This is a review and detailed measurements of the JBL Stage A180. I only paid $200 for the pair on sale including free shipping! Normal price I think is $400.
They were delivered via truck and are quite substantial as budget speakers go. I like the look of the white woofers. There are dual ports in the back.
This is a 2.5-way design with upper woofer playing to a higher frequency than the lower one.
Note: our company, Madrona Digital, carries Harman line (parent company of JBL). While we don't carry or sell JBL home speakers, I thought I mention this as any source of bias you want to read into my assessment.
Measurements that you are about to see were performed using the Klippel Near-field Scanner (NFS). This is a robotic measurement system that analyzes the speaker all around and is able (using advanced mathematics and dual scan) to subtract room reflections (so where I measure it doesn't matter). It also measures the speaker at close distance ("near-field") which sharply reduces the impact of room noise. Both of these factors enable testing in ordinary rooms yet results that can be more accurate than an anechoic chamber. In a nutshell, the measurements show the actual sound coming out of the speaker independent of the room.
Reference axis is approximately the center of the tweeter.
JBL A180 Measurements
As usual we start with our "spin" graph:
Stepping back, the on-axis response in black looks pretty reasonable. There are a couple of peaks that stand out in mid frequencies and a giant one around 15 kHz. Typical of tower speakers, sensitivity is good bit better than a bookshelf speaker. Bass response is quite extended with F10 (-10 dB point) around 35 Hz!
Early window reflections are not very predictable though:
Combined though, the predicted in-room response is pretty smooth:
However there is too little slope so likely will sound bright.
Back to mid-frequency disturbances, we see the reason in near-field measurements:
The circled area is a mess of many sources of sound. There is cabinet/port resonance, peaking from the second woofer, and resonance from the bottom woofer.
Distortion at 86 dBSPL is kept very much in check but things go crazy in that overlapped region at 96 dBSPL:
With our hearing being most sensitive in 2 to 5 kHz, that is the last place you want added distortion. Fortunately there is a peak there so we can pull that down a bit but still.
Our impedance graph and CSD show a number of resonances:
It is not all bad news. Directivity and beam width are quite good:
Vertically response narrows due to dual woofers causing interference pattern between them:
This is likely the reason for the messier early window response.
Here is the step response for fans of that:
JBL A180 Listening Tests
First impression was that of piercing highs, an effect that would not go away. I tried a bunch of EQ filters but I could not tame it without also destroying the high frequency response. It may be fixable but went way beyond what I could do in half hour indicating a complex problem (as we already know from the measurements). The high distortion may also be a factor here. It is a shame as ability to play deep bass was very good. What's more, you get a spacious image and that that nice sound you get out of a larger sound source. In these respects, the A180 is superior to bookshelf speakers.
Conclusions
On sale, these speakers are incredible bargains. $200 for a pair? Speaker does a lot of things right but that 2.5 way design is causing problems in upper midrange, lower treble. Is it worth it? I don't know. If you are not sensitive to high frequency brightness, then this is a very good speaker to consider at bargain price. You get bass that you simply can't get out of any budget speaker. But for someone like me who is very sensitive to extra brightness, it is a no go.
I can't recommend the JBL A180. It is tough to say this but I just can't. If I recommend something, I like the chances to be 90% you will like it and I can't be assured of this.
-----------
As always, questions, comments, recommendations, etc. are welcome.
Any donations are much appreciated using: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/how-to-support-audio-science-review.8150/
They were delivered via truck and are quite substantial as budget speakers go. I like the look of the white woofers. There are dual ports in the back.
This is a 2.5-way design with upper woofer playing to a higher frequency than the lower one.
Note: our company, Madrona Digital, carries Harman line (parent company of JBL). While we don't carry or sell JBL home speakers, I thought I mention this as any source of bias you want to read into my assessment.
Measurements that you are about to see were performed using the Klippel Near-field Scanner (NFS). This is a robotic measurement system that analyzes the speaker all around and is able (using advanced mathematics and dual scan) to subtract room reflections (so where I measure it doesn't matter). It also measures the speaker at close distance ("near-field") which sharply reduces the impact of room noise. Both of these factors enable testing in ordinary rooms yet results that can be more accurate than an anechoic chamber. In a nutshell, the measurements show the actual sound coming out of the speaker independent of the room.
Reference axis is approximately the center of the tweeter.
JBL A180 Measurements
As usual we start with our "spin" graph:
Stepping back, the on-axis response in black looks pretty reasonable. There are a couple of peaks that stand out in mid frequencies and a giant one around 15 kHz. Typical of tower speakers, sensitivity is good bit better than a bookshelf speaker. Bass response is quite extended with F10 (-10 dB point) around 35 Hz!
Early window reflections are not very predictable though:
Combined though, the predicted in-room response is pretty smooth:
However there is too little slope so likely will sound bright.
Back to mid-frequency disturbances, we see the reason in near-field measurements:
The circled area is a mess of many sources of sound. There is cabinet/port resonance, peaking from the second woofer, and resonance from the bottom woofer.
Distortion at 86 dBSPL is kept very much in check but things go crazy in that overlapped region at 96 dBSPL:
With our hearing being most sensitive in 2 to 5 kHz, that is the last place you want added distortion. Fortunately there is a peak there so we can pull that down a bit but still.
Our impedance graph and CSD show a number of resonances:
It is not all bad news. Directivity and beam width are quite good:
Vertically response narrows due to dual woofers causing interference pattern between them:
This is likely the reason for the messier early window response.
Here is the step response for fans of that:
JBL A180 Listening Tests
First impression was that of piercing highs, an effect that would not go away. I tried a bunch of EQ filters but I could not tame it without also destroying the high frequency response. It may be fixable but went way beyond what I could do in half hour indicating a complex problem (as we already know from the measurements). The high distortion may also be a factor here. It is a shame as ability to play deep bass was very good. What's more, you get a spacious image and that that nice sound you get out of a larger sound source. In these respects, the A180 is superior to bookshelf speakers.
Conclusions
On sale, these speakers are incredible bargains. $200 for a pair? Speaker does a lot of things right but that 2.5 way design is causing problems in upper midrange, lower treble. Is it worth it? I don't know. If you are not sensitive to high frequency brightness, then this is a very good speaker to consider at bargain price. You get bass that you simply can't get out of any budget speaker. But for someone like me who is very sensitive to extra brightness, it is a no go.
I can't recommend the JBL A180. It is tough to say this but I just can't. If I recommend something, I like the chances to be 90% you will like it and I can't be assured of this.
-----------
As always, questions, comments, recommendations, etc. are welcome.
Any donations are much appreciated using: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/how-to-support-audio-science-review.8150/