O N T E S T

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loudspeakers

JBL Studio 530

JBL’s two ‘Studio Series’ lines, comprising the Series 1 and the Series 500, all designed by the company’s former lead engi-neer, Greg Timbers (who also designed JBL’s famous ‘Everest’), were designed primarily with

multi-channel audio in mind—either purely audio multi-channel, or home theatre. So within each range there are various mod-els for front-channel, centre-channel and surround use.

What ties all the models together is that none of them use a traditional tweeter. They instead use a sophisticated compression driver, similar to those used in JBL’s profes-

sional monitor speakers, except using Teonex instead of Titanium for the diaphragm. Compression drivers delivers significantly lower distortion, higher sound pressure levels, superior dispersion and greater dynamic range to any other type of tweeter.

All of which means, of course, that the JBL Studio 530 is an ideal speaker for use in a high-quality, two-channel hi-fi system if you have a smaller room and don’t need much in the way of bass extension, or in larger room in conjunction with a subwoofer. But JBL keeps this information a bit of a secret, because the company would prefer you pur-chased one of its higher-priced ‘LS Series’ or ‘Studio Monitor’ models for such applications.

To be fair, JBL does hint at its two-channel capability, but only obliquely, saying that: ‘the Studio 530 can replay a left-channel signal, a right-channel signal or surround-sound channels.’

The equipmenTThe reason a compression driver can have lower distortion, higher SPLs, superior dis-persion and greater dynamic range than any other type of tweeter is that whereas all con-ventional tweeters are in effect attempting to move all the air that’s in front of them, which in a room is quite a lot (air is surprisingly heavy, at around 1.2 kilograms per cubic metre), meaning they have to work very hard to create sound.

JBL Studio 530 Loudspeakers

87Australian Hi-Fi

A compression driver, on the other hand, only has to compress the air inside a very small cavity (or, more usually, multiple cavi-ties) positioned directly in front of the driver diaphragm… hence the word ‘compression driver.’ This cavity is in turn coupled to the air in the room via a horn, in this case a glass-filled ABS Bi-Radial horn.

But if compression drivers offer so many advantages, why don’t all loudspeaker man-ufacturers use them? The first reason is that once you add the essential horn, a compres-sion driver becomes more expensive than a conventional tweeter. The second, more important, reason is that unless the horn has a specific flare, the sound won’t be very good… and JBL owns almost all the patents for all the most useful horn shapes (though Klipsch also has a few). The final reason is simply cosmetic: Because horns are relative-ly rare on home hi-fi speakers, people aren’t used to them, and as a result think they look strange and prefer to buy more ‘con-ventional-looking’ designs. You can judge the appearance of the Studio 530 yourself from the photograph on the opposite page, but personally, I like the organic way the flare of the horn flows down to form the lower speaker grille, like some hidden volcano has spewed a trail of grey pumice to fill out these stylish little boxes.

The 130mm-diameter bass/midrange driver in the Studio 530 is a more conven-tional design, except for some of the mate-rials used. The cone, for example, is made of a material called ‘PolyPlas’ that’s said to be proprietary to JBL, and a secret formula-tion. So far as I can tell the cone construc-tion is essentially two thin layers of plastic sandwiched either side of a thicker layer of paper. This ‘sandwich’ type of construction is fairly common in high-end speaker cones because it combines the best properties of a paper cone (light weight, high strength, good damping) with the best properties of ‘plastic’ (polypropylene) cones, which are immunity from dampness and uniform surface stiffness. The cone is connected to a cast aluminium frame by a rubber suspen-sion, which is far superior to the more com-

mon-used foam suspension materials, due to foam’s propensity to disintegrate under Australian environmental conditions.

The driver uses JBL’s symmetrical field geometry (SFG) magnetic design, which is primarily a technique for eliminating d.c. flux modulation caused by signal current in the voice coil, which in turn reduces

harmonic distortion. Although JBL patented this technique, those patents have expired, so other manufactur-ers now use the same or similar methods to achieve the same end, but JBL still owns the trademark for SFG. The magnet drives a 38mm diameter voice coil—

rather larger than usual for a 130mm driver, which is no doubt a contributing factor to the Studio 530’s higher-than-expected sensitivity and power handling capability.

JBL specs the sensitivity at 86dBSPL, the nominal impedance at 6Ω and the crossover frequency at 1.5kHz.

