JBL MA7100HP AV Receiver Review

[restorer-john]

Dang, they got the looks down.

It interesting how many people in this thread including Amir, think this "JBL" is good looking. I really don't understand it. Especially when there is so much absolutely gorgeous HiFi out there.

Apologies to the member who posted this:

To me, it looks really cheap and nasty, inside and out. What's with all the random text around the volume knob? And the silly miniature fisher price toy remote? And the LED downlighting like a ricer drift-car? Two different sized knobs? It looks like somebody lost the original matching knob and substituted a random one they had in a shoebox under the bed.

Maybe I'm just hopelessly out of touch with modern consumer electronic aesthetics. So I asked my partner if she liked the look of it. She's obviously biased, but her quote was "it looks like something cheap you'd buy off Aliexpress or Temu" and "maybe young people might think it was Apple-esq looking".

 

[Vacceo]

It interesting how many people in this thread including Amir, think this "JBL" is good looking. I really don't understand it. Especially when there is so much absolutely gorgeous HiFi out there.

Apologies to the member who posted this:
View attachment 394278

To me, it looks really cheap and nasty, inside and out. What's with all the random text around the volume knob? And the silly miniature fisher price toy remote? And the LED downlighting like a ricer drift-car? Two different sized knobs? It looks like somebody lost the original matching knob and substituted a random one they had in a shoebox under the bed.

Maybe I'm just hopelessly out of touch with modern consumer electronic aesthetics. So I asked my partner if she liked the look of it. She's obviously biased, but her quote was "it looks like something cheap you'd buy off Aliexpress or Temu" and "maybe young people might think it was Apple-esq looking".

To be fair, the aesthetics are not too far from NAD, with NAD being a lot more refined.

 

[EJ3]

It interesting how many people in this thread including Amir, think this "JBL" is good looking. I really don't understand it. Especially when there is so much absolutely gorgeous HiFi out there.

Apologies to the member who posted this:
View attachment 394278

To me, it looks really cheap and nasty, inside and out. What's with all the random text around the volume knob? And the silly miniature fisher price toy remote? And the LED downlighting like a ricer drift-car? Two different sized knobs? It looks like somebody lost the original matching knob and substituted a random one they had in a shoebox under the bed.

Maybe I'm just hopelessly out of touch with modern consumer electronic aesthetics. So I asked my partner if she liked the look of it. She's obviously biased, but her quote was "it looks like something cheap you'd buy off Aliexpress or Temu" and "maybe young people might think it was Apple-esq looking".

getting the looks down was in comparison to the lack of general performance. The looks (screen function, etc) seem to be better than the actual performance, which they did not "get down"
But the price is not much, so I wouldn't expect much in the performance department.

 

[JeremyFife]

Thanks for the review.

It seems a pity that, given streaming, DAC and simple amplification (say 200W at 4Ohm, reasonably frequency independent and reasonably load independent) is a solved problem ... that those problems remain. We should be ignoring these things now, and looking at the tricky parts - like usability - instead. Edge case scenarios; big power requirements and difficult loads are different.

I don't mind the looks, although an orange light is going to cause problems in my house. I'm sure it would be absolutely fine in use but I just don't want one.

 

[jeroboam]

It interesting how many people in this thread including Amir, think this "JBL" is good looking. I really don't understand it. Especially when there is so much absolutely gorgeous HiFi out there.

Apologies to the member who posted this:
View attachment 394278

To me, it looks really cheap and nasty, inside and out. What's with all the random text around the volume knob? And the silly miniature fisher price toy remote? And the LED downlighting like a ricer drift-car? Two different sized knobs? It looks like somebody lost the original matching knob and substituted a random one they had in a shoebox under the bed.

Maybe I'm just hopelessly out of touch with modern consumer electronic aesthetics. So I asked my partner if she liked the look of it. She's obviously biased, but her quote was "it looks like something cheap you'd buy off Aliexpress or Temu" and "maybe young people might think it was Apple-esq looking".

thanks for the laugh restorer john. ( we need some laughing emojis ).

