Other Hi-fi and AV junkies anonymous

No you’re correct. I do need to drill pilot holes in them.

I think they will be my forever speakers tbh. I’ll talk about why later, but at the price I paid I don’t mind putting holes in them. If I’d paid the £3500 RRP I am sure I’d feel differently but I didn’t . TBH with most stands you are supposed to screw the speakers down to make them safe.

 

I guess if you don't, there's a chance they'll just walk off the stand, like a washing machine across the kitchen if it loses its concrete block.

 

It’s more the chance of bumping into them and then falling off really. I’d imagine a few kids have lost their lives that way.

I’ve been pretty lucky with mine for the past 5 years but did totally walk into one on one occasion and literally caught it before it smashed to the floor.

But yeah, every pair of stands I’ve ever had have screw holes in. My JBL L52 classics have two captive nuts for what I assume is the wall brackets.

 

The tiniest dots of Blu-tak on each corner of a stand do wonders for ensuring the speakers stay put, also. Once they're fully squished and set it takes some doing to unseat them.

 

Won't they have counter-sunk fittings for feet in the bottom already? You could use those for retention...

 

Sadly no. They have stands and they’re expecting you to stump up for those.

 

OK so a brief write up. I knew this was going to be a long term commitment. What I mean is, I live up a lot of stairs and no longer have the tools needed to get them up or down said stairs. So I knew when they made their way up here? they would most likely be staying here forever. That is why I have had the same speakers for over five years now, as I knew that it would have to be something worth a lot more than what I had to be able to make that sort of commitment. What I mean is? I am not a rich man. Never was, and I never will be. It has taken me over 7 years to build this hifi, and has meant many months at a time of going without most everything other than food and the bills to get it done. As such the £1600 speakers I was using? were always something I would never have been able to afford. I didn't pay that (I paid £700) but still, £700 to me? is being skint for two months. So that is a lot of money.

As such then £3500 speakers? may as well be £100,000 to me. The sacrifice required would not be worth it (IE about a year of nothing but food and water). So when they came up for a grand (and with me being 50 in January) I decided that I would start saving. I saw them about two months ago, but basically did not jump in head first. I wanted the money first. This was risky, as they could have been gone by the time I had saved it, but it is what it is. Live within your means and all that. And it happened. IDK why the white ones are so undesirable? gawd knows. What I do know is the black ones are still selling for over 2 grand, yet the white ones? seem to be the white elephant. Thankfully I ain't fussy either.

First I had to find a company that would ship them here. That was hard. I spent days calling around and sending messages over Ebay and etc, all of those were ignored. Problem isn't getting them here it is getting them up here. I knew that if they wouldn't do that I would be absolutely screwed. Now maybe, just maybe, I could have done one at a time and taken my time, but JBL decided to pack them as I showed them.



IE like that, at approaching 60 kilos. I suppose they were foremostly designed for the American market, where people have huge houses and garages, and equally huge delivery trucks. Sadly in the UK? yeah, it's not ideal. Like, when I phoned the guy and asked if they could do a room delivery he said "Hang on, I bet you mean those JBLs, right? we have had a lot of calls about them....". Yeah, I can bet they did. He said that the delivery company would be happy to do 3 flights but that is where they draw the line. So, I took myself off to the bank, pulled out £30 from the cashpoint and took a huge gamble. Thankfully they were delighted, so hey all is fair if you grease some palms.

So I can't set them up properly, so I wasn't going to open them. Then that nagging bit at the back of your brain started. "What if they are smashed?" "What if they are rejects or something?" and well, you know how that **** ends.



Let me tell you, even reaching that stage with them is a workout to the extreme. You have to tip the enormous box on its side and slide them out with only the packing tape giving you anything to grip to. Eventually (TBH this bit was easier than getting those out of the main carton).



