These CHEAP speakers replaced my collection! 

Kali LP-6 V2 are said to be a great contender for these speakers at only a marginally higher price point. I would love to see a comparison video!

I love the appreciation for budget speakers… everyone will recommend a $1000 pair of speakers, but giving reasons why a $99 pair of speakers are great is harder to find. Thank you!!

I've been running the 305p mk2 for almost 5 years and i haven't felt the need to upgrade. they're great for my use case which is just listening to music, watching movies and shows, and gaming.

Can you please make a more generic video about getting started with speaker setups? I have no idea where to get started… All I know is headphone amps and dacs etc, that equipment I know very well, but I am clueless as to how to begin setting up a speaker setup.

Nice! I’ve got the 305 mk 2 in my studio and have always loved the sound.

I still have the orginal Massdrop edition frequency-matched pair of JBL LSR305 that I got for $180, TOTAL. Best return on investment for ANY of my tech buys. Ever. Period. I will eventually upgrade to the Kali LP8 V2 and then the Hedd Type 30 Mk2 at some point, but honestly I don't have the time, the space, or the money to properly appreciate the power, clarity, and range of those speakers yet. You really need your own house to make that possible.

I have the 305 mk 1 in white. Love them. I personally don't like the glossy MK2 look. It's a no go for me.

i have the LSR305's the og's and was super impressed. i have 2 different paradigm systems, and for pure detail the jbl's are the best. one day i want to make a full HT setup with LSR's

You guys from the headphone show should take all your speakers and all of you into one room, audition all of them and make a video on each of you guys's toughts.

I just started watching this channel, suprised to see a studio monitor being reviewed. Now I want a pair.

holy shit madbot was spectacular

IMO the only downside of these JBLs is their slight hissing while music is very quiet/not playing. Apart from that they are amazing for their price, one of the best bargains in audio.

I've had these for years. Well the 308's, Along with PreSonus R80, KRK Rokit 6s and One Kef Q350 paired with a Q650. Now the Kefs are on my desk where I listen to most of my music, PreSonus on my DJ booth and I mix on them 3-5 times a week, the JBLs are in the garage where I spend 1 or 2 days a week and the KRKs are in the kitchen.

Personally perferred the Adam audio t5v myself but no doubt the jbl 305p/306p series is top notch

Bought a pair of LSR305 + subwoofer as a backup set of speakers years ago and it quickly became my main setup for music production. Been looking into a set of room speakers, for normal listening, that don't require as much of a near-field listening position. I almost fell deep into the Hi-Fi rabbit hole but these seem like a great option, and I can stick with 1/4"/ XLR connections on the gear I already have. Also, loving the ultrawide video format.

Try a dedicated Dac with Volume control, I've had to many to mention but they can really contour the sound to your room. Schitt, PS Audio makes a killer Gain Cell Dac that cost more than the speakers but wow good synergy, Also Schitt has a cheap Bitfrost with Volume that while more forward was also more wide making the speaker resemble a Magnapan but without the exact point source of image. But nice never the less. Always buy from a place you can return. While the JBLs as stated show flaws, they do become more forgiving with older Equipment that has tone control's. Fun video, they make good PC speakers for larger rooms, 10 x 12.

Ive had the lsr305 for like 8 years now and I dont even feel the need to look for anything better since I love how they sound and how the waveguides work, pretty impressive for the money.

I like to see people's faces when they hear anything on reference monitors for the first time. The mix sounding as it did in the studio and the relative quality of the recordings reeeealy come through. Recent spooky looks came from Utopia Japan Redux: "Wow the vocals are pushed away back there." And Roxy Music early stuff is lost to history. I don't think the masters will help much- shame.

Gah! Another glowing review on these. I'm gonna have to bite the bullet and grab a set or curiosity on how they compare to my current setup will eat me alive and poop me out.

