JBL Studio 590s ????

I have not auditioned the 590, but I have owned the L890. imo from the newer series I have auditioned and what I know of the 500 series none of the JBL series to come out after the Studio L are as good. For starters the 590 is only a 2 1/2-way speaker. As opposed to the L890 being a 4-way. And even if one does not want to count the ultra tweeter, the L890 is still a full 3-way.
Hold on to your L890s and never give it a second thought.

Corrected version.

I have no idea how they sound or whether they are any good or not.

Seriously, the number of drivers have little to nothing to do with how a speakers sounds compared to another.

I'd be curious as to how they sound too. Not too much out their about them.

The fact they do not have a true midrange driver says it all. I'm not saying the 500 series is not good...but its not going to be as good as the L890. imo, not one JBL to come after the Studio L series is as good.
Of coarse, if you want to talk JBL's new high end lines, then that is a whole other world of audio.

Plenty of speakers without a dedicated mid-range that are world class, audiophile worthy, earn praise from "golden ears" etc.... Being a two way does not in itself make them inferior in any way. So without actually having them in your or my listening space no judgement can be made.

This thread is full of poor assumptions... The 590 is from the Everest heritage of jbl speakers. Same designer (Greg Timbers) same design concepts of a constant directivity, high output, low distortion speaker.

A 590 can hardly be compared to an Everest. And just cos the 590 is a horn does not make it better than a L890. The 500s look quite good, at least online, But as to better...
I've had 2-ways, 3-ways, 4-ways. And none of the 2-ways were ever better.
As all other JBL series have come and gone over the last 7 years, they keep making the Studio L series for a reason.
Take the horn LS series, I've read both good and bad reviews. More good than bad. But you sure don't see many of them.
Edited by 4DHD - 1/18/13 at 8:18pm

Your assumptions about speaker design are very poor. No point in arguing, do some research....

Already have. And if you are going to continue to compare the 590 to the Everest, then its you who needs to do the research. The only other current JBL horn speakers that can even come close to the Everest are the K2 9900 and the Arrays. In fact the 500 series is closer to the Arrays being both have vertical aligned horns. So the 500 series trickle down would be from the Array series.

And as I already said, the 500s do look interesting in their industrial design. I would like to hear them.
But of the JBLs I've either owned or auditioned over the last decade the only JBLs I would consider better than the Studio L series was the Performance Series (PT800, PC600, PS1400). Not counting the Everest II, of coarse.

I would venture to say the 500 series would be way better than the Venue, ES, Studio 1. As for the 500 series and the LS series, don't know which would be better.They are close in price. The main difference being the LS have horizontal aligned horns. And I've read good and bad reviews about the LS.

I'm going to answer this discussion indirectly in the JBL thread if anyone is interested.

I know this is an older thread and not to barge in but I own the Studio 530 bookshelves and Studio 520 center and I have to say they sound wonderful especially for the price. I have not heard the LS series or the 590s so I suppose i can't speak from experience but if these smaller speakers sound this amazing I assume the 590's will sound just as good or even better being its a full range speaker vs a 2-way bookshelf. I purchased the JBL Studio starting with the bookshelf by reveiw I have read online from both expert and users. I have seen nothing but 5 star ratings on What the Hifi.com, Amazon, and on TestFreak.com scored a 99% which only 1 other speaker the Kef r100 speaker received a 100% and the Sonus Fabar Cermona M and B&W Diamond 800 received 99% scoring. However, Testfreaks.com accumulate their score by gathering scores from experts and users to place reviews online. I do plan on purchasing the 590's. Originally, I was going to purchase the Klipsch R-7IIs and RC-64II for center and so on but I ended up getting ripped after putting money down So I decided on another route (an affordable most bang for the buck). I love horns especially for movies. I have owned the Kipsch RF-83's and the RC-64 and loved them for movies but not so much for music. I have owned quite of different types of speakers in the past from Definitive ST supertowers to Cantons and so on. Currently I have my JBL Studios connected to a Yamaha RX-a3020, Monster MKII3600 power conditioner, Polk PSW505 (a Pair), and Klipsch KSW bookshelves for the rear. Eventually I plan on placing the JBL 530's to the rear and place the 590's in the front. I have to admit the 530's sound amazing for both movies and music too! What really turned me onto JBL sound was when I owned some portable PA's Eons from Jbls and was so impressed by the sound I figured I couldn't go wrong. I guess I am a horn fan. My father has the Klipsch La-Scalas which he purchase in the early 90's matched with a HK tube amp and my god nothing I have owned ever comes close to that sound. The La-Scalas is a three way speaker 1 tweeter horn, 1 giant midrange horn, and an enlosed massive sub that is not visible. I wouldn't mind listening to the LS series. I do like softer tweeters epecially for music. The cantons had silk dome tweeters and WOW they sounded so amazing for music...can hear every little detail. But I did not like those speaker for home theater. Anyways sorry so long but I love my JBL 5 series and I believe these are the most versatile speakers I have owned so far.