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Archive: JBL SVA2100

Tooting a sophisticated horn

By John Paul

December 2004 (originally appeared September 1997)

JBL SVA2100 loudspeaker. $3299 in 1997

Here I was, authoritativelystating in AudioEnz that there were no horn systems around except the “high-ish” crossover Kef and Tannoy concentrics and bang!

Just as that issue hit the circulation stands, virtually right under my nose here on Auckland’s North Shore, big Aussie electronics retailer Harvey Norman sets up a JBL speaker system that has twin ten inch drivers crossing at 1200 Hertz to their slick Bi-Radial horn.

So while Harvey’s home theatre henchman unknowingly makes a liar out of me, I make him switch a Tom Cruisey (sic) racing cars movie off and get to the FM Concert Programme to feed those big James B. Lansing's some natural acoustic music with strings and such.

I then checked that these were actually the horn system pair being played because they didn't sound at all forward “in your face” as typical band PA horns sound. And they also didn't sound open and clean like the professional JBL horn two-ways that I’m quite familiar with. What it sounded like was that our dear editor must definitely get me a pair for some proper extended listening sessions.

Know your demo

Digging into it once the big 1092 x 368 x 514mm (hwd), 40kg dual ported boxes were correctly set-up in my lounge showed exactly why the store pair sounded so different than what I expected. First, the new review pair needed to run-in quite a bit. Fresh out of the box they sounded dry and constricted, moderately uneven or ragged. About 50 hours of solid broad-band, appreciably louder than comfortable, programme noise flexed out the stiff new driver suspensions and got the crossover capacitors formed. As run-in continued there was a gradual but huge change in smoothness, liveliness, and definition throughout the whole spectrum.

The pair at Harvey N’s were obviously somewhat “cold”. Indeed, the store had only been open about three weeks. So it’s likely everything I first heard that morning, especially the bells and whistles driving receiver, was probably way too fresh with typical new electronics grain and dryness. Besides, whatever was playing on Concert FM was an unknown quantity. So it just goes to show again that proper demonstration requires warmed up and broken-in equipment for the true sound quality to bloom. And is also why we should call and arrange a proper appointment with our retailers to set up any auditions of fancied equipment. Remember, take your own “reference” tunes along too!

Getting’ to it

Great jazz bassist Christian McBride has a nice disc titled Getting’ To It that opens with a be-bop style tune appropriately named In A Hurry. It features him bowing or plucking crisply, slightly ahead of the beat as he anxiously pushes his all-star sextet along.

What’s interesting with this piece is that many big speakers with good bass capabilities usually present this tune with him playing along nicely on the beat, while smaller speakers with less bottom pumping have him rushing the pace as In A Hurry.

Checking through my Stax electrostatic Lambda Signature headphones has him solidly playing notes just before drummer Lewis Nash throughout this interesting, and amusing jazz rhythm exercise.

There’s also a bass trio track with Christian, and jazz legends Ray Brown and Milt Hinton playing the Neal Hefti big band favourite Splanky. This killer tune can embarrass any poorly designed speaker box with ease. The tune just falls apart and sounds like so much mush if the swapping basses lead, rhythm and comping (accompaniment) lines don’t stay clearly separated. Guess what big and loud American speaker got these small speaker PRAT (Pace Rhythm and Timing) tricks right from the start? I was amazed.

In my 5 x 8m room they showed plenty of enthusiasm for any movie whoomp and thump fed to them while I watched Sky movies (in another room) during loud “burn-in”. Like good sub-woofers do, they also presented all kinds of extraneous low frequency garbage such as six o’clock TV newsreaders kicking and thumping their feet around their desks, Wellington TVNZ news studio air conditioning rumble, and excessive equalisation in commercials.

So, true to form, these JBL’s have sustained the company's reputation for delivering lots of good bass. The quality here is rich and full without actually losing tonal definition. It is not technically tight or overdamped and terse. It flows and rolls with the programme. And the best part is that it can happen without requiring huge amplification.

