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JBL Stage A130 Review (speaker)

cbracer

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It's really hard to find good reviews of the A120 or the Studio 220. I guess it stands to reason the A130 would be the best, but I'm trying to gauge how much of a tradeoff it is to go down to A120, which I understand has the same tweeter but a smaller woofer. And also how much difference there is from the Studio 220, which I think uses different cone materials.
There are just so few reviews of the A120 and the 220 out there. Was curious if anyone has any impressions.
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So I found refurbished Studio 220's from JBL's web site for only $130 so I ordered them up. Also got my A130's just last week and was able to compare them directly. I was hoping the 220's would be smoother and not have the raised mids and 15k rise of the A130, which I was right. The tweeter and mids are much smoother. But the Studio 220's are designed as surround speakers in the back and they simply have no base. It was so apparent that I looked to see if the ports were plugged because that's exactly what it sounded like. You can see the roll off in my graphs below where the base disappears below 250Hz. My PSB Alpha 3 speakers don't do that and they are smaller. But the mids and tweeter is more controlled than the A130's. I returned the 220's though I wanted to try swapping tweeters, lol......

NOTE - these are the first measurements I've ever done in REV using a UMM-6 mic so there are no room corrections!!
JBL Studio 220 vs Stage A130.png
 

cbracer

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After looking at the tweeter in the Studio 220's versus that hole in the center of the A130's tweeter holder, I wodered what might happen if I put a piece of tape over the hole. So I did and measured it. It had exactly the opposite result I was looking for to tame the 15k boost. I then poked a hole in the tape and put it back on, something inbetween no hole and the size of the JBL hole. The result was exactly in the middle of these two traces. Which begs the question, should that hole be enlarged ?
NOTE - these are my first day measuring with REV and have no room corrections, as showing below 400hz.
A130 tweeter tape compare.png
 

Teeter

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Everything always sounds better with using a subwoofer with bookshelves. Whether for music or DD movies. Everyone's listening pleasure is different with less or more sensitive ears. I have Sr. ears, for example, which might account for my less sensitivity at all levels, except to much BASS. You can change the resister in the A130's, as mentioned some pages before, for better performance.

I have since REVERTED back to the STAGE A130 after more listening to DD Movies and Internet Music. The big adjustment was in my Denon AVR S-960H EQ. The Stage A 130, now has a permanent place. I also set the Denon AVR movie and music, to DD+Surround. The Stage A 130's retest was piano, then symphony music. Again, the Stage A 130's are live for me.

Someone can have my previous Klipsch R-51M's and RP-400C for a BARGAIN[$200.00] and will through in Klipsch R-15M's and a R-25C. Pick-up any time, Janesville, WI.
 
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cbracer

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@cbracer
are those gated measurements?
I assume you mean corrected for the room, which I posted right above the graphs no they are not. Hence you see massive dips and changes under 400 Hz which is where most room effects take place (I have read). I will later figure out all that but haven't had time. I ran out of time for comparing the Studio 220's before I had to return them. And for comparisons only, I think there is still valuable info in the graphs. I really wanted to take the 220's and stuff the Ikea speaker amp guts into those and use TruPlay on them.
 

375HP2482

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@cbracer

are those gated measurements?

Gated or not, there's significant smoothing involved (at least 1/6 octave's worth), as witness the high-Q peak at 15kHz smoothed out over an octave. The smoothing makes the midrange bumps look more significant than they are, as do the 2 dB vertical intervals versus the more common 5 dB or 10 dB.

Nevertheless, +/- 3 dB from 180Hz-9kHz in this oversmoothed measurement is decent. The cavernous response below 180 Hz is dominated by room effects, as can be seen in the differences between measurements in #661 and #662 above.
 

cbracer

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Gated or not, there's significant smoothing involved (at least 1/6 octave's worth),
Yes one is smoothed 1/6 the other 1/12. The one comparing the Studio 220's was over filtered to show just how much bass was missing. With the bigger swings at 1/12 one might not see just how much was suppressed. I was trying to zoom in vertically, but I can easily open the data and print one with 1/12 smoothing and 5db scaling if that's better? Just new to this. Yes major room issues below 180 hz.
 

375HP2482

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Well....5 dB scaling is more typical of what we see on posted measurements. Using 2 dB grids tends to exaggerate response wiggles, as not everyone is sensitive to a 2 dB change in level. Designers typically will use 1/12 octave smoothing (or less) to see what's going on.

Amir must have mentioned the smoothing criteria for his measurements. Eyeballing them, they look like 1/24 octave or less.
 
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Teeter

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It is just out of stock, temporarily. It is a popular JBL Speaker and sells out fast. They can't keep enough in stock and that includes Crutchfield. Just wait a couple more weeks and it will be available. It has gone on sale for $174.00. I got mine back in January, at the sale price at Crutchfield.
 

dealpapa

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It is just out of stock, temporarily. It is a popular JBL Speaker and sells out fast. They can't keep enough in stock and that includes Crutchfield. Just wait a couple more weeks and it will be available. It has gone on sale for $174.00. I got mine back in January, at the sale price at Crutchfield.
I wish I can wait that long.
 

theyellowspecial

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Amirm, are you able to re-run distortion measurements with resonances/peaks EQ'd? It would be interesting to see true distortion performance in critical 1-2khz region with neutral response.
 
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