This is a review, detailed measurements, listening tests and EQ of JBL Conceal C62 "invisible" speaker. It was kindly drop shipped to me by a member and costs $US 660 each.
This category of speaker is used in custom installations where a whole is cut out in the drywall (or whatever material) and speaker is fitted flush into it. It can then be "mudded" and painted, making it totally invisible. As you can imagine, this presents massive challenges for the driver and speaker designer. The C62 seems quite similar to Stealth Audio speaker and seems to be some kind of collaboration given the inclusion of a custom JBL mid-woofer:
The little box on top right is the "magic" handling midrange and tweeter duties.
Speaker frame seems quite substantial, likely due to it being some kind of cast metal (?). It comes with backbox:
Given this configuration, I first decided to measure it like a normal speaker. But then thought the results may not be representative so built a custom baffle for it and measured it that way. The latter assumes the speaker is in an infinite wall with no diffraction losses or interference from back side. The difference turned out to be minimal due to backbox all but silencing the rear wave.
Acoustic center was the center of the speaker.
Note: our company, Madrona Digital is a dealer for JBL and indeed, the owner ordered this through us. I don't personally know if we have sold any of these but do know that we have sold some other speakers of this type. Here is an example of the installation in our old showroom of Amina invisible speakers:
There are actually three speakers around that LCD TV for left, center and right channels in a living room surround system mock up. We would ask people if they could locate the speakers and they would never be able to do it! It was uncanny in that manner and quite a conversation piece.
JBL Conceal C62 Measurements
As usual, we start with our frequency response measurements. Do note however that the concept of "early window" does not quite work here as there are no valid rear reflections:
Yes, I was as shocked as you are. I don't know what I expected but it wasn't something this messy. The front panel likely has multiple modes being activated (which may change when speaker is mudded). As noted, our early window model is not quite accurate but still gives us some idea of off-axis response:
For good or bad, you get similar response to on-axis. Predicted in-room response model is for normal stand-alone speakers so definitely not a fit for C62 but here it is anyway:
Directivity is all over the place:
Power handling was a major issue expectedly in this class. The highest level I could push the speaker without audible distortion during frequency response sweep was 78 dBSPL:
As you see at this level, there are cries of discomfort in bass and midrange frequency range. (The threshold on the left graph is not correct due to much lower playback level.)
JBL Conceal C62 Listening Tests and Equalization
I put the speaker on a stand in my normal far-field listening. Yes, I know it is not the intended application but this is the best I can do. First impression was a wide and diffused image coupled with some brightness and oddness I could not describe to you. Mind you, it was better than I expected. I brought out the EQ tool and attempted the impossible: trying to correct that frequency response by eye:
Working backward, I had to put that high pass filter in order to keep the speaker from breaking up during content with bass response. That also forced me to compromise in other filters in the bass region to keep distortion low. The rest of the corrections are wet thumb in the air. Overall, I managed to get the speaker sound more "normal." The boost in 200 to 300 Hz gave some needed warmth and other filters improved clarity if not the response itself. When done, I still could not get much of my reference tracks to be enjoyable. An automatically generated filter set optimized by ear for distortion would likely work better.
Touching the front of the speaker when playing dynamic content revealed a membrane that is quite flexible. I would say it was easily moving a few millimeters. This is good for dynamic capability but would present challenge as far as mud and paint used. They could easily crack.
Conclusions
Clearly these are not the kind of objective results we like to see a speaker. But how do we judge them when this speaker brings an impossible trick to the table: ability to be completely invisible. That is a huge feature. Indeed, I have been thinking for a while to put a couple on the wall behind our sofa behind us in the living room for surround duty. I would not image putting a grill there for an in wall speaker let alone an actual box speaker. Without having measured other such speakers, hard to know how to rank these speakers. From memory, the Amina speakers we had in our showroom had very limited response and dynamic range (they used an array of small drivers) so likely would lose to the C62.
