JBL Studio 590 Speaker Review

[beefkabob]

Personally, I think that JBL is well aware of the 'tweeter problem' and chooses not to fix it, they like what they call the 'West Coast Sound'. And you're right, they do make fine gear for the money. I would love to have the 4311's. (You have to excuse Voodooless, he's no nonsense and tells ya what he thinks. He does know this hobby.)

I've been here a while. Strong arguments with strong emotions do not offend me. Voodooless is not on my shit list. Some others are.

 

[GXAlan]

So I can narrow my purchase date down to sometime between Aug. 2018 and Oct. 2018.

I bought and returned mine at the beginning of 2020 and it had a late 2019 production date. I returned it due to the top heavy nature of it. The bass was what impressed me the most.

At the time, I preferred my EQ’s Magnepan MG-III’s but I ended up going for the JBL S/2600 vintage baby everests as a result of hearing the 590’s.

 

[ocinn]

In light of the fact the waveguide insert was presumably not installed, and @fieldcar ’s point about the CD possibly being faulty, I think we should all take these measurements with a large grain of salt, IMO.

We’ve shown that even screw heads in waveguides can cause serious measurable issues, I couldn’t imagine what a 1/4” sharp drop off at the throat could do.

 

[voodooless]

(You have to excuse Voodooless, he's no nonsense and tells ya what he thinks. He does know this hobby.)

Don’t get me wrong, I think for below €1000 a pair, these are quite nice tower speakers.

But I’m merely detecting a curious pattern here. And my engineering heart says: this should not be.

 

[testp]

My view is that these high sensitivity speakers give great dynamic range. And to get high sensitivity you need a bigger box. (Hoffman’s iron law)

So 2.83V hits 90dB. A 100W amplifier will allow it to hit a cracking 110+dB dynamically; and a pair gets very close to live levels.

On the downside to get higher sensitivity the cones/suspension systems have to be light; and with little damping of these lightweight paper/fibre/cellulose cones there are all those little resonances. These are very difficult if not impractical to EQ out with finely tuned PEQ.

also,
good speaker should have great freq. response with high sensitivity, that would mean engineering and parts are good fit,

if designer wants to achieve good freq. response with maybe bad design/parts, sensitivity would suffer.

i could be wrong, but that's how i have looked at it

 

[3125b]

You'd think that a company like JBL would have a quality control (or is it an engineering issue?) process in place to prevent issues like these, they're not exactly a fresh upstart.

 

[uwotm8]

Supposedly an advantage of compression drivers is their ability to play loud. But these measurements show considerable distortion at 96dB. Many dome tweeters have done better at that level. Granted, these are relatively inexpensive compression tweeters.....

Compression driver in a proper horn sounds different, this is not about just being loud. And I like how it sounds. There's some sort of scale.

 

[computer-audiophile]

Compression driver in a proper horn sounds different, this is not about just being loud. And I like how it sounds. There's some sort of scale.

It sounds more lively

 

[Another Bob]

Some BMS 1” drivers would be capable of that, a few Faital as well. IMHO that would make for a much more interesting design.

I tried a Faital HF108R on the Studio 590 horn. It didn't go any lower, nor was it any smoother than with the stock driver. Don't know about distortion. A complicating issue is that there is a molded plastic sub-enclosure behind the compression driver (visible in the first photo of post #69) that doesn't have much spare room, so to fit something like the Faital you would need to remove that and craft a new sub-enclosure. It becomes a fairly involved project.

By adding some cross-bracing and dampening material to the cabinet (the side walls are large, fairly thin, and generally unsupported), I was able to lower the resonances coming out of the ports in the 200-700Hz range by about 6dB. Can't say it was audible, however.

Overall, though, the 590's were one of my favorite speakers I have ever owned, and a steal at the sale/used price.

 

[voodooless]

I tried a Faital HF108R on the Studio 590 horn. It didn't go any lower, nor was it any smoother than with the stock driver.

That’s not very surprising. The horn is too small to accommodate a much lower crossover frequency.

 

[computer-audiophile]

The horn is too small to accommodate a much lower crossover frequency.

True!

 

[computer-audiophile]

I tried a Faital HF108R on the Studio 590 horn. It didn't go any lower, nor was it any smoother than with the stock driver. Don't know about distortion. A complicating issue is that there is a molded plastic sub-enclosure behind the compression driver (visible in the first photo of post #69) that doesn't have much spare room, so to fit something like the Faital you would need to remove that and craft a new sub-enclosure. It becomes a fairly involved project.

By adding some cross-bracing and dampening material to the cabinet (the side walls are large, fairly thin, and generally unsupported), I was able to lower the resonances coming out of the ports in the 200-700Hz range by about 6dB. Can't say it was audible, however.

