JBL Studio 590 Speaker Review

[Chrispy]

I fell for the more musical nonsense because I had two klipsch r12sw that sounded slow and flabby but were just "ok" for HT boom, and expected musical to be more accurate and fast and blend with music better.

It can't be worse than those, can it?

Hopefully a bit better than the Klipsch...no such thing as slow or fast in a sub, tho.

 

[Chrispy]

Ok so I think it's your setup with the headphone out or the amp was running out of power and going into clipping. The 8:30 Mission Impossible part is more dynamic and I could see that needing to draw more power than was available.
As for artifacts, it's like "hearing pixels" to me at low bitrates, graininess, and harshness. With that said I tested with my AT M50X + Topping E30 DAC + L30 Amp to remove the room from the equation and do a more critical listen. The track sounded pretty good honestly, but I think I hear a little bit of harshness, but I'd need a lossless track to verify if it's the recording or the compression. I think it's your setup though as it's not obvious.

Your REL sub is good, it's just the high MSRP and BS marketing that keeps me from recommending them. Getting one on discount would change that though. The R12SW on the other hand is not a "good" sub lol. So a big upgrade

Or the recorder got overloaded with the higher levels of audience applause was more my thought. Hard to know.

 

[andrewskaterrr]

Or the recorder got overloaded with the higher levels of audience applause was more my thought. Hard to know.

That was the other track with the lady and mic clipping like crazy, I was talking about the studio recording mix.

 

[andrewskaterrr]

I switched to using my laptop headphone out (problem persists with youtube content) but then I found this site with some 320kbs mp3's.

TAS The Absolute Sound 1996 Album For Audiophiles - Audiophile Music

The Absolute Sound (TAS) is a collection of great Audiophile versions of the year. It includes songs from a variety of genres.

audiophilemusic.io

Almost every song on that site is much much better, not quite 100% but a noticeable difference in that subtle static sound and every other aspect of the sound is better than youtube.

Almost every song is better except for track 15 (Dias irae), that one sounds like garbage and it's hard for me to imagine that's on the recording they chose for an audiophile CD. Does track 15 sound static free to you?

15 sounds fine to me on headphones, no static.

 

[Chrispy]

That was the other track with the lady and mic clipping like crazy, I was talking about the studio recording mix.

I was just going with the youtube link/video, where the audience applause definitely took it to a different place, assumed it was poor monitoring of level more than anything. Why would you compare a live thing apparently recorded with a handheld phone to a studio mix?

 

[jbl590]

15 sounds fine to me on headphones, no static.

That's weird. What are you using as a playback device? I'm using a windows 11 laptop and the audio on that track is really bad whether I send analog out of the laptop headphone connector directly or send hdmi out from the laptop to the tv and then use the tv's headphone out.

There must be something wrong with how the computer is converting these bitstreams?
That's the last thing I haven't changed out yet is the computer as the streaming device.

 

[jbl590]

I think I found part of the problem, aside from the lower audio quality of compressed content.
Switched out the power supply I've used with every one of these amps with a new one I just received, problem solved, for the most part.

I still think there is something wrong with how my computer is handling track 15, but it's not like it was with the new power supply.

It's weird how it wasn't a constant background noise from that power supply but noise that varied with sound output.

 

[andrewskaterrr]

I think I found part of the problem, aside from the lower audio quality of compressed content.
Switched out the power supply I've used with every one of these amps with a new one I just received, problem solved, for the most part.

I still think there is something wrong with how my computer is handling track 15, but it's not like it was with the new power supply.

It's weird how it wasn't a constant background noise from that power supply but noise that varied with sound output.

Win 10 > USB > Topping E30 > RCA > L30 > AT M50X. If you have Windows at 100 it will have a higher noise floor due to Windows Audio Session API (WASAPI), have to use AISO to bypass it. Ya my old PC's PSU had ground loop issues that would effect all audio output that involved metal (3.5 and USB), even across two separate builds, so I had to use Optical out. Swapped PSUs and now it's fine.

 

[jbl590]

Win 10 > USB > Topping E30 > RCA > L30 > AT M50X. If you have Windows at 100 it will have a higher noise floor due to Windows Audio Session API (WASAPI), have to use AISO to bypass it. Ya my old PC's PSU had ground loop issues that would effect all audio output that involved metal (3.5 and USB), even across two separate builds, so I had to use Optical out. Swapped PSUs and now it's fine.

