Advice on Studio 530's

William Lemmerhirt

William Lemmerhirt

Audioholic Overlord
Or the 1.21 gigawatt flux capacitors in the crossovers! :p
I’m sure the gif won’t work because you can only post 100dpi photos but...

And correct. Wow. It’s almost 2020. Can’t use a stupid gif?
 
D

D Murphy

Full Audioholic
This puppy is a 2-way, right? I've never seen that many components thrown at a 2-way. I'm counting 6 capacitors and 6 inductors. If there really isn't a third driver hiding someplace, I would have to assume that they're using two LRC trap circuits plus the usual array of caps and coils. Those drivers must have some funky peaks in them that needed to be trapped out. From the measurements I've seen, they must have succeeded.
 
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Danzilla31

Audioholic Spartan
This puppy is a 2-way, right? I've never seen that many components thrown at a 2-way. I'm counting 6 capacitors and 6 inductors. If there really isn't a third driver hiding someplace, I would have to assume that they're using two LRC trap circuits plus the usual array of caps and coils. Those drivers must have some funky peaks in them that needed to be trapped out. From the measurements I've seen, they must have succeeded.
I wonder if they needed to do that for the bigger towers as well the 580's and 590"s

I have 3 of the 580's in my bedroom setup 3 of the 590's in the theater if they did like you stated I'm sure glad they did because whatever they pulled off I sure enjoy them

There's other speakers out there I enjoy and admire but these when on sale give me enough of everything I like for a price that's just hard to beat

Thanks for the insightful observations on what all those components do its always super cool to understand what they were trying to accomplish and what the designer did to pull it off on any speaker you love

Kind off like learning how your favorite magician pulls off his magic tricks!
 
zieglj01

zieglj01

Audioholic Spartan
This puppy is a 2-way, right? I've never seen that many components thrown at a 2-way. I'm counting 6 capacitors and 6 inductors. If there really isn't a third driver hiding someplace, I would have to assume that they're using two LRC trap circuits plus the usual array of caps and coils. Those drivers must have some funky peaks in them that needed to be trapped out. From the measurements I've seen, they must have succeeded.
That is a 2-way ... And all those pieces had to give the JBL bean counter a mild headache adding up the cost. But they saved a little as they only painted the bottom of the cabinet, and neglected to put the outer finish like the rest of the cabinet ... at least that is how it was for my former pair.
 
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Beave

Audioholic Chief
Can anybody who has a pair measure the woofer size (the woofer frame size and the surround edge-to-edge size, if you can)?

I've never seen them in person.

I've always seen them referred to as 5 1/4" woofers, but the pictures sure make them look smaller than that.

I just looked on the JBL website (https://www.jbl.com/STUDIO+530BK.html) for them, and it refers to the 5 1/4" woofer, then goes on to contradict that by referring to their "4 inch (100 mm) ribbed polyplas woofer."

I'm pretty sure their center channel uses dual 4" woofers.

I'm guessing the woofers in the 530 are bigger than the 4" woofers used in the center but are 'rounded up' to 5 1/4".
 
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Beave

Audioholic Chief
As for their crossover, it's three components for the woofer and 15 (!) for the tweeter.

The woofer has a second order L-C filter with a single series inductor and two caps in parallel with each other.

The tweeter has 15 components in a who-knows-what configuration. I haven't simulated a filter in 8 or 10 years and I'm not about to try this one. Probably lots of eq for the compression driver in addition to the highpass filter function.


The crossover schematic can be found here (hoping this link works!):

https://www.yumpu.com/en/document/read/23642153/studio-530-jbl
 
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lovinthehd

lovinthehd

Audioholic Jedi
Can anybody who has a pair measure the woofer size (the woofer frame size and the surround edge-to-edge size, if you can)?

I've never seen them in person.

I've always seen them referred to as 5 1/4" woofers, but the pictures sure make them look smaller than that.

I just looked on the JBL website (https://www.jbl.com/STUDIO+530BK.html) for them, and it refers to the 5 1/4" woofer, then goes on to contradict that by referring to their "4 inch (100 mm) ribbed polyplas woofer."

I'm pretty sure their center channel uses dual 4" woofers.

I'm guessing the woofers in the 530 are bigger than the 4" woofers used in the center but are 'rounded up' to 5 1/4".
Well, the frame is more the 5-1/4"/130mm quoted than the distance from edge of the surround, and the frame is somewhat an odd shape so depends where you measure a bit; the foam surround diameter seems to be about 4-3/4" on the 530. Couldn't get my 520 grill off.....need the little tool and not sure where I put that but I have had them off and pretty sure the drivers are a bit smaller than the 530's. There's this blurb from the Austalian Hifi review of the 590 which addresses the woofer measurement:

The Studio 590 has a pair of 203mm bass/
midrange drivers that handle the frequencies
below the crossover point (1.5kHz). Although
the nominal diameter of each bass/midrange
driver is 203mm, the driver frame is actually
square (with rounded corners, so it measures
221mm across the corners and 200mm across
the flats).
 
B

Beave

Audioholic Chief
Thanks. So they are about the size of a typical 5 1/4" driver. I guess it's a sort of optical illusion - they look small because of the relatively big cabinet (for a bookshelf speaker) and them being recessed from the front plane.
 
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Danzilla31

Audioholic Spartan
I tell you what I bought the 590's on sale for 1500 and the 4 530's for 600 so 2100 flat with shipping thrown in for my base 7 that is a crazy crazy value for what your getting still shake my head at that
 
KEW

KEW

Audioholic Overlord
I tell you what I bought the 590's on sale for 1500 and the 4 530's for 600 so 2100 flat with shipping thrown in for my base 7 that is a crazy crazy value for what your getting still shake my head at that
Anytime you can get something that was nice to begin with with a discount of 50% or more it is outstanding, and there seem to be a few of those right now ... and over the past couple of years!
I don't understand Harman's discontinued clearance strategy. It seems like in a way they're going internet direct and bypassing distributors like crutchfield that have marked them as discontinued for the past few years!
But you'll hear no complaint from me!
 
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ryanosaur

ryanosaur

Audioholic Overlord
I think its pretty impressive, Danzilla, what you put together! By all accounts, its a winner... even maybe at full price it seems like the performance is there. Proof positive that good speakers don't have to cost $25000 each! Or even $12000. :p

When you're ready to buy your front 3 from Jim as SS9.5s... let me know. Maybe we can get a deal spitting 3 Pair!
;)
 
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snakeeyes

Audioholic Ninja
Ryan wants to redecorate your room and match your theater room carpet to a Salk finish. LOL :)
 
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