JBL SRX835P Reviewed (Powered Monitor)

[derbidrd]

Seems like nobody stocks them....

It's a pity, they're in stock in Europe, thomann doesn't ship to USA? I see one in stock in five stars guitars.

 

[drplinker]

AFAIK, these are "premium" pro speakers, winner of NAMM show award, gets a lot of praise in pro/dj world along with plenty of complaints about weight.
The thought of "not made for near field listening" quickly comes to mind, but couldn't support the thought with and evidence as the same sound in near field travels to far field. The drops in frequency response in near field won't get magically corrected in far field.

Next - could rattling of Klippel NFS played a role? This shouldn't be any issue with generated test/sweep signal (unlike music) when measuring tweeter.

Clearly SRX835P has out of whack frequency response, shown (to some extent) even in JBL's own highly smoothed graph. Wonder why and what pro users like about these?

 

[Shike]

The fact is that there's PA speakers that fit different intended purposes. This seems willing to sacrifice fidelity for higher output above all else. I personally use JBL AC26 & AC28 for my primary listening system with EQ. The bass is a rolled off requiring a subwoofer for full-range usage but strikes a good balance between output levels and SQ doing so - given they're on the last generation progressive transition waveguide.

 

[Keith Conroy]

Pffft. That puny thing? Amir needs a 5732
View attachment 143977

This speaker looks a lot like a cinema speaker Electro-Voice made years back. I worked for Electro-Voice at the time and was able to speak to the engineer that was involved in the design. This EV speaker system was designed to have a very specific final response. This was based on theater acoustics and a specific recommended placement. Also I think THX criteria at that time played into things? I bring this up because some of these speakers tested might not be designed to play in an average home listening room??

 

[tomtoo]

AFAIK, these are "premium" pro speakers, winner of NAMM show award, gets a lot of praise in pro/dj world along with plenty of complaints about weight.
The thought of "not made for near field listening" quickly comes to mind, but couldn't support the thought with and evidence as the same sound in near field travels to far field. The drops in frequency response in near field won't get magically corrected in far field.

Next - could rattling of Klippel NFS played a role? This shouldn't be any issue with generated test/sweep signal (unlike music) when measuring tweeter.

Clearly SRX835P has out of whack frequency response, shown (to some extent) even in JBL's own highly smoothed graph. Wonder why and what pro users like about these?

"..as the same sound in near field travels to far field..."

Oh, the pros would dance on the table if this would be the physical truth.

 

[King_Pin]

Do you know what LFE means?

No not at all.

 

[drplinker]

"..as the same sound in near field travels to far field..."

Oh, the pros would dance on the table if this would be the physical truth.

I didn't imply far field measurements will look exactly like near field measurement, of course there will be dispersion, attenuation, reflection etc.
However, the dips in frequency response won't be filled.

 

[tomtoo]

I didn't imply far field measurements will look exactly like near field measurement, of course there will be dispersion, attenuation, reflection etc.
However, the dips in frequency response won't be filled.

No sure not, question would be more how you percieve this in regions above 12khz. Its realy my honest opinion that it looks much more worse than it realy sounds. Btw. there is a PEQ build in, so whats the problem? Maybe the thd? But i not see that horrible looking mountans as a real problem. Much more listenable is that shelf that attenuates mid range. But hey @amirm can enjoy a 5db bump at 120Hz. No problem for this speaker, you just have to dial in.
What if @amirm had taken the time and eq'ed the FR? I absolutly understand that he not did. But than not judge on FR. Couse that woul be fixable with onboard equipment.

 

[richard12511]

A listening session would be nice, to see if very narrow directivity can be ok.

Narrow dispersion ime works excellently for multichannel, decent to good for stereo, but horrible for mono. A 60x60(or this speaker) horn will sound terrible in mono, even if the measurements are perfect. Just no where near the spaciousness that most of us need. Sounding good in mono is imo about getting as close as possible to that spaciousness threshold(ie having the widest dispersion possible) without sacrificing large amounts of fidelity.

 

[richard12511]

I recall a good sale on the Eons last year, around 25'% off. Not sure if Amir gets a discount, but might be worth waiting.

Or he could buy mine for an huger discount . I played them for a grand total of 10 minutes or so.

Part of the reason I purchased them was because of my high expectations for this speaker. I was hoping to get a taste of the Eons, but it would be humorous if the Eons measured better.