Yea I'm not so sure what if any percentage of the problem was the power supply now.
I'll have to test more again when my ears are ringing less from tinnitus which has been bad recently.

It seemed 50% ? better with the new one then I went back to the old one just to verify, and by double blind testing myself by not knowing which plug I was actually plugging in each time, I can't reliably tell.

It's hard tracking a thing like this down when it's not all content revealing a problem and not so noticeable at lower volumes, plus when your hearing changes with respect to how much your ears are ringing from tinnitus at any one time.

Part of the problem is the low quality youtube content and hearing every compression artifact or defect, I'm pretty sure about that. I need a preamp specifically selected to smooth that out or something.

 

[Chrispy]

Yea I'm not so sure what if any percentage of the problem was the power supply now.
I'll have to test more again when my ears are ringing less from tinnitus which has been bad recently.

It seemed 50% ? better with the new one then I went back to the old one just to verify, and by double blind testing myself by not knowing which plug I was actually plugging in each time, I can't reliably tell.

It's hard tracking a thing like this down when it's not all content revealing a problem and not so noticeable at lower volumes, plus when your hearing changes with respect to how much your ears are ringing from tinnitus at any one time.

Part of the problem is the low quality youtube content and hearing every compression artifact or defect, I'm pretty sure about that. I need a preamp specifically selected to smooth that out or something.

I think you just need to trust less trustworthy sources to start? Why waste so much time on unknown provenance? Gathering great recordings is far more satisfying than trying to elevate those that have issues.....

 

[jbl590]

I think you just need to trust less trustworthy sources to start? Why waste so much time on unknown provenance? Gathering great recordings is far more satisfying than trying to elevate those that have issues.....

I will start to gather a collection of high quality music for sure now that I can hear how much it matters, but even still much of my time is spent watching random stuff of all kinds on youtube.

I watch very little tv or movie streaming any more, no MSM for news, almost all my news and entertainment and hobby channel stuff I'm following is on youtube, I couldn't avoid youtube if I wanted to. Even if I'm just watching news there I don't want it be shrill sounding, especially not when each commercial comes on and raises the volume on me.

 

[Hendrixon]

I just bought a pair of 590s (with the 520C center and 550P sub).
Wasn't aware of those at all... no wait, I did see Z very long ago talking about the 530 in one of his videos, still, I didn't research them back then.
Yesterday I saw these behemoths pop up on facebook marketplace, they looked very interesting look, so started reading about them... 30min later msged the guy "I'll take them all"

So what do I think?
Well they replaced JBL L100s and a pair of Triangle Titus 202 bookshelves on stands and now my 65" TV, which looked fine from where I'm sitting, feels like a 20" pc monitor lol

I'll report back sonic wise once they will be connected.
I do like the look, nice combo of straight lines and curves.
It's the first pair of speakers I own that I WANT to leave the grills on

 

[jbl590]

I just bought a pair of 590s (with the 520C center and 550P sub).
Wasn't aware of those at all... no wait, I did see Z very long ago talking about the 530 in one of his videos, still, I didn't research them back then.
Yesterday I saw these behemoths pop up on facebook marketplace, they looked very interesting look, so started reading about them... 30min later msged the guy "I'll take them all"

So what do I think?
Well they replaced JBL L100s and a pair of Triangle Titus 202 bookshelves on stands and now my 65" TV, which looked fine from where I'm sitting, feels like a 20" pc monitor lol

I'll report back sonic wise once they will be connected.
I do like the look, nice combo of straight lines and curves.
It's the first pair of speakers I own that I WANT to leave the grills on

How much did they cost? Just curious...

I have my 590's with a 77" oled, they seem appropriately sized side by side. It's quite a jump going from 65 to 77, more than the numbers would indicate.

 

[Hendrixon]

Yup 65>75(77) is not a small increment.
Price wise, I'm from Israel, prices here are way high then what you pay in the US, even in the EU.
Shipping costs, being a small market so dealers don't order a lot of units, we don't get the US blowout sales etc etc.
I paid about $1400 for the two 590+520C+550P and a Harman Kardon AVR-365 receiver.

