Studio L Series

[Zilch]

L890, top
L100, bottom

I'm becoming a frequency response conspiracy theorist....

[MJC]

[quote=JBLnsince1959]

If the highs are not there then I would look at your equipment or setup...audio stuff is funny...some things just don't mix well. everything I had that wokred great with the 4430's didn't work at all with the PS..I had to start over from the interconnects on up...

I never said I didn't like the sound of these speakers, just they lacked highs in a room that's not totally live.
In the audio room at Fry's they showed a fairly good top end, but that room has a concrete floor, thin commercial carpet and windows along one wall. That makes a live room. The receiver was a H/K 745.
Now I've never considered my LR/HT to be dead. No wall treatment, a couple of windows, three doors, thick carpet/pad on wood floors and 4 padded recliners. That mix, I would think, makes the room about neutral.
With the H/K635's EQ on gives me all the highs and bass I what, thru the L212s, even with the EQ off, its still there, just a bit less.
You're the one who called the 890s dark and full, and I would agree with that, to a point. With the EQ on the 890s show some highs, but the bass self destructed.
Last night I moved the 890s into the MB, sitting to both ends of the computer table, connected to a Marantz receiver, sounds about the same as with the H/K. Right now I'm listening to a cd, with my head right in the middle and slightly forward, sounds very nice. They are an upgrade from the L55s and stand tall enough to project sound properly when laying in bed. It just a matter of do/will I like them enough to keep them. That's still undecided.

I'm flabbergasted at the last review...these speakers are ANYthing but bright..I'm not sure where the guy is coming from..

As I said, they can show highs, in a live room.

As far as the PS series, Before you buy from the web Pm me about something...when i get time ( OK, when I feel like it) I have some things to say about the PS series..what they are...and what they are not

I'm not likely to ever do that, I don't like buying speakers I can't audition first.

[JBLnsince1959]

I never said I didn't like the sound of these speakers, just they lacked highs in a room that's not totally live.

Now I've never considered my LR/HT to be dead. No wall treatment, a couple of windows, three doors, thick carpet/pad on wood floors and 4 padded recliners. That mix, I would think, makes the room about neutral.
With the H/K635's EQ on gives me all the highs and bass I what, thru the L212s, even with the EQ off, its still there, just a bit less.
.

You may have misunderstood my intent...I was just saying (or trying to) that there can be many things that can affect the sound of the speakers...you made it clear that you liked the speakers altho they may not replace the L212....( the L212 are way better IMHO)

They are an upgrade from the L55s and stand tall enough to project sound properly when laying in bed. It just a matter of do/will I like them enough to keep them. That's still undecided..

cool....

when I said they were "dark" it was compared to certain other speakers..the 890's are very balanced and full sounding.....I'm sure for the right application they'll be perfect. At this point I really like them but i don't have a place for their kind of sound ( dual 8's). altho I have considered sitting them next to a 1400 and running the wire to the 890's and not the 800's, sound's like fun but not a reason to buy them

I'll be interested in your further comparisons as time goes on...

[MJC]

When I first saw the Studio L Series on JBL's web site I thought of getting the wall mount L/R, center, surrounds for this room and use my PB12 sub with them, thus eliminating some of the clutter in this room. And when I got to Fry's I did listen to the 820s first, and thinking, with a sub, these would be very nice. But I went there to check out the 890s and liked the looks of them and their sound.
After 28 years I guess I'm getting tired of looking at the wide baffle L212/PS types and even wider subs. Which is one reason I haven't bought the PS, although I'd like to audition them.
I find the narrow towers more pleasing to the eye now. In that same mind set, of all the speakers I've heard the last 6 years, and if money was no object, I'd buy the Infinity Prelude MTS system. Hands down, one of the best sounding, most neutral speaker systems I've ever heard. And I really like their looks, including their side firing subs. And the only place you can find them now is on the Harman Online store, but no matching centers. Even Infinity's web site doesn't show them any more.

[JBLnsince1959]

After 28 years I guess I'm getting tired of looking at the wide baffle L212/PS types and even wider subs. Which is one reason I haven't bought the PS, although I'd like to audition them.

If you need a place to store those L212's just mail them to me

In that same mind set, of all the speakers I've heard the last 6 years, and if money was no object, I'd buy the Infinity Prelude MTS system. .

I agree BIG TIME...I'm really wanting a pair of those..

[MJC]

JBLnsince1959]If you need a place to store those L212's just mail them to me

You wish

I agree BIG TIME...I'm really wanting a pair of those

A pair, hell no, 7, center and at least 2 subs.

