I can't stress enough how much I enjoy listening to you talking about your music listening, bands, albums, experiences, and backstories. Your enthusiasm is not only compelling but contagious! Please, indulge more often in them and at lengthier snippets :)
I got these around black Friday for $240 a pair. Love them! I use them with an NAD 326bee. The 326 has the ability to add a dedicated pre-amp so I may eventually get something better, even if it's just an Emotiva BasX PT1. I have audiophile ears but not the budget so it's a work in progress. Thanks for the review.
Same here, I bought them months back at $239/pr w/free shipping! I also bought a new Cambridge Audio AXR85 ($399 at that time) to drive them and it is a perfect match. I'm a retired speaker engineer and have always respected JBL's Greg Timbers---this was one of his last efforts with JBL and he hit it out of the park!
The legend of JBL continues. I Bought these a couple of months ago for $240.00. You can't possibly go wrong with them. Running them through a Parasound Z Amp and Z Pre Amp and a Marantz CD 5003 player. Everything from Sinatra to Miles, The Beatles to Zeppelin to Ella sounds fantastic on them. These are a steal for that price. Great review Steve.
Love these speakers. I have two pairs of 530’s, a pair of 570’s, and a pair of 580’s! Oh, also the center channel and two of the Studio 5 subs. I guess you can say I am a JBL fan.
Recent JBL fan here too. Got my Studio 620's recently. And can't stop listening. I'd love to have the Studio 6 floor standers, center etc. for a complete home theatre setup. But alas, too expensive :(
I use a pair in my main system, I agree with everything you say about these speakers. I had a Klipsch 600M, is what got me hooked to cheaper monitors, JBL 530 sound more transparent to me, I hear the horns on the Klipsch where as the JBL has ZERO horn sound. The effortlessness and openness of the JBLs is just captivating. I am someone who believes front end matters more than speakers and this plays right into my narrative, better the components upstream better it sounds. Still to this day, almost a year later, continues to amaze me.
My studio 590's with two 550p 50lb sealed subs kick Ass for the money! I've literally gone to the Design center at Magnolia listened to $30,000 systems come home and preferred mine and had no reason to think I was biased. My wife thinks the same thing!😜
Owner of 2 pair here. Love the sound and still find myself amazed at just how good the 530's are. They are sitting up front right beside the 590's and more often than not I choose to hear the 530's. Anybody else here just love the look as much as I do? Steve hinted at it himself. After looking at these most other speakers are just uninteresting rectangles!
My friends and I all have JBL Studio series speakers. I have the 580, but but the group as a whole has several pairs of the whole range. We all love them! They are often on sale, so never pay full price. 530 is often $250 a pair, 580 $600 a pair, 590 $8-900 a pair. They like power. Something like Schiit Vidar will do very well.
Steve, i have followed you since your early days at CNET and i have trusted your recommendations. I love to see you are still passionate about your love of music and how all of this constantly changing technology allow us to discover and enjoy.
I own the 590's after first learning about these. Love my 590's. I also have the 520C center. Excellent! JBL'S STUDIO line is fantastic, and very hard to beat. I'm mad that he said that the Klipsch rp-600s are better than the 530s. Strongly doubt it.
I don't know about the 600M but I bought the 500M (many on RU-vid steered me toward those saying their bass was actually better than the 600M). Well I knew within two minutes of hooking them up that they were not better than the 530s! No way. They're "okay" speakers that you could probably be satisfied with if you had nothing else to compare them to. Unfortunately for my 500Ms, I had the JBL530s to compare them to, so they went back! Shame on me for even considering cheating on my 530s.
Pianos! (12'30'') are so often processed in rock/pop. The naturalness of Glenn Gould's piano in his recordings at Columbia's studio, New York and (even better) Eaton's Auditorium are stunning. Particluarly the '81 digital recording of 'Goldberg' on a Yamaha! (after someone dropped his Steinway..!)