So I was going to leave it there, but then the old woman who resides in the very back of my skull started again. "What if they are blown? you only get 7 days, you are leaving on Friday for over a week". And yeah, they may be all hooked up now. Not permanently, not at all, just enough to test them.

And test them I have.

And I tell you what? my first impression was shock. Not horror shock, but like "These sound absolutely NOTHING like I thought they would".

I then spent many hours trying to figure out why they sound like they do. Put it this way, most of the reactions to me buying them has been "I hope your neighbours are deaf" and so on. Like, you would think they would be big, brash and boomy but they are the polar opposite. They sound utterly amazing. The detail coming out of them? I have not heard since sitting in the Rogers test room in 1996 with a pair of Studio 2s. I had forgotten how incredible 3 way speakers sound. Mostly because every one focusses on small, then tries to get them to cross over properly and so on. But I had genuinely forgotten what a real pair of 3 way speakers sound like. IE, taking all of the bass duty off of the mid range driver and putting it into a purposely built woofer. You would also be stunned at just how little bass they put out. Like, I had bad visions of me having to get some sort of EQ and tuning out bass and so on but it just isn't like that at all.

I then spent about four hours trying to explain it to my friend last night. I'm no audiophile, but I almost got there on luck alone. What I said was, and I quote -


"Effortless and way, way less shouty.


Yes. I think that is the terminology I was looking for. It’s the sound stage I’m certain. I keep turning it down, not up. They just fill the room with sound like nothing I’ve ever heard."

The speakers I had before were never ideal. My whole life has been like that. It should be my epitaph "not ideal but good enough". The room I am in is sloped, and the walls are all over the place. Hence, the right speaker always sounded louder and more thumpy than the left one because the room is much lower there. They also had rear firing ports, again not idea. These? just plop them down and it all comes out of the front.

But I remembered I had seen a video once, years ago, explaining why these bigger sorts of speakers were so different to small bookshelf speaker. I then remembered where I had seen it.



In that video Tarun bangs on about the word I could not find.... Dynamics. Something bookshelf speakers are pretty damn awful at. I spent about 9 hours last night listening away, with absolutely no fear of annoying any one because like I said, I have actually been turning them down. Because the sheer detail they offer is just mind blowing, and if you start to crank them (I would assume) it would start to be ruined by loudness. Which is why I was laughing so much last night. Like, I thought these were going to get me evicted, and not the complete opposite. Like I said, take every thought out of your head when you see the pictures about what you think they will sound like because it is the complete polar universe.

And the sound? wow. Immense, incredible, expensive. I have never owned such a set of speakers before and I doubt I will again either. I really thought that at £1600 I had reached audio heaven but it goes to show I had not.

So like the sub? yeah, this is end game stuff. This time I got a lot luckier at my bargain bin price too, as these ones are perfectly suited to this room unlike the others. It's funny because I moved a set of bookshelf speakers into the square bedroom once and was amazed at how much better they sounded in there. These? don't seem to give a stuff. I suppose it was easy really. I should have taken note of the "Studio control monitors" and realised they would not do anything untoward in any direction.

So yeah. They left me speechless for an entire day and are continuing to do so every time I play something I haven't listened to on them yet. I don't think it will get old either, but there really isn't anywhere to go from here.

BTW this is the Rogers Studio 2. We didn't sell many of these, because they cost double what the LS5/9 did. A lot, basically. Probably around 10 grand in today's money.



They are also not the Rogers you would think of. Every other speaker stopped at a two way 8" design. These were 12".

 

BTW these are the stands.



I just don't think they are worth it. I also don't like how they look and want to vacuum under them, not piddle around.

 

As OEM, speaker specific stands go, they're quite reasonably priced, at less than a tenth of the price of the speakers.

 

Oh yeah JBL are certainly not greedy. Someone did a price adjustment on the L100 and apparently with inflation they cost exactly the same in the 70s as now.

