JBL's 4329P are 'TOTALLY AWESOME' streaming hi-fi speakers

today we are looking at a loudspeaker from one of the most stored companies in American Hi-Fi the 43 29p from JBL isn't only an active loudspeaker but it's a streaming active loudspeaker and that means we get Apex Bluetooth Apple AirPlay 2 title connect Spotify connect Google chomecast and Rune Readiness out of the box in other words it's a complete hi-fi system in a box to which we just need to add Main's power now providing performance context to the JBL in this video will be side by-side comparisons with three other loudspeakers and I'll be using music we'd read about in the guardian in the wire and over at Pitchfork [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] n this episode is brought to you by made by music the new podcast from Cambridge audio okay so to explain what's going on inside the JBL 43 29p I'm going to start with some vinyl and those two bits of vinyl are Talking Heads is live at wcz and Global Communications maiden voyage 12in both of these releases came out on record store day of this year and I'm current spinning these two records on a very fancy torren turntable whose cartridge talks to a pce audio Pho stage and that Pho stage is connected to the primary JBL loudspeakers XLR inputs so that's not an XLR input on the back of each speaker as we'd usually find with studio monitors of this type but left and right XLR sockets on the back of one speaker the primary speaker and and then that primary speaker hands off the audio signal to the secondary speaker via a digital Interlink and for that Interlink we have a choice of ethernet cable for 24192 or we could go Wireless at 2496 now I went with wireless because the supplied 3 m ethernet cable isn't long enough to properly separate the speakers without putting a drooped U-shaped cable between the speakers I really think JBL should provide a longer cable out of the box but vinyl purists should note here that their precious analog signal will be digitized upon entry to the JBL now never mind that 95% or more of modern vinyl has already been through a deck at the cutting phase we should really acknowledge that the 4329 PS drivers and those driver's amplifiers will have a far greater impact on what we hear than any ADC chip talking of which the 43 29p is a two-way design that means we get one Tweeter and one mid-base driver now the Tweeter here is a horn loaded 1-in compression driver so not a dome Tweeter and it is powered directly by a 50 wat amplifier and the mid-base driver is larger than that found on most of the streaming speakers previously covered on this channel it's an 8 in paper cone that sits within an aluminium cast frame and is powered directly by a 250 W amp now JBL confirmed to me that the two amps inside each speaker are what we call Direct digital so that means that the amplifier is digital all the way from the input to its switching output and that also means there is no interceding Dack stage and in recent years we've seen this dless direct digital approach two switching amplifier design pickup speed with outboard models from the likes of Technics blue sound lingor peach tree and most recently morance however I think this is the first time I've seen direct digital amps used inside an active loudspeaker now feeding the four direct digital amplifiers so two per channel is a DSP based crossover and feeding that crossover are the primary speaker digital inputs so we've got streaming digitized analog and hardwire digital so exposing the jbls would be double life as a studio monitor the XLR sockets are Pho plug compatible so you can use XLR connectors or Pho connectors but they're not really used very often in the Hi-Fi world and the usbb socket is probably really for studio desk counts wanting a PC or Mac hookup because I can't see anyone at home putting the these jbl's on a desk but I guess never say never now nearby to that usbb socket we also find toslink but I cannot shake the feeling that HDMI ARC would have better satisfied home listeners especially at the price of these loudspeakers they sell for €4,000 a pair but you know could have would have should have anyway the rather unusual looking js8 stands will run you another €220 a pair and according to JBL these stands perform several roles so they get the high frequency energy closer to ear height so they put the Tweeter at ear height they get the low frequency energy away from the floor which apparently according to JBL helps tighten up the base response but I think most importantly for JBL these stands tilt the speaker upwards by 7° for what they claim to be superior dispersion especially at closer quarters or you know when when you're sitting here and the distance of speakers isn't all that great we'll just pause for a siren now personally speaking I don't love the skeletal look of the js8 stands and their lack of cable routing keeps the primary speakers cable vomit on full display and I think really that should be sorted on a €4,000 speaker but hey what do I know I'm not a speaker designer so go figure on the other hand I I wouldn't want to forgo the 7° upward firing angle because my listening chair which is right here is only 2 m from the speaker plane and if you want to bring your own stands you can obviously but know that each 43 29p God that name is so catchy isn't it each of those speakers weighs a substantial 16 kg and in case you were curious the 43 29p sound more open and expansive to me on the JBL stands than on the slightly and non-r stands that I use for the zoo dwx now while we're on the topic of aesthetically suspect accessories can we talk about the 43 29 PS remote control because in the context of I guess what I would call the high quality fit and finish of this loudspeaker this sort of plastic bluetooth remote it looks and it feels cheap and I really think that JBL could do much better here even if it meant lifting the price of the speakers by €100 that said I still use that supplied remote more than the source selector and the volume controls on the front panel of the primary speaker which I guess underscores my point of why remote controls are very very very important and I got to say it's a much neglected area by streaming active loudspeaker designers now in the wake of some recent videos I've been asked if I've added a solid state drive to to my nucleus one Rune server and the short answer is yes it sits in the undercarriage now the nucleus 1 is the device that serves locally stored files and also title streams to Rune compatible streaming endpoints on my network so that means all Rune ready devices like the JBL