You have to love a reviewer who gets excited about $400 speakers! It's called a love of music! The previous model Klipsch RP 600s are available, last I saw, for 3-400ish. Note to self, watch the Audiophiliac for the music Steve listens to. With Quobuz now, it's so easy to check out new tunes! Steve, you reminded me of a trip to Vegas with my parents when I was 12. We went to see Tom Jones. A good story, we saw Tom and his manager walking near the pool area and Tom's manager took a picture with our Polaroid of Tom with his arms around the family. Totally gracious people. It was a nervous minute waiting for the photo to develop.
I just picked up a mint set of 530's and a 520c for $300, I was stoked for this to be my first step into hi fidelity and I'm sitting in front of them now just grinning.
Steve, your aside about the Klipschorn system you heard reminds me of my own experience with them. A friend had a one system that has always stayed with me: a pair of Klipschorns, driven by a Don Garber 2A3 stereo amplifier, i don't remember the source, but at the time it probably would have been CDs. The sound was dynamic, expansive alive and musical- with no sense of compression. They sounded just as you described.
I also heard them at the home of a former roadie who worked with the Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin and others back in the day. The Klipschorns were spectacular. Custom configured at his home by a Klipsh engineer he knew from his rock band days. I’ll never forget that experience. Music sounds truly “alive” on those big horns backed by massively powerful amps.
I'm loving my pair of JBL Studio 620. Got them 20% off. These are a pair I can live with long term. Fantastic sound. Nice and balanced sound. Not too bright at the top end. Excellent instrument separation. These replaced my Klipsch RP-500M, which were giving me listening fatigue, and Monitor Audio Bronze 2, which are bright. And the finish on Studio 620's are superb.
So glad you reviewed one of my favorite budget speakers ! I have a pop the hood video posted of 530s/580s (review) fiberglass tweeter and Paper cone driver with polyplast coating 😆 Thanks Steve Appricate you buddy Personally i like better than Klispch RP
Boom! I have a pair! Totally agree with your experience. I swap them out with my Acoustic Energy AE 2's. If you recall, the AE2's sold for about $2000 in 1993. That would be around $4000 today. Obviously totally different sounds. Great review.
I got mine from JBL and with my one time discount for $188. There is a Bonnie and Delaney from Copenhagen on RU-vid with Eric Clapton, George Harrison and the rest of the Mad Dogs and Englishman band with Bobby Whitlock instead of Leon Russell.
I just built a Nutube B1 preamp and I'll check out the 530s in that setup. They'll go up against my JBL 6x6 waveguide/LE8TH woofer and QSC waveguide/123A-1 woofer Econowaves. Enjoyed the video.
My own pair of 530s arrived mere days after my Tekton Double Impact SEs left my home. I liked the sound from the little (by comparison) JBLs that I never even missed my Double Impacts. Also love that Mulholland Drive soundtrack (and movie) too.
@@howard5992 the Tektons overloaded my room with bass. While it was kinda fun at first, it got obnoxious quickly. Mind you, it was my living room (not a dedicated listening room). I owned the Pendragons prior to the DIs and, in my room, the Pendragons were great!
Have these too…. And added a Klipsch sub through the Outlaw RR2160MKII integrated amp ( which you recommended)… never looked back as someone who needed an affordable option. Thanks Steve
Thank you for your superb review of this interesting JBL speaker! It is always nice to hear an educated gentleman like you, talk about highly important things in life, like the necessaty of a good 2 channel hifi system :-)... In the future, it would also be nice if you could review the little brother, of a sort, to the acclaimed JBL Synthesis HDI-1600, in form of the JBL Studio 630. Kind regards and may God bless you, best Steve!
I mentioned this all the time going into the design center at Magnolia which is the high-end version of Best Buy stores. I walk out of $30,000 rooms if not more and think mine sounds better but I feel silly thinking that!😉🤔🤫😇
Hi Steve. Long time follower and fan. Thanks for all that you do. I own these. Very happy with them. I have been wondering why you haven't reviewed them. I purchased two pair and the matching center channel for my home theatre/primary listening system. I love them so much I bought another set for my office. I chose the Marantz NR 1609 as it offers a pre out front L/R so I can play with different amps for stereo listening. I have really enjoyed the setup.