Gotta love the HÄKKE hoodie

You teased at the beginning that “spending a little more you could have something g really spectacular” but never said what that was. We’re you just referring to adding the subwoofer? Or choosing a higher up model in the JBL professional range? Thanks for the excellent review.

I have the JBL LSR308 monitors 5 years now - can't express enough how much I am in love with them, combining the sound with my new HiFiman Sundara headphones can't be more happy. I recommend both to be used in your collection if you are an avid music lover on a budget. This is THE Price/performance set that everyone needs to have :)

I’ve had the LSR308’s for years and they are truly my endgame. The 8 inch cones with my properly treated room is just magical to listen and mix on. LOVE me some JBLs. Back in my geurilla mixing days I took them to atlanta and they even survived a drop down a stair… No issues since then!

How could I use these as desktop speakers? Edit: Would you please recommend a few DACs to drive these? perhaps a range from affordable to no budget buyers, personally my budget is around $100, but i would consider $200

I got a pair of Genelecs that I was skeptical of in terms of beating these. Once they were set up, and the SAM room correction was applied, I was absolutely floored with how much better they sounded. DSP is the way forward.

I’ve always been a big fan of JBL. I have a 5.1 system using the older LSR4328p speakers and LSR4312sp subwoofers. I will be setting up more of these speakers in an Atmos configuration once my studio build is done, but I only have the space for 5.1 at the moment. Looking forward to your review of the 306 mk2 in Atmos. I’m curious what sub(s) and processing you will use.

Depending on the subwoofer, I've found about 80hz works with the 305s,306s and about 65-80 depending on movies or music for the 308s. I've had a lot of fun with all of them. Love Magnapans but they need so much room to bloom.

Great vid, I have to say it's also been a pleasure to see your channel cinematography evolve this video is so clean and well shot/ edited, really great stuff DMS.

Frank Filippetti one of the worlds best producers recommended the LSR monitors as the best under 1000 dollars. He said these beat way more expensive monitors and he wasnt kidding. they are amazing. especially for the stupid cheap price

Definitely would like to hear yours and Mad Economist's thoughts on the Kali LP-6 (v2?) comparitively.

I love my Kali's. I think JBL is in trouble in the studio corner of they don't start really competing.

I would love to see reviews of more budget studio monitors like these. Specifically, the Kali LP-6, Adam T5V/T7V and the KRK Rokit 5/7 G4. I’ve owned them all with the exception of the Adam monitors and I’d like to see how you feel they compare to each other and which you like best.

what dac and sub would you pair them with (With out breaking the bank)

I got the 305s on my desk with a Monoprice Stage Right 10-Inch Powered Studio Subwoofer, and they are phenomenal! I got the 5s because out of all three (the 5,6 and 8), the 5 is arguably the best and measures the best. Honestly, tho the price to performance is insane on these.

I thought the same thing about home theater. I had them on my fronts and they where impressive. I have a Marantz 7705 Pre-amp and wished I had 5 more to put on all my speakers. I was thinking the 8s for fronts, the 6 for center and the 5s for rear and rear back. That would sound amazing I am sure. But all 5s or all 6s would do as well.

The SVS 1000 SB Pro are excellent. Have one but they say two is better.

Would it make sense to execute your 7.1.4 speaker system with these speakers? Have you listed your setup's speakers for sale as well? And how noticeable would the quality difference or how much would the improvement/$ be with the more expensive ones? Would love to hear your thoughts. Edit: Nevermind, you did say at the end of the video that you're planning to build an Atmos system with it

ive had two pairs of the 8" version as well as the 10" sub, honestly cant complain for the price they landed at *although i will say the second pair of the same model were slightly lower quality in as far as the manufacturing goes.. ive contemplated buying more high end speakers but in my untreated (untreatable) room they would honestly go to waste

Have you ever tried PreSonus Eris line? Those are my go to for powered monitors for all uses!

nice one, these are on sale in the uK right now, 115 quid!

i have the lsr308s sadly they are discontinued. I like them because a little more bass response with the 8 inch woofer and a matte finish instead of the glossy finger print magnet of the newer versions you showed. I wonder what the difference is between the old ones i have and the newer mark II versions they have now?