I can rule out the JBL Conceal C62 for music usage. What it does for surround and EQ, is hard to judge but likely can be made to be acceptable.
------------
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/
This category of speaker is used in custom installations where a whole is cut out in the drywall (or whatever material) and speaker is fitted flush into it. It can then be "mudded" and painted, making it totally invisible. As you can imagine, this presents massive challenges for the driver and speaker designer. The C62 seems quite similar to Stealth Audio speaker and seems to be some kind of collaboration given the inclusion of a custom JBL mid-woofer:
The little box on top right is the "magic" handling midrange and tweeter duties.
Speaker frame seems quite substantial, likely due to it being some kind of cast metal (?). It comes with backbox:
Given this configuration, I first decided to measure it like a normal speaker. But then thought the results may not be representative so built a custom baffle for it and measured it that way. The latter assumes the speaker is in an infinite wall with no diffraction losses or interference from back side. The difference turned out to be minimal due to backbox all but silencing the rear wave.
Acoustic center was the center of the speaker.
Note: our company, Madrona Digital is a dealer for JBL and indeed, the owner ordered this through us. I don't personally know if we have sold any of these but do know that we have sold some other speakers of this type. Here is an example of the installation in our old showroom of Amina invisible speakers:
There are actually three speakers around that LCD TV for left, center and right channels in a living room surround system mock up. We would ask people if they could locate the speakers and they would never be able to do it! It was uncanny in that manner and quite a conversation piece.
JBL Conceal C62 Measurements
As usual, we start with our frequency response measurements. Do note however that the concept of "early window" does not quite work here as there are no valid rear reflections:
Yes, I was as shocked as you are. I don't know what I expected but it wasn't something this messy. The front panel likely has multiple modes being activated (which may change when speaker is mudded). As noted, our early window model is not quite accurate but still gives us some idea of off-axis response:
For good or bad, you get similar response to on-axis. Predicted in-room response model is for normal stand-alone speakers so definitely not a fit for C62 but here it is anyway:
Directivity is all over the place:
Power handling was a major issue expectedly in this class. The highest level I could push the speaker without audible distortion during frequency response sweep was 78 dBSPL:
As you see at this level, there are cries of discomfort in bass and midrange frequency range. (The threshold on the left graph is not correct due to much lower playback level.)
JBL Conceal C62 Listening Tests and Equalization
I put the speaker on a stand in my normal far-field listening. Yes, I know it is not the intended application but this is the best I can do. First impression was a wide and diffused image coupled with some brightness and oddness I could not describe to you. Mind you, it was better than I expected. I brought out the EQ tool and attempted the impossible: trying to correct that frequency response by eye:
Working backward, I had to put that high pass filter in order to keep the speaker from breaking up during content with bass response. That also forced me to compromise in other filters in the bass region to keep distortion low. The rest of the corrections are wet thumb in the air. Overall, I managed to get the speaker sound more "normal." The boost in 200 to 300 Hz gave some needed warmth and other filters improved clarity if not the response itself. When done, I still could not get much of my reference tracks to be enjoyable. An automatically generated filter set optimized by ear for distortion would likely work better.
Touching the front of the speaker when playing dynamic content revealed a membrane that is quite flexible. I would say it was easily moving a few millimeters. This is good for dynamic capability but would present challenge as far as mud and paint used. They could easily crack.
Conclusions
Clearly these are not the kind of objective results we like to see a speaker. But how do we judge them when this speaker brings an impossible trick to the table: ability to be completely invisible. That is a huge feature. Indeed, I have been thinking for a while to put a couple on the wall behind our sofa behind us in the living room for surround duty. I would not image putting a grill there for an in wall speaker let alone an actual box speaker. Without having measured other such speakers, hard to know how to rank these speakers. From memory, the Amina speakers we had in our showroom had very limited response and dynamic range (they used an array of small drivers) so likely would lose to the C62.
I can rule out the JBL Conceal C62 for music usage. What it does for surround and EQ, is hard to judge but likely can be made to be acceptable.
------------
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/
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