JBL L810 - Manual (Page 2)

P L U S
Clean, uncolored sound.
Very good dynamics.
Excellent build quality.
Shallow cabinets permit wall mounting.
M I N U S
Blunt, unembellished looks.
The JBL Studio L front satellites are designed for mounting around a flat TV.
key features
●
L820 front left/right ($750 a pair) 3 ⁄ 4 -in
supertweeter, 1-in tweeter, 4-in midrange,
6-in woofer; 12
1 ⁄
4
in high; 19 lbs
●
LC2 center ($599) 3 ⁄
4
-in supertweeter,
1-in tweeter, 4-in midrange, two 6-in
woofers; 12
1 ⁄ 4 in high; 29 lbs
●
L810 surround ($650 a pair) 3 ⁄ 4 -in
supertweeter, 1-in tweeter, 5 1 ⁄
4
-in woofer;
14 1 ⁄ 4 in wide; 14 lbs
●
L8400P subwoofer ($1,099) 12-in
driver; 600-watt amplifier; crossover-
bypass switch; 15
1 ⁄
2
x 16 1 ⁄
2
x 15 1 ⁄
2
in,
58 lbs
●
Finished in black ash, beech, or cherry
vinyl woodgrain
●
SYSTEM TOTAL $3,098
test bench
JBL’s Studio L series main speakers all had
uniform directivity in the horizontal plane
and matched timbre, though there was some
roughness in response above 1 kHz. The
L8400P subwoofer could reach 109 to 112 dB
at 2 meters from 50 to 62 Hz, but output fell at
nearly 16 dB per octave below 50 Hz, meaning
it’s not a deep-bass powerhouse. Nominal
impedance for the L820 and LC2 measured
unusually low at 4.3 and 4.4 ohms, respectively
— something to note when matching them
with an amplifier or receiver. — Tom Nousaine
➥  Full lab results on S&V Web site
the short form
soundandvisionmag.com SOUND & VISION FEBRUARY/MARCH 2006
53
I could have used a lower than
normal crossover, but the system
sounded fine with the standard 80-
Hz THX cutoff, so I ran with it.
One notable feature of all JBL Stu-
dio L series speakers is a horn-
loaded “supertweeter” that is said
to extend response out to 40 kHz.
Human hearing cuts off at half
that frequency (or less), so it can
be reasonably argued that super-
tweeters are better suited for dogs
and other animals with more
sensitive ears than our own. JBL,
however, says the feature lets you
derive the full benefit of high-reso-
lution audio formats like SACD.
Thinking along those lines, I
pulled out a Sony SACD of Bach:
The Four Great Toccatas and Fugues
performed by E. Power Biggs — a
truly awesome name for a con-
cert organist. Derived from master
tapes used to produce a quadra-
phonic recording back in 1974, it
features Biggs playing a four-organ
setup controlled by a central con-
sole in Germany’s Freiberg cathe-
dral — an ideal environment for a
surround sound recording.
I can’t say with absolute cer-
tainty that the L series sats’
extended highs made much dif-
ference in this case. What I can
say is that when I listened to the
Dorian toccata and fugue in D
Minor, the diverse ranges of the
four organs sounded distinct, and
I could clearly hear the textures of
the keyed notes. But clarity didn’t
come at the expense of other attri-
butes: each instrument had an
exceptionally smooth, airy sound,
and there was a spaciousness and
warmth that helped convey the
cathedral’s vast interior. But the
most striking thing about listen-
ing to this performance on the JBL
speaker system was the sense of
being seated in a continuous, com-
pletely seamless, space. There was
also a smooth transition between
the low and high organ notes as
Biggs made his virtuosic runs
across the keyboard.
The JBLs also revealed loads of
detail on acoustic folk songs like “John Wayne Gacy”
from Sufjan Stevens’s
Illinois — possibly the pretti-
est song ever written about a serial killer. The speak-
ers easily captured the raw, intimate tone of Stevens’s
voice. And the piano — also recorded in a church
— had a wonderfully liquid and spacious sound com-
ing from the front L/R pair of L820s. On a more rous-
ing track, “A History of Lovers”
from the Iron & Wine/Calexico
collaboration
In the Reins, the
JBLs did a fine job of capturing
the slamming, up-front sound of
the drum kit while also clearly
rendering the multiple layers of
acoustic and pedal-steel guitar.
And when a horn section kicked
in midtrack, the Studio L sys-
tem’s effortless delivery proved
it could rock just as hard as
other JBL setups I’ve heard.
It’s not the Freiberg Cathedral,
but in the movie
Batman Begins,
the Batcave serves as a sacred
space of sorts. I especially like
a chapter from the DVD where Bruce Wayne (Chris-
tian Bale) rediscovers an old well leading to an under-
ground cave — the site of a childhood trauma — and
crawls down to confront his primal fear by standing
amidst a cloud of swirling, shrieking bats. The JBLs
did an excellent job of conveying this scene in all its
unsettling detail. The L810 surrounds gave a real-
istic sense of envelopment, from the initial echo of
water droplets in the damp, cavernous space to the
swarm of flapping, beating batwings that gradually
engulf Wayne. And in a scene where the sinister Dr.
Crane talks to Carmine Falcone, the LC2 center clearly
delivered the clipped, icy tone of Crane’s voice and
the crime boss’s heavy (and unconvincing) Brooklyn
accent, with only a slight variation of tone at off-cen-
ter seats.
The “studio” tag on the Studio
L speakers is well earned. This system’s robust build
quality surpasses that of many speakers in its price
range and makes a strong connection to JBL’s profes-
sional line. The same can also be said for its clean,
uncolored sound and impressive dynamics. While
the satellites’ extended highs didn’t exactly make me
stand up and say “Aha!,” the system’s performance
with top-notch SACD recordings was nothing short
of stunning. You can easily buy a better-looking sys-
tem for several hundred dollars less, and it will make
a more elegant design statement alongside your new
flat-panel TV. But if performance is more important to
you than the fussy stuff, you’ll be well served by JBL’s
Studio Ls.
S&V
MUSIC PERFORMANCE
MOVIE PERFORMANCE
BOTTOM LINE
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