 

[TonyJZX]

i agree the two non matching knobs shit me however I would say people who like this 'minimalist' nay Apple aesthetic see this as the opposite to the Japanese AVR aesthetic which has been with us since they Japanese got into this business... ie. button overload, VFD screens and random jacks on the front... i get that

this goes in the opposite direction and removes functionality

i guess some people want headphone jacks, hdmi on the front and mic jacks???


the screen may be of high quality but their UI guy doesnt seem to have any UI training but that's what i'd expect

 

[EWL5]

It interesting how many people in this thread including Amir, think this "JBL" is good looking. I really don't understand it. Especially when there is so much absolutely gorgeous HiFi out there.

Apologies to the member who posted this:
View attachment 394278

To me, it looks really cheap and nasty, inside and out. What's with all the random text around the volume knob? And the silly miniature fisher price toy remote? And the LED downlighting like a ricer drift-car? Two different sized knobs? It looks like somebody lost the original matching knob and substituted a random one they had in a shoebox under the bed.

Maybe I'm just hopelessly out of touch with modern consumer electronic aesthetics. So I asked my partner if she liked the look of it. She's obviously biased, but her quote was "it looks like something cheap you'd buy off Aliexpress or Temu" and "maybe young people might think it was Apple-esq looking".

Well, that's the thing: this AVR isn't marketed to people of a certain age bracket or even audiophiles. If you've seen the commercial for these units, it's targeted at Gen Z mostly and since these are primarily "all in" units (no pre-outs), perfect for folks in apartment buildings and tight spaces! The ambient lighting is perfect for the crowd that grew up on desktops/laptops w/RGB lighting and lord knows newer cars like the G45 (new gen X3) is not really catering to a number of us older fogies!

 

[Vacceo]

Well, that's the thing: this AVR isn't marketed to people of a certain age bracket or even audiophiles. If you've seen the commercial for these units, it's targeted at Gen Z mostly and since these are primarily "all in" units (no pre-outs), perfect for folks in apartment buildings and tight spaces! The ambient lighting is perfect for the crowd that grew up on desktops/laptops w/RGB lighting and lord knows newer cars like the G45 (new gen X3) is not really catering to a number of us older fogies!

To be honest, adding ambient ligth to a let´s say, Marantz or Denon AVR, is as easy as sticking a strip to them.

 

[AudioSceptic]

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.

I'm not seeing what's so special about the styling, and the display is just very poor with all that space available.

 

[Sokel]

What was really good about this review was the inclusion of (kind of) FTC rule test and as a first it was revealing as the amp was more than ok at 1kHz but didn't make the sixties.
Wish we see more of them!

Thanks Amir!

 

[tusc]

It interesting how many people in this thread including Amir, think this "JBL" is good looking. I really don't understand it. Especially when there is so much absolutely gorgeous HiFi out there.

Apologies to the member who posted this:
View attachment 394278

To me, it looks really cheap and nasty, inside and out. What's with all the random text around the volume knob? And the silly miniature fisher price toy remote? And the LED downlighting like a ricer drift-car? Two different sized knobs? It looks like somebody lost the original matching knob and substituted a random one they had in a shoebox under the bed.

Maybe I'm just hopelessly out of touch with modern consumer electronic aesthetics. So I asked my partner if she liked the look of it. She's obviously biased, but her quote was "it looks like something cheap you'd buy off Aliexpress or Temu" and "maybe young people might think it was Apple-esq looking".

No offense taken. I returned mine. I personally did like the aesthetics, but JBL missed on calibration. No one is discussing EZ Set EQ which is a joke of a room calibration system. I ran it multiple times but never liked the results. Listening to 2.1 stereo music was fine, even for my demanding 4 ohm speakers. Watching movies was another story as my subwoofer was not tuned well thanks to EZ Set. Dirac is leagues better but you have to pony up an additional 350 bucks for it.

I went a different route and grabbed a DRX 3.4 on sale with Dirac already licensed and have purchased Fosi Audio v3 monos for the mains. And it's less than the cost of this model.

 

[Ajax]

Yeah, stand-alone amps and DACs don't do a great job of decoding Dolby/DTS soundtracks or handling all the video input/output I need unfortunately. I'd need 2 stereo amps plus monoblock just for my basic 5.1 system, and I'd already be at the cost of this AVR even with today's great performance per dollar ratio. Then I'd still need a pre/pro, which would cost at least twice what this AVR costs and aren't known for their amazing DAC performance anyways. Then the mess of cabling to connect them all...