It's just a lot to me. They also take up less room than the last two pairs I had up front, so if I tilt them like that it will just eat space. They really just don't need it. Like, I sat down on the floor to see if the treble and mid range would change and nope, they sound exactly the same. I would imagine that is why their stands are so low slung. 7" at the front, barely anything. I just want them up off the floor to isolate them from putting anything into the floor.

 

guys imma need some assistance, so I was planning on building this next year but having just discovered that I can get a nice juicy 20% off LG TV's through my job discount which is only valid until the end of the year im having to start making a move this side of xmas, I'm planning on building a nice 5.1.2. Atmost setup with a 77" LG C3 (possible if the difference I can find between the C3 and G3 is audio) oled in the living room, its pretty much a blank canvas bar some junk I need to dump/sell so im gonna start getting some prep in, never done anything like this before so am a little blind in ragards to what to buy component wise but also in regards to cabling, wall boxes and such, is there anything online i could read up on or anything you guys recommend?

 

That seems like a lot of money for something I could throw together in my garage in an afternoon... I suppose that's where they make some coin mind!

 

Cables - go as cheap as you can without cutting off quality. I used this until I got £380 worth free with a set of £499 speakers.

https://www.av.com/Cables/AudioQuest-X2-Speaker-Cable-Grey/49L6

More than good enough with some cheap bananas from the bay.

This video is superb as well.



Can't help you with the wall boxes and etc. I don't know what you need, but I have added quite a few in the flat and again they are not expensive if you want to get your hands dirty.

 

I suppose if you are spending £4500 on L100s? yeah it would sound cheap enough. It ain't £13 like 8 furniture feet cheap though.

It's ironic...



From JBL's website lol. Makes you wonder how many are out there that someone knocked up themself

 

The thumbnail already tells me I'm not going to be able to watch without grinding my teeth.

As someone that's been down the rabbit hole and survived to come out again, I'd advocate spending the same money on a decent bottle of whisky or twelve and enjoy a glass when you're sitting down to listen.

 

Explain /r dum

 

Regardless of what I said earlier, I would go to our local timber merchant, find some nice looking wood and, knock up a pair of stands myself.

 

I have invested significant amounts of energy, money and time over the years in things that could be attributed to "tweaks", exotic cables, mains accessories etc.

Personally I would recommend the following*
- Amazon Basics and Kabeldirekt for cables, and spend more if you like the look of something.
- CPC's own-brand install cable for in-wall runs.
- using the mains cable that came with your device, or spending a bit on a 3rd party one if you like the look of it, if you want pre-made.
- Above all prior suggestions though, I would recommend making your own cables if you're adept/inclined to do so for any/all of them, and getting them all the perfect length, and getting some nice sheathing if you want that look.
- I would recommend not tinkering with mains conditioners, filters, etc

Get the right cables at the right length to plug A into B, and sit down an enjoy your stuff. Don't let a youtuber, reviewer, forumite or redditor tell you your setup ins't good enough because you've not spend the requisite amount on tweaks/cables, or that you're "leaving sound quality on the table" by not doing so.

But, after the basics, and contrary to all of my suggestions before, I would recommend just doing you and not worrying too much about what's right and wrong for Hifi/AV - if you're a tweaker, tweak away - but do it for fun and be realistic about what you expect from it. Remember there are companies out there, with supportive reviewers, that would be happy to sell you $500 magic statues to put in your fridge that will magically change the way your hifi sounds for the better. Yes this is real. Do not let these types of people take your money.

*Note that there are cases where better cables, mains products etc may be a necessity. You will know these, and you will not need to be second guessing yourself as to whether a tweak is improving things or not. E.g. I have a subwoofer that audibly buzzes from across the room, and requires a DC blocker to stop it, I tried to use a vanilla HDMI cable for a long run and got image dropouts until I switched to an optical cable - these kinds of things.

 

Yes that's rather easy, do you want a set with an open front so you can vacuum underneath? Just needs 40mm box and a couple of hours, can't promise exactly 7° but it'll be close.