Normally the Studio 530’s bass/midrange driver is hidden behind a small grille. If you remove it, you disrupt the ‘flare’ of the horn, which will ruin the sound, so if you prefer the look of the speakers without the grille you will need to fit a pair of triangular horn covers (which are supplied). These clip firmly into place with a lug and two pins, rather like the battery compartment of a TV remote. (And if you’re auditioning these speakers, make sure that either the grilles or the horn covers are fitted, otherwise you won’t be hearing these speakers at their best!)

Despite being physically quite small (467×214×222mm) the Studio 530s are very heavily-constructed, using vinyl-veneered 19mm MDF that’s internally braced, and the panels are not parallel, to reduce un-wanted resonances, all of which has them weighing in at 7.7kg each.

I fitted the four rubber feet that come with the Studio 530s to each speaker and also laboriously removed and replaced the tops of all eight speaker terminals in order to remove the plastic pins left there to block some silly Swede from inserting a mains cable—or some such—so that I could properly bi-wire the speakers using the twin gold-plated multi-way speaker termi-nals, here shown without the gold-plated buss-bar that’s provided for those using only a single set of speaker cables.

Speaking personally, I like the organic way the flare of the horn flows down to form the lower speaker grille

O N T E S T L A B R E P O R T

88 www.avhub.com.auAustralian Hi-Fi

JBL Studio 530 Loudspeakers

ContaCt detaiLS

Brand: JBL

model: Studio 530

Category: Bookshelf Loudspeakers

RRp: $1,299

Warranty: Five Years

Distributor: Convoy International Pty Ltd

Address: Unit 7, 1801 Botany Road

Botany NSW 2019

T1: 1800 817 787

T2: (02) 9700 0111

e: info@convoy.com.au

W: www.e-hifi.com.au

• Polarising looks

• Deepest bass

• Marvellous mids and highs

• Superb dispersion

• Incredible imaging

Newport Test Labs measured the in-room response of the JBL Studio 530s first, using a pink noise test stimulus, and the result is shown in Graph 1. The overall response extends from 60Hz to 20kHz ±3dB, which is an excellent result. You can see that although the response is within ±3dB, both the bass and treble portions of the response are slightly elevated with respect to the midrange by around 2.5dB, but across the range 100Hz to 10kHz, the response is within ±1.3dB.

The extreme high-frequency response of the JBL Studio 530 is shown in Graph 2. This time the measurement tech-nique is a straight single-shot on-axis response, using a gated sinus to simulate the response that would be obtained in an anechoic chamber. You can see that the crossover at 1.5kHz is slightly more abrupt than I’d have expected, but it’s a small discontinuity. The high-frequency horn’s response extends out to 40kHz, but it’s really only ‘flat’ to 20kHz, be-cause above this frequency it drops away to be a further 15dB down at 40kHz. The peaks and dips in the response are measurement artefacts from the micro-phone being only one metre away from the horn, resulting in multiple sound paths. The ear would ‘average’ these into a smooth contiguous response, which is shown graphically in Graph 5 (the pink trace).

Low frequency response is shown in Graph 3, with Newport Test Labs measuring this via a near-field technique to again simulate an anechoic environ-ment. You can see that the bass reflex port’s output peaks at just over 40Hz, which is a bit lower than the bass/mid-range driver’s minimum output, which is a bit below 50Hz, so there’s obviously been some fine-tuning going on at JBL to extend the bass response beyond what you’d get from a ‘textbook’ design ap-proach. You can see why when you look at the output of the bass driver, which starts rolling off at around 130Hz, to be 6dB down at 75Hz.

LABoRAToRy TesT ResuLTs

LisTening sessionsI liked the slightly industrial look of the JBL Studio 530s without the grilles fitted and so did most of my listening that way, using the horn covers to continue the horn flares. I also fitted the four rubber feet to each speaker and laboriously removed and replaced the tops of all eight speaker terminals in order to remove the plastic pins left there to block some silly Swede from inserting a mains cable—or some such—so that I could properly bi-wire the speakers.

I should admit to a penchant for horn speakers—indeed the Studio 530s went straight onto stands usually reserved for a pair of JBL Model 4429 studio monitors. They might thereby benefit from some family familiarity in their presentation. But given the size differential, surely they would fail to present the weight and bass content of music that issued from their bigger brothers?

Of course they did. My first listening notes were that they would sound fabulous in a 2.1-channel system with a subwoofer supporting their fine mids and highs, because even straight out of the box (and replac-ing much more expensive loudspeakers), those compression drivers really did deliver high-quality highs, precise imaging and that expansive airy sound for which horn speakers are rightly renowned.