AVRs just make sense for a living room setup for most people.

If I was in the market for an AV, I would refer you to Amir's previous review of the Denon AVR X6700H. These are now 5 years old but have good overall performance, and would search for a second hand one and add a power amp.

Denon AVR-X6700H AVR Review (Updated)

This is an updated review of the Denon AVR-X6700H. I tested an early production 6700H a few weeks ago and found lower than expected performance. Denon Engineering traced this to a faulty capacitor( or capacitors) used in the initial run of this AVR. I requested an updated unit which the...

www.audiosciencereview.com

Have a look at the Buckeye range of power amps - Daniel will mix and match and you can get 4 channel hypex amps in a single box for US$1,000 comprising 2 x MP502 and 2 x MP252 or 6 channel if required.

Buckeye Amps

Buckeye Amps utilizes the most advanced audio amplifier technologies available. Authorized seller for Hypex and Purifi Class D amplifiers. Based in the US. Free shipping and worldwide service!

www.buckeyeamp.com

With some effort you can put a decent pre/power AV system together for about $2k.

 

[voodooless]

I'm wondering about the dual filter setup. The small coils (with the 100) on them are clearly part of the LC filter (the C being the block right after them). The green thing at the end looks like a common mode choke? Why is that there? That doesn't seem too common in Class-D output filters. In any case, all those PCB traces seem to be rather long, that can't be good for EMI.


And for the money, I would expect pre-outs.

 

[SpoOokY]

Phew, that is really disappointing. Still like my MA7100HP very much, but I was really hoping for measurements at least in the area of a Denon 4800 or the likes. Only good thing is that probably non of the described shortcomings are audible in regular living room listening conditions, even at elevated volumes. I will keep this thing as it sounds better than my NAD, does not have a single HDMI issue (NAD has a ton of those), looks very nice and even CEC is working just fine.

 

[kyuu]

If I was in the market for an AV, I would refer you to Amir's previous review of the Denon AVR X6700H. These are now 5 years old but have good overall performance, and would search for a second hand one and add a power amp.

Denon AVR-X6700H AVR Review (Updated)

This is an updated review of the Denon AVR-X6700H. I tested an early production 6700H a few weeks ago and found lower than expected performance. Denon Engineering traced this to a faulty capacitor( or capacitors) used in the initial run of this AVR. I requested an updated unit which the...

www.audiosciencereview.com

When people respond to a review for an AVR with advice to just get a different, larger, older AVR to use solely for its pre-outs and then combine that with some separates, I think they've lost sight of why people were looking at AVRs in the first place. I'm well aware I could get better performance (that's largely inaudible) by using separates.

Have a look at the Buckeye range of power amps - Daniel will mix and match and you can get 4 channel hypex amps in a single box for US$1,000 comprising 2 x MP502 and 2 x MP252 or 6 channel if required.

Buckeye Amps

Buckeye Amps utilizes the most advanced audio amplifier technologies available. Authorized seller for Hypex and Purifi Class D amplifiers. Based in the US. Free shipping and worldwide service!

www.buckeyeamp.com

With some effort you can put a decent pre/power AV system together for about $2k.

If I was looking for separates, I'd definitely be looking at Buckeye. I'm not, however, for my living room system.

And for the money, I would expect pre-outs.

Lack of pre-outs is not a concern for me. I really wonder how many people, outside this forum, buy AVRs to bypass the internal amps and run separates. I really think that's an exceptionally small slice of the AVR market.

 

[kyuu]

We have a decent shot of the internals of the MA9100HP (which are identical to the MA7100HP from what I can tell, at least for what we can see):

Here we can see the markings on the Cirrus Logic chip, which has migrated to the video board along with that ESMT chip. It appears to be the DSP. Most of the interesting bits appear to be under the video board where we can't see, unfortunately.

Edit: After closer inspection there are some bits that are depopulated on the MA7100HP and MA710 boards compared to the MA9100HP board. Replaced the image with one where the depopulated components are marked up.

