Dr. Floyd Toole is why! Who's he, you ask?
(excerpt from Stereo Review SEPT. 1998 pg. 112 by Corey Greenberg "The High End" article - actually this whole discussion is based on Corey's article)
"The ripples of Dr. Floyd Toole's groundbreaking work on lab-controlled listening test at Ottawa's National Research Council in the 1980s can be found today in the rapid dominance of such NRC-inspired Canadian speaker lines as Energy, Paradigm, and PSB."
(end of excerpt)
Dr. Toole joined Harman International's new state-of-the-art speaker laboratory in Northridge, California back in 1991, and he's since brought aboard many of his ex-NRC assistants such as Sean Olive and Allan Devantier. These imported Canadian's best loudspeaker minds were given the job to jump-start JBL.
LAB-CONTROLLED LISTENING TEST
In launching the new Harman Consumer Group Acoustical Engineering Lab, Dr. Toole has built an NRC-inspired "home away from home" where the Harmanized Canucks can continue to practice their special blend of subjective- and objective-based speaker design. That's the genius of the NRC and now Harman's Listening Lab**: by using not just measurements but also rigorously controlled listening tests with both audiophiles and civilian listeners, engineers can better correlate measured performance with subjective sound quality and push their designs in directions that listeners repeatedly prefer.
SUCESSFUL?
(excerpt from Corey's Stereo Review article, listed above)
"To call Harman's Listening Lab the best speaker-evaluation setup I've ever heard is selling it short. ...
In fact, the Listening Lab has already borne fruit. In a day spent listening to JBL and Infinity flagship models, the most impressive demo I heard was of JBL's new (remember this article is 1998) HLS610 two-way minispeakers. Despite their size, the pair I heard sounded bigger and better than most of the megabuck high-end speakers I heard this past January ('98) at the Consumer Electronics Show."
(end of excerpts)
**UPDATE: Harman's Listening Lab, a blind-testing room called the Multichannel Listening Lab (MLL**) is used to evaluate prototypes and finished products and compare them to the competition.
The following excerpt is from Scott Wilkinson article "Objective Subjectivity" written for Electronic Musician - July 1, 2001 ...
(start of excerpt) "During a recent visit with several other audio journalists, I participated in a sample test run in the MLL, which was conducted by Sean Olive, manager of subjective evaluation for Harman International. Three consumer speakers were mounted behind the grille cloth: a Boston Acoustics CR8, a B&W DM601, and a JBL S26. At the end of the testing, we learned that most of us had ranked the JBL S26 as the best speaker on most clips ..."
(end of excerpt - to read the entire on-line article, click the em logo or JBL S26 image above)
(click HK logo above)
Other features include complete computer control of experimental design, control and collection of listener data, making listening tests more reliable and efficient.
JBL's Studio Series S38 & S412P loudspeakers
CEA Innovations 2000 Design and Engineering Award Winner
First was its ability to play at extremely loud volumes without coloration or strain. ...
Second, the S38 had the widest dynamic contrasts of any budget speaker I've heard.
More than anything I've reviewed in the past year, these speakers revealed my split personality as a listener. As a reviewer, dutifully conscious of the audiophile verities, I'm satisfied that these are very good speakers. But as an increasingly real-world (as opposed to audiophile) listener, I'm excited and intrigued by them.
- Great sound
- Dynamic prowess
- Impressive imaging.
If you still go two-channel periodically, and want some big speakers to flank your projection TV, the JBL S312 is worth taking seriously. Just don't expect it to produce the outsized and more adjustable bass available from a powered tower (like JBL's step-up S412P, $1699/pair list). Though it may appear to appeal to a headbanger mentality, this speaker has obviously been designed by, and for, people who actually listen to a wide variety of music. I was pleasantly surprised by its performance.
- Clear, powerful sound
- Natural frequency balance
- Plays very loud without distortion
- Great bass response
I was instantly very impressed with the S36 and S-Center studio series from JBL as they are accurate, neutral sounding speakers. I am also impressed with the clarity and crispness these speakers offer with high's that do not fatigue at all even at very loud listening levels.
For a speaker of its size and price, I can't find anything that the N24 really does wrong. But here's
what amazes me about it. First is the bass, which sounds surprisingly full for such a small
speaker . . . -- unlike the SuperZero XU or the ProMonitor 80, this speaker is very easy to match
up with practically any subwoofer.
. . . When you get a listen to the mids, though, you'll forget how good the bass is. I think the midrange of this speaker may be the cleanest I've heard at $200/pair. . .
Every singer I listened to sounded better even than on a lot of good $1000/pair speakers.
The JBL's titanium-laminate tweeter is definitely doing something very right, though, because the JBLs out-imaged any other mini I've used in a wall-mount configuration.
