expired Posted by Navy-Wife | Staff • Feb 23, 2024
Feb 23, 2024 4:47 PM
Item 1 of 1
expired Posted by Navy-Wife | Staff • Feb 23, 2024
Feb 23, 2024 4:47 PM
JBL Home Speakers: Center Channel (HDI-4500) $700, Bookshelf (HDI-1600)
& More + Free Shipping$400
$990
59% offHarman Audio
Visit Harman AudioGood Deal
Bad Deal
Save
Share
Top Comments
These prices on the towers make them worth considering, but they're still awfully expensive vs. the deals we got on the 5xx series offerings. And once you start talking about ~$2500 for front lcr… there's a ton of great options.
Don't get me wrong… these are GREAT prices on these, but they don't stand out vs. the competition, the sale prices just make them competitive vs. overpriced imho. Still a great find and a very nice deal.
95 Comments
Sign up for a Slickdeals account to remove this ad.
It kinda depends on your wants/needs (do you prefer music, movies, both, what is room size, etc. Its a magical time to buy speakers...theres a LOT of good stuff out there and competition brings down pricing. Check out Arendal THX series as well...I almost bought those.
Read the reviews...
No need to wonder.
Superb speakers, though overpriced at full $ like most hifi. For these prices all is good.
Sign up for a Slickdeals account to remove this ad.
There's independent measurement data out there for almost everything now if that's your thing, and jbl as a whole provides more transparent measurement data than most. A little bit of research is easy for most jbl or harman products.
Having said that there's a ton of competition in this price range. There's probably twenty different options in this price range that are all going to be solid, all with little give and take differences.
Also depends on what you are driving them with and what you plan to use them for. If you listen loud and to both movies & music or drive them with an AVR, the JBLs would probably be the better choice. if you are using separate amplification and purely listen to music and at lower volumes, the Revels may offer a slight advantage.
I prefer my JBL 4309 to the Revel M16. (The M16 is very good, it has a bit darker toanlity and is not as 'resolving' in the midrage or bass vs the 4309. The 4309 can also pay quite loudly if needed).In theory the HDI-1600 is possibly better in some ways, @least they measure better.
The HDI-1600 should be viable against the M106 and M126be.
Plus, ss price goes up the sales reach goes down to a select few buyers and thus the price actually needs to be even higher to compensate for low volumes.
These HDI speakers are being sold at a very competative price here given what they are intended to be.
Sign up for a Slickdeals account to remove this ad.
HD or harmonic distortion doesn't really tell much about a speaker. You don't want it to be really high or orders above 2 or 3.
Remeber, harmonic distortion is in harmony with the original note, that makes it hard to hear in real content. Non-harmonic types of distortion is very hard to measure but much much more audible.
Erin does try to get the gist of this with his 'multitone distortion' but even that is not quite enough.
1st look at how low the 3rd order and higher distortion is. Insainly low. These are the harmonics I want to keep down.
That is 2nd order harmic distortion, (which many actually find very pleasing or 'euphonic' but that is for another convo, many also like some 3rd as it tends to add a slight 'edge' that some prefer)
Here it is at 2,000hrz, in a narrow band.
It is 2% at 96db at 1meter.
That means at 96db/1meter when a 2000hrz note plays it will also add some coloration in the form of extra 4000hrz energy that added energy is -34db below the nominal output level and mixed in with whatever is happening at 4000hrz.
You will never, ever hear it. Ever.
(well actually with pure isolated test tones you would hear it. If I played 2000hrz at 80db you would also get added 4000hrz at 46db. 46db will sound about 28% as loud as 80db in the midrange. It will sound like a quiet second source in harmony with the 1st. Just like people singing in harmony except in this case one is very quiet and only at a norrow frequency region. Anyway with content, hearing = nope.)
Ideally it would not be there. But there are many trade offs involved in design.
My guess is it is from the waveguide. (It could also be some slight leftover breakup from the woofer.) One down side of waveguides is they seem to add some 2nd order harmonics from time to time. Almost all large waveguides do this. Also compression driver designs often have elevated levels of HD2. Much much higher that what is here.
This is a good level of execution here.