 

[test1223]

I didn't imply far field measurements will look exactly like near field measurement, of course there will be dispersion, attenuation, reflection etc.
However, the dips in frequency response won't be filled.

There is a difference. The simple waves like a spherical wave, cylindrical wave and planar wave provide different attenuation of 1/(r^2), 1/r and 1 respectively. A real speaker has a complex frequency dependent wave geometry. So you have a distance dependant frequency response especially if asymmetrical drivers, horns and naked chassis are combined. Adding the frequency dependent damping, which is of interest if the distance is large.

 

[AlexanderM]

I wouldn't have expected too much out of a PA speaker, it's the theater quality ones that should be interesting.

This looks interesting.

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1432782-REG/jbl_c222_top_2_way_scrrenarray_cinema.html

 

[Catalo]

Or he could buy mine for an huger discount . I played them for a grand total of 10 minutes or so.

Part of the reason I purchased them was because of my high expectations for this speaker. I was hoping to get a taste of the Eons, but it would be humorous if the Eons measured better.

I honestly expected more from the EON series too. I tried the smaller EON610 as well as the JBL IRX108BT and couldn't handle the hiss from either at 2-3m indoors, so I resold them to some folks who used them in their more typical usecase (outdoor PA and small church sound system.) The few times I brought them outside to the back yard, they did sound nice from a distance in the background.

I'd be curious how the Behringer Eurolive and Monoprice Stage Right (both somewhat of a cult favorite on AVSForum as someone else mentioned) and other passive PA speakers would fare with some amps that may be less noisy or potentially bi-amped with an active crossover.

 

[amirm]

@amirm Thank you for this review. It is nice to see how modern PA speakers measure. However, I am at a loss with your subjective comments. It is a PA speaker and you do not recommend it for Hi-Fi. It is not a word I normally use but nothing else will fit to this moment: Duh!

Meanwhile, you think it may be OK for outdoor or parties, which the speaker is designed for and marketed as such. What do you expect such a comment achieve other than make us think you are not trusting the manufacturer?

I am not following the trust question regarding the company. That aside, the interest of our visitors and membership as noted is to use pro products for "domestic" indoor use and it is with that lens that I evaluate them. Of course a side effect is that even people who use them for Pro applications now have an excellent guide on how the sound may need to be tuned to get good sound. Information JBL had provided in this regard were pretty misleading with that heavily filtered frequency response graph, making the speaker look much better than it really is.

My reference to outdoor party use is if you just want loud but don't care about fidelity.

 

[amirm]

I honestly expected more from the EON series too. I tried the smaller EON610 as well as the JBL IRX108BT and couldn't handle the hiss from either at 2-3m indoors, so I resold them to some folks who used them in their more typical usecase (outdoor PA and small church sound system.) The few times I brought them outside to the back yard, they did sound nice from a distance in the background.

I am in the process of ordering the EON615. So should I cancel that given the hiss?

 

[Catalo]

I am in the process of ordering the EON615. So should I cancel that given the hiss?

I do think there's a value proposition in these PA speakers (especially the EON610 or EON615 because the JBL measurements look pretty darn good) if someone is not as sensitive to hiss or if they're used at a longer 3-5m distance because of the larger SPL potential vs traditional bookshelf speakers. I'd be very curious to see the Klippel frequency response and THD at 96db or more.

From memory, the hiss from the EON610 was not that much worse than the JBL 305P, and honestly it's not noticeable with the music blasting

 

[don'ttrustauthority]

I'm thinking u shaped party response, made ugly by a low bass bump that extends too far up and results in the shelf at 500 hz. It's a party speaker emphasizing bass and the high treble gets blown around outside anyway.

 

[quantum_wave]

I am in the process of ordering the EON615. So should I cancel that given the hiss?

It would be awesome to see these measured!

 

[Keith Conroy]

I am in the process of ordering the EON615. So should I cancel that given the hiss?

I ask owners or listeners of the JBL Eon 615 to please help Amir on the open question of hiss. Please weigh in if you have valid input. Sounds like Amir is trying to spend his meager budget wisely to benefit us all. Unfortunately, If hiss is a deal breaker why bother with a test???

 

[Tks]

Have you heard them working at their intended use?

Haven't heard them at all. What relevance does this question have to my comment?