JBL Conceal C62 Invisible Speaker Review

[Sal1950]

You are joking right? While there are no invisible speaker in this project, there are over 50 Meyer Sound speakers that we hid in the architecture of these cabanas including numerous 18" subs and even a massive Meyer Sound 1100-LFC for the DJ booth. The place is definitely not cold and boring!

I think he refers to the overall cold subjective impression of the room, not its systems sound.
And I completely agree, what a boring room to be in, nothing of visual interest, at least to my eye.
Those vases may be $50k collectables, or $5 Walmart specials, but who knows or cares.
What are those dumb looking ball like things in the repurposed ashtray on the coffee table?
But I do understand that it is a hotel room, not a place where folks actually live, that's obvious.
No thank, you'll never see a room looking like that in my crib.

 

[milosz]

The remarkable thing, my dear Mr. Watson, is not his diction but the fact that the dog speaks English at all......

 

[Mr. Widget]

I think he refers to the overall cold subjective impression of the room, not its systems sound.
And I completely agree, what a boring room to be in, nothing of visual interest, at least to my eye.
Those vases may be $50k collectables, or $5 Walmart specials, but who knows or cares.
What are those dumb looking ball like things in the repurposed ashtray on the coffee table?
But I do understand that it is a hotel room, not a place where folks actually live, that's obvious.
No thank, you'll never see a room looking like that in my crib.

I get it, my point was that if you click on the link to the project you'll see beautiful natural materials, indoor/outdoor living at its finest and not a single speaker, beautiful, ugly or otherwise. Heck there is even a full sized DJ booth that elevates out of the dining room floor when you want to party and it disappears back into the floor when you don't.

 

[amirm]

I think he refers to the overall cold subjective impression of the room, not its systems sound.
And I completely agree, what a boring room to be in, nothing of visual interest, at least to my eye.

Having been in that room, it is anything but cold or boring. It is a waterfront vacation house. 90 degrees from the fireplace is gorgeous views of Puget Sound. That white, understated look is designed to not detract from that expansive views of the water.

 

[Sal1950]

Having been in that room, it is anything but cold or boring.

We'll have to agree to disagree on that, it's a motel room in a beautiful location, plain and simple

 

[Axo1989]

I get it, my point was that if you click on the link to the project you'll see beautiful natural materials, indoor/outdoor living at its finest and not a single speaker, beautiful, ugly or otherwise. Heck there is even a full sized DJ booth that elevates out of the dining room floor when you want to party and it disappears back into the floor when you don't.

One of the great blessings of ASR is the constantly updated and unmoderated stream-of-consciousness commentary from old mate, on all matters of taste, and otherwise.

 

[Axo1989]

Having been in that room, it is anything but cold or boring. It is a waterfront vacation house. 90 degrees from the fireplace is gorgeous views of Puget Sound. That white, understated look is designed to not detract from that expansive views of the water.

Well, half your luck. A nice holiday (or business activity, as the case may be).

 

[valerianf]

@amirm , the published measurements are not reflecting real life performance.
As you said yourself the purchaser of this type of driver does not want to see it.
Thus it means that he will add several layers of painting/sealant on the flat surface that is the membrane!
Then of course the weight of the membrane and may be its flexibility is completely different of the one that was measured.

The only way to try to measure this speaker accurately is to mount it on a wall and to measure the room respons.

 

[amirm]

Then of course the weight of the membrane and may be its flexibility is completely different of the one that was measured.

How do you know it will be "completely different?" And are you claiming it would be much better or much worse?

 

[amirm]

The only way to try to measure this speaker accurately is to mount it on a wall and to measure the room respons.

That would cause room modes to be mistaken for speaker response. You would want to do that to get the correct response but not to measure true response of the speaker.

 

[Thomas_A]

@amirm , the published measurements are not reflecting real life performance.
As you said yourself the purchaser of this type of driver does not want to see it.
Thus it means that he will add several layers of painting/sealant on the flat surface that is the membrane!
Then of course the weight of the membrane and may be its flexibility is completely different of the one that was measured.

The only way to try to measure this speaker accurately is to mount it on a wall and to measure the room respons.

