JBL Studio 230 Bookshelf Speaker Review

witchdoctor

witchdoctor

Full Audioholic
These JBL 230's are sitting on my desk next to my laptop using JMedia player They are sitting on Isoacaustic stands. I am driving them with Parasound Zdac, Zpre, and Zamp. If I had to describe these speakers with one word I would choose "integrity". Every instrument is held in it's own acoustic space and I feel I am getting all of the information that was present in the recording space that these speakers are capable of presenting within their frequency range. The amount of detail they retrieve may make them seem a little bright. Playing dance and techno music the bass is very tight and fast, even at loud volumes which is impressive from 6 inch drivers. Listening to Ella Fitzgerald sing Georgia on My Mind backed by Nelson Riddle the horn section just leaps from the speakers at the beginning and then when Ella begins singing her voice is so delicate but so strongly enveloped by the orchestra it just seems "right". Now book shelf speakers don't have the dynamics of floorstanders but I didn't hear any type of tinny compression. What I do hear is a soundstage that extends about 3 feet outside of the speakers and a sweet spot that stays locked in even while I am moving around in my chair while I am working. The Parasound Z components are great and I am sure that driving these speakers with high quality separates helps them sound their best. The other thought that occurred to me while listening to these is I'll bet some of the recordings I listened to were mastered on JBL Pro speakers so of course the home speakers would likely give me that "integrity" of what the mastering engineer created.
 
witchdoctor

witchdoctor

Full Audioholic
I went to Guitar Center to audition the LSR305/308's before I bought these. They sounded brighter to my ears. I wish the sales rep had told me they have a switch on the back to dial in the treble but in the store wasn't the ideal place to audition. The 230's are paired with Parasound Z components which blow class D amps used in the JBL's out of the water so I don't know if it is a fair comparison but the 230's sound clearer to my ears. However if I had the option of hearing the 305/308's in my own room it might be different.
 
DD66000

DD66000

Senior Audioholic
The Studio 2 series speaker's tech is a trickle down from JBL's M2 Reference Monitor.
Sean Olive has called the M2 the best speaker he's ever heard, and he has auditioned 100s of speakers in Harman's testing room.
 
H

HifiAudio

Enthusiast
The Studio 230 has a crossover of 1.1 kHz!!! (confirmed from JBL support as well)
Quite low for 6.5" driver based speaker ... which would mean a very wide dispersion speaker ...

Even Studio 220 has a crossover of 1.1kHz (as per specs on amazon)

Too low to be true for that size :) (excluding DIY )
 
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