Overall, though, the 590's were one of my favorite speakers I have ever owned, and a steal at the sale/used price.

If you use another driver you also would have to adapt the crossover, which is a delicate thing.

 

[hmt]

In light of the fact the waveguide insert was presumably not installed, and @fieldcar ’s point about the CD possibly being faulty, I think we should all take these measurements with a large grain of salt, IMO.

We’ve shown that even screw heads in waveguides can cause serious measurable issues, I couldn’t imagine what a 1/4” sharp drop off at the throat could do.

JBL Studio 530 Speaker Review

This is a review and detailed measurements of the JBL Studio 530 bookshelf speaker. They normally cost US $600 but routinely go on sale. That is how I purchased mine for US $280 direct from JBL. The 530 has a very unique style of its own: I normally take speaker grills off for...

www.audiosciencereview.com

The 530 Amir tested in 2020 shows the same resonances though...

 

[beagleman]

Sourced a pair of these for my friend for $550 USD/pair on Facebook a year or so ago. I did his placement and setup and corrected them with his audessey receiver, and within only 2 demo tracks after the deployment, my jaw had fallen thru the floor. They were downright stunning.

These are a total no brainer at the sale/used prices you can find. Clearly JBL is phasing this line out and the resulting liquidation sales make this one of the strongest buys in my eyes at least.

Not doubting you felt that way, but what makes them this stunning exactly?>

 

[computer-audiophile]

Not doubting you felt that way, but what makes them this stunning exactly

You have to experience it for yourself, then mabe you will understand.

 

[beagleman]

You have to experience it for yourself, then mabe you will understand.

I mean some explanation would suffice.
Stunning can mean so many things.
But I mean I have only been stunned by a few speakers ever. But when I was I could put into words, what impressed me.

Loudness, soundstage, deep bass, clarity and so on.
I got the impression Amir was not as stunned was why I asked...

 

[ROOSKIE]

Nice design with that big horn at this price range. Would’ve expected much lower distortion, especially at the 2k mark.

This is a compression driver in a horn.
The distortion is 2nd order harmonic.
Not going to hear it.
It might actually add some 'euphonic' flavor which often sounds very good. Extra 'airy'.

In any case the compression driver/deep horn combo often exhibits higher 2nd order artifacts. It seems to be a common trait. The trade off is excellent dispersion and staggering max SPL. High levels of 2nd HD in a good waveguide are not audible as such.
Study Earl Geddes. He did blind testing of this quality (and other things)for his designs.

Plus the missing waveguide piece is a big miss. Really needs to be redone, just in case. Lots of work but the only solution.

That’s not very surprising. The horn is too small to accommodate a much lower crossover frequency.

This is often not understood by many a DIY enthusiast.
The horn itself has a cutoff frequency.

My money is on the stock JBL driver in these being better than Faital stuff anyway. (Yet costs much less $$)

 

[GXAlan]

I mean some explanation would suffice.
Stunning can mean so many things.
But I mean I have only been stunned by a few speakers ever. But when I was I could put into words, what impressed me.

Loudness, soundstage, deep bass, clarity and so on.
I got the impression Amir was not as stunned was why I asked...

The nice thing is that you can do an in home trial if you are in the U.S. and Harman even pays for return shipping.

For me, the bass response was exceptional. It feels tight and clean and is more bass than you expect for the size.

The midrange has its usually compression driver on-axis sound which is very dynamic. Playing something like a star is born at high SPLs really makes you feel like you are at a concert or theater.

That is, the horn coloration is still a characteristic of the horns in theaters and concerts.

Then you factor in the price point…

 

[computer-audiophile]

I mean some explanation would suffice.

I do not think so. I can't leave the critical listening to others, sorry.

 

[voodooless]

This is a compression driver in a horn.
The distortion is 2nd order harmonic.
Not going to hear it.
It might actually add some 'euphonic' flavor which often sounds very good. Extra 'airy'.

In any case the compression driver/deep horn combo often exhibits higher 2nd order artifacts. It seems to be a common trait. The trade off is excellent dispersion and staggering max SPL. High levels of 2nd HD in a good waveguide are not audible as such.
Study Earl Geddes. He did blind testing of this quality (and other things)for his designs.

I never complained about the audibility, I complained about the engineering, and mostly about the fact that this is present in so many JBL designs. It’s similar to the famous ESS IMD hump. Audibility is highly unlikely, yet we complain as soon as it shows up in measurements

Plus the missing waveguide piece is a big miss. Really needs to be redone, just in case. Lots of work but the only solution.

I would not be surprised if it is of little consequence. The general shape is still there, and there is only a small step. Nevertheless, it would be interesting to see how much difference it really makes.