JBL Stage A130 Review (speaker)

[USER]

Updates:

First off, crossover: it appears to be the same as the other one in this thread.

And now a comparison of measurements in different rooms (again, please don't nit-pick; I don't have time to do proper measurements and I think these serve our purposes):

Yesterday's basement measurements:

Today's living room measurements:

Both:

The speaker sounded better in my living room. You can probably see why: the overall higher bass output balanced out the sound. Importantly, the measurements above 6kHz are pretty much the same and align with Erin's measurements. This is where I say the bigger problem with the speakers as they are produced today lies. (I think its fair to think this unless others can demonstrate otherwise. Note also that both of my speakers measured the same yesterday.) Perhaps the tweeter has changed.

Edit: looking back at ROOSKIE's measurements from 1.5 years ago shows results that are similar enough to mine to allow me to think that they have been made like this for a while.

JBL A130 distortion compared in-room with several similar monitors.

Here are some in room Harmonic distortion, measurements of several speakers. After seeing the low distortion in the JBL A130 review (with particular regard for the little 5.25" woofer), I was intrigued/impressed and I bought a pair. I wanted to compare with other speakers and confirm this low...

www.audiosciencereview.com

 

[theyellowspecial]

Thanks for the picture. Crossover looks identical. That puts my stupid theory out to pasture. The mystery goes unsolved.

 

[USER]

Thanks for the picture. Crossover looks identical. That puts my stupid theory out to pasture. The mystery goes unsolved.

You are one of the lucky ones with the good version, no? Just call it the JBL Stage A130 Special Edition, lol.

 

[abdo123]

Here is my Pair from my living room (5 measurements average with some smoothing, EQed based on Erín's measurements for a smooth ER).

There is obvious unit to unit variation, I've been wanting to buy this to do my own ground plane measurements but honestly my fiances haven't been great lately and I couldn't justify the purchase.

 

[theyellowspecial]

You are one of the lucky ones with the good version, no? Just call it the JBL Stage A130 Special Edition, lol.

I was but I upgraded to the A170s and gifted the A130s. I thought the A130s were excellent. I liked them better than the Focal 906s in my 20x11 room.

 

[theyellowspecial]

Here is my Pair from my living room (5 measurements average with some smoothing, EQed based on Erín's measurements for a smooth ER).

There is obvious unit to unit variation, I've been wanting to buy this to do my own ground plane measurements but honestly my fiances haven't been great lately and I couldn't justify the purchase.

Interesting. That is quite the variation. Did you try measuring them in the same location?

 

[theyellowspecial]

Gated measurement from my A170s. Similar to A130s without the resonances. Would be interesting to see on a spin.

 

[USER]

Looking at my pictures again, I noticed that the filler material is awfully close to the port (top of image).

.

I wonder if this has an adverse effect and accounts for any of the resonances? (My heart is screaming Sonic Barrier damping right now.) @Dennis Murphy: you are a master at this, is there anything bad going on? I can only imagine what you could do with the crossover!!!


Edit: You can also use the horizontal beamwidth in your favor:

First measurement is on axis, second from center listening position (approx. 30-45 degrees, essentially with speaker facing straight ahead with no toe-in).

This does beg the question if this tuning is deliberate for an actual bookshelf speaker, which is what the JBL site shows them to be. (Shout out to whoever put Roberto Bolaño's 2666 on that shelf!)

 

[theyellowspecial]

I think Erin conclusively determined the resonances are from the side panels. Car acoustic dampening sheets are probably better suited for dampening the panels; thinner and denser. Assuming you could install them properly through the binding post panel they could be a good upgrade. Maybe the back panel is screwed on underneath the vinyl?

 

[Presently42]

It seems fairly clear, that one reason why the A130 is so cheap, is due to the lower quality control standards: it's a very fine speaker indeed - but with unfortunately large unit-to-unit variations.

I hope at some point, to make quasi-anechoic measurements of my own pair, that another data point might be made available.

 

[Buckster]

Early results and subject to further testing my frequency results seem definitely more similar to Erins

No obvious peak about 12k though

 

[tw 2022]

It seems fairly clear, that one reason why the A130 is so cheap, is due to the lower quality control standards: it's a very fine speaker indeed - but with unfortunately large unit-to-unit variations.

