JBL Studio 530. Available and half price! ($299.95)

Shanman

Shanman

Audioholic
THIS was the review mentioning the horn loading effect of the bass driver of the Studio series for those interested.
 
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shadyJ

Speaker of the House
Staff member
Thanks Shady! Would you recommend using the port plugs with these being so close to the wall?
That isn't necessary unless you think you are getting too much boundary gain that is boosting the bass too much. With an 80 Hz crossover frequency to the subs, my bet is that the port won't be seeing much action regardless.
 
ryanosaur

ryanosaur

Audioholic Overlord
The shape of those boxes is doing you no favors. @Pogre has probably the best option for you. That bottom mount with grippy sides is what I was thinking, too.
Video Secu, K&M, several other companies make such things.
Pay attention to recommended weight, and also the angle you want to have... When I was shopping for mine, that was the big limiting factor: they might have limited or no swivel while being able to tilt up or down, or vice versa.

Thats why I chose the K&M brackets I did...

Great for mounting high and angling down, great weight support... But the dowside is drilling 6 holes in your wall per bracket and having to mount a bracket to the speaker itself.
The layout of the 530 makes me think that getting that bracket onto the back of your speaker would be difficult at best, considering if you wanted to tilt it down, the bottom of the speaker would likely hit the wall and limit the range.

So something like this:

Or:

Or:
 
lovinthehd

lovinthehd

Audioholic Jedi
It was an online review of the 530 by Son I think is part of there name it was a good review pretty detailed he didn't say it was a horn per say he said the recess for the woofer acts partially like a horn or some kind off waveguide that helps to boost the bass he said it's part of the reason it has such good bass

It's an interesting explanation I'm not sure he's right or not but it caught my attention

If it's accurate then maybe the 590's have it too I do notice that they are set in a recess like the 530's.

Interesting point Lovin good catch
I'd love to see a comparison of the same driver in a standard baffle to see what effect the "horn" takes then. Maybe if that info came from Greg Timbers himself....and I don't believe I've ever seen any marketing references by JBL and since they're so well known for horns....
 
Pogre

Pogre

Audioholic Slumlord
THIS was the review mentioning the horn loading effect of the bass driver of the Studio series for those interested.
I've seen a couple of his reviews. He did claim the 530s to be his favorite speakers until he heard the Ultras, which is how I stumbled across him.

I think he's stretching it a little calling the recessed woofer horn loaded. Shady can weigh in here, but I think you're going to get more from the port than the recessed woofer.
 
Pogre

Pogre

Audioholic Slumlord
I cannot stand that doofus.
I had a minor disagreement with him on youtube in the comments section when he claimed the Prime towers yielded better sq than the Ultra bookshelves when paired with a subwoofer.
 
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Danzilla31

Audioholic Spartan
I cannot stand that doofus.
That's not the review I was talking about I'll find the name of the reviewer he's not on YouTube it was a written article I suck at linking things so when I get the name I'll post it
 
S

shadyJ

Speaker of the House
Staff member
I've seen a couple of his reviews. He did claim the 530s to be his favorite speakers until he heard the Ultras, which is how I stumbled across him.

I think he's stretching it a little calling the recessed woofer horn loaded. Shady can weigh in here, but I think you're going to get more from the port than the recessed woofer.
He is more than stretching it by saying the woofers are horn-loaded. They aren't, at all.

Edit: By the way, this is a long way from the first time he has made this kind of error in technical analysis.
 
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lovinthehd

lovinthehd

Audioholic Jedi
I had a minor disagreement with him on youtube in the comments section when he claimed the Prime towers yielded better sq than the Ultra bookshelves when paired with a subwoofer.
I've tried his reviews a couple times and end up turning them off pretty quick. Not just what he's saying, but he's just annoying.
 
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Danzilla31

Audioholic Spartan
Okay the name of the reviewer I liked is Son-video.com:blog I liked the review he didn't say the woofer is horn loaded but he did say the woofer was recessed for a reason it was interesting it's on the Studio 530's you guys should check it out be interested to hear yourobservations after reading it
 
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Danzilla31

Audioholic Spartan
Okay the name of the reviewer I liked is Son-video.com:blog I liked the review he didn't say the woofer is horn loaded but he did say the woofer was recessed for a reason it was interesting it's on the Studio 530's you guys should check it out be interested to hear yourobservations after reading it
Although I'm not sure I buy into all there carrying on about different cables paired with different amps blah blah didn't notice that towards the end of the article I did like and found interesting some of there points on the speakers themselves
 
lovinthehd

lovinthehd

Audioholic Jedi
Yep, but I didnt want to come right out and say it in case he was a "well regarded" forum member here. His Studio 590 review is something to behold as well!
I'll pass on that too :)
Okay the name of the reviewer I liked is Son-video.com:blog I liked the review he didn't say the woofer is horn loaded but he did say the woofer was recessed for a reason it was interesting it's on the Studio 530's you guys should check it out be interested to hear yourobservations after reading it
The silly wire namedropping was annoying. Not much to the review, tho. I still don't know why he'd call it even partially horn loaded for the bass driver, tho.
 
