Speakers and amplifiers show audiophiles are confused.

@donavabdear

I was walking buy and remembered the sound from studios I heard 30 years ago in the studios and so I walked in and sure enough it was JBL speakers they were made just like old ones were, but at about 1/8th the price.

I like it! I have JBL’s in the man cave, the Studio 2 series and I wouldn’t change it out for anything, no matter how much $$$. Do you remember what series you listened to? They have a line of "classic"/retro speakers and a new active model just came out. You can find JBL’s at discounts frequently. The Studio 5 series were designed by Greg Timbers based on compression drivers. The Studio 2 series was the first series to use the trickle down tech from the M2 flagship. If I were shopping for towers I would take the 590’s in a snap, such a great price at half off:

https://www.jbl.com/loudspeakers/STUDIO+590.html

and the 550P sub, just ridiculous. I feel like buying two of them and upgrading my room to 4 subs just in principle at this price:

https://www.jbl.com/home-audio/SUB+550P.html?cgid=home-audio

Hi @kota1 The speakers were the L100s they had another pair in the room that were a little smaller but both sounded great and had that compression driver tone that only JBL has it was great! After listening to literally hundreds of speakers you get a very clear average even among the uber expensive speakers the JBLs were a breath of fresh air, sounding different may not be so good but the sound of those was wonderful and didn’t have that horrible nasal sound that to small of a midrange driver gives, JBL has always been cutting edge in research and acoustics it showed.

You know I went to the show to listen to the Sonus Faber Aidas and they were set up with the best of everything probably the 2nd most expensive setup of the show at about 1.3M the next door over was the Wilsons Alexx V and the Wilson Alexia V, the Alexia V had tube amps and they sounded the best the Alexx Vs had more sheer ripping low end but the Alexa Vs at half the price were more musical. Amazing how much difference amps make teemed up with the right speaker.

I know there are more expensive speakers but when you have something you like so much like JBL it would be a lateral move, not really an upgrade. The L100 are about $2000 a pair and I have seen them on sale for less. I know my 230’s are amp sensitive as they REALLY open up when fed quality power. If I were going to get a new pair I would want these active speakers that are based on their studio monitors. I know you can spend a lot more money but I just don’t feel the need to when you can get all this for $2200, Remember, you can run them wired or wireless and its more than speakers, its a system:

https://www.audioadvice.com/jbl-4305p-powered-bookshelf-speakers-pair

Other than the Title speakers with the Bryson amps for $8k I'd say the JBL L100's were the best for the money. 

Its nice to have auditioned the Sonus Faber, did you check out the McIntosh gear/amp you were thinking about?