Before long, however, I noticed that the bass wasn’t as absent as I initially thought, and that the Studio 530s were delivering some reasonable punch, so after I extended my run-in period (as I said previously, the review loaner speakers were fresh out of the box), I returned for more tunes.

West Australian band The Chemist’s ‘Heaven’s Got A Dress Code’ opens with some solo tub-thumping which was delivered with some decent weight and impressively positioned in its room acoustic. Playing the 24-bit file of ‘Since I’ve Been Loving You’ from the 2007 Zep reunion, all of JPJ’s bass pedals were delivered, and benefited from some power cranking, at which point I began to be very impressed by the weight accorded young Bonham’s bass pedal, and by the scale of soundstage achieved.

Pushing the volume levels higher didn’t seem to upset this recording: the horn content didn’t get shrieky. The results weren’t comprehensively impressive, how-ever—at higher volume levels the studio version of Kashmir did emerge a little boxy, with a definite need for more low end, as did much modern material—Lily Allen, Dido…—and my ‘FU’ bass tester of Ma-chine Gun Fellatio’s ‘Unsent Letter’ simply had its bottom octave of bass removed. I was able to get a bit more bass by moving the speakers backwards to get their ports closer to a wall, but also more muddiness, compromising their best aspect: their marvellous delivery of midrange and high frequencies.

ConCLusionThey’re musical, capable of taking power, and they offer thrilling horn clarity, though they do lack the bottom octave required to deliver modern music ‘in da house’. Exactly these characteristics would make them superb in a 2.1, 3.1 or 5.1 context with a subwoofer. Jez Ford

I should admit to a penchant for horn speakers—indeed the Studio 530s went straight onto stands usually reserved for a pair of JBL Model 4429s

89Australian Hi-Fi

JBL Studio 530 Loudspeakers

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Graph 3. Low frequency response of front-firing bass reflex port (red trace) and woofer. Nearfield acquisition. Port/woofer levels not compensated for differences in radiating areas.

Newport Test Labs

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Graph 2. High-frequency response, expanded view. Test stimulus gated sine. Microphone placed at three metres on-axis with dome tweeter. Lower measurement limit 600Hz.

Newport Test Labs

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Graph 1. Averaged unsmoothed frequency response using pink noise test stimulus.This trace is the averaged result of nine individual frequency sweeps measured at one metre, with the central grid point on-axis with the tweeter. [JBL Studio 530 Loudspeaker]

Newport Test Labs

Figure 1. Averaged unsmoothed frequency response using pink noise test stimulus.This trace is the averaged result of nine individual frequency sweeps measured at one metre, with the central grid point on-axis with the tweeter. [JBL Studio 530 Loudspeaker]

Figure 2. High- frequency response, expanded view. Test stimulus gated sine. Microphone placed at three metres on-axis with dome tweeter. Lower measurement limit 600Hz.

Figure 3. Low frequency response of front-firing bass reflex port (red trace) and woofer. Nearfield acquisition. Port/woofer levels not compensated for differences in radiating areas.

Moving the speaker closer to one or two boundaries (i.e. a rear wall/side wall junction, or a ceiling/wall junction) would have the effect of increasing the level of bass below 130Hz.

Newport Test Labs measured the sensitivity of the JBL Studio 530 at 85.5dBSPL at one metre, for a 2.83Veq input, which is close enough to specification that measurement errors could account for the 0.5dB difference, and a bit higher than I would have expected from such a small speaker system.

Overall, excellent measured performance from JBL’s Studio 530s. Steve Holding

Readers should note that the results mentioned in the report, tabulated in performance charts and/or displayed using graphs and/or photographs should be construed as applying only to the specific sample tested.

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Newport Test Labs

Graph 4. Composite response plot. Red trace is output of bass reflex port. Dark blue trace is anechoic response of bass driver. Pink trace is in-room pink noise response above 600Hz. Black trace is gated (simulated anechoic) response above 600Hz and averaged in-room pink noise response below 600Hz). [JBL Studio 530 Loudspeaker]

Figure 4. Composite response plot. Red trace is output of bass reflex port. Dark blue trace is anechoic response of bass driver. Pink trace is in-room pink noise response above 600Hz. Black trace is gated (simulated anechoic) response above 600Hz and av-eraged in-room pink noise response below 600Hz). [JBL Studio 530 Loudspeaker]

The overall frequency response extends from 60Hz to 20kHz ±3dB, which is an excellent result.

L A B R E P O R T JBL STudiO 530 LOudSPEAkERS

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