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- Apr 15, 2019
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TL, DR: JBL 308 hands down.
So I bought the Neumanns last month, intended as desktop speakers for my home office. But before setting them up for desk duty, I put them on top of my JBL 308 first gens for comparison.
I use the 308s with JBL 310s subwoofer, which has built-in 80Hz crossover XLR outs, which makes setup very simple.
They both sounded similar to me, at 2m listening distance. Neutral, great phantom center, very pleasing for many different genre of music. They don't sound the same, of course, but quite similar enough.
The biggest difference was the size of the sweet spot. JBLs have a huge, huge, huge sweet spot. Sound simply does not change as I move across the couch. Neumanns on the other hand, the sound changes slightly (I want to say in the 2-5Khz band) as I move my head and as I move seats.
Is this a fair comparison? No. JBL's are way cheaper. Those fancy wave guides must be magical.
Edit: I'm keeping them both. JBLs have high self noise (hiss) up close, even in the smaller models, which precludes usage from a desktop distance. But they are amazing speakers, and for $150 (on sale) each, they tilt the price to diminishing return scale in an extreme way.
So I bought the Neumanns last month, intended as desktop speakers for my home office. But before setting them up for desk duty, I put them on top of my JBL 308 first gens for comparison.
I use the 308s with JBL 310s subwoofer, which has built-in 80Hz crossover XLR outs, which makes setup very simple.
They both sounded similar to me, at 2m listening distance. Neutral, great phantom center, very pleasing for many different genre of music. They don't sound the same, of course, but quite similar enough.
The biggest difference was the size of the sweet spot. JBLs have a huge, huge, huge sweet spot. Sound simply does not change as I move across the couch. Neumanns on the other hand, the sound changes slightly (I want to say in the 2-5Khz band) as I move my head and as I move seats.
Is this a fair comparison? No. JBL's are way cheaper. Those fancy wave guides must be magical.
Edit: I'm keeping them both. JBLs have high self noise (hiss) up close, even in the smaller models, which precludes usage from a desktop distance. But they are amazing speakers, and for $150 (on sale) each, they tilt the price to diminishing return scale in an extreme way.
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