 

[voodooless]

Lack of pre-outs is not a concern for me. I really wonder how many people, outside this forum, buy AVRs to bypass the internal amps and run separates. I really think that's an exceptionally small slice of the AVR market.

By that logic 5.1 is probably all the general buyer would need But seriously, for about $€ 1000 I get a Denon X3800h, with pre-outs, and loads more channels, and it has quite a lot better performance (about 10 dB better), except for output power. But the difference here isn't very high either. Given all this, the JBL just doesn't seem like a good deal. And we thought the X3800h had poor performance

 

[kyuu]

By that logic 5.1 is probably all the general buyer would need But seriously, for about $€ 1000 I get a Denon X3800h, with pre-outs, and loads more channels, and it has quite a lot better performance (about 10 dB better), except for output power. But the difference here isn't very high either. Given all this, the JBL just doesn't seem like a good deal. And we thought the X3800h had poor performance

I'm willing to bet the market for 7.1 and up systems is larger than the one for separates attached to an AVR.

But the thing about the measurements on the X3800H's amps section (and most other AVRs) is that those are done with some sort of "pure" mode selected that bypasses most of the internal processing. That wasn't done here (I'm not sure these JBLs even have that option) so that disadvantages the JBL as I'm sure the Denon would lose a few dB of SINAD if that mode wasn't on. It also isn't how anyone really uses their AVR so I question the utility of measuring AVRs that way. At the very least it would be nice to get measurements for both "pure" mode and for "actual usage" mode.

Also, using the HDMI input rather than analog (which is the only input I'll be using), even in "pure" the Denon only has about a 6dB SINAD advantage.

Do I wish the JBL was better? Of course. Do I think it's obviously inferior to the larger and more expensive (not taking sales/refurb into account) Denon? Not really. If you want pre-outs, then the calculus is a little different of course.

 

[Ajax]

Yeah, stand-alone amps and DACs don't do a great job of decoding Dolby/DTS soundtracks or handling all the video input/output I need unfortunately. I'd need 2 stereo amps plus monoblock just for my basic 5.1 system, and I'd already be at the cost of this AVR even with today's great performance per dollar ratio. Then I'd still need a pre/pro, which would cost at least twice what this AVR costs and aren't known for their amazing DAC performance anyways. Then the mess of cabling to connect them all...

Hi Kyuu,

I was responding to your comment above wherein you stated that you needed "video input/output and 2 stereo amps plus monoblock .... and a mess of cables". That is simply not the case if you were to go with a two piece solution using Buckeye. Anyway you've made it clear your not interested in separates.

FYI in 2004 I purchased a Rotel 1066 pre with a 5 channel Rotel 1075 power amp for my living room. It was installed in a ventilated cupboard. Easy to set up and worked great! It was, however, pre HDMI.

I wonder why separates are no longer offered as there is so much expected of a single box.

 

[kyuu]

Hi Kyuu,

I was responding to your comment above wherein you stated that you needed "video input/output and 2 stereo amps plus monoblock .... and a mess of cables". That is simply not the case if you were to go with a two piece solution using Buckeye. Anyway you've made it clear your not interested in separates.

FYI in 2004 I purchased a Rotel 1066 pre with a 5 channel Rotel 1075 power amp for my living room. It was installed in a ventilated cupboard. Easy to set up and worked great! It was, however, pre HDMI.

I wonder why separates are no longer offered as there is so much expected of a single box.

Fair enough. Honestly, if it were possible to get a pre/pro of a reasonable size and pair that with a single multichannel amp while not spending much more than what this JBL costs, I'd be interested. That hasn't seemed possible from what I've seen, though perhaps I have overlooked something. Getting a giant-ass, older AVR (which I need my AVR to support HDMI 2.1 for 4k/120fps and VRR, btw) is not really what I have in mind when I consider a pre/pro.

It really seems like someone should be able to make a pre/pro that's the size of the smaller JBL MA-series (the 310, 510, and 710 are smaller than the 7100HP and 9100HP) and for, y'know, cheaper than an AVR that's also cramming in an amp section. That's not the reality of the market, however, from what I can see.