Specified at 93dB (1 Watt at 1m) my trusty Plinius SA-50 (50/50 stereo) provided unlimited dynamics and room saturating sonority with everything sane, and insane, I could play.

There’s also the other side of the speaker efficiency coin succinctly stated by Anthony Michaelson, boss of Musical Fidelity, in Hi-Fi News: “Even at lower levels efficient loudspeakers obviously sound much more dynamic, realistic and punchy. Clearly the large dynamics which would normally take an amp into clipping are reproduced more easily, but more intriguing are the small micro-dynamics and micro details which are much more obvious on efficient loudspeakers.”

Complimenting this quote, who wisely said, “God is in the details”? (Send answer with a $20 bill to “Euphoria”, Box 100-554 Auckland 10, and be entered in a draw to win an exciting night of red wine guzzling and stereo blasting with a weird immigrant.)

The direct message

The reasonably priced SVA2100 at $3299 a pair brings considerable JBL studio practice into a home system, the major thing being the Symmetrical Vertical Array (SVA), which places a woofer/mid-range cone above and below their Bi-Radial mid-high horn driver. At reasonable volume levels this configuration results in very controlled vertical dispersion and directivity of sound energy to reduce the local room effects on sound produced from the speakers.

This is desirable in big venues because reflected sound with attendant long delays quickly destroys speech intelligibility and modifies musical definition. Likewise in smaller places, ceiling or even mixing desk reflections are minimised with horn studio monitors as they point to specific “sweet spots” where the microphone pickup is presented without any reflected colourations.

This is frequently preferred for sound track dubbing in movies where real or created ambience, effects, and dialogue must be carefully processed. So considering this the SVA2100, which sound considerably different depending on if you are standing or seated, are ideally suited for home theatre.

Reflected or direct

That some magnificent music was written to be-listened to in cathedrals, opera houses, royal courts, or parlour (chamber) lounges must be considered against the modern pop virtuosi. They perform quite close to their many microphones and plug their instruments directly into numerous sound processing and amplification systems. Obviously, there are major chalk and cheese divergences over how musical sound sources eventually reach our ears.

It’s also a huge demand of our current two stereo channels to accurately present the full spread and depth (and height?), plus the room ambience of any given acoustical event. Complicating this is, exactly how much room sound should be squeezed back into those two basic channels via the recording production process? Is an intimate or distant perspective suitable? How do “typical” speakers and listening rooms modify what the producers assume is which way the piece works (or sells) best?

Over my 40 years in dozens of rooms with innumerable good and not so good components, I’ve eventually gained the most listening satisfaction by setting up for mid- or near-field listening. Anywhere from 1m to 3.5m from the speaker pair in a finely focused triangle removes a goodly bit of room acoustics hassle, and provides a simple ear-path to what’s off tape or disc.

I’ll admit I’m a frustrated musician who likes to sit close to any good players (and “wish upon a star”), while you might appreciate the wonderful blending and enveloping richness that comes with a good seat at a fine performance.

Neither is right or wrong, and often a change in perspective opens lovely new windows for appreciation. That it may come from directional, semi- or omni-directional devices is all “part of the fun” in deciding how to bring the band or orchestra, and now the movie theatre, right into our lounges.

The music please

The soft dome 40mm driver in the Bi-Radial horn does a fine job at portraying every little detail and nuance presented to it. The attack, sustain, release, and decay of every note with its attendant harmonic structure seemed very precise and electrostatic-like to my ears. The horn did not add colourations, or honk, or shriek, or add any nastiness, which poorly designed and cheap horns are famous for.

It will show textural differences in amps as I found out while I briefly tried a newer Rotel 931 (30/30 watts) as smooth, and an older Kenwood KA-88 (80/80 watts) as glassy.

This is a high quality, transparent and accurate mid range and high frequency sound reproducer that powerfully portrays recorded musical waves and transients with precision and speed. But if there’s garbage in, there’s garbage out. GIGO. No driver editorialising here, no smoothing or exaggerating anything.

