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JBL MA7100HP AV Receiver Review

Rate this AVR:

  • 1. Poor (headless panther)

    Votes: 77 36.8%
  • 2. Not terrible (postman panther)

    Votes: 117 56.0%
  • 3. Fine (happy panther)

    Votes: 13 6.2%
  • 4. Great (golfing panther)

    Votes: 2 1.0%

  • Total voters
    209

amirm

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This is a review and detailed measurements of the JBL MA7100HP 7.2/5.2.2 home theater AVR with support for 8K over HDMI. It was kindly drop shipped by a member and costs US $1,200.
JBL MH7100HP 7.2-channel AV receiver AVR 8K Dolby Atmos HDMI Amplifier review.jpg

The industrial design is absolutely stunning! JBL goes from mundane to top of the heap with a massive gap between it and #2! The front has sheet of glass (or is it plastic?) and is even lit with orange color that shines below. Unlike models below it, it has a large color display. It is easy to use but it does have some problem. The input control spins faster than the graphics can keep up. It is usable but either having a stiffer input selector or faster CPU response would have been nice. Volume level sadly is tiny as you see. There is plenty of space for it to be much, much larger.

Another annoying thing is that it applies processing to the inputs to convert to surround. You can defeat this but as soon as you power cycle it, it goes back to default! Many times I would get no sound, only to realize it had gone from "Native" back to the surround mode.

I always upgrade the firmware before testing these devices. To my disappointed, even though the unit was on the network, it only gave me the option of USB firmware upgrade! I could not believe it but went about my business. About 10 minutes later, I look at the display and it is downloading an update and proceeding to reboot and such! All on its own. Worse yet, the upgrade takes a long time, probably 15 to 25 minutes. Pretty bad experience for a first time user who might get the family around the new gear, start playing a movie and have it go through this cycle unannounced.

The OSD (on screen display) is primitive black and white in low resolution but doesn't matter as it is just duplicating what is on the front panel. There are not that many settings to mess with which is fine with me.

The back side shows simplicity as it should be in a modern AVR:
JBL MH7100HP 7.2-channel AV receiver AVR 8K Dolby Atmos HDMI Amplifier back panel remote contr...jpg

Few need more inputs than this. We get ease of connectivity as you don't have spend time reading the labels in the back and possibly hooking up things to the wrong jacks. They could have done away with Zone 2 as well as in this day and age, people are not relying on that for sound in other rooms. Notice the pretty white remote.

Another major deviation here is use of both switching power supply and class D amplification. As a result, while not paper light, the MA7100 weighs much less than typical AVR.

Dirac room EQ is optional which is nice to have. Note that I have heard that two sub outputs are connected to each other and not independent.

NOTE: I am founder of Madrona Digital which in its custom integration business (non-retail) is a dealer for Harman products which includes JBL line (although I am not sure if we can source this specific line). Please keep this in mind as you read my subjective comments.

Due to lack of pre-out, I focused on testing the unit as all in one with speaker output as the sole means of measuring the output.

JBL MA7100HP AVR Measurements
I couldn't wait to bring up the dashboard to see how the unit performs:

JBL MH7100HP 7.2-channel AV receiver AVR 8K Dolby Atmos Toslink Input Measurements.png

While not horrible, this is below average for all amplifiers tested and AVRs for that matter:
best 8k atmos AVR Review.png


The lackluster performance is due to both noise and distortion. You can see the contributions from the former:
JBL MH7100HP 7.2-channel AV receiver AVR 8K Dolby Atmos HDMI Amplifier SNR Measurements.png


We can't even do 16 bit dynamic range (96 dB) at max power?

Multitone test shows the contributions on distortion front:
JBL MH7100HP 7.2-channel AV receiver AVR 8K Dolby Atmos HDMI Amplifier Multitone Measurements.png

And noise with elevated floor of the graph.

Frequency response test shows multiple things:
JBL MH7100HP 7.2-channel AV receiver AVR 8K Dolby Atmos HDMI Amplifier frequency response Meas...png

We see the classic roll off at 4 ohm due to load dependency of Class D amplifier design in the unit. It also shows a sharp cut off, indicating that input is always resampled to 44.1 or 48 kHz. This "helps" reduce the frequency dependency as it truncates the continued potential peaking at 8 ohm. Analog input is likewise digitized to same manner.

There is healthy amount of power:
JBL MH7100HP 7.2-channel AV receiver AVR 8K Dolby Atmos HDMI Amplifier Power 4 ohm Measurements.png

Comparing to its higher-end sibling (Arcam), there is no noise but also earlier rise in distortion.

The amplifier has internal limiter, not allowing it to clip. You can keep cranking up the volume and it doesn't matter. Because of this, the max power is the same as what we see above, more or less:
JBL MH7100HP 7.2-channel AV receiver AVR 8K Dolby Atmos HDMI Amplifier Max and Peak Power 4 oh...png


I have a new measurement for you that kind of follows FTC rule. I measure max power at 1% at 1 kHz, and then sweep 20 kHz to 20 Hz to see if the amplifier can maintain that:
JBL MH7100HP 7.2-channel AV receiver AVR 8K Dolby Atmos HDMI Amplifier FTC Power 4 ohm Measure...png

As you see, the amplifier went into protection at 63 Hz. I was surprised at this since at 1 kHz, it was very robust. While not much of a problem in practice, in testing with dummy load the amplifier created mechanical noise corresponding to input signal that was the loudest I have heard. Even wearing IEMs at 1 meter I could hear it singing! In real use the sound coming out of the speaker would mask it but still, this is excessive. While some switching amplifiers do this, they usually do it at or near max power. The JBL did this even at 5 watts from what I call (of course not as loud).

