Mark E. Long
Audioholic General
Last week I bought a new center as I’ve planned to upgrade my front stage for a couple years found a Synthesis dealer close to me that had a little stock left to get rid of and a decent price even though it was way more than I ever dreamed of spending on a center we’ve all been there . I plan on going with the HDI series nest year once I’ve saved up the till .
First impressions is it comes packed in its own tomb never seen anything packed in form fitting thick foam before like this once you pull the top layer off it sits in its in a big plastic bag then in its own cloth bag inside that .
It’s heavy big 30 inches wide and 12 1/2 tall 11 inches deep and beautifully built has 3/4 inch rubber feet to use if you need them . It just barely fir under the tv where the old one was 1/4 to spare .
Comes with typical bi-amp binding posts and straps if you so desire to use that .incredible looking dark Rosewood finish and like a weird black rubber texture on the top and bottom
It uses the same compression drivers as the other Array speakers in this line and the Everest line and jbl pro 8 inch bass drivers to round out the set .
Set up and calibration was a snap and did notice that Yapo did lower the levels a little on it Iam guessing the high end tweeter and mid did that as I suspect they are more sensitive than my older jbl center .
First impressions it throws a very wide and large soundstage as the front of the baffle does resemble the old studio center shape of a curved approach. This is with out question the clearest sounding center I’ve ever herd . I started with good concert dvds - Roger Waters , counting Crows , Pink Floyd to name a few it really locks in the vocals and any instrument that should be there with what seems is unlimited range and realistic presentation . Next I put in a few sacd’s of Pink Floyd, dire straights, Eagles Hotel California. Nora Jones , this is where it really ups the sound no harshness no shrill sounding highs with this like some horn loading stuff can do it’s got a lot of punch with too the duel 8 inch bass drivers really do a fantastic job on locking in the mid bass on soundtracks and multi channel music .
Iam finding I may need to widen my two front mains a little farther mabey a foot each side to get more separation to lock down a little better separation because this center really does sound wide .
It does mix well with my titanium drivers in the rest of my setup I was worried about that but no problems so far . I can honestly say it will easily handle any formats put threw it with great presentation and any loudness you want I’ve pushed it with the carver amp that powers it and it sounds actually better the more power you put threw it . My conclusion is Iam still playing around with it . But Iam very impressed with the tonal quality and the build quality is what you’d expect from jbl project gear . Expensive yes ! Worth it definitely a Yes it’s like it puts the dialogue and vocals 10 feet from the screen with a realism I just never had with any number of center channels I’ve tried or herd .
First impressions is it comes packed in its own tomb never seen anything packed in form fitting thick foam before like this once you pull the top layer off it sits in its in a big plastic bag then in its own cloth bag inside that .
It’s heavy big 30 inches wide and 12 1/2 tall 11 inches deep and beautifully built has 3/4 inch rubber feet to use if you need them . It just barely fir under the tv where the old one was 1/4 to spare .
Comes with typical bi-amp binding posts and straps if you so desire to use that .incredible looking dark Rosewood finish and like a weird black rubber texture on the top and bottom
It uses the same compression drivers as the other Array speakers in this line and the Everest line and jbl pro 8 inch bass drivers to round out the set .
Set up and calibration was a snap and did notice that Yapo did lower the levels a little on it Iam guessing the high end tweeter and mid did that as I suspect they are more sensitive than my older jbl center .
First impressions it throws a very wide and large soundstage as the front of the baffle does resemble the old studio center shape of a curved approach. This is with out question the clearest sounding center I’ve ever herd . I started with good concert dvds - Roger Waters , counting Crows , Pink Floyd to name a few it really locks in the vocals and any instrument that should be there with what seems is unlimited range and realistic presentation . Next I put in a few sacd’s of Pink Floyd, dire straights, Eagles Hotel California. Nora Jones , this is where it really ups the sound no harshness no shrill sounding highs with this like some horn loading stuff can do it’s got a lot of punch with too the duel 8 inch bass drivers really do a fantastic job on locking in the mid bass on soundtracks and multi channel music .
Iam finding I may need to widen my two front mains a little farther mabey a foot each side to get more separation to lock down a little better separation because this center really does sound wide .
It does mix well with my titanium drivers in the rest of my setup I was worried about that but no problems so far . I can honestly say it will easily handle any formats put threw it with great presentation and any loudness you want I’ve pushed it with the carver amp that powers it and it sounds actually better the more power you put threw it . My conclusion is Iam still playing around with it . But Iam very impressed with the tonal quality and the build quality is what you’d expect from jbl project gear . Expensive yes ! Worth it definitely a Yes it’s like it puts the dialogue and vocals 10 feet from the screen with a realism I just never had with any number of center channels I’ve tried or herd .