This series is well known for their wide sweet spot, as well as for being a tad noisy. I use these exact ones for my composition and practice keyboard lab, and removed the sub (Presonus) in the end as these are delivering a great full band representation.

Wait till you get your hands on a pair of vintage 4311 studio monitors by JBL. I'm a JBL fanatic, I've owned the 8" version of these speakers, which was a gateway drug into JBLs for me. Currently I have a 4311 and a 4429 (which is a bit of an overkill for me), running through a Krell integrated amp. Uff, delicious. I have Avalons, Keffs, Hedd Type20s, etc but the 4429 gets all the love.

What subwoofer would be a match for these in a similar price bracket? Would be nice to have a full system recommendation

Powered speakers are just so underrated. They are typically uninfluenced by snake oil and measure flat or flat as possible for their price point. I'm rocking a pair of Monoprice Monolith Encore B6s, but if I were to start again, I'd get some JBL monitors or Presonus XT in 8" woofers. I started off with headphones and have some decent IEMs, but nothing is quite like having a nice stereo setup. :)

I bought a Swan OS-10 and it's replaced my 3k usd headphones for home use, they became ones I put on mostly at night.

"The truth sounds beautiful"

Tell me you're a Guardian without telling me you're a Guardian... If you know, you know. 😉

I have these, what crossover frequency do you use with the subwoofer?

I think this video needs to be a little bit wider as it is not wide enough, maybe 32 by 9.

Just a thought, isn't this too much widescreen for youtube?

My system is 305’s, w sub. I like the smaller profile too, and can find each at deals for $100@. Might upgrade front 3 to 306.

got the 305 for my desk audio ... 👍❤️ very nice.

Love this.

Thanks for the review! And here I've been thinking of getting a pair of these to upgrade my JBL LSR30X (yep, the Drop-customized LSR305 in piano black) speaker and moving the 30Xs to my bedroom.

Have basically the same exact setup, except it’s at my desk and I have T8Vs instead of JBLs. They curb stomp my PC38X and modhouse Argons and I came to the conclusion that the money I spent on headphones was a waste in comparison.

what is the least expensive upgrade in passive speakers it we want to get rid of the tweeter hiss of the jbl 306 ?

I highly recommend that you check out the Focal Alpha 65 EVO's. They are a studio monitor that are exceptional detailed. And have a WIDE sound stage. They quiet often get chosen by professionals as an upgrade over these. Studio monitors are under rated for audiophiles who are wanting a detailed speaker. My alpha 65's are set up in a mid field arrangement from my work station. I love them, I was originally going to choose the brand new Adam A7v's. but these beet the Adams in my AB listening experience and were cheaper. Especially if you are considering Atmos, as they have a standby feature and Have an extremely low noise floor. Both super important for Atmos set ups. Focal also do a Alpha Sub one that is a great paring to the Alpha line of speakers. As the Sub one also High passes the Monitors so that there is a clean cross over between the low frequencies.

As an owner of JBL 305s and 306Ps I would steer clear from these speakers. They have nice qualities about them but the high levels of distortion they possess not only ruin the sound quality but ruin their SPL capabilities. I would not recommend these for midfield use. The sound falls apart when cranked up. Measurements point back this up. My go to budget speakers are Adam T5/7Vs which are better in pretty much every way. I've done a home theater with Adam S3Vs and Adam T7Vs and the results are truly incredible. The T series speaker sound pretty close to the S series so they blend seamlessly with each other. T7V would be great fronts for a stereo or HT system with subs in the mix. 306P's cannot compare. The sound quality and sound output are far superior on the Adams.

I agree that the JBL horns are amazing. I would also recommend the Studio 530s which I believe sound even better, having owned both. You can also get the 530s for as low as $199 on their refurb store from time to time. No one does value like JBL, but higher end speakers absolutely dominate all over these little guys. That being said 99% of people don't know what they're missing and ignorance is definitely bliss. Calling these speakers perfect for 99% of people is totally right.

