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Kal's Beolab review is out!
- Thread starter Purité Audio
- Start date
Not sure why... I haven't heard anything yet with a JBL badge on it, in the flesh, that does anything for me - they either go walloping loud, or are so "refined" that the amp used is pretty hopeless at driving them - the very expensive domestic ones at the last audio show got an immediate cross, for the latter reason. And their active monitors, when I was looking around for these and ending up getting Behringers, were nowhere in the game.
FWIW, the review is accessible now at this link address: http://www.stereophile.com/content/bang-olufsen-beolab-90-loudspeaker#EtGzgLBrbKF7MXey.97
watchnerd
Grand Contributor
So how do I hook up an analog source like a turntable to these?
watchnerd
Grand Contributor
I realize that frequency response below the Schroeder frequency is highly room dependent, but isn't the point of paying $85,000 for a speaker that uses heavy DSP below 1khz to avoid big ass +15 db spikes in the bass like this??
The "pick your own curve" is still vaporware in the '90, the way I read it.
There's no illustration of the factory target, just the result.
There's no illustration of the factory target, just the result.
I do find it quite interesting the way a couple in the industry are now gushing over a product from B&O who's history in Hi Fi has been quirky, artsy, mid-fi products. From the line of linear arm TT's like above to the current lineup of speakers that look like spaceships. They always seemed to design with more intent on getting their products in modern art galleries than making music?.
I find this whole situation very curious.
Take a look at some of their other products.
http://www.bang-olufsen.com/en/collection/speakers
I find this whole situation very curious.
Take a look at some of their other products.http://www.bang-olufsen.com/en/collection/speakers
Keen audio chap further up the road, not the one with the Tannoys, has done the big picture solution - top of the line Scan Speak drivers, fully active, with DEQX doing the minute adjustments; low end taken care of by dual massive, sealed enclosures that weigh half a ton each, courtesy of double skin, and sand infill. Bass was the cleanest I've come across in ages, wasn't there unless it was meant to be; a frequency sweep plumbing the depths sounded very reasonable, with no silly harmonic distortion sprayed everywhere. Definitely no throbbing spikes anywhere ...
I realize that frequency response below the Schroeder frequency is highly room dependent, but isn't the point of paying $85,000 for a speaker that uses heavy DSP below 1khz to avoid big ass +15 db spikes in the bass like this??
Yet, this didn't help with pipe organ playback - subjectively, somewhat gutless, lacking in richness and heft ...
watchnerd
Grand Contributor
The Beolab 90's impulse response is nothing to write home about, either:
B&O's explanation is latency related to DSP. But, still....that's no bueno.
In contrast, if you compare the impulse response of the Dynaudio Focus 200 XD (MSRP $7000 pair), which also uses a DSP crossover (and Class D amps) and some mild contour shaping filters (admittedly much less intense that what the Beolab 90 is trying to do), you get this:
B&O's explanation is latency related to DSP. But, still....that's no bueno.
In contrast, if you compare the impulse response of the Dynaudio Focus 200 XD (MSRP $7000 pair), which also uses a DSP crossover (and Class D amps) and some mild contour shaping filters (admittedly much less intense that what the Beolab 90 is trying to do), you get this:
watchnerd
Grand Contributor
I do find it quite interesting the way a couple in the industry are now gushing over a product from B&O who's history in Hi Fi has been quirky, artsy, mid-fi products. From the line of linear arm TT's like above to the current lineup of speakers that look like spaceships. They always seemed to design with more intent on getting their products in modern art galleries than making music?.
I find this whole situation very curious.
http://www.bang-olufsen.com/en/collection/speakers
I'd still give B&O R&D credit for the IcePower amp chips, as well as the moving micro cross cartridge.
It has analog inputs.
watchnerd
Grand Contributor
RCA or XLR?
watchnerd
Grand Contributor
Thanks, but I already have one of these (albeit with a different tonearm), which I think is a much better ojet d'art:
Sexy
watchnerd
Grand Contributor
Do you get the good consumer models in Oz?
Because in the USA, for some dumb reason, the blue-faced upscale "studio monitors" aren't available, unlike in Japan or Europe. The stuff we get on the consumer side is uninspiring.
Pro is a different story. The M2 is impressive.
There's a decent range it appears ... http://convoy.com.au/brands/jbl/studio-monitors.aspx.
It was the S4700, driven by Accuphase I heard - did not work as a package.
It was the S4700, driven by Accuphase I heard - did not work as a package.
We have a member here with a pair of 4367 bought in the USA.. The big ones with the blue face plate.
OP
- Thread Starter
- #99
It must be difficult the US has been in the vanguard of audio electronic design for decades but now finds itself rather lagging, have you read the nonsense spouted by the Dave Wilson in the Stereophile piece, he doesn't appear to know anything about loudspeaker design whatsoever.
Keith
Keith
The way I see it, the thing about DSP is that (given some reasonable drivers and amps), you can set it up to give you any impulse response you like - at one position in space. Given multiple drivers, you can do it in an infinite variety of ways - e.g. set up the mid-range with a very strange frequency/phase response and simply do the opposite with the woofer and tweeter. Apply the correct delays and you can guarantee the perfect impulse response - at a single point in space in an anechoic chamber. But it doesn't tell you anything about how it will sound in a real room or from different positions in space.
I am assuming that the B&O people are targeting the best behaviour with some tolerance of listening position. Or something like that..?
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