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JBL Studio 620, subjective impressions

GXAlan

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The Studio 620 should be hitting US shores in a few months. I picked up one from Japan.

A few comments
- it's a dark red color, with the web images representing what it would look like under bright lights. It's darker in real life and I have shown a comparison to the classic JBL walnut finish wood veneer. The iPhone camera used for these photos adds extra saturation, so it's so intense in color in real life.
- fit and finish is great. It feels dense and well-built. A clear step above the Studio 5. The vinyl wood-style wrap is much nicer than the Studio 5 series although you can see the seam of the vinyl wrap on the rear.
- magnetic grill is great
- Made in Indonesia


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(My JBL 4319 is used as a Front Height Dolby Atmos speaker along with a "center" lift feature where the front heights and center channel below the TV are mixed together to create a phantom center at the level of the TV itself)

In room measurements, stereo, listening position ~4 meters away. Microphone is about 10 degrees off-axis (microphone stand on sofa cushion, not at ear level)

1/1 octave smoothing to capture overall tone/balance and then a screenshot of whatever smoothing REW uses for the distortion page which looks ~1/12 octave.
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Sound Impressions
It measures really well with low distortion too, but it doesn't have the transparency of the $4K MSRP 4319 (I'm assuming it's the jagged frequency response; unfair sighted comparison). This is a nice/petite speaker that has a lot more invested in the furniture aspect. [edit: It's a 5.25" woofer]

I do like the JBL 4319 and the Studio 530. When @amirm has measured both, he has seen that the 4319 and 530 have a less downsloped tilt than what most prefer, so my preference may be different from “most listeners”.
 
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Beave

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Doesn't the Studio 620 use the same drivers as the Studio 530 (not the same woofer as the 520c)? In other words, a 5 1/4" woofer?
 

dadregga

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Doesn't the Studio 620 use the same drivers as the Studio 530 (not the same woofer as the 520c)? In other words, a 5 1/4" woofer?

It appears to. There seems to be a Studio 630 floating around which is the same as the Studio 620 tweeter-wise, but which steps up to a single 6 1/2" woofer (from the old Studio 580, which had two of those)
 
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GXAlan

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@Beave, you're right! It's a 5.25" woofer. It just looked so small compared to my 12" woofers.

It will be interesting to see how this compares to a HDI-1600 once it gets put under a high-resolution measurement. I'd imagine it'll come pretty close especially with lower SPLs.
 

Beave

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Yeah, they look *tiny* compared to your other JBLs!
 

Beave

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Missing screws. Screws only halfway in.

But the big thing is the giant crack going all the way across the crossover board. o_O:facepalm:

That board must have bounced around during shipment, leading to it cracking.

I can't believe this wasn't noticed by the reviewer (or whoever took the photo).
 

tw 2022

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Missing screws. Screws only halfway in.

But the big thing is the giant crack going all the way across the crossover board. o_O:facepalm:

That board must have bounced around during shipment, leading to it cracking.

I can't believe this wasn't noticed by the reviewer (or whoever took the photo).
goes to show you just *how* subjective and uninformed some reviewers are...
 
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GXAlan

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@GXAlan what is the JBL on the floor/being used as a stand? thanks

Sorry I missed your question the first time. It’s the S/2600 which based off the original DD55000 Everest. They are from the 1990’s and are still part of the JBL Synthesis’s “History” section on their website.

400 watt power handling, 92 dB efficient for the S2600 and 94 dB for the bigger S3100. The Everest is 100dB efficient!

I have attached the manual which shows the FR and harmonic distortion. It rolls off at about 16 kHz . The asymmetrical horn really works great. You should have a lot of comb filtering and each seat will sound a bit different, but the stereo effect when you are sitting off center is uncanny and it’s like going from various B+/A- seats across a sofa fitting 5 people comfortably in sound quality whereas a traditional speaker will be A+ for the main listening position but drop to B- as you go one seat to the side and then C- two seats to the side. You can almost be purely on axis with the left speaker and still hear voices from phantom center.

i have added this https://audio-database.com/JBL/speaker/ut-405.html to fill in the upper frequencies above 16 kHz. It’s still enjoyable without the super tweeter, but I still have good enough hearing to hear the content that’s 17+ kHz.

These approaches aren’t audiophile from the purest sense, but I like using these along with my Bose 901 for home theater along with Dirac.
 

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  • Jbl s2600.pdf
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rongon

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I see that the Studio 620 uses the exact same compression driver as used in the Studio 530.
If you look at Amir's review & measurements of the Studio 530, you'll see there's a significant resonance at about 1200 Hz, mostly caused by the tweeter. I wonder if that's an artifact of the loading of that particular compression driver in that particular (bi-radial) horn, and if so, does putting that same compression driver into the Studio 620's waveguide help that resonance? If it does, then the Studio 620 may be a very nice step up from the Studio 530. If not, then I wonder how different the two really are.

I have a pair of Studio 530 and I think they're very promising little speakers. They have a lot of detail, but they seem to have an intense 'in-your-face' kind of sound which can be a little antagonizing. It is not a 'laid back' speaker, not at all. I wonder if the Studio 620 sounds a bit more 'relaxed' in the mids.

Hopefully someone will do a thorough set of measurements on a Studio 620 or Studio 630 and we can see what a difference the waveguide makes as opposed to the bi-radial horn used in the 5 series.
 
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