Isn’t this what the manufacturer should publish? After all JBL does it for many other speaker.

 

[GXAlan]

Isn’t this what the manufacturer should publish? After all JBL does it for many other speaker.

Stealth has some rough measurements which I posted. It’s not clear how different these are from the JBL versions. What would be really interesting is if the SDP-75 started to include preprogrammed EQ for these speakers…

 

[JakeK]

People have lost their minds completely these days. This is so cold and boring, it looks like it came from a furniture catalog. They made dedicated space for ugly vases and have nearly empty shelves but no space for beautiful audio gear? I want to see stacks and stacks of electronics, multiple runs or wiring and many, many loudspeakers - all over the place.

I have to agree the style is not my taste. The items they did make wall space for are not what I call beautiful. The amount of cupboards screams utility space and not relaxation. Surely the stuff destined for those cupboards and the cupboards as well belong in a utility/storage room? The fire surround is a brutalist concrete design done in stone and makes me ask why is the TV not above the fire.

With the sofa positioning though, the room is not meant for TV watching only music the background while entertaining so the choice of invisible speakers does seem logical.

I'm interested in more reviews or this type of speaker. On wall speakers are more in my view due to the ease of installation and I've been trying a pair of Dali Oberon on-walls myself. I'd be very interested in measurements of those as well as more high end on-walls. I've been thinking about asking Dali to send some to Amir or if they won't I could send one of mine.

 

[amirm]

The items they did make wall space for are not what I call beautiful. The amount of cupboards screams utility space and not relaxation. Surely the stuff destined for those cupboards and the cupboards as well belong in a utility/storage room?

The house went on sale before it was occupied. As such, what you see there may be staging items by a company contracted with real estate agent.

 

[DanTheMan]

I hope the new owners don’t try to hang a picture on a speaker…

 

[Mr. Widget]

Stealth has some rough measurements which I posted. It’s not clear how different these are from the JBL versions. What would be really interesting is if the SDP-75 started to include preprogrammed EQ for these speakers…

Hopefully JBL brought some of their formidable engineering talent to bear on the problem and didn't just do a rebadging job like Harman did with their Lexicon rebadge of the Oppo BDP-83 back in the day.

Developing accurate DSP filters would be a big bonus. Sonance does this for their speakers with "corrective" filter sets for most of their speakers when using their own DSP amps. They don't have the decades of engineering expertise that JBL/Harman has, but they have been getting more and more advanced over the years. Interestingly, their designs are much better thought out from the installer's perspective. Many of the JBL/Revel CI speakers are not well thought out when it comes to how you wrestle with the speaker while you are on a ladder with screw gun in hand. Perhaps their engineers spend their efforts to cut down on manufacturing costs instead? Not sure.

 

[Mr. Widget]

I hope the new owners don’t try to hang a picture on a speaker…

This is a real problem with invisibles. We always try to install them where the client is not likely to place art, but it does happen and when it does, you cut the speaker out and replace it... this gets very expensive if the wall is finished with a polished Venetian plaster.

 

[tim916]

An old boss I had used to spec Stealth Acoustics into jobs. By far the worst sound I've ever heard. It's great that you can't see speakers, the trade off is the headache you get after playing them for three minutes.

I was able to talk him out of using them for future installs unless the client absolutely insisted on not seeing any evidence of speakers.

 

[amirm]

Hopefully JBL brought some of their formidable engineering talent to bear on the problem and didn't just do a rebadging job like Harman did with their Lexicon rebadge of the Oppo BDP-83 back in the day.

Developing accurate DSP filters would be a big bonus. Sonance does this for their speakers with "corrective" filter sets for most of their speakers when using their own DSP amps

Pretty sure Sonance rebadged a Lexicon multi-channel amp back in the day.

 

[Mr. Widget]

Pretty sure Sonance rebadged a Lexicon multi-channel amp back in the day.

And that is fine, there is lots of rebadging out there... But Harman took an $800 Blueray player, marked it up to $3,000 and said it was made in the USA when it was simply a new billet aluminum face on a stock player.

Hopefully the people responsible at Harman were shown the door.