I went through a few sets of powered monitors including these but eventually just went with some passives and a micca amp because they ALL hiss to some degree. As speakers you listen to across the room, they're fine, but at a desk the hiss drove me nuts

As someone who has built and designed speakers I appreciate the way you review speakers using actual measurements to back up what you are hearing. The vertical response is largely due to the shape of the waveguide. I doubt it can be fixed with the crossover and even if it can be it would affect the horizontal axis too much. Edit: I meant messing with the xo would mess with the overall response not just the horizontal axis

I have the 305p mk-1's I've been using a long time, allong with a sub. Are these worth the upgrade? Or are tge differences fairly minimal

Have had a pair of LRS.305 for my digital piano. Then I played some songs to them via a streamer and I was shocked how good they were near field. Then bought the 306 and also a pair of Whatfedale Diamond 12.2 for a far field TV setup. I returned the 306 & kept the 12.2. Started regretting the decision very shortly after. Should have kept the 306. For simplicity and good sound, I should have kept the 306. Cost wise, they were also better at a sales price less than half of that for the 12.2.

Actually a set of studio monitors at almost any price are the only speakers any audiophile would ever need. But no they have to buy hyped hifi speakees for 10 k usd. Because they are advertised as better.

Great video! I have the 305 MK1 running with a SVS micro3000 sub. Any reason to upgrade? With the 306 what x-over with sub?

Isn't that an old TV playing an oscilloscope?

Would these be better than Triangle AIO Twins?

why you said "crossedover very low" could you please let me know about it as I have paired my hs8s with a jbl lsr 310s sub which has only a crossover of 80hz. please educate me about it more

Dude sounds like Agent Smith! I LOVE my JBL 305's!!

Hats off to JBL - good engineers working with reasonable materials. Like Bose - only good.

I own a pair, and matched to a Schiit Modius/Magnius stack running balanced/XLR...can confirm, fantastic set!

hey man.. what more reasonably priced subwoofer (around 200 usd) would you recommend to go with these speakers?

Your voice sounds a little like Agent Smith 🤣

38 bucks for a T shirt does it come with fries !

Love the Hakke hoodie!

By any chance, are these good for gaming ????

That chart you showed after saying "polar plots". Looks like a pole if you rotate the picture 90degree. An its plotted out 😁. What cheap subwoofer to get?

i have 305ps n 308ps if theres better idgaf

I got the 305 mk2 I wanted to get the Kali in-5 3-Way. But they were way too expensive in my country compared to the JBL. I am happy with my purchase 1yr later they have really started to open up.

I use 3 - 308s and 2 - 305s and the 310 sub for mixing atmos in 5.1, eventually I would like to have a 7.1.4 sometime in my future but these speakers are great for mixing

I have seen what it costs and one (look inside) video. the speakers are extremely cheaply made and very cheap to buy! jbl has certainly done the same as BOSE. made a cheap and not so good speaker but adjusted with DSP. processor. The sound out of them is relatively good according to several tests, but the speaker does make a bit of noise which you often find in cheap amplifiers or cheap signal processors.

6" 2-way, bookshelf monitors, between $300-$600/pr have been the sweetspot for loudspeakers since the late 80s.

I had a pair of JBL 305's. Bought some Adam T5V's about 6 months ago and pretty sure I liked the JBL's better. I'm going to eventually try a pair of Kali's.

any reason you picked the 6-inch over 5 / 8 inch?