An option that deserves some extended experimentation with the SVA is its biwiring inputs to optimise the amount of crispness or veiling in matching and balancing up system sources and amplification. Like all finer speakers, every little thing here makes an audible difference. My own low resistance and inductance home-made Goertz type cables sounded smoother than Kimber 8TC on the top, but they were considerably less open in the mid-range.

There may also be a slight “hybrid mismatch” midrange voicing problem in a system like this, but there are doubtlessly ways to be found around it. It's extremely tough to pick the (1200Hz) crossover from paper to horn on my old 12" Tannoy Golds, and it’s also tough to pick it (1500Hz) on the JBL Pro 4430 (90 x 90 degree horn and 15" cone). So I’m certain it’s worth trying as many cable combinations as possible. Remember, that’s once they’re broken in.

Anyway, combined with its fulsome bass drive, this speaker had a practically frightening “jump factor” ability in presenting those dynamic musical tricks and movie effects that involuntarily give you a primal fright and startle you even though you're quite snug and secure in your easy chair.

Briefly digressing from the music, are you sure there’s not an alien maniac inseminator thing stumbling around behind you? I really didn't want to view any really scary movies like Seven through the SVA. And they were amusingly annoying if there were phones ringing in damnable TV adverts or during dramas. My wife and I must have tried to go answer twenty TV sound phone calls. Everyday sounds portraying ordinary reality, brought right here. Nice.

Mentioning Seven does bring to mind a superb recording of Haydn's The Seven Last Words of Our Saviour on the Cross on the Astree label. This recording, with 33 players conducted by Jordi Savall, was made at the 1990 Festival at the Abbey of Arnbronay in France. It magically captures an up-close intimate perspective explained that’s presented within a huge and clean short reverberation ambience of this distinctive venue.

The rich baritone Bishop reads sombre and powerful introductions to each movement in Latin with such convincing realism that you fearfully want to actually give up sloth, envy, gluttony, lust, pride and those two other deadly fun things from that frightful movie I mentioned earlier.

But silliness aside, this Haydn masterpiece over the JBLs just sent me back 210 years in a “you are there” recorded experience. The presto finale, the cataclysmic “earthquake” movement, even with only one percussionist, still today has me totally thrilled at the majestic power and drama pure acoustic music properly reproduced can convey. I entered sonic heaven from Golgotha!

Heavenly rumbling

Considering spiritual matters, my angel wife cracked us up while dear editor helped me schlepp and set-up these big Jimmys. She walked in, took one look, and asked, “What's that indented part in the middle? It looks like a coffee machine thingy where the cups come out”. I simply explained that’s this is where the music begins. Then three or four weeks later she said “they really are pretty big and ugly in here, but they sure are nice and clear. I can hear better through them than anything else you’ve had lately. How much do they cost, honey?” (ie, “you can get them”). So for once in our house, sonic ability triumphs over visual trivia. Please, oh fickle gods of Lotto, smile on me!

One more domestic aspect is, as you can see on the picture, there’s no grille over the Bi-Radial horn. The aquaplas treated cones are protected, but that inviting little cave is very accessible to the kids who will stick toy cars and other little things into VCRs and such.

As unhappy hi-fi retailers will confirm, even wandering (much) bigger kids fingers have been known to push in tweeter domes for not so cheap thrills. I know a typical grille could somewhat affect the horns’ coupling to the room, but I'm talking domestic “real world”, not secure pro studio situations here. Perhaps something like a rigid smooth thin plastic snapin/out protective grate could be devised to foil the tykes?

Also thinking about those big boxes, I reckon a little more cross bracing or internal damping would help clear up some thickening I occasionally heard in the upper bass and lower mid-range. Basically, there seemed to be a bit of classic chestiness on some male voices at specific volumes. But beyond this peccadillo, this is a whole lot of fine music making speaker system engineering for a comparatively very low price.

Prime choice

Efficiency, bandwidth, smoothness, clarity in spades, massive dynamics and power handling and they're even magnetically shielded for sticking next to a big TV. A hot contender to prime position, for prime seats only, in any high quality music and home entertainment situation.