On my first gig as an electronics journalist, way back in 1989, the magazine’s senior editor introduced me to the technical editor with the explanation, “He’s in charge of all the black boxes.” Twenty-two years later, little has changed. Browse this website and you’ll see that audio and video gear still generally takes the form of black boxes that make this look like a radical piece of industrial design.
Into this aesthetic wasteland strides JBL with its new Studio series. View the Studio 180 from any direction but the front and you’ll see yet another banal black box. But when you stare the Studio 180 in the face, you confront a distinctive geometric design. The front baffle and grille incorporate the Weave concept found on many other pieces of JBL gear, even low-priced fodder that seems purpose-built for playing Katy Perry MP3s.
When I saw the picture of the Studio 180 included with the introductory press release, I immediately thought, “There’s no way that thing can sound good.” But as I looked closer, I realized I was wrong. The Weave design cleverly conceals the tweeter, midrange and woofer while mostly getting the hell out of their way so they have a chance to perform properly. The gray areas of the Studio 180’s face are speaker grilles, while the dark areas are solid. The top grille hides a 4-inch midrange and a 1-inch tweeter and the bottom grille camouflages a 6.5-inch woofer.
You can expand the Studio 180 into a full 5.1 or 7.1 surround-sound system by adding the Studio 120C center speaker and one or two pairs of Studio 130 bookshelf speakers — plus a subwoofer if you so choose.
Hopefully you will get a chance to compare these with the new Boston Acoustics A360 soon?
I will now learn not to underestimate the performance of a speaker based on how it looks. On first impressions, I wondered how a tower speaker like that could be good, but since I trust your judgement, your review really opened my eyes! I hope I have a chance to listen to the kinds of sound qualities this speaker can produce. I need to listen before I really make a decision whether to purchase.
I have owned these speakers for about 20 months now. After trying and bringing home 4 different sets of speakers ( KEF, Paradigm, Yamaha and Boston Acoustics) I have yet to find a better sounding speaker. Full rich spatial mids, responsive Base and Crystal Clear highs. Listening to everything from A-Z as a pretty eclectic music lover I have yet to come across a genre that these speakers have disappointed me with. Absolutely Amazing...
I have thease speakers connected to a Denon 1910 reciever with the 5.1 Infinity Beta Speakers. Is my reciever powerfull enough to handle all of the speakers at once? Is this Denon reciever perfect with thease speakers? Can you recomand some settings for setup them (crosswover,etc)?
Right now i am using the reciever in 7.1, should i change it to 5.1 for movies? How can i setup the my speakers with this reciever corectly? I know how i want them to sound but right now they don't make a big impresion. Shoud i change to a new Harman Kardon reciever?
@Mariandvd: Your Denon should work fine. IMHO, a decent receiver isn't going to be especially good or bad with any particular speaker. Switching to another brand will probably not give you dramatically better sound. You can use it in 7.1 for movies and music - whatever you like is fine, there are no hard and fast rules. You can run the JBLs full-range (or large) if you like. For the Infinity speakers, probably an 80 Hz crossover point will work well.
I don't recommend using the tone controls on the receiver. Set everything flat tonally, and be sure to balance the channel levels using an SPL meter. (The ones available as iPod and Droid apps will work fine.) Place the JBLs at least a foot from the wall behind them. BTW, you will probably get better sound with a matching system -- i.e., all-JBL or all-Infinity, and use speakers within the same line, like the Studio series.
Purchased a pair for a great price, somewhat based on this review and a few others....Firstly, in the manual the crossover points say 1.1kHz, 2.5kHz, 6dB/octave, not the 800Hz, 3.2kHz, 6dB/octave you state. The 190 shows the crossover points you speak of but it says different for the 180. Even JBL's 180 spec sheet shows your numbers when their manual doesn't?
Secondly, they could need more break in time but I'm not wowed with their sound overall and may send them back. They don’t stink, but there isn't anything about the sound that made me raise an eyebrow and get a big grin on my face like there was listening to my new Martin Logan Motion 12's while listening to one of Clapton's Crossroads guitar fest dvds the other day.
I feel the bass of these is more than ample but isn't super accurate sometimes and can lend a ever so slight muddy character to certain songs imo. They may be a great home theater speaker though and I may keep them for that reason alone if they shine there.
Overall they haven't kept me up at night listening to "just one more song" before I go to bed. I did hear things I hadn't with older 2 way speakers which is nice, but there is just something about the sound that seems restrained. Maybe that's because they are not broke in and will open up some later?
Thanks for a great site/mag, I just started subscribing and know it'll be a life long one. I'm officially in the wormhole of audio now, I just hope it doesn't cost too much.....yeah I know lol.