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JBL MA7100HP AV Receiver Review

Rate this AVR:

  • 1. Poor (headless panther)

    Votes: 79 37.3%
  • 2. Not terrible (postman panther)

    Votes: 118 55.7%
  • 3. Fine (happy panther)

    Votes: 13 6.1%
  • 4. Great (golfing panther)

    Votes: 2 0.9%

  • Total voters
    212
It would end up being tested as a two channel D/A converter, which wouldn't do justice to its actual purpose.

An interesting product for sure. How do you have yours set up and how is it working out?
Well, it is kind of buggy - I´ve done a summary of known bugs (collected by some users and me), but I don´t know If I´m allowed to link it here, as it is in another forum (and German). Sound quality (in my opinion) is fine / transparent, that´s why I´m still using it, as there is no really alternative product (unless the canton smart connect), when it comes to puristic AV-processors in a small enclosure with good sound quality (suitable for stereo and multichannel).
 
For what it's worth, I've been very happy with the Flex HT + Apple TV 4K combo. Zero bugs unlike the Canton Smart Connect
 
For what it's worth, I've been very happy with the Flex HT + Apple TV 4K combo. Zero bugs unlike the Canton Smart Connect
Is it possible to do some upmixing (e.g. DTS Neural X, Voice+ etc.) with the Apple TV? That´s very important for me (and the PreAV shines here), as bad sounds (TV, Series etc.) can benefit a lot from it.
 
Is it possible to do some upmixing (e.g. DTS Neural X, Voice+ etc.) with the Apple TV? That´s very important for me (and the PreAV shines here), as bad sounds (TV, Series etc.) can benefit a lot from it.
Not with the Apple TV IIRC, but you can use the mixing matrix in the Flex HT for downmixing and upmixing. The manual shows some examples
 
Well, it is kind of buggy - I´ve done a summary of known bugs (collected by some users and me), but I don´t know If I´m allowed to link it here, as it is in another forum (and German). Sound quality (in my opinion) is fine / transparent, that´s why I´m still using it, as there is no really alternative product (unless the canton smart connect), when it comes to puristic AV-processors in a small enclosure with good sound quality (suitable for stereo and multichannel).

Please link it! I am tempted to get one and measure it.

I want DTS/Dolby Atmos,
XLR preout for my main channels
Wireless rear speaker support.

Which the Nubert does, but with the missing XLR option.
 
Hello everyone. I really don't want to read through seven pages. What is the consensus in a nutshell about the JBR receivers?
 
Hello everyone. I really don't want to read through seven pages. What is the consensus in a nutshell about the JBR receivers?
It's fine. It doesn't do anything to push the SOTA forward in AVRs, but it has plenty of power and should handle living room duty just fine. Get Dirac for room correction and it should sound quite good. There's no reason to choose it over Denon (generally the best measuring AVRs) unless you prefer the aesthetics, as I do.
 
Hello everyone. I really don't want to read through seven pages. What is the consensus in a nutshell about the JBR receivers
It's fine. It doesn't do anything to push the SOTA forward in AVRs, but it has plenty of power and should handle living room duty just fine. Get Dirac for room correction and it should sound quite good. There's no reason to choose it over Denon (generally the best measuring AVRs) unless you prefer the aesthetics, as I do.

Think the aesthetics are really low profile and smooth looking. Needless to say, my main objective is the sound.

SOTA?

I didn't think Denon would be considered the "best measuring". I would think that marantz would have better numbers than than Denon.
 
I didn't think Denon would be considered the "best measuring". I would think that marantz would have better numbers than than Denon.
Not really. Marantz does do pretty well nowadays, with notable exceptions, but the good ones often seem to be just dressed up Denons.

Edit: Comparing the X4800H against the Cinema 40, the results are pretty similar, with the Denon slightly ahead in some measurements and the Marantz in others. Many of the differences could be explained by sample and testing variations, so much so you might think the Cinema 40 was an X4800H in different clothes for nearly twice the outlay. The back panel of the Cinema 40 is also remarkably similar to the X4800H's.
 
Last edited:
Hello everyone. I really don't want to read through seven pages. What is the consensus in a nutshell about the JBR receivers


Think the aesthetics are really low profile and smooth looking. Needless to say, my main objective is the sound.

SOTA?

I didn't think Denon would be considered the "best measuring". I would think that marantz would have better numbers than than Denon.
State Of The Art
 
Bummer about the performance. It looks nice and if I were in the market, would be on my list for that reason.

When I first saw the faceplate I thought it reminded me of my refrigerator. Then I remembered my fridge is made by Samsung... hmm...
 
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.
View attachment 394132
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:
View attachment 394134
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:

View attachment 394137
While not horrible, this is below average for all amplifiers tested and AVRs for that matter:
View attachment 394138

The lackluster performance is due to both noise and distortion. You can see the contributions from the former:
View attachment 394140

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

Multitone test shows the contributions on distortion front:
View attachment 394142
And noise with elevated floor of the graph.

Frequency response test shows multiple things:
View attachment 394143
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:
View attachment 394145
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:
View attachment 394148

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:
View attachment 394149
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:
View attachment 394151

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:
View attachment 394152

Amplifier was stable on power up:
View attachment 394153

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:
View attachment 394155

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:

View attachment 394156

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:
View attachment 394157

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. :(

------------
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/
I was looking to buy this one to replace my sony amp, but I guess maybe I should keep looking
 
Whats the price on your end? If i convert mine its $ 1600
The price is outrageous. It's much cheaper here, almost half the price of the Denon mid-range product.

Denon would be a little bit more expensive in my case. JBL usually has a big discount, and it will be cheaper in the future.

But the results of this AVR test were very disappointing to me. Class D amplifiers are supposed to be more efficient. I wonder if there will be better mid-range products in the future.
 
Last edited:
Please link it! I am tempted to get one and measure it.

I want DTS/Dolby Atmos,
XLR preout for my main channels
Wireless rear speaker support.

Which the Nubert does, but with the missing XLR option.
 
Thank you for the solid and impartial review as always! I was hoping for better results as well. It seems perplexing that no one has yet to catch the Topping/Fosi/Aiyima/IcePower lightning in an AVR bottle.
 
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.
View attachment 394132
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:
View attachment 394134
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:

View attachment 394137
While not horrible, this is below average for all amplifiers tested and AVRs for that matter:
View attachment 394138

The lackluster performance is due to both noise and distortion. You can see the contributions from the former:
View attachment 394140

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

Multitone test shows the contributions on distortion front:
View attachment 394142
And noise with elevated floor of the graph.

Frequency response test shows multiple things:
View attachment 394143
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:
View attachment 394145
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:
View attachment 394148

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:
View attachment 394149
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:
View attachment 394151

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:
View attachment 394152

Amplifier was stable on power up:
View attachment 394153

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:
View attachment 394155

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:

View attachment 394156

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:
View attachment 394157

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. :(

------------
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/
Will you review the Cinema 30 from Marantz. The 40 measures very well per your review!
 
Where did you get that from? I could've sworn @SpoOokY said that he could change the trim for the individual channels with the content still playing.
Just tested it. You can adjust volume and distance on the fly while sound is playing. Don’t know how you can miss that given the pretty basic menu.

 
Last edited:
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