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shadyJ

Speaker of the House
Staff member
Okay the name of the reviewer I liked is Son-video.com:blog I liked the review he didn't say the woofer is horn loaded but he did say the woofer was recessed for a reason it was interesting it's on the Studio 530's you guys should check it out be interested to hear yourobservations after reading it
Not to say that my reviews are always perfect (I get things wrong too), but there is definitely a few misunderstandings about horn design in that article. The problem with bad horn design isn't that it amplifies bad tweeters so much as it creates a lot of diffraction and also doesn't control directivity very well. A good waveguide will control directivity over a very wide frequency band and also avoids diffraction effects. That is really hard to do. Some of the very few waveguides that do are the Image Control Waveguide from JBL, the Oblate Spheriod waveguide from Earl Geddes, and the SEOS waveguides developed for the DIY Sound group. They all involve very complex mathematical modeling. The Hybrid tractrix waveguide by Klipsch seems to be decent, although we do see some diffraction effects when you know what to look for. I pretty much assume that any speaker's waveguide is flawed until I see hard proof of their performance. It's not common that horns are executed perfectly. See this chapter in Geddes' Transducers book to see how complex waveguide design can get. A lot of horn loudspeaker manufacturers don't go through that much effort or have that much expertise on hand. The bi-radial horns used by the Studio 500 series is probably not as sophisticated as some of the above mentioned designs.

That review states that the waveguide controls the tweeter down to 1 kHz, but the crossover point is 1.5 kHz. The reviewer also states that the woofer is somehow partially horn-loaded "probably to improve its reach rather than to augment its sensitivity," but that is just not true. Any waveguide that would even partially augment its sensitivity would have to be gigantic. The review also says that the Studio 530 somehow has a low sensitivity (which they mis-state as 86dB for 1w at 1m when it is spec'd at 86dB for 2.83v at 1m; those specs are significantly different). The sensitivity is about average, maybe even a tad above average, for that kind of bookshelf speaker. They say that the Klipsch RB-51 is four times better at 92dB, to which I response BWA-HAHAHA! Never take Klipsch's stated sensitivity specs at face value. It's doubtful that the Klipsch speakers are any more sensitive at all.
 
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Danzilla31

Audioholic Spartan
Not to say that my reviews are always perfect (I get things wrong too), but there is definitely a few misunderstandings about horn design in that article. The problem with bad horn design isn't that it amplifies bad tweeters so much as it creates a lot of diffraction and also doesn't control directivity very well. A good waveguide will control directivity over a very wide frequency band and also avoids diffraction effects. That is really hard to do. Some of the very few waveguides that do are the Image Control Waveguide from JBL, the Oblate Spheriod waveguide from Earl Geddes, and the SEOS waveguides developed for the DIY Sound group. They all involve very complex mathematical modeling. The Hybrid tractrix waveguide by Klipsch seems to be decent, although we do see some diffraction effects when you know what to look for. I pretty much assume that any speaker's waveguide is flawed until I see hard proof of their performance. It's not common that horns are executed perfectly. See this chapter in Geddes' Transducers book to see how complex waveguide design can get. A lot of horn loudspeaker manufacturers don't go through that much effort or have that much expertise on hand. The bi-radial horns used by the Studio 500 series is probably not as sophisticated as some of the above mentioned designs.

That review states that the waveguide controls the tweeter down to 1 kHz, but the crossover point is 1.5 kHz. The reviewer also states that the woofer is somehow partially horn-loaded "probably to improve its reach rather than to augment its sensitivity," but that is just not true. Any waveguide that would even partially augment its sensitivity would have to be gigantic. The review also says that the Studio 530 somehow has a low sensitivity (which they mis-state as 86dB for 1w at 1m when it is spec'd at 86dB for 2.83v at 1m; those specs are significantly different). The sensitivity is about average, maybe even a tad above average, for that kind of bookshelf speaker. They say that the Klipsch RB-51 is four times better at 92dB, to which I response BWA-HAHAHA! Never take Klipsch's stated sensitivity specs at face value. It's doubtful that the Klipsch speakers are any more sensitive at all.
Ok cool thanks Shady was curious about that article good to know what's relevant and what's not
 

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