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JBL Stage A130 Review (speaker)

PeteL

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I can't imagine grills making that specific or enough of a difference. No need, we have equalizers for sometime now and that is what they are for.
I wouldn't know how much, or how specific, but back in the days, I've seen many studio mixing engineers, covering the tweeters of their NS-10 with a piece of toilet paper. I also read in Interviews Alan Shaw, the designer at Harbeth, stating that his speakers are designed to be listened to (and measured) with grills on. I guess they do at least make some difference.
 
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D

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Nice, I briefly got excited because that hopefully means other speakers from this series are similarly good, and I would seriously consider getting the A190's - but sadly, it looks like the whole series is not available in Europe, unless my google is failing.
Nope only the cheapo bluetooth boxes and such.I'm guessing it isn't profitable or possible to run the kind of sales JBL does to move merchandise.Certainly here in Germany there are no audio sellers who routinely majorly discount stock.Everything is pricier here except food(and even that is only because of EU farm set asides to keep prices artificially low and that's paid for by taxes too so indirectly you pay more for food anyway)

There are even minimum prices for crap like blank dvd's??? LOL here in Germany Amazon had to set up their own delivery service just to get Prime packages delivered on time,they were getting slaughtered by late delivery claims because the German delivery companies sucked.I think I had my prime subscription free for 2 years because of all the late packages.Consumer friendly it is not.They have a term here"Servicewüste "which translates to service desert.Amazon and the like have finally begun to prod companies to deliver good online service but it's still way far behind the USA
 

MZKM

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Nice, I briefly got excited because that hopefully means other speakers from this series are similarly good, and I would seriously consider getting the A190's - but sadly, it looks like the whole series is not available in Europe, unless my google is failing.
Unless I’m mistaken, the waveguide is identical, so if the woofer changes, the directivity control changes (though they play around with the crossover).
 

A Surfer

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At least for my monitor audio bronze speakers, i remember the metal tweeter grilles did cause some differences in REW measurements. Anyway just curious.
Metal yes, I have Monitor Audio's now with metal grilles and always listen to music without them. I am assuming this is whazzup from over at head-fi. Cheers.
 

andreasmaaan

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Nice, I briefly got excited because that hopefully means other speakers from this series are similarly good, and I would seriously consider getting the A190's - but sadly, it looks like the whole series is not available in Europe, unless my google is failing.
Nope only the cheapo bluetooth boxes and such.I'm guessing it isn't profitable or possible to run the kind of sales JBL does to move merchandise.Certainly here in Germany there are no audio sellers who routinely majorly discount stock.Everything is pricier here except food(and even that is only because of EU farm set asides to keep prices artificially low and that's paid for by taxes too so indirectly you pay more for food anyway)

Apart from the bluetooth stuff, JBL's pro studio range is also available in the EU. Many of these are on special with Thomann atm, e.g. 308P.
 

XpanD

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Correct seems to sell these in the Netherlands (and may do international?), though the shop doesn't have particularly good user ratings. I wonder how the A135C would do, it has a pretty unique form factor for a center. (very low profile and wide, almost like a soundbar)

Thanks for another great test.
 

Biblob

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This speaker gets me excited for a big blind test! When shall we do this @amirm ? ;)
 

jtwrace

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@amirm I know it takes hours for the NFS to run through it's test, does it take you hours to compile, sort and make the data for presentation? Or is there a script so it auto generates? Also, out of curiosity, have you ever measured a speaker after your EQ change?
 

goldark

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Great review! Just bought a pair to use as surrounds for a system with a JBL Studio 5 front stage. There are a few refurbished on eBay for $150 a pair if anyone is interested.
 

Trouble Maker

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Had stored the last batch of Japanese shishito peppers saved up and figured I make a snack out of them:
With a touch of lemon juice, soy sauce and salt they were wonderful as always. Normally you only see them in green but I left them on the plants for too long and tehy turned red/orange and a bit sweeter. Yum!!!

How are you cooking them? We are still experimenting, roast on 375 seems to be ok so far. I want to try blistering them on the stove top. I also brought back a grill, so that will be a fun spring time experiment.

1607608616555.png


But holly hell, we've gotten a few batches from our local Japanese grocery store and they are SPICY. The last batch we made a few nights ago for dinner and couldn't eat them.
 

restorer-john

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Refurb can just mean B-sock, aka returns or slightly damaged.