[MJC]

I moved the 890s to another room, connecting them to an old Sony Prologic receiver and Yamaha turntable. First time I've had the turntable connected since '99, when I bought the Marantz 880.
The only advantage to the Sony is its manually adjusted parametric eq, and phono input. I added about 3db at the bass end and starting at 8k steadily increased the output up to +10db @ 18k.
I tried a number of LPs, including Grand Funk's Closer to Home, Olivia's Totally Hot, her only 'really rock' LP, and a couple of early '60s Elvis LPs. That EQ setup brought in the highs and gave an overall good sound across the entire range.

That differed from when the 890s where connected to the H/K 635, which of coarse, has the auto EZSet/EQ, that EQ brought in the highs at the expense of totally distorting the bass. And I have no idea why. That same EQ just makes the L212s even better. And why are the 890s seemingly not compatable with another Harman product's EQ. Yet in Fry's the 890s had good highs when connected to the H/K 745, and I don't remember if the EQ was on.
The soundstage is still about the same, nowhere near as wide or as deep as the Mirror imaged L212s. But the 890s are good sounding speakers.

By comparision, the Marantz only has the Cinema RE-EQ, which only works with DD and DTS. And the Marantz and Sony only go to 20k, making the 890's super tweeter useless.
But will I keep them, don't know yet, got 3 more weeks to decide.

[JBLnsince1959]

I added about 3db at the bass end and starting at 8k steadily increased the output up to +10db @ 18k.

something doesn't sound right ( excuse the pun)....

The 3 DB in the bass I can understand, but the highs should not need that much....From a general view and also fromy experience at the show room, that just doesn't compute...is it possible you've got a bad pair?

[MJC]

The 3 DB in the bass I can understand, but the highs should not need that much

Actually, no. While I was listening to Yes' Fragile I backed it off, way too bright. That Sony eq seems a bit odd, but maybe not. The bass eq and the treble eq overlap the mid eq. With the bass 99htz~1k; the treble 1k~10k; and the mid from 20htz~18k. Right now its -.8db @ 99htz, on the bass; +1.2db @ 6.3k on the mid control, and +4.4db @ 9k on the treble. So overall the slope is only increasing slightly from 20htz~18khtz.
So to my ears, it sounds pretty good. With the 890s being ported its doing its bass thing all the time.
But I still don't understand the problems with the bass using the H/K 635, here and there not having any problems, using the 745 at Fry's. I got the highs in both cases, but with the H/K635 eq to L890 bass problems I wasn't leaving the eq on, thus losing the highs.

[MJC]

Well, I think I've got the L890s dialed in as good as they're going to get. Unfortunately, they're only connected to a prologic receiver, but that eq has brought the highs to life. The 'Bridge Over Troubled Water' album was great on those speakers.
I might try one more time, connecting them to the H/K receiver to see if I can get that eq to work with the 890s. That is the only receiver, of the three, that has a frequency response that is over 20K. Otherwise, the super tweeter is useless.

[JBLnsince1959]

That is the only receiver, of the three, that has a frequency response that is over 20K. Otherwise, the super tweeter is useless.

well, yes and no....the super tweeters' rolloff below 20K is helping the tweeter ( according to GT); also, there is some proof that the higher harmonics above 20K do affect the stuff down below...but mostly it's the stuff BELOW 20K that we really here....

of course these's much debate about this but I'll go with what GT had to say..

by the way Russ ( Rusnzha) is here this weekend and he's thinking the same thing I am ( he says hi)...

let us know more off what you find..

also, the H/K receiver you're using, how many amps does it put out or what is it's specs ( I'm not familiar with it)

take care

[MJC]

The irony of this is, that of the receivers I have, the one that's not digital seems to work best with the 890s. And and GT has said, the Studio Ls are made for digital audio, as are all the current JBLs.
The H/K is only processing the signal, its connected to a Parasound HCA 2505 amp.
But if I do decide to keep them, they won't be used in the main HT, where the H/K receiver is, because that would mean breaking up a complete 7 channel L212 system.
So they might just stay connected to the Sony and the turntable. Of coarse, buying a phono pre-amp and adding it to the H/K would be cheaper than the 890s. Or I could move them back to the MB's system.
But spending the time finding the right receiver for these speakers is worth while.

[Titanium Dome]

That HK AVR 635 goes well below 20 Hz and beyond 100kHz, so it should be a good match. Yet, I wonder if the older HK gear (or any older gear for that matter) is really prepared to handle auto EQ on speakers that may exceed the expectations of the EQ logic.

The Frys in Manhattan Beach was running an AVR 645 (not yet for sale)through the Studio Ls and it sounded great.

Maybe you should reset everything on the 635 to defaults and forget about using the EZ Set/EQ. Tweak it by hand. It could be that the ultra high capabilities of the super tweeter are messing the calibration up. The 645 (sibling of the 745) due next month probably is more capable of handling these brand new speakers with their heretofore unexpected high frequency capability.

[Zilch]

Pssst :

Measure....

[JBLnsince1959]

Pssst :

Measure....

and spoil all the fun??????????