JBL Studio 190 (£480)

摘要

Not for the first time with inexpensive JBLs, we wonder how - if - they can possibly turn a profit. The Studio 190 offers outstanding value. In most respects this speaker represents familiar fare for a modern floorstander: the cabinet is a conventional tall, narrow box with rather resonant side panels and the bass is reflex-loaded via a single rear-firing port. The Weave design of the front baffle JBL calls 'bold and dynamic', and that appears to be the sum of its purpose - to catch the eye rather than influence the sound. Its angular plastic mouldings could have a deleterious sonic effect, by adding reflective surfaces near the tweeter, but for the fact that the tweeter's horn is a constant-directivity bi-radial design, which probably narrows its horizontal spread. The tweeter itself is a 25mm dome using JBL's CMMD Lite material, despite which our measurements indicate it displays a high-Q resonance within the audio band. This crosses over at 3.2kHz to a 100mm midrange driver with PolyPlas doped-cellulose fibre cone which, according to spec, works down to 800Hz where it crosses over to the two 165mm PolyPlas-coned bass drivers, mounted much lower down the baffle.