So an American term for rejected/refunded/hit by the forklift/dropped off the loading dock/slightly flood-damaged stuff that may, or may not be damaged, and/or completely ruined and possibly totally FUBAR? ;)
 
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Ralferator

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Hi,

Here is my take on the EQ.
The raw data with corrected ER and PIR:
Score no EQ: 5.05
With Sub: 7.41
Spinorama with no EQ:
  • Not bad except the resonances
  • The HF peak may make the speaker sound "thin"
View attachment 98317
Directivity:
Horizontal pretty good thanks to the waveguide.
Better stay at tweeter height
Horizontally, better toe-in the speakers by 10/20deg and have the axis crossing in front of the listening location
View attachment 98318
View attachment 98326
EQ design:
I have generated two EQs. The APO config files are attached.
  • The first one, labelled, LW is targeted at making the LW flat, pretty good that one maybe better if you listen ON
  • The second, labelled Score, starts with the first one and adds the score as an optimization variable, come back closer to the bare speaker, maybe better if you toe-in
Score EQ LW: 5.78
with sub: 8.03
Score EQ Score: 6.29
with sub: 8.54
View attachment 98315
Code:
JBL A130 APO EQ LW 96000Hz
December102020-135648

Preamp: -0.6 dB

Filter 1: ON HPQ Fc 37.8 Hz Gain 0 dB Q 0.87
Filter 2: ON PK Fc 148.5 Hz Gain -2.17 dB Q 1.5
Filter 3: ON PK Fc 931 Hz Gain -3.5 dB Q 4.21
Filter 4: ON PK Fc 1349 Hz Gain -3.18 dB Q 4.06
Filter 5: ON PK Fc 1806 Hz Gain -2.2 dB Q 2.11
Filter 6: ON PK Fc 5738 Hz Gain 0.72 dB Q 5.21
Filter 7: ON PK Fc 10000 Hz Gain -1 dB Q 3
Filter 8: ON PK Fc 15000 Hz Gain -5 dB Q 10

JBL A130 APO EQ Score 96000Hz
December102020-140817

Preamp: -0.2 dB

Filter 1: ON PK Fc 37.8 Hz Gain 0 dB Q 0.88
Filter 2: ON PK Fc 153 Hz Gain -1.92 dB Q 1
Filter 3: ON PK Fc 925 Hz Gain -3.05 dB Q 4.07
Filter 4: ON PK Fc 1352 Hz Gain -3.35 dB Q 5.53
Filter 5: ON PK Fc 1795 Hz Gain -1.41 dB Q 2.86
Filter 6: ON PK Fc 10000 Hz Gain -0.75 dB Q 2
Filter 7: ON PK Fc 15000 Hz Gain -6.2 dB Q 7.5

Spinorama EQ LW
View attachment 98314
Spinorama EQ Score
View attachment 98316
Zoom PIR-LW-ON
View attachment 98313
Regression - Tonal
View attachment 98312
Radar no EQ vs EQ score
Nice improvements
View attachment 98311

The rest of the plots is attached.

Awesome work! Is it possible to use the DSP of the 3eAudio TPA3255 finisheded amplifiers to program these EQ settings? They have a Sigma Audio DSP
 
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Doodski

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So an American term for rejected/refunded/hit by the forklift/dropped off the loading dock/slightly flood-damaged stuff that may, or may not be damaged, and/or completely ruined and totally FUBAR? ;)
In Canada refurbished was a term service departments started using in the 1990's for rebuilt stuff and then the retailers started using the term because it sounds good and now the suppliers and wholesalers are using it too. They used to be called "repacks." It's disturbing but it is what it is. :facepalm: Canada and USA are so similar in marketing that we both use it now.
 

restorer-john

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In Canada refurbished was a term service departments started using in the 1990's for rebuilt stuff and then the retailers started using the term because it sounds good and now the suppliers and wholesalers are using it too. It's disturbing but it is what it is. :facepalm: Canada and USA are so similar in marketing that we both use it now.

A bit like "factory certified used vehicles" I guess, but worse. And with no real tolerance limits to the damage, repairs, or condition, other than "let's get this chit out of our warehouse/DC and make space for the new XYZ upgrade"
 

restorer-john

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They used to be called "repacks." It's disturbing but it is what it is.

We always opened the bottom of cartons, removed the product, tested it and then re-sealed the carton (with the identical staple gun unit) to re-create a "sealed" box. That was standard practice. I didn't like it, but we needed to know the products were perfect for those "fussy" audiophiles.
 

Hiten

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From only distortion point of view how would JBL Stage A130 compare with JBL Studio 530 and Elac Debut Reference DBR 62 ? All three are measured here on ASR.
Thanks and regards.
 

Doodski

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We always opened the bottom of cartons, removed the product, tested it and then re-sealed the carton (with the identical staple gun unit) to re-create a "sealed" box. That was standard practice. I didn't like it, but we needed to know the products were perfect for those "fussy" audiophiles.
We would sell them as demo stock or repacks. When a customer wanted a deal and kept grinding on price we would whip out the, "Do we have a deal for you. A wonderful pair of repacks with full warranty and store policies." It's ethical and worked near every time unless the customer was really particular. I was always pretty careful about selling what was in stock and grinder customers where not au plenty for me so I had few issues but some of the sales peeps sold all the repacks and wished we had more. :D A repack was cleaned, no fingerprints, packed up carefully and clearly labeled, "Repack." I would have bought a repack then. But now the stuff that comes from Harmon as a refurb/B-stock is disturbing in the testimonies we have had here about purchasing that stuff.
 

somebodyelse

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Awesome work! Is it possible to use the DSP of the 3eAudio TPA3255 finisheded amplifiers to program these EQ settings? They have a Sigma Audio DSP
So long as you can drive SigmaStudio and have a suitable adapter to do the programming it should work.
 
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