I hope at some point, to make quasi-anechoic measurements of my own pair, that another data point might be made available.

consistent qc issues would make it a bad investment imo...

 

[USER]

consistent qc issues would make it a bad investment imo...

I am still not sold on qc issues being the main culprit here...yet. I mean, sure there is probably some, but this is JBL and they have this stuff down, so I would never expect something so drastic. Both of my speakers measured exactly the same. That's pretty good consistency. I know there is another set of measurements showing differences between two speakers, but I don't know if the speakers were measured from the exact same position as mine were. I'd love to see a follow up measurement from the same position. Seeing the slope difference it could even be the case that he has one Amir and one Erin version! That would be the most helpful outcome. But also see how the axis changes the slope similarly in my last measurement above. But we need new measurements to get to the bottom of that.

More, there seem to be measurements on here dating years back that seem similar to Erin's results, so there's a bit of consistency there.

IMHO, we basically have two different speakers and the easiest way to tell is if there is a rise starting at around 4-5kHz. Then it's likely to be an Erin speaker. What I would like to see is a speaker made or bought new during last year that measures like Amir's. (I think I have only seen one third party measurement like his.) That would also really help us out. There's no need for special measurements either as we can tell a lot from 5kHz up and basic measurements are pretty dependable there.

I would add that the Erin measurements make more sense. JBL mentions the highs in the marketing and they show it as a literal bookshelf speaker. Plus, would they really want something THAT good out of the box out there for so cheap?

 

[abdo123]

I am still not sold on qc issues being the main culprit here...yet. I mean, sure there is probably some, but this is JBL and they have this stuff down, so I would never expect something so drastic. Both of my speakers measured exactly the same. That's pretty good consistency. I know there is another set of measurements showing differences between two speakers, but I don't know if the speakers were measured from the exact same position as mine were. I'd love to see a follow up measurement from the same position. Seeing the slope difference it could even be the case that he has one Amir and one Erin version! That would be the most helpful outcome. But also see how the axis changes the slope similarly in my last measurement above. But we need new measurements to get to the bottom of that.

More, there seem to be measurements on here dating years back that seem similar to Erin's results, so there's a bit of consistency there.

IMHO, we basically have two different speakers and the easiest way to tell is if there is a rise starting at around 4-5kHz. Then it's likely to be an Erin speaker. What I would like to see is a speaker made or bought new during last year that measures like Amir's. (I think I have only seen one third party measurement like his.) That would also really help us out. There's no need for special measurements either as we can tell a lot from 5kHz up and basic measurements are pretty dependable there.


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I would add that the Erin measurements make more sense. JBL mentions the highs in the marketing and they show it as a literal bookshelf speaker. Plus, would they really want something THAT good out of the box out there for so cheap?

Almost every single in-room measurement here shows a slightly different tweeter resonance. So yeah I'm very sure that there is a decent amount of unit to unit variation.

 

[USER]

Almost every single in-room measurement here shows a slightly different tweeter resonance. So yeah I'm very sure that there is a decent amount of unit to unit variation.

I had them too when I was measuring. At first it wasn't even there but it was ultimately an issue on my end and set-up. First three measurements were different as I adjusted. I wish I saved them to show you.

 

[Geezerman]

maybe QC issues in the factory, or product design changes done at the communist factory with JBL not even knowing about it?..

 

[theyellowspecial]

An optimized target curve could be loaded in REW and applied by anyone that's performed a gated measurement at home. The offsets could then be lifted and applied to any external EQ device, or directly exported and applied as EQ in Equalizer APO. Maybe Maiky would be willing to export a target curve based on his EQ.

 

[Presently42]

maybe QC issues in the Chinese communist factory, or product design changes done at the communist factory with JBL not even knowing about it?..

Does the political ideology of the factory really make a difference here?

 

[Geezerman]

Does the political ideology of the factory really make a difference here?

I think so. My opinion is you will get better quality out of Taiwanese factories than mainland China .

 

[EJ3]

I think so. My opinion is you will get better quality out of Taiwanese factories than mainland China .

My wife's father is from mainland China (as is she). Her Uncle is from Taiwan. And my wife has spent a lot of time in both places (as well as many others. I met her on a Western Pacific Island that she had been living on for several years. I had been there for about 3 months when I met her). She agrees with Geezerman's opinion based on Empirical Knowledge.