Home Theatre/TV: JBL 5.1 Home Theatre Speaker System – Review

Being asked to review a set of speakers made by an American company is always a bit of a thrill, because you never quite know what to expect. The Yanks are big on wild speakers, which are often jammed with multiple horn-loaded drivers and an in-your-face sound that can excite or annoy in equal measure.

Listening to the JBL LS speakers proved to be a subtler experience than I was expecting. With the grilles on they’re not brash, intimidating or even ‘out there’; they’re elegant enough to fit in with the most restrained décor. But whip off the grilles and the JBL bloodline is blindingly apparent: traditional paper cone woofers handle the lower frequencies, with a sleek horn-loaded midrange driver and a short horn-loaded tweeter taking care of the rest.

Build quality is superb and in keeping with the price; the wedge-shaped cabinets are well built and good looking, with a lovely gloss mahogany and black finish (the only finish available). They’re also heavy and quite solid, which bodes well for the sonics.

The LS60 floorstanders (second from the top of the range) were matched with the sizeable LS40 standmounts, LSCENTER centre channel and LS120P twelve-inch subwoofer in a 5.1 configuration, which is how the vast majority of home theatre systems are still implemented, Blu-ray’s 7.1 layout notwithstanding.

I was ready for a home theatre sensation similar to being stuck in the middle of a lightning storm but again, the experience was far subtler than I’d prepared for. Driven by Yamaha’s high-end Z11 multichannel amplifier and BD-S1900 Blu-ray player, the LS system proved capable of rendering an absolute wealth of detail, which is a treat in a surround sound environment, where the smallest sounds can add dramatically to the overall surround field, especially from the rear speakers.

These high detail levels were very much appreciated when listening to music in stereo because there’s a distinct sensation of being able to hear deep into the mix, helped by the precise imaging and wide soundstage. The mid and high frequencies were clean, with only a hint of a bright edge at the top. Combine that with an overall laid-back character and you get a listening experience that won’t wear thin in a hurry.

The bottom end is given substantial weight in the room by the 6.5-inch woofers all round, and we found the floorstanders had too much bass, despite the modest claimed low-frequency extension. Shuffling the speakers well into the room and away from the side and back walls helped somewhat, so the LS60s will need a large room with space to play with the setup, suggesting that the even bigger LS80s might need something cavernous to be happy.

If you have a limited area you might well be better off with the LS40s all round, backed up by the capable LS120P subwoofer, which was a paragon of control, offering high levels of bass in the obligatory movie explosion scenes without ponderously rumbling away like so many lesser subs (note to subwoofer buyers: explosions should be violent and sharp, they shouldn’t burble away like a distant thunderstorm).

JBL’s LS range is well put together and will offer long-term thrills without any danger of being tiring. Partnered with good quality electronics they’ll do double duty for music and movies, but they will need to be properly set up and the LS60 floorstanders in particular need space to breathe.

ASHLEY KRAMER

Horn Loading

This seemingly dry technical subject is among the simplest in audio, so it’s easy to explain. The cone-shaped horn improves the loading of the speaker diaphragm, allowing it to better couple with the air. The diaphragm can therefore transfer more energy to the air, which makes it more efficient.

Horn loading originated in the earliest days of reproduced audio, before electronic amplification in fact, when there was no other way to get decent sound levels. Picture the huge horn on an old phonograph and you’ve got an early example of horn loading; the tiny sound of the needle vibrating in the record grooves is amplified by the long horn until it’s loud enough to be heard.

There’s deep science (and, some would argue, art) behind the design of speaker horns and they vary widely from the simple shape of a shallow cone loading a tweeter, to the bi-radial horn used on these JBLs, to the enormous flared horns used on exotic high-end speakers from manufacturers like Avantgarde. As they say, your mileage may vary, and some audiophiles love horns for their dynamics and vibrancy, while others dislike them because of perceived colouration and other negative effects. They’re very individual and, like any speaker, horn-loaded units need to be carefully auditioned before parting with the folding stuff.

JBL 5.1 Home Theatre Speaker System – Tech Specs

LS60

TWEETER: 19mm Polyester ring radiator
MIDRANGE: 50mm titanium compression driver
BASS: Dual 165mm pulp cones
SENSITIVITY: 87dB for 1 watt at 1 metre
FREQUENCY RESPONSE: 48Hz to 38kHz (+/-3dB)
IMPEDANCE: 6 ohms nominal
POWER HANDLING: 75 watts continuous
DIMENSIONS: 1017 x 222 x 343mm (H/W/D)
WEIGHT: 26.6kg each
FINISHES: Black and mahogany

LS40

TWEETER: 19mm polyester ring radiator
MIDRANGE: 50mm titanium compression driver
BASS: 165mm pulp cone
SENSITIVITY: 87dB for 1 watt at 1 metre
FREQUENCY RESPONSE: 50Hz to 38kHz (+/-3dB)
IMPEDANCE: 6 ohms nominal
POWER HANDLING: 75 watts continuous
DIMENSIONS: 499 x 222 x 343mm (H/W/D)
WEIGHT: 13.5kg each
FINISHES: Black and mahogany

LSCENTER

TWEETER: 19mm polyester ring radiator
MIDRANGE: 50mm titanium compression driver
BASS: Dual 165mm pulp cones
SENSITIVITY: 88dB for 1 watt at 1 metre
FREQUENCY RESPONSE: 85Hz to 38kHz (+/-3dB)
IMPEDANCE: 6 ohms nominal
POWER HANDLING: 75 watts continuous
DIMENSIONS: 230 x 672 x 235mm (H/W/D)
WEIGHT: 14.4kg
FINISHES: Black and mahogany

LS120P

DRIVER: 300mm polyplas
AMPLIFIER POWER: 400 watts (700 watts peak)
DIMENSIONS: 510 x 375 x 438mm (H/W/D)
WEIGHT: 25.8kg
FINISHES: Black and mahogany

CONTACT
www.soundgroup.co.nz

This article is from Tone issue 81. Click here to check it out.

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