The sound was superb . . . Spectral balance was nearly identical to my reference speakers in almost every way except for the bass. Imaging was excellent. Sounds were spread evenly between the speakers and actually spread out beyond them. Ambience reproduction was also excellent in both distribution and spectral content.
The JBL, . . . speakers are so good that I'd recommend them for any stereo or home theater application, indoors or out. Its $250-a-pair price makes the JBL N24AW a special value
I noticed a slight "presence peak" in the N-Center's sound, a mild emphasis in the upper midrange that makes voices more intelligible. . . .it did give the acoustic guitar and vocals a little extra clarity that I think most people will like. . . . for a center speaker in this price range, this is an above-average performance.
Performance: I've already made detailed performance comments in my reviews of the N24 and
N-Center. All I'll say here is that these speakers work together perfectly as an ensemble. The
timbre matching is as good as any I've heard; that is, outside of systems that consist of five identical speakers.
The N-Center matches the sound of the N24 extremely well, better than Home Theater Direct's Level Three center matches the sound of its Level Three bookshelf. That excellent timbre matching lends coherence to the sound of the entire system, making movies seem more like I was hearing them in a real theater, not a home theater. As such, I highly recommend the NSP1 home cinema package to anyone looking to get into home theater without emptying his or her bank account in the process.
With DVD-videos, vocal clarity is enhanced by the N-Center, which does a great job of routing the dialogue to the screen. Considering its small size, the complete NSP1 system exhibits very good dynamics, and JBL's close attention to driver matching yields a seamless transition from speaker to speaker, creating a wonderfully complete sonic environment.
To say that JBL has a good reputation in the pro-audio world is an understatement. A staggering 70 percent of the world's theaters, concert halls, and recording studios are equipped with JBL speakers. With the NSP1, JBL brings that experience home at a very attractive price. Minor complaints aside, the NSP1 is a sweet little home-theater speaker package
- Subwoofer/satellite blending. This was very good - close to excellent.
- Subwoofer performance and extension JBL's PB10 sub, "big" for this price class, played impressively loud and went low indeed. . . .Overall, the JBL sub was impressive.
- Surround imaging and clarity The JBL N24/N-Center combo produced a solid front soundstage. The cohesiveness of discrete sounds moving from left to right or right to left was above average, . . .The N-Center speaker kept good, solid male voices fixed onscreen, . . .The N24s worked well in the surround locations.
- Dynamic potential. The sound was solid up to a loud volume - the satellites 4-inch (nominally 5-inch) woofers and slightly larger cabinet give them a dynamic edge over most micro satellites with 3-inch drivers - . . ."
(NOTE: The Energy Take 5 has 3-inch drivers)
- WRAP-UP This JBL system's value for the money is obvious. Getting such well-balanced sound, with notable bass extension and no salient vices, from a package priced just under $900 is impressive.
N-24 front left/right... 89 Hz to 18.9 kHz �2.7 dB
N-Center.................. 89 Hz to 20 kHz �5.5 dB
N-24 surround.......... 89 Hz to 18.4 kHz �3.2 dB
PB-10 subwoofer...... 43 to 124 Hz �2.1 dB
from SOUND & VISION - a trademark of Hachette Filipacchi Media U.S., Inc.
The good: Supersized tower speakers; three-way design with dual 10-inch woofers; black cloth grilles; energetic bass; full sound.
The good: Compact but gutsy monitor speaker; 5-inch woofer; titanium 0.75-inch dome tweeter; all-metal connectors.
Tonal balance was, as the Brits would say, polite, that is, neither bright nor dull. And bass response, even without a subwoofer, was pretty decent.
Crosby, Stills, and Nash's harmonized vocals were natural and full, and when we turned up the heat with James Brown's "Cold Sweat," the E20s boogied like a set of larger speakers. It was the same story on the Men in Black DVD; the E20s more than pulled their weight. They had a poise that's rare in similar-size HTIB speakers.
Reviewed by Al Griffin for Sound & Vision Mag. Review
The system rocked on �Dazed and Confused,� capturing the wide dynamics of the Dolby Digital 5.1 mix and imparting a sense of the live performance as the surround speakers enveloped me with the sound of swirling guitars and screaming fans.
The E20/E250P combination also proved capable of delivering realistic performances on stereo recordings of acoutic instruments.
Priced below $1,600, JBL�s Northridge E Series system is an amazing value that delivers exceptional sound.
from SOUND & VISION - a trademark of Hachette Filipacchi Media U.S., Inc.
The good: Towering full-size speaker; three-way design featuring two 8-inch woofers, 4-inch midrange, and 0.75-inch tweeter; dual binding posts.
The thing that is undeniable is the JBL Pro Sound roots of the Northridge Series. ...
The feeling of being there is critically enhanced by the quality of the sound; in this case the JBL�s do their part well. The EC35 center channel did not wither when pushed up into the mid to high 90�s on the SPL meter. The surrounds filled the room so well, it was hard to imagine that they weren�t all E100�s.
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