test
reports
JBL
ES Series home theater speaker system
H
av i ng used J BL spea kers i n
recording studios and at home
for many years, there's some-
thing about them I've always
found reassuring. I may or may not have
warmed to the voicing of a particular
model, but I've always respected what I've
heard. So when cartons bearing the famil-
iar orange JBL logo arrived on my door-
step recently, I was eager to check out the
company's latest efforts.
The ES Series occupies JBL's upper-
middle price range, a hotly contested
market where prospective buyers know
what sou nds good but don't wa nt to
spend stupid amounts of money to get it.
I unpacked two ES80 towers, an ES25C
center speaker, two ES10 surrounds, and
an ES250P subwoofer. With their sizable
bulk filling my listening room, I expected
significant sonic results.
The ES80 tower stands waist-high. Its
trapezoidal cabinet, which widens in front
and tapers to the rear, looks very stylish.
(All of the satellites, and the subwoofer,
work the trapezoidal styling angle.) The
70
july/august 2008 SOUND & VISION
Ken C. Pohlmann
ES80's five vertical drivers are a pair of
6-inch woofers, a 4-inch midrange, and
a module with two
⁄
-inch tweeters, one
3
4
covering the normal high-frequency range
and the other covering ultra-high frequen-
cies. This same module appears in the
other satellites as well. Two pairs of stout
binding posts allow mono- or bi-amping.
There's also a rear-firing port.
The ES25C center speaker uses an MTM
(midrange/tweeter/midrange) driver con-
figuration, with a pair of 5-inch midranges
flanking the tweeter module. Adjusting
the ported cabinet's two feet can lower
its vertical angle. The ES10 surrounds are
direct-firing, with one 4-inch driver and
the tweeter module. There are two mount-
ing brackets on the back and two ports on
top. Make darn sure the kids don't drop
pennies in there — or your car keys.
The ES250P subwoofer sports a front-
firing 12-inch driver, a downward-firing
port, and an amplifier rated at 400 watts.
Its control set provides adjustments for
level and crossover frequency (50 to 150
Hz with a 24-dB/octave slope), phase (0°
and 180°), and LFE/stereo line inputs. A
switch toggles between LFE (for the mono
low-frequency-effects channel on Dolby
Digital and DTS tracks) and Normal (for
a regular stereo input), with the crossover
adjustment bypassed when the former set-
ting is selected. All six speakers are faced
with removable black grilles.
SETUP
Installing the JBLs didn't present any
unusual obstacles. I placed the ES80 tow-
ers 10 feet apart, about 1 foot out from
the front wall, and toed them in to face
the listening position. The towers are
supplied with threaded spiked feet, but
I used the included rubber feet instead.
As with any floorstanders, the proximity
of the drivers to my tile floor created a
reflection that colored the direct sound
path. To mitigate this, I placed throw rugs
on the floor in front of each cabinet.
The ES25C center speaker went below
my TV. Its vertical angle was good, so I
didn't adjust its feet. I placed the ES10
surrounds on speaker stands in the back
of the room. I wish they had the same
adjustable feet as the center speaker so I
could have aimed them down a bit.
Subwoofer performance is very depen-
dent on room acoustics and on the sub
The Short Form
Snapshot
+
Classic JBL sound quality from towers
and a massive sub, complemented by
a tonally matched center speaker and
surrounds
Plus
::
–
Loud, natural sound
::
Clean high-frequency extension
::
Solid low-frequency extension
::
Robust construction
Minus
::
Sizable cabinets require a sizable room
::
Sound may be too bright and forward for
some
Price
$2,395 (as tested)
soundandvisionmag.com