speakers plus all Apple AirPlay devices all chomecast devices all Sonos devices and all squeen box devices now I got to say no the nucleus one doesn't sound any different to the Rune core running on a Mac or a PC but I would say I think it's slightly faster in starting streams than the MacBook Air the M1 MacBook Air and the external hard drive hard drive that I was using previously so maybe that's a solid state drive Advantage so anyway thank you to run for sponsoring this video [Music] [Music] [Music] just a quick word about subwoofers here because with a sub sub connected to the primary speaker Auto sensing socket the signal going to the sub is low pass filtered at 80 HZ and the signal going to the speakers is then High Pass filtered at 80 HZ now do the JBL need a subwoofer well in my 6 MX 5 m room definitely definitely not would they benefit from a subwoofer probably in fact it's almost certainly they would but they don't need one that's the point they don't need one and with a pair of Base reflex ports firing forwards from behind the detachable grills JBL says the 43 29p are 60b down at Hertz now I think that's impressively low for a cabinet of this size and it reminds me of kef's ls60 Wireless that I now have sitting in Portugal because it seems to me that modern day speaker designers can pull more from a certain cabinet volume when going active than going passive also I think it's worth noting that before I started listening to these speakers in Earnest I had to drop the base Contour toggle switch to minus 3db because the zero DB position made the bass sound overcooked and Bloated in my room maybe in your room it won't but in my room it definitely does and also I built a playlist to test these jbls and it contains songs from credence clear water revival a little known electronic music outfit called drum computer talk talk The OJs Beth Gibbons who used to be in P his head trickfinger which is an alias of John frante from the Red Hot Chili Peppers and then RM but RM before they got and went really M for 5 years U2 and then a dub outfit whove done a a tribute to the police called dubex an and then lastly Richard Thompson so pulling up the trick finger cut it doesn't take long to realize that the jbl's strongest suit is Dynamics and I mean Dynamics top to bottom and this means they put plenty of daylight between the quiet and loud sounds as they shove sound forward into the room now those Dynamics aren't quite as robust as the zoo dwx and they aren't quite as mid-range Centric as we hear from those zoo and rm's acoustic half a world away still to me sounds more a testing through those Zoo loudspeakers now regular viewers will know that the dwx is a passive loudspeaker that requires an outboard amplifier and streamer and in this case I use the morance model M1 because it too is a direct digital amplifier and I've got a review coming on that very soon also noteworthy in this side by-side comparison is how the JBL reach deeper into the subbase on the dubex and track than and the zoo so sometimes I want to add a subwoofer to the zoo and other times not I'm kind of on the fence about it but I never get that inclination with the JBL [Music] two other active loudspeaker models that go impressively low for their cabinet size and sit in the same price postcode as the JBL are bookarts A500 and genel x 8341 and as we know the book art gets its streaming signal over weisser from the outboard platin Hub but the genck they don't do streaming at all and the JBL go almost as low as the bookart stand Mount but are top to bottom more dynamically expressive than the Dane and that's how I hear it from talk talks Ascension Day and it's that Dynamic expression that makes the JBL more fun to listen to than the genic the JBL add a layer of excitement to the transparency that we already get from the genc and they do so whilst maintaining some of the Fin's understated composure when plowing through more complex material like 's the fly but to be fair to genc they don't Market the 8341 to the Hi-Fi crowd it seems to be very much a studio targeted speaker however bookart do talk to the Hi-Fi crowd and the A500 doesn't offer quite the overall Clarity offered up by the JBL and certainly not the gen so playing The OJ's backstabbers yeah I know that's kind of unusual for me Isn't it that kind of choice from that track we also hear how the jbl's top end is smoother and better extended than the book art but complex music like the U2 cut and the talk talk can sometimes make the jbl's lower treble sound a little strident when you really get to playing loud and when I say loud I mean over 85 DB in the seat I also prefer the jbl's mid-range to the book Arts because it lets us see further into Richard Thompson's mix especially in the Phantom Center that's drawn between the loudspeakers that said the JBL doesn't have the book arts master tunings or the platin hubs room correction so base Contour settings aside we only get one voice from the JBL but I got to say what a voice I think this speaker sounds utterly superb especially in this room room I really do think that the largest sort of stand Mount loudspeaker is the best fit for this room a smaller two-way I'm putting aside the book art A500 a smaller two-way can sound a bit weak and Tipp it in this room and then a big floor Stander tends to give me too much base energy but a large stand Mount like the JBL like the zoo seem to really hit the sweet spot now I say all of this because how a loudspeaker interfaces with your room is crucial to the sound that you'll get and I think the JBL sounds so good that I'm prepared to overlook the the stands rather unfavorable Aesthetics and the remote actually and I particularly enjoy being able to connect a pho stage to the back of one speaker instead of a two demanded by the bookart and the genc so if you like the Dynamics and the form factor of the zoo dwx but want a less mid-range Centric sound for which you don't have to do the which amplifier which deck which streamer dance then the 4329 P could be for you anyway if you like this video you know what to do and please consider subscribing to the channel if you dig what I do in general and as always patreon is there for anyone wanting to buy me a cup of coffee or two as a way of saying thanks for this video oh and please drop a the LS6 are in Portugal in the comments to let us know that you stuck it out to The Bitter End anyway thanks ever so much for watching [Music] he

Channel: Darko Audio

Views: 81,146

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Id: E0IpX5NkM_o

Length: 18min 38sec (1118 seconds)

Published: Thu Jul 04 2024