JBL Studio 530 2-Way 5.25-Inch Bookshelf

The media could not be loaded. I recently read all the positive online reviews of the JBL Studio 530, and couldn't wait for the price to come down more. I just HAD to have a pair of true horn-loaded speakers in my stable, having lusted over these for weeks! I could tell there was something special about these speakers, just by some of the passionate reviews, as well as the British 'WhatHiFi' magazine 5 star review (I also considered the DALI Zensor 1 or Zensor 3). I am a stereo equipment and music junkie/audiophile, with 7 stereo systems currently hooked up throughout my modest home (I know, i'm nuts!), often interchanging equipment and speakers amassed over the years to experiment with sound. I'm not 'made of money', so I tend to save, then shop for 'maximum bang per buck' value when looking for equipment (same for my other hobby, Amateur Radio). My other speakers include Magnepan MG12/QR, Magnepan MMG, classic Polk Audio Monitor 10's, AV123 XL-S, and JBL HLS-610 (not sure if these are true horn-loaded speakers). Equipment runs from vintage Fisher 500C to Pioneer SX-780 to Qinpu A-6000 MKII to McIntosh MC162 with a Little Dot MKIII tubed preamp (love to roll tubes). My source is CD/HDCD/SACD. Upon receiving the 530's, I hooked these visually gorgeous, unique speakers up to my SX-780 and was immediately immersed in the natural, large soundstage and warm sound. These sound like expensive, refined British monitors, I thought to myself. Detail, accuracy, quick transients, and resolving ability are there in spades, but with a smoothness and pace that belie their under $500 price. In fact, they may sound a bit 'too laid back', since I have the treble on my vintage SX-780 turned all the way up (I like a bit of 'brightness' and 'shimmer')! The bass is taut and strong as well. They have a very pleasant, unfatiguing, airy sound signature that draws you in, which must be the compression driver horn technology at work. I still can't decide whether I like them better than my floorstanding Magnepan MG12's, which is a testament to how great and 'musical' a well engineered 4 or 500 dollar speaker can sound!Unrelated to the speaker's sound, my speaker product box had an older manufacturing date stamp of 5/2012. Why did I receive a significantly older manufacturing date? Did JBL only manufacture a few early runs of this model? Did later runs have any minor changes or tweaks I would have received with a more recent manufacturing date? Were these speakers sitting in a non-temperature controlled warehouse for almost 2 years, and could the internal electronics (crossover parts or circuit boards) been damaged by them sitting for so long?! These are legitimate questions. Given this fact, I am wondering if Amazon 'pulled something fast' with me (like sending me older stock when they had more recent ones in the warehouse)! I would be curious to know if recent Amazon purchasers of the 530 also got an older manufactured set.Also, I was upset that Amazon did not double box these speakers. They shipped in the JBL product box only, and the box arrived moderately damaged by UPS, with a gaping large hole in the corner, and one speaker corner exposed! Luckily, the speakers themselves were not (apparently) damaged. SHAME on Amazon for not double-boxing these speakers!Lastly, I listen with the grilles off, and with the included contoured horn fittings in place. To me, these speakers look like a work of art! Unique and gorgeous, to say the least. I noticed that the grilles have the JBL logo, but when they're off, there is no way to tell the brand. I wish JBL would have provided a nice quality (perhaps thin metal) stick-on of their JBL logo to put in that small recessed area on the bottom of the 530's. I'm not into that 'debadged' look with my speakers, or my car for that matter.Looking forward to reading other JBL 530 reviews here! Do you own this speaker, and how do you like it?UPDATE 4/2015: I've had these incredible speakers for a year now, and can't stop listening to them! In fact, I told my wife that I plan on listening to every one of our 4,000 or so CD's and LP's, as long as it takes, starting from the A's alphabetically. This was about a year ago. I'm only up to the E's so far, but oh what a pleasure to be immersed in the glorious sound emanating forth from these wondrous horn-loaded speakers! I've been driving them with both solid state as well as tubed amplification (I change back and forth from time to time as an obsessed audiophile), and the sound is truly high-end. Timbral accuracy, detail, sound attack and decay, well balanced, tight bass, air... it's all there in spades, and then some! And I don't even have these positioned for maximum sound, given my listening is 'nearfield' with the speakers set up directly in front of me (in front of my PC setup in the dining room of my house) about 7 to 8 feet away. Whether i'm listening to Mozart, Miles Davis, Fourplay, Vangelis, Steely Dan, or The Grateful Dead (just a few of my faves mentioned), these speakers BLOW ME AWAY! And this comes from an audiophile that also has Magnepan (MG12/QR, vintage Polk (Monitor 10B's), and Martin Logan (ESL's) in some of my other systems! These speakers are a STEAL! GET THEM before they are discontinued!

I received these a few weeks ago and they are taking up all of my free time. I simply cannot quit listening to them. I've been interested in the Studio 5 Series since I first saw pictures online, I'm guessing around 2 years ago or so, but never dug deep enough into them to really learn that much about them until recently. JBL didn't seem to have effective marketing for these and it's a shame because they are truly excellent speakers.I've owned close to 20 pairs of speaker, and most have come and gone. I was always searching for that accurate high end sound, but didn't really want to spend several thousands of dollars to get there. At last, I didn't need to...these are it. The midrange clarity is beyond anything I've heard in my own house, and the bi-radial horn and compression driver is spot on. Never shrill, but always extremely detailed, and the imaging is so focused, I'm guessing because of the bi-radial horn, and it's limited side wall reflections that most all convention designs with dome tweeters suffer from. Bass response is respectable especially being just a 5.25". The speakers overall tonal balance is nearly perfect.Although this speaker is larger in person than it seems in pictures, and also even better looking, it's still not a large speaker, but the sense of scale to music is so much larger than their size would suggest, very big and life like. I've found some degree of fault with every speaker I've ever owned, and I have to say, so far, I find none with the Studio 530, and they easily fill my 13x19 foot listening space. I do however also use 3 subwoofers, but I have for years, not for pounding bass, but the response in the room is much smoother and the response much more even throughout the room. It's not because the 530's are deficient in the bass.The ONLY downside, is I really wanted a set in the cherry finish, but couldn't find any. These speakers already have a somewhat vintage look to them, but the cherry finish even more so, and would have looked a bit better in my mid-century themed listening area. Oh well, the black still looks quite nice too.I cannot recommend these enough, even if your budget is 3 times the asking price, you owe yourself at least a listen, and who knows, you may even end up saving money, these really are that good. These are the best consumer priced line JBL has done since at least the later 90's L series like the L1,3,5,7 and these may even be better than those. I do know these are quite a bit better than my JBL L80T's. Yes, the JBL name has been watered down over the years with many of their lower cost, big box store type speakers, but these are something entirely different. JBL is BACK!