We have good bit of power at 8 ohm:
JBL MH7100HP 7.2-channel AV receiver AVR 8K Dolby Atmos HDMI Amplifier Power 8 ohm Measurements.png


Spec is 125 watts which likely includes a bit of clipping I excluded.

The high level of noise masks some levels of distortion leaving us with a picture that is still not something to be super proud of:
JBL MH7100HP 7.2-channel AV receiver AVR 8K Dolby Atmos HDMI Amplifier Power 4 ohm vs frequenc...png


Amplifier was stable on power up:
JBL MH7100HP 7.2-channel AV receiver AVR 8K Dolby Atmos Warm Up Measurements.png


The top of the enclosure is far from the heatsinks so you can't judge the internal temperature by touching it (which was just warm). So let's peer into it using our thermal camera:
JBL MH7100HP 7.2-channel AV receiver AVR 8K Dolby Atmos HDMI Amplifier thermal heat Measurements.jpg


20 degree rise is not bad given how much I pushed the AVR during testing.

JBL MA7100HP Phono Stage Measurements
Here is the dashboard but please keep in mind that I normally don't include an amplifier for phono stage testing:

JBL MH7100HP 7.2-channel AV receiver AVR 8K Dolby Atmos HDMI Phono stage Measurements.png


Looking at right side of the signal in FFT, we see flattening of the curve indicating that the amplifier is adding noise to phono stage. Wonderful showing in frequency response test though:
JBL MH7100HP 7.2-channel AV receiver AVR 8K Dolby Atmos HDMI Phono stage frequency response Me...png


Conclusions
JBL has made massive strides in look and feel of the MA7100HP leaving its competition -- including its own -- in the dust. It is absolutely gorgeous to look at and for the most part, to use. Their target was lower performance levels and sadly, that is what they deliver. Performance is not terrible but nothing an enthusiast can get excited over. I hope they take this outside design and upgrade the internals at least one step. Then they would have a winner on their hand. As it is, I would use this AVR in a living room where looks are very important.

It is with heavy heart that I can't recommend the JBL MA7100HP AVR. Its beauty is sadly skin deep. :(

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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/
 
Reserved for @AdamG to kindly post the specs.

Manufacturer Specifications: (Due to the complexity and sheer amount of functionality and features of a modern AVR. A link to the manufacturer’s website is the only reasonable method to present the full specifications for this type of device. Providing a link is for the convenience of our readers and does not indicate any type or form of endorsement or commercial entanglement. As non exits.)

JBL Webpage for subject AVR
 
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UGH!
I so badly wanted this to test well. I already had it penciled in on my Black Friday list.
What a disappointment!
 
It looks great but you definitely wish it had a bit more oomph.

@amirm, if you haven’t packed it up, can you run the Zone 2 as a preout measurement? Then you can see if the DAC or AMP stage is the limiting factor.
 
Reinforces my contention that the best thing to do is buy the plainest but best measuring gear and stick it in a BDI cabinet or some other equally gorgeous AV credenza.
 
@amirm, if you haven’t packed it up, can you run the Zone 2 as a preout measurement? Then you can see if the DAC or AMP stage is the limiting factor.
Does it use the same DAC for Zone 2?
 
Do we have any idea of what chipset is used for the amp? Is it a Crown Drivecore implementation (like previous JBL and Lexicon amps)? Or have they purchased an external chipset (and if so what is it?)?
 
Here's a slightly higher resolution copy of the same image:

1727049675233.jpeg


Still can't make out chip marking for the most part though, beyond ESMT on one and what looks like the Cirrus Logic logo on another.
 
The Power IC must be mounted on the heatsink so is not visible without taking the unit apart. Harman was using TI silicon long time ago in their Lexicon multi-channel amps. Wonder if they have resurrected the same here.
 
More JBL junk...

tbf its in the name.... Junk But Loud


also do you need to spend 1/4 of the retail price on dirac?

i think amir is a bit nitpicky here, which he should be... we strive for better and that sinad does not scream greatness or even adequacy but i think as a living room bing bang boom box it should be ok... ie. same as everyone else in the class and a fair bit above the likes of Onkyo Pioneer for example.
 
Amir is too kind, considering the bench performance. As noted, with all of that industrial beauty it's hard to understand why this unit renders the Level indicator smaller than my 22-year-old Pioneer (which benches better).

Looks like it might be time for Samsung to exert its influence on JBL electronic engineering.
 
@amirm , if firmware can only be updated via USB, what is the ethernet connection for?!!! :facepalm:
 
...

Looks like it might be time for Samsung to exert its influence on JBL electronic engineering.
Not a big fan of Samsung. My concern since their acquisition of Harman is that the Samsung influence would be toward mediocrity. Fortunately, Studer did not end up under the Samsung umbrella.
 
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