JBL HDI-3600 Speaker Review

[dinglehoser]

A bit of an incomplete set of measurements (at least by ASR standards - it's still excellent overall), but initial eyeball, pretty similar to the 3600s, except with a port tuning of around 32Hz (down from 39Hz) and maybe 1dB of extra sensitivity (plus an extra 1dB or so worth of add'l power handling per spec). Maybe a touch more treble energy on-axis.

 

[Sal1950]

@amirm, this reminds me that I seem to remember you saying you also had a 3800 coming in to measure. Is so could you maybe run a quick set of measurements with and without the grill in place. I would be very interesting to see how detrimental the grills are to performance.. Maybe on a few of the next reviews also if it's not too much trouble.
TIA

 

[amirm]

@amirm, this reminds me that I seem to remember you saying you also had a 3800 coming in to measure. Is so could you maybe run a quick set of measurements with and without the grill in place. I would be very interesting to see how detrimental the grills are to performance.. Maybe on a few of the next reviews also if it's not too much trouble.
TIA

That person switched to a Revel instead.

 

[MZKM]

@amirm, this reminds me that I seem to remember you saying you also had a 3800 coming in to measure. Is so could you maybe run a quick set of measurements with and without the grill in place. I would be very interesting to see how detrimental the grills are to performance.. Maybe on a few of the next reviews also if it's not too much trouble.
TIA

I’ve measured my own speakers and Audioholics has an article showing how some grilles are much worse than others. Theirs and mine were on-axis, I’m curious how the Spinormama would be altered.

These were mine 1m away:

These are at the seating position (12ft):

 

[tomstoll]

how are you liking the walnut finish?
i didnt like the way the greys looked in person and the blacks looked very plasticky.

process of elimination leaves the walnut i guess.

Got my new speaker system delivered on Tues night and have been spending the last few days unboxing and setting things up. I had initially brought in a pair of HDI-1600s but decided to go with something that would have some stronger full range dynamics. I returned the pair of 1600s for 4 HDI-3600 and the HDI-4500 center channel. IMHO the system sounds amazing, too bad I can't hang 4 more from the ceiling for Atmos but I'm afraid the structure would never hold it. (nor my wallet LOL) As soon as I get things more settled I'll do a full update of my system on my personal systems thread and give a heads-up on this thread.
https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/sals-system.614/
Just a teaser,
View attachment 66415

 

[Sal1950]

how are you liking the walnut finish?
i didnt like the way the greys looked in person and the blacks looked very plasticky.

I like the finish very much.
I was a bit surprised in the very open grain structure of the wood, I expected it to be a bit smoother but not disappointed in any way.
I knew exactly what I was getting when I ordered the 3600s, I had 2 1600s for review before them that I returned.
If you saw the greys I imagine the finish surface is the same.
I'm not into piano black, it shows every fingerprint and spot of dust. Plus like a shiny black car, if you not careful in the extreme, they show surface scratches after a very short time from even light dusting.

 

[tomstoll]

I like the finish very much.
I was a bit surprised in the very open grain structure of the wood, I expected it to be a bit smoother but not disappointed in any way.
I knew exactly what I was getting when I ordered the 3600s, I had 2 1600s for review before them that I returned.
If you saw the greys I imagine the finish surface is the same.
I'm not into piano black, it shows every fingerprint and spot of dust. Plus like a shiny black car, if you not careful in the extreme, they show surface scratches after a very short time from even light dusting.

great. im looking forward to the walnut finish. the black are so shiny that im afraid to look at them or they might get scratched.

 

[Head_Unit]

...It is a nice engineering feat to produce small bookshelv speakers that extends to 30 hz it looks nice on paper but is meaningless as they never provide enough output in the bass anyway

THAT is a very true point. Fielder and Benjamin wrote a paper about essentially that point-if you can't generate enough SPL at a given bass frequency, you literally cannot hear it due to Fletcher-Munson and it is useless. Still valid to tune low to avoid bottoming, though 40 Hz is low enough I'd say.

 

[miike888]

That person switched to a Revel instead.

and that Revel will be measured?

//Mike

 

[Juhazi]

Larson did a ground plane measurement of bass HD-38000

My guess is that HD-3600 is almost same, just with higher distortion. Amir's NFS measurement looks different

 

[MasterMech]

I am not going to pretend I understand all this technical insight in this thread & trying to understand it all has probably confused me further

So I will be honest, I have just been offered a pair of the HDI-3600's for $2400 from my dealer. They are ex display but I have looked them over & they are immaculate.

Are these worth buying or not worth it due to the issues brought up in this thread?

 

[Absolute]

For that price it's a steal. Can't think of anything at that size around the same price I'd rather consider.

 

[Sal1950]

Are these worth buying or not worth it due to the issues brought up in this thread?

Grab em while you can, mine are awesome!

 

[MasterMech]

Vertically there is a narrow sweet spot if you sit with 2 to 3 height of the speaker. So be sure to experiment with that and tilt the speaker up a bit if you need.

Just to clarify I will be sitting around 2.5 meters away from the speaker so I should not experience the vertical dispersion issue?

 

[tuga]

Just to clarify I will be sitting around 2.5 meters away from the speaker so I should not experience the vertical dispersion issue?

The vertical dispersion issue depends on listener to speaker distance and ceiling height combined but long as you sit on axis you're reasonably fine.
Don't get too caught up in this vertical dispersion stuff otherwise you're not going to settle for anything other than a coax MT.

 

[Sal1950]

coax MT

???

 

[tuga]

???

Mid-Tweeter.

 

[Valentin R]

 

[Sal1950]

Mid-Tweeter.

Duh,
Sorry, Repercussions of a misspent youth

 

[Sal1950]

View attachment 83001

Hey, who stole my speakers
Very nice, so how do you like them?