Just a few thoughts Steve. First wanted to share how by chance I heard some Louis Armstrong through my new 530s a couple years ago and was so memorized by the sound of his trumpet it began a deep dive into his works. So satisfying! Secondly thanks for being so eclectic and non-judgmental with the viewer systems you share. I always seem to learn something from them. And lastly I'm hoping you are have a blast of a summer!
I honestly am not sure if you took the time to hook them up, the review was so safe, along with the Comparison to the RPs. If you listen you will be surprised. Love your Videos Steve !!!
The magnet on the bas driver is quite substantial and it is a long throw driver, how it moves air so well JBL says. But that horn! Some kind of magic going on with that compression driver design. I swap them into my system with LS50s for fun. Really satisfying sound. Tempted to buy the larger similar models but my Kef sub satisfies my need for bass so I turn it on and off accordingly.
I listened to these and found that they are another bookshelf that requires a sub. Actually two subs to be balanced. At that point a set of Herersy’s or JBL L100 would sound a lot better and take up the same space. I don’t get Bookshelves but I grew up with big box speakers and still have them.
I feel that JBL is back and beginning to out-Klipsch Klipsch. I love the old JBL sound. Now, all they need to do is improve the finishes and quality assurance.
Here I am again, with my A.R.E.S. Alpha 10 I got a few years ago for 15€, looking at speakers I probably can't afford the next couple of years, be they budget oriented like his or not. Still entertaining!
On my shipment they ran out and gave me 570's for the same price shipped. I have all the studio series exept these. Id say the room size and amp configuration makes the biggest difference. They all love tons of power , id say the 590 sound the best and require the least power. I challenge any speaker to sound as good as the 590 for 800$
Hey Steve , as someone who has made lot of different speakers and enjoys your reviews if this model had double woofers would be so much better. I have used many jbl products in my pro audio days and admire the engineering and quality..
I believe they have a smaller tower which is the same horn but the double woofers like you’re describing I’ve heard that they’re really nice also! JBL studio 570, I think. Unfortunately not a bookshelf though, not a big floor stander either.
Great review Steve 👍 If you like traditional jazz then take a listen to Maria Muldaur Let's Get Happy Together where she teams up with the street band Tuba Skinny, amazing muscicians.
I love JBL speakers i really do, for a long time i would go to a movie theater that had JBL´s, and i never heard a better sound in any other theater. That made a so much big impression that my first surround sound home system had to be JBL, i still have them from the late 90´s and they sound as good as ever (JBL SCS 178). I changed the system a few times for other brands, but never considered those changes as an upgrade comparing to the original JBL system. A few years ago i bought another JBL home surround system, a soundbar with sub. The JBL Bar Surround 5.1 with detachable speakers, and the sound it produces was amazing, but unfortunately it did not last long, all the system connects via wireless signal, and it works so bad that in time it stopped working at all. I cannot connect the sub to the bar anymore, there is no way to pair them, and the detachable speakers sometimes fail also. So i ended up with a soundbar that i can not connect a wired sub, because there are no wired connections, just HDMI. The customer care is awful, at least for me it was. So my advise is, buy JBL, i still love their sound, but never buy anything from them that doesn't have wired connections. I believe most of the subscribers may not be the right demographic for this info, but it was/is my experience and i decided to share it.
I don’t know why the studio 570 is hardly ever reviewed. I have the 530’s 570’s and the 580’s. The 570’s is by far the most impressive. Yes the 530’s is everything you have said however I must stress that the 570’s that sometimes can be had for just over $400 on sale and are really much more of a speaker than the 530 and you don’t need stands. I think you should give them a try.
Hi Ricky, I have the 530s, driving them now with a Cayin A88T Reference KT88 tube amp, sounds amazing. I am REALLY thinking of buying the 570s rather than the 580s, would you mind explaining more why you're saying the 570 is most impressive, whats going on there? ...Thanks alot!! Mario
@@mrmaschinaadventures I’m not sure as to why but I think it has to do with a smaller cabinet naturally should have less cabinet problems. I think the midrange has a little more clarity, I think the bass is a little more defined and the speaker’s come alive at a lesser volume. Either the 580’s or 570’s would please you very much but I do think the 570’s are a little more articulate and the bass will shock you.
just happened to read your comment... still own the JBL studios and like you, love them. owned the tekton lores for 2 months and did no like them at all. for me at least... lifeless!
