This is a review of the JBL XPL90 bookshelf/stand-mount speaker. It was purchased by a member and kindly had it shipped to me from Japan. He is an expert on these older JBL speakers so I am sure he will fill us in better than I can. Form a bit of research I did, I think the speaker came out in late 1980s and cost US $699. It is of course discontinued now but apparently the series is sought after.
I must say, this an attractive looking speaker with its grill off:
There is some kind of fabric/valuer material that surrounds the tweeter area. It looks better in person than the picture above, giving a feeling of professional but nice attention to detail.
The back panel is interesting:
Can you see it? Let me zoom in:
Yes, they used monster cable inside! Given the popularity of monster cable then, it kind of makes sense given JBL's aim to sell these as hifi speakers.
Speaker is quite dense and solid by the way.
Measurements that you are about to see were performed using the Klippel Near-field Scanner (NFS). This is a robotic measurement system that analyzes the speaker all around and is able (using advanced mathematics and dual scan) to subtract room reflections (so where I measure it doesn't matter). It also measures the speaker at close distance ("near-field") which sharply reduces the impact of room noise. Both of these factors enable testing in ordinary rooms yet results that can be more accurate than an anechoic chamber. In a nutshell, the measurements show the actual sound coming out of the speaker independent of the room.
Spinorama Audio Measurements
Acoustic measurements can be grouped in a way that can be perceptually analyzed to determine how good a speaker can be used. This so called spinorama shows us just about everything we need to know about the speaker with respect to tonality and some flaws:
The response starts well with nearly ruler flat to above 1 kHz. But then it gets some ups and downs including around crossover region of 3 kHz. Lack of a waveguide causes some directivity error there as well (on-axis response varying from off-axis). There is also some peaking above 10 kHz.
Early (important) reflections are more or less the same:
Giving us a predicted in-room response that we could have guessed:
A bit of room gain as noted, may help push up the region before a few hundred kilohertz and hence, make that not stand out.
Directivity response in horizontal plan shows rather even response until 10 kHz but then the tweeter "beams" (its response becomes narrow):
So if you don't toe in the speaker, it can bring down the peaking of above 10 kHz.
Vertical directivity is not good (fairly typical) but you better keep the tweeter at your ear level because it gets worse otherwise:
I could not hear much stress at 96 dB SPL at 1 meter so I thought distortion was under control but it was not:
In hindsight, I should have also tested it at 86 dB but I didn't. Here is the same data but as percentage:
Finally, here is the impedance and phase:
The 6 ohm rating from the company is optimistic.
Speaker Listening Tests
I must say, the first impression was positive! And it got better from there as I disabled my single filter for my room mode. It added good bit of nice clean bass. I think the positive impression was the result of smooth and flat response to above 1 kHz. I listen for detail and bloatedness in that range and the flat response kept that in check.
I experimented with a few filters based on spin data. Only the first filter was successful across all content:
This filled that hole in the frequency response, resulting in better detail.
As I noted, I dealt with toe-in to tame the brightness. Quick filters to do the job was were too crude so I gave up on them. Ditto for filling in the crossover error.
Overall, the strength of the speaker was in vocals, and simpler instruments. You know, the classic audiophile tracks
. So I can see why it has the popularity that it has.
Conclusions
I think this is the first speaker I have liked that has some clear response errors. What it gets right must be what I pay attention to and in that regard, this was an enjoyable speaker.
If you want to go back to the times were speakers were built in US without trying to squeeze every penny out of the cost as we have today, these may be your best bet.
Overall, I am happy to recommend the JBL XPL90 speakers.
-----------
As always, questions, comments, recommendations, etc. are welcome.
My back is killing me from digging ditches after ditches to plant tomatoes (some 60 plants). Could take some drugs for it but I am thinking I should higher someone with soft feet to walk on my back and set it straight. Looked that up online and such people are available but cost money. So please donate what you can using : https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/how-to-support-audio-science-review.8150/
I must say, this an attractive looking speaker with its grill off:
There is some kind of fabric/valuer material that surrounds the tweeter area. It looks better in person than the picture above, giving a feeling of professional but nice attention to detail.
The back panel is interesting:
Can you see it? Let me zoom in:
Yes, they used monster cable inside! Given the popularity of monster cable then, it kind of makes sense given JBL's aim to sell these as hifi speakers.
Speaker is quite dense and solid by the way.
Measurements that you are about to see were performed using the Klippel Near-field Scanner (NFS). This is a robotic measurement system that analyzes the speaker all around and is able (using advanced mathematics and dual scan) to subtract room reflections (so where I measure it doesn't matter). It also measures the speaker at close distance ("near-field") which sharply reduces the impact of room noise. Both of these factors enable testing in ordinary rooms yet results that can be more accurate than an anechoic chamber. In a nutshell, the measurements show the actual sound coming out of the speaker independent of the room.
Spinorama Audio Measurements
Acoustic measurements can be grouped in a way that can be perceptually analyzed to determine how good a speaker can be used. This so called spinorama shows us just about everything we need to know about the speaker with respect to tonality and some flaws:
The response starts well with nearly ruler flat to above 1 kHz. But then it gets some ups and downs including around crossover region of 3 kHz. Lack of a waveguide causes some directivity error there as well (on-axis response varying from off-axis). There is also some peaking above 10 kHz.
Early (important) reflections are more or less the same:
Giving us a predicted in-room response that we could have guessed:
A bit of room gain as noted, may help push up the region before a few hundred kilohertz and hence, make that not stand out.
Directivity response in horizontal plan shows rather even response until 10 kHz but then the tweeter "beams" (its response becomes narrow):
So if you don't toe in the speaker, it can bring down the peaking of above 10 kHz.
Vertical directivity is not good (fairly typical) but you better keep the tweeter at your ear level because it gets worse otherwise:
I could not hear much stress at 96 dB SPL at 1 meter so I thought distortion was under control but it was not:
In hindsight, I should have also tested it at 86 dB but I didn't. Here is the same data but as percentage:
Finally, here is the impedance and phase:
The 6 ohm rating from the company is optimistic.
Speaker Listening Tests
I must say, the first impression was positive! And it got better from there as I disabled my single filter for my room mode. It added good bit of nice clean bass. I think the positive impression was the result of smooth and flat response to above 1 kHz. I listen for detail and bloatedness in that range and the flat response kept that in check.
I experimented with a few filters based on spin data. Only the first filter was successful across all content:
This filled that hole in the frequency response, resulting in better detail.
As I noted, I dealt with toe-in to tame the brightness. Quick filters to do the job was were too crude so I gave up on them. Ditto for filling in the crossover error.
Overall, the strength of the speaker was in vocals, and simpler instruments. You know, the classic audiophile tracks
. So I can see why it has the popularity that it has.Conclusions
I think this is the first speaker I have liked that has some clear response errors. What it gets right must be what I pay attention to and in that regard, this was an enjoyable speaker.
If you want to go back to the times were speakers were built in US without trying to squeeze every penny out of the cost as we have today, these may be your best bet.
Overall, I am happy to recommend the JBL XPL90 speakers.
-----------
As always, questions, comments, recommendations, etc. are welcome.
My back is killing me from digging ditches after ditches to plant tomatoes (some 60 plants). Could take some drugs for it but I am thinking I should higher someone with soft feet to walk on my back and set it straight. Looked that up online and such people are available but cost money. So please donate what you can using : https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/how-to-support-audio-science-review.8150/
