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At least it's not a dual 4" woofer setup for the center.



And they look a hell of a lot better than the 5 series which made Emotiva's speakers look almost handsome in comparison! :p

Hahaha!

I think when these get released I’ll give them the 30 day run through and return them with the free return shipping.

When they go on sale.

I don’t know if I’d like to dish out $1000 for a pair of bookshelves!

:D
 
I saw the 698 in person last Friday, the fit and finish is pretty high, the veneer looks a lot more like real wood that the stuff they have used before. These are far more living-room friendly than the outgoing 5 series and the cheap looking 2 series. I was not able to listen unfortunately.

The bottom most woofer is ~20 cm from the floor, which makes it hard to place behind a sound screen and not be behind the bottom frame. I was thinking about the 690 which won't have this issue; but Harmon are not selling those in japan. Not sure anyone would need the additional power handling the 698 will have over the 690 below 100 Hz if you have sub-woofers.

maybe I should just give up and get 4429's at only double the price.
 
At least it's not a dual 4" woofer setup for the center.

And they look a hell of a lot better than the 5 series which made Emotiva's speakers look almost handsome in comparison! :p

Grilles on, the Studio 5 series actually look pretty slick, IMO. Like they are from the future or something. :DThe Emotiva speakers remind me a lot of some old 90's Aiwa shelf system speakers. Butt ugly.

 
Grilles on, the Studio 5 series actually look pretty slick, IMO. Like they are from the future or something. :DThe Emotiva speakers remind me a lot of some old 90's Aiwa shelf system speakers. Butt ugly.


It sounds like Emotiva is changing the looks of the new Airmotiv line to be more appealing to the WAF.
 
I saw the 698 in person last Friday, the fit and finish is pretty high, the veneer looks a lot more like real wood that the stuff they have used before. These are far more living-room friendly than the outgoing 5 series and the cheap looking 2 series. I was not able to listen unfortunately.

The bottom most woofer is ~20 cm from the floor, which makes it hard to place behind a sound screen and not be behind the bottom frame. I was thinking about the 690 which won't have this issue; but Harmon are not selling those in japan. Not sure anyone would need the additional power handling the 698 will have over the 690 below 100 Hz if you have sub-woofers.

maybe I should just give up and get 4429's at only double the price.
Do you have one or two rows of seating? If two rows you want to raise the height of the speaker anyway behind the screen. What about the JBL 4722's? If they are behind the screen you won't see them and perhaps you can find some used? I am pretty sure the 4722's are my next upgrade at some point over the 590's.
 
Grilles on, the Studio 5 series actually look pretty slick, IMO. Like they are from the future or something. :DThe Emotiva speakers remind me a lot of some old 90's Aiwa shelf system speakers. Butt ugly.


They have a nice FWAF design :D I very much like that.



I see this design stuff mentioned often. I thought speakers were about sound. I watch in the dark. How a speaker looks is irrelevant. It's how it produces sound. Many speakers, and many of those I can't afford, certainly don't look what I would say good, but pretty irrelevant as they are were designed with sound in mind. I wouldn't want the Series 2, 5, or new 6 series in my living room. Den, family room, HT, just fine.
 
I see this design stuff mentioned often. I thought speakers were about sound. I watch in the dark. How a speaker looks is irrelevant. It's how it produces sound. Many speakers, and many of those I can't afford, certainly don't look what I would say good, but pretty irrelevant as they are were designed with sound in mind. I wouldn't want the Series 2, 5, or new 6 series in my living room. Den, family room, HT, just fine.
I'd venture the majority of us don't have a dedicated theater room in addition to a living room and den.

If I did I'd feel just as you do however as I don't aesthetics play a role.

Secondary to be sure but they certainly rule out things like the 5 series, PSA, JBL Pro among others.
 
I'd venture the majority of us don't have a dedicated theater room in addition to a living room and den.

If I did I'd feel just as you do however as I don't aesthetics play a role.

Secondary to be sure but they certainly rule out things like the 5 series, PSA, JBL Pro among others.

I don't have a theater or media room, or whatever. House is too old, and not big enough for that and was built long before HT/media room became a thing. I use a spare bedroom even though it's small.



