JBL Stage A130 Review (speaker)

[USER]

So I revisited my old measurements of the JBL A130 and I think I am even more confused. These are of a set purchased soon after Erin's review, when they were on sale for around $120.

The first is of both speakers in my basement, from the same position. Note that set-up is not optimal in any of these. They were close against a wall and all show a terrible suck out at around 100Hz. The second is the same speaker in my basement and then my living room. The third is of me playing with toe-out. If I remember correctly these were all taken from about 8ft away.

Anyways, here are Erin and Amir's estimated in-room responses.

I think now that I am getting a mix of Erin and Amir's results. Certainly there is a rise after 5k that corresponds more closely with Erin's results, but I also believe that I see the low end extension seen in Amir's graphs. More, and I know it isn't clear here because of the influence of the rooms, but I don't see the dip between 200-800Hz seen in Erin's results. So I think I am getting Amir's results below 2k.

More fascinating is that they seem to do well with toe-out, almost as if they were really meant to be bookshelf speakers. They seem even closer to Amir's then, though of course from a different angle.

I don't have the time to revisit these but I thought people would be interested. Are there any more at-home measurements floating around?

 

[USER]

So very confused about leaving the grills on - there are comments here about electric grills, charcoal etc.

They were originally measured with the grills off, I do not know if there is an actual audible difference either way.

My old quick measurements show that the grill has a negative impact. YMMV.

 

[Graham849]

My old quick measurements show that the grill has a negative impact. YMMV.

View attachment 381485

Thank you. I've used them with grill off since purchase: both near field and distance sound is gratifying to my aged ears.

 

[Rick63]

The next generation Stage 250B has been released and is in stock at Crutchfield:

JBL Stage 250B (Latte)

Bookshelf speakers

www.crutchfield.com

 

[USER]

One last follow-up. I think I am right. I am getting Amir's results up until around 2k and then I am getting something closer to Erin's.

Here is a comparison of what REW calculates has to be done in order to get results to Harman.

In the first one, I EQ'ed my results with the recommended EQ from spinorama.com (based on Erin's results) and then ran those results against the Harman curve again. For the second, I loaded Amir's results onto REW and got a EQ filter based on Harman. Then I applied that EQ to my results and ran them against the Harman curve again. Finally, I ran my original results against Harman.

So it seems that I am getting something from both worlds.

I can see this being a manufacturing issue now. And it looks to me that there are two things happening that distinguish the results and that you can even get one of the two issues. Could this be related to something like the capacitors not meeting spec?

@Dennis Murphy I'm wondering if you can tell us if there is a simple explanation for this difference based on something being off in this simple crossover? Please only concern yourself if it is obvious.

Edit: A better view of the differences.

 

[Teeter]

@USER I have a pair in my basement for FREE!

 

[maruko]

I would like to buy these speakers to start educating my ear to good sound (I have some terrible B&W currently) but I'm afraid to burn them if I feed them with my amp (Audiophonics hpa s400et, 200w 8Ohm / 400w 4Ohm) since these speakers are rated 25watt.

It's safe if I don't increase too much the Volume?

 

[Steven Holt]

@maruko I'm assuming that you mean 'burn them IN' Well, you'll be relieved to know that there's no such thing : if that speaker doesn't sound good, really good, right out of the box RETURN IT. You have an excellent amp, but those looks like peak numbers to me. So the solution is obvious : don't push the speakers. As long as you stay at 11 O'clock or below on the volume dial, you should be fine. Again, congrats on that amp!

 

[maruko]

Has the floorstanding big brother JBL A190 same level of performance as the A130 here reviewed?

 

[Steven Holt]

Has the floorstanding big brother JBL A190 same level of performance as the A130 here reviewed?

That I don't know. I do know that JBL has been around a long time and that they know what they're doing. As to your question, I'll defer to our membership.

 

[somebodyelse]

Has the floorstanding big brother JBL A190 same level of performance as the A130 here reviewed?