@@themastroiannis that’s interesting between the two i would say that the Lore’s are much more lively than the 530s. The 530s are pretty mellow. I have the Lores with the Audux gold tweeter. The mini lores might be a different story.
@@seanb3303 that' so strange indeed. mine were the lores Reference. They had nice bass but that was it. they were so lacking in tonality, "meat", "juice" i ended returning them. maybe it also depends of what music you throw at them? i only listen to jazz and classical... hmmm... mystery.
@@themastroiannis oh the reference is a totally different speaker that i have not heard. It’s smaller with a more affordable driver and tweeter from different companies. 😉
I just bought a pair today 11/14/22 direct from the JBL website for $249.00 I didn’t need them but at that price I couldn’t resist. I bought the Studio 570 a year or so ago that were about 60% off regular price as well.
No other speaker has that effortless, dynamic, and immediate perfromer in your room sound that the Klipschorns and La Scalas have, not even the Cornwalls and Fortes, IMO
Good advice! That's how I found out about these speakers. I didn't end up getting a pair. But recently got the Studio 620's. Wow! Tempting to get these as well now.
Hmmm, I have a pair…. Really enjoyed them… did find other reviewers comments accurate. First, these sound phenomenal… for the frequencies it reproduces… 1. Lotsa holes… 1a nothing above 15kHz 1b. Between tweeter & woofer a big drop 1.c bottom end is missing. 2. Single instrument- sounds great… full orchestra - sounds flat. 3. Needs power… sounded better bi-amped. Speakers definitely favor voice & small ensemble groups. You can’t build a DIY speaker that sounds better than this for $200.
I find some of what you say about the speakers: -Sound good with vocals and small group music. -Sound flat and not good with orchestra. -with 5 1/2 in woofer, cannot expect bottom end. -need power to drive them sound good. Some people say the speakers are congested. In short, good bargain speakers for $240, for they sound excel in certain types of music. No surprise some love them and some don't.
Excellent. I'm also using the Denon PMA-600NE pre-amped with an Aiyima Tube-pro A3. I'm in a 10 x 10 home office with these things, and I can't go pass 6 on the volume knob, as it would explode my head and collapse my chest. The paramedics would be super pissed off at me (or whoever would have to clean up such a mess). Anyway, great review. It's nice to be validated with respect to gear selections and the like. My future amp is probably going to be the Rotel A12 to push these things (or some kind of a NAD 3-ish series something or another). These JBLs are impressive for picking them up for $239.00 during the last big sale. My LP setup is the Audio-Technica LP40WN with a VML-540ML head-shell/stylus pre-amped with a Fosi Box X4. It's an amazing set-up that keeps me in analogue land for most of my listening time. Thanks for all you do, Steve.
I have the studio 230 which is somewhat similar, but now discontinued. I like it overall, although there is a certain frequency that is a little edgy at times with female voices. I think it is to do with the horn. It is otherwise a good speaker and not as bright as you might imagine.
Need an in depth, current review of the Outlaw Audio RR2160 MKii if possible. These speakers seem like a good match for it but there doesn't seem to be much current info on the MKii.
Hi Steve, I have the Denon pma 1600ne and if the pma1700 sounds anything like the 1600 then I know exactly what you are talking about. I think it would be fun to match the Technics amp with the right speakers though. I would love to hear it as a very, very long time ago I had the Technics SU-V4 and it was a really good sounding amp, and as far as Technics amps went in those days-it was all down hill for a long time after that.
Would be cool if u can find and test some 590's I bought them in a sale for 500€ a piece so good investment! I use advance acoustic map-105 and 2 maa-705!
The driver is “ribbed for extra pleasure” 😂😂😂😂 that’s the funniest thing you ever said ! 😂😂😂😂 You just sold a hundred or more units just with that remark.