Personal preference I know, but I loathe large panels in the living room, especially the people that mount a 65" or larger over their fireplace. Also don't like having a full setup in the living room with a bunch of speakers, etc. I have wood paneling and I'm not drilling that for speaker wire. I just don't like it in general. I have a 49" panel on a tilt/swivel mount in mine where I can slide the panel completely flat against my bookshelf next to the fireplace, thus moving it out of the way and taking it out of the room when people want to sit and talk, or drink, etc. The panel becomes background and out of the way. I don't have a den either. I think I loathe setting this stuff up in the living room in general, for many reasons. Too many windows, too much light, not ideal acoustic characteristics (my living room is very wide open and the living/dining is just one big room). Never been interested in putting a true surround system in mine or any living room. I'd have people over and bam, all this crap everywhere. Also not good when you need a contractor to come in to remodel, or fix something. They walk in and see all this HT stuff in spades. I much prefer another room with a door. All the stuff is hidden and out of sight and out of mind. But I realize there are many that have no choice due to many children, square footage, etc. This is why I said FWAF. In a living room, it doesn't matter to me, Studio 5, or any brand speaker, won't look good. Looks gawdy.
 
How long do we think it will be before we see reviews on this new line of speakers? I know they're only available in Japan at the moment. But are there reviewers over there who will provide "early look" reviews for readers in other markets?


I'm not sure why I'm so excited about this line. I already have five of the Studio 590 towers, and a pair of the Studio 530 bookshelf speakers. Mainly, I'm curious about those wall-mountable surrounds, as they could be a good pickup for me. I'd also be curious to hear if the 698 towers would be an upgrade from the 590's, though I wouldn't want to pay full price for them, so I'd be waiting (likely years) for them to go on a big sale.


For one thing, I think I might like the look of them. But the description of the Waveguide makes it sound like they COULD be an upgrade from the 590s. Plus, the 698s are a true 3-way, which could also be a step in the right direction.


It's a bummer they're going less sensitive versus the Studio 5 series. But in this price range, it's not surprising to get speakers that would benefit from external amplification beyond what comes in a receiver.
 
Man those are MUCH nicer looking that the Studio 5 series. Kind of makes me wish I would have waited, but then again when I bought the 590's there wasn't even a hint of the Studio 6 coming down the pipe, not publicly at least. I have had the 590's for almost 2 years. To bad I can't resell them for enough to swap to the Studio 698's, and I doubt they will be doing the half off sales all the time like the 5 series LOL
 
Please educate me. I own and love my original JBL Studio Series speakers I have had going on close to 20 years. These new ones look nice especially in the wood grain. It has me thinking maybe time for an upgrade if these come to the states. But then I look at the specs and I am concerned are they going to sound as good and will they be even able to reach reference level sound in my home theater? Looking at the brochure linked in an earlier post it seems the entry level center channel is rated at 85db 2.83v @ 1M 6 ohm 150 watt max. So that is what 1.5 watts at 1 meter? Am I reading other sources correctly that you loose 6db for doubling your distance and you have to double your power for every 3db gain? My listening/viewing position is only about 6.5' away from my center, so about 2 meters. Based on my understanding I would need 768 watts to power that center to reference, which even if I bought the amps and upgraded wiring with dedicated circuits to power it all, would still mean blowing the speakers. At 150 watt max would mean only what about 98db max? Wouldn't they have all sorts of distortion since you are pushing them to their max? I don't have those sort of problems with my setup.
 
and I am concerned are they going to sound as good and will they be even able to reach reference level sound in my home theater? Looking at the brochure linked in an earlier post it seems the entry level center channel is rated at 85db 2.83v @ 1M 6 ohm 150 watt max. .
your are correct. the center speaker is rink-a-dink. Not even remotely capable of the required performance. The new surround is even worse.

Only the top 2 floor standers are capable based on spec, but in reality no-one has seen how much compression is happening in the drivers when fed 250w.

To get reference with a circa 100w continuous/channel amp (ie receivers)and assuming you are sitting 3.5m away. Rough calculations: 105db ref + 10db distance loss - 20db from 100w amplification = 95db 2.83v @1m sensitivity. Assuming zero compression in the driver at 100w. A speaker with advertised power handling capability of 200-250w peak should be within spec for 100w continuous. This is assuming no boundary gains so this is worst case.

Reality is that 3db below reference is a much more sensible target for home use, and is easier to achieve. This means speakers round 92db 2.83 @1m for a 100w to 112 db max output. This was the case with the last 5 series speakers. The new series is 90db sensitivity for the 698 and 690; but they have better power handling on paper. I'm thinking they will need external amplification to reach reference.


Edit: note that there is very little product on the market capable of these numbers and the majority never runs their system this loud, which they could not do if they wanted to. Also you should get 3db boundry gain in a regular sized room, this is why some speaker makers give sensitivity in-room at +3db; I'm assuming this is not the case with the new series 6 specs, so you can assume an additional 3db to play with
 
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