Hey man I really enjoy the channel and you seem like the perfect person to ask this I got a set of new drivers for Focal Alpha 65 evo, meaning two midwoofers and two tweeters. I took the manual PDF and put it in the cad software to generate dimensions of the fronts, knowing that they are 15mm (info in the description) + a friend of mine gave me an old speaker box after alpha 50 evo, so it's pretty similar. I managed to perfectly reproduce the shape of the front panel and the whole box itself, including custom, 'perforated' bass reflex. THING IS: They originally are active speakers with two amps per speaker. I was thinking of a few designs, either replicating this - putting separate crossovers and running each driver independently, so 2 stereo amps, one for lows one for highs. Other idea was just turning them passive. There are ready to buy active spekaer amp kits/backplates but I wanted to make this a little more custom + I have got already amps that collect dust mostly (class D, cheap) so getting new ones just for this projects seems not right What would you do?

Looking forward to the Atmos setup with these!

Hey and also not sure what you paid for yours but guitar center sales them for $199 on sale and sometimes at $189 From time to time. And also which smsl did you run them two

I have the Elac BS243.3 on my desk with a Rotel RB850, and I'm thinking about getting some Monitors, the BS243.3 sound great actually and because they go pretty low, even movies have enough bass.

The Studio 530’s did this for me. Too bad JBL doesn’t really make any speakers with a good WAF.

A great public service video DMS, with a touch of the Matrix or Lost in Space to elevate the entertainment value 5/5 video and advice!

I have the JBL 305P mk2, I really like how they sound, but at the same time I am really annoyed with the hiss when they're not playing anything Does anyone know if a power conditioner can improve that?

funny, i upgraded from my lsr305 years ago. didnt realize till halfway through the video and went behind my speaker to see the model, that these were exactly what i have XD, i use these as my monitors hooked up to a schiit audio modi 2 and magni 2 on my computer.

Good review. I spoke to JBL reps at rocky mountain audio fest when this line came out and they mentioned nothing will beat this equipment in the sub 500 dollar range. This was just prior to COVID. They make money on these because they/Harmon own the production facilities. They dont bother using more inferior components cause it doesnt save them any money to produce it. So the rubber around the cones are the same they would use on the big boy lines, even though they dont state that. They could improve it slightly by using a superior D amplifier, but sound improvement is barely noticeable and drives production cost up by another 50 dollar and then they dont sell as many. Thats what they said. I also got to look at the build and listen to some sicko JBLs for high end commercial movie theaters. The point is I dont believe other speaker makers using the same cabinet can build a superior loudspeaker than JBL, if that is their goal. However you define superior, they can build it. I stopped chasing the audio will o the wisp 20 years ago. I run modern Denon head, 300watt krell amps, Shu subs and big old Fkng Infinity speakers. Im almost 60 and have no business plunking down 4k for senile ear drums. JBL 308s on my computer, Infinity kappas in truck. Golden.

"Ported and very very light." Aka: Class D amplifier(that may be) with switching power supply (goes wrong after some years which is the lesser problem), thus switching amplifiers was never meant inside of a high quality system, due to high frequency noises. The shiny plastic on front of the speaker just looks ugly, and the controls for the speaker is at the back, every time you want to adjust the knob, you have to rotate the enclosure. About the sounding, it may be not bad, but since its very light weight, the enclosure thickness is also will be not that good, thus very likely that its gonna rattle. Good speaker/subwoofer speaker need to have a decent thickness of wood, like minimum of 20mm thickness + a good wood quality is a game changer. Once my seller offered me a pair of Marantz passive speakers, 100euro for the pair. 50watt speakers with 10watt tweeters i think, combining with my 1300euro vintage Pioneer Sa7800 amplfier, it would sound awesome.

I've been using mine as desktop speakers for a couple of years now and I just can't bring myself to part with them.

Try Kali LP6 v2 for budget and Kali IN-8 v2 for the best value. Than compare with this JBL.

No man, no powered speakers for me. And no subs either. I prefer near-field listening, so all I need is a properly designed 2 way bookshelf----no built-in amps, my 100 wpc Kenwood will take care of that just fine.

Agent Smith vibes in that intro. But fab video, i LOVE this speaker!

These JBL speakers can go loud and stays clean, 113dB. That's as loud as small PA speakers!