to my ears the 705P imprints too much of its own character on music for it to be an entirely satisfactory mix tool. The 708P, however, is a much more interesting prospect. It still has some quirks of tonal balance and slight coloration, but its no‑nonsense, wide‑bandwidth, low‑distortion and high‑volume personality seems to me exactly what JBL is about. I can imagine numerous dance or electronic music studios, where volume levels can get high and the workload is unrelenting, where the 708P would be in its element. If that’s your kind of scenario, you should add the 708P to the list of interesting monitors."

 

[Thomas savage]

I paid for the Sound on Sound review by Phil Ward. It's a lengthy and thorough review with lots of measurements, well worth the $1.49 via PayPal if one is seriously interested in these speakers.

Here is the "Final Thoughts":

"When I first unpacked the 705P I had high hopes. I have a thing for compact monitors that are well put together and have some engineering tradition and integrity behind them. Overall, I found the 705P slightly disappointing — if JBL could fix its mid‑range coloration things would be completely different, but as it stands, to my ears the 705P imprints too much of its own character on music for it to be an entirely satisfactory mix tool. The 708P, however, is a much more interesting prospect. It still has some quirks of tonal balance and slight coloration, but its no‑nonsense, wide‑bandwidth, low‑distortion and high‑volume personality seems to me exactly what JBL is about. I can imagine numerous dance or electronic music studios, where volume levels can get high and the workload is unrelenting, where the 708P would be in its element. If that’s your kind of scenario, you should add the 708P to the list of interesting monitors."

I hooked them up in my hifi room on known equipment etc for me they definitely have a bloom like colouring in the mid range..

Over all they are ‘ok’ . Builds a bit poor , there’s noise coming from the cabinet on some stuff and the blu tak I stuck them down with pulled the finish off the bottom of the speaker..

I’m wishing I bought the dynaudio LYD7 and the sub that’s matches them perfectly with on board dsp.

Still it’s been enlightening, for me there’s definitely no reason to have big heavy expensive amps nor is there any good reason to have big expensive DAC’s or in my case CDP.

 

[oivavoi]

So what you're in fact saying, if I understand you correctly... is that the blu tak isn't enough to fix it?

 

[Blumlein 88]

I hooked them up in my hifi room on known equipment etc for me they definitely have a bloom like colouring in the mid range..

Over all they are ‘ok’ . Builds a bit poor , there’s noise coming from the cabinet on some stuff and the blu tak I stuck them down with pulled the finish off the bottom of the speaker..

I’m wishing I bought the dynaudio LYD7 and the sub that’s matches them perfectly with on board dsp.

Still it’s been enlightening, for me there’s definitely no reason to have big heavy expensive amps nor is there any good reason to have big expensive DAC’s or in my case CDP.

That is unfortunate to hear. Thomas do you have any way to measure the response in your room? Using something like REW. Just curious if any response anomalies are obvious. And also, don't these have the ability for some contouring built into them? The bands of EQ built in. Wondering if you can fix the bloom using that if you know what the response is.

 

[Thomas savage]

So what you're in fact saying, if I understand you correctly... is that the blu tak isn't enough to fix it?

I can’t get rid of the colouration , but the finish on the speaker came off when I took the blu tak off lol

They are ok for the tv and streaming 320 mp3 but then so would the much cheaper dynaudio speaker .

 

[Thomas savage]

That is unfortunate to hear. Thomas do you have any way to measure the response in your room? Using something like REW. Just curious if any response anomalies are obvious. And also, don't these have the ability for some contouring built into them? The bands of EQ built in. Wondering if you can fix the bloom using that if you know what the response is.

Yea they have EQ settings, but with no in room measurement I’d be guessing so did not bother plus I’m not sure that “boxy” sound really shows up in a measurement? They are setup as ‘flat’ so I’d think JBL don’t feel there’s any colouration .

I did use the base management to cut them at 60hz as Iv got subs in my room, they do have some presets on the room EQ side but no description of what they are.. no manual came with them. ( probably I can get one on-line but )

In the main I find JBL cheap and nasty tbh I thought their pro gear would be better, especially as these are fairly expensive but no though you can hammer them without issue ( other than noise in the cabinet)

Maybe the 708 is better and these are just a little too ‘ try hard’ for the size, still there’s no way I’d buy anything else made by JBL.

I don’t think they get on with my belles pre amp, it’s very high output seems to create issues with some stuff.

I must get a laptop ( Iv got a measurement mic lol) so I can post some squiggly lines of my own. Save all the subjective bs.

 

[oivavoi]

This "midrange bloom", or whatever, sounds to me like the kind of "chesty" sound I have experienced from some horn systems with compression drivers. Some people like it and claim that it sounds more real to them. I'm not sure. Traditional hifi drivers sound more smooth to my ears, and ultimately more fidelitous.

 

[Blumlein 88]

Yea they have EQ settings, but with no in room measurement I’d be guessing so did not bother plus I’m not sure that “boxy” sound really shows up in a measurement? They are setup as ‘flat’ so I’d think JBL don’t feel there’s any colouration .

I did use the base management to cut them at 60hz as Iv got subs in my room, they do have some presets on the room EQ side but no description of what they are.. no manual came with them. ( probably I can get one on-line but )

In the main I find JBL cheap and nasty tbh I thought their pro gear would be better, especially as these are fairly expensive but no though you can hammer them without issue ( other than noise in the cabinet)

Maybe the 708 is better and these are just a little too ‘ try hard’ for the size, still there’s no way I’d buy anything else made by JBL.

I don’t think they get on with my belles pre amp, it’s very high output seems to create issues with some stuff.

I must get a laptop ( Iv got a measurement mic lol) so I can post some squiggly lines of my own. Save all the subjective bs.

You can get the manual here.

http://www.jblpro.com/ProductAttachments/7PSeries-OwnersManual-060217.pdf

I don't blame you from your difficulties getting them, getting them so you could use them, and the other issues described.

They should work okay with a high output preamp. The +4dbu setting should give 20 db of headroom above that level. Or inputs up to 11 volts in other words.

Looking at the manual some well chosen PEQ's should allow you to adjust to taste. Also, with the experience you have had, you might wish to check the settings on the EQ and PEQ's. Maybe they aren't set to flat.

 

[Purité Audio]

Compression drivers don’t have to sound anything, as always depends upon the driver and how it is used, ime multiple drivers used within the flattest part of their response works pretty well, also front loaded horns if you have the space.
Keith