 

[Hendrixon]

literally laying on it's side under the tv lol. It's ugly but it works well enough. It's offset to the side to that the tweeter is closer to the middle.

Weird that no one said it before me.... that calls for pictures!

 

[melomane13]

After 13 years of faithful service, I sold my 590s.
They were too bulky in my 22m² room...
I replaced them with 530s, paired with two 8-inch woofers filtered at 250Hz in a bi-amp configuration.
No regrets so far.
If I ever move to a bigger place, maybe I'll regret it.

 

[Hendrixon]

ok, if anyone thinks he might get these speakers for music stereo listening, talking about the 590 but I'm sure the 580 is just the same, don't, just don't.
It doesn't matter what the klipple plots show, just don't
Yup, as is, they are really bad for music, any half decent bookshelves with a small sub will sound 10x better.
Any half decent real 3-way will sound 10x better.

For cinema? yea who cares, they make sound, any big speaker will sound ok for home cinema simply because you don't know what to expect... and the center does most of the work anyway.
With music? when you know a snare hit with a crack comes every 7 seconds, and it's missing, you WILL hear it missing.

I'm not a speaker designer and even as a DIY i'm just starting in this hobby, but I do know you don't want an 8" woofer playing to 1.5khz, especially one with a heavy cone.
Plus any tweeter pushed to play down to 1.5khz, and specially this tweeter, nothing good can come from this.
There is a forum member that went really far to upgrade the tweeters, and I think even he said that the change was marginal.

Well not all hope is lost as these speakers can be saved, and they can even sound pretty good, but it's an investment.
You just need to modify them into a real 3-way, and I would recommend to use a dsp, make them full active and time align all the drivers.
Which mid driver? it almost doesn't matter what type, i tried a 6.5", 5.25" and now I'm using a 2.1" dome mid driver.
The whole idea is to let the woofers handle the low octaves, push this tweeter away from 1.5khz and all of a sudden this speaker comes to life.

If there is interest I'll expand on this, if not, bottom line as is don't buy, modify to 3 way yes sure its worth it.

 

[DSJR]

I'm not a speaker designer and even as a DIY i'm just starting in this hobby, but I do know you don't want an 8" woofer playing to 1.5khz, especially one with a heavy cone.

OOPS!!! - Not entirely diusagreeing with you here, but my heavily doped ~8" Bextrene cone Spendors go up to 3kHz or so, so heaven knows what the heck is going on with dispersion/directivity (The Troels Gravesen site gives clues...).

 

[Mart68]

OOPS!!! - Not entirely diusagreeing with you here, but my heavily doped ~8" Bextrene cone Spendors go up to 3kHz or so, so heaven knows what the heck is going on with dispersion/directivity (The Troels Gravesen site gives clues...).

You've been able to get 8s that will play up to 3Khz without break-up for decades, maybe directivity is compromised but what does anyone want for a $1K 2 way speaker, the moon on a stick?

I see looking back I voted against most and went for 'Not terrible' - didn't like the look of all those resonances and that midrange distortion peak.

 

[Hendrixon]

I have a pair of Triangle Titus 202 with a 5.25" midbass that has no LP filter on it, it is super flat up to 6k and then rolls of beautifully where it blends with a little horn'ish tweeter.
back then (25 years ago?) for the asking price, they were darlings of audiophiles, and i do love them, hence why I kept them all these years. they are super fast, have a cohesive sound, the tweeter is a bit hotter then it should be (that's why some people had issues with them) but over all they are special.

Yet, all these years I had times when I was in love with them, and other times I was like WTF?
Now that I know a thing or two about speakers and have tools to measure them, all I can say is that if you managed to design a driver that is naturally like 2/3 full range? It doesn't mean that you need to let it play all this range. its cool engineering exercise because the woofer can, but that's it.

I lowered the crossover to 2.5k, adjusted the tweeter output a little, and now they are perfect each time, with every recording and with a wide sweet spot.

8" up to 3k?
Would love to see 15-30 degree plots.
You have them, what do you think about them, and how wide is the sweet spot?

"what does anyone want for a $1K 2 way speaker, the moon on a stick?"
Totally agree, in the end it's a business and a product, you need to move boxes and make profit.