I don't think we have measurements for the A190, but most of the rest of this range have results at spinorama.org although you'll have to go to the original reviews to see the distortion results. They're not exactly consistent from one model to the next either in frequency response or distortion. The difference between results from Erin and ASR for the A130 has caused some speculation too - manufacturing tolerances, temperature difference, or a change of design during production? My guess is the A190 will have decent directivity so would take EQ well, but you would have to measure yourself to find what EQ it needed. Distortion is an unknown, the A180 raising some questions on that front.

I do know that JBL has been around a long time and that they know what they're doing.

While JBL are certainly capable of making speakers that measure well, measurements show that that isn't always their priority. They're not unique in that - see the KEF T101 as a counter to the generally good results we see for their Q, R and Reference series.

 

[375HP2482]

The next generation Stage 250B has been released and is in stock at Crutchfield:

JBL Stage 250B (Latte)

Bookshelf speakers

www.crutchfield.com

View attachment 381537View attachment 381538

It looks like the Stage A130 went to Sweden for a makeover.

 

[375HP2482]

A few observations on this "new" Stage A130.

From the Rear View, it appears that the front flange extends below the base of the cabinet, which might irritate simple desktop mounting.

That low-distortion woofer in the A130 has had a cone change to a ribbed cone, ostensibly to improve the mild midrange peaks of the A130 cone.

JBL Marketing to Engineering: "Can't we find a higher-tech word for "paper cone"? Engineering: "Well... How about 'polycellulose cone'?"

 

[staticV3]

From the Rear View, it appears that the front flange extends below the base of the cabinet, which might irritate simple desktop mounting.

It's an optical illusion caused by some creative design work on the chassis.

The front baffle sits flush with the bottom of the chassis, but extends past it to the sides and on top.

The thing you see from the rear is not the baffle sticking out, but a small platform that JBL glued to the cabinet to make the baffle sit flush on the bottom.

This probably shows it most clearly:

 

[maruko]

Ok, o get my Jbl A130 and I’m listening to them. Until now I think I’m happy with the sound. Not as bright as B&W.

But, obviously, the bass response of a full tower speaker is missing.

So I’m wondering if I can connect a subwoofer. But how to do it since my amp (Audiophonics HPA S400ET) has only two output (L and R speaker)?

 

[phoenixsong]

Ok, o get my Jbl A130 and I’m listening to them. Until now I think I’m happy with the sound. Not as bright as B&W.

But, obviously, the bass response of a full tower speaker is missing.

So I’m wondering if I can connect a subwoofer. But how to do it since my amp (Audiophonics HPA S400ET) has only two output (L and R speaker)?

Maybe get a sub with high pass filter outputs

 

[staticV3]

So I’m wondering if I can connect a subwoofer. But how to do it since my amp (Audiophonics HPA S400ET) has only two output (L and R speaker)?

You could buy a subwoofer with built-in pass-through. To connect it, do DAC->Subwoofer->Amp->Mains.

Alternatively, you could connect both the subwoofer and the Amp to your DAC in parallel.
If your DAC has only RCA output, then use RCA splitters:


If your DAC has both RCA and XLR output, then do DAC->RCA->Subwoofer and DAC->XLR->Amp.

The drawback of this method is that you cannot apply a high-pass filter to the JBL A130.

Alternatively, you could buy a DSP like a miniDSP Flex or 2x4HD or DDRC-24.
It connects to the subwoofer and the Amp separately, and you can apply different processing to each output.

 

[maruko]

@staticV3
What is an high pass filter and why I would need it for the A130?

 

[staticV3]

What is an high pass filter

See here

and why I would need it for the A130?

A high pass filter removes deep bass from the A130's inputs so that it can focus on reproducing mids and highs.

Applying a high pass filter to your main speakers can reduce distortion and enable louder playback without encountering woofer bottom-out, port chuffing, etc.

 

[SMc]

Ok, o get my Jbl A130 and I’m listening to them. Until now I think I’m happy with the sound. Not as bright as B&W.

But, obviously, the bass response of a full tower speaker is missing.

So I’m wondering if I can connect a subwoofer. But how to do it since my amp (Audiophonics HPA S400ET) has only two output (L and R speaker)?

Simplest to get a sub with speaker-level inputs. KEF explains: https://us.kef.com/blogs/news/simple-subwoofer-connection-tips