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JBL Studio 590's are at the lowest price they've ever been...

I live not too far from Harmon's Kentucky warehouse; just a few hundred miles. First order I put in to Harmon was for 590's. Seemed to take forever to get here (actually about 11 days or so IIRC). Ordered a pair of subs from them a while back. I think I got them in 3 days. So, you just never know.
 
So...just fyi as to possible jbl headache. I ordered the 590's Feb 6th, stated delivery 9th, of course I did not really believe that. Still not here Feb 18th just outside Louisville. Hassled with jbl for a week for just a real date, zero help. After opening a case I got a call in two hours saying we will have them there Monday the 21st. I have no ideas why they send them freight. I've personally sent bigger and heavier speakers through ups in 4 days 1k miles. I hope they do sound great but they'll always leave a bad taste after the hassle. This could all been avoided if jbl stated...These speakers are shipped freight, could take two or more weeks for delivery, will need someone there with SIGNATURE on delivery. Then I could just keep my KLF 30's in place and forget em.......
 
Fish said:
So...just fyi as to possible jbl headache. I ordered the 590's Feb 6th, stated delivery 9th, of course I did not really believe that. Still not here Feb 18th just outside Louisville. Hassled with jbl for a week for just a real date, zero help. After opening a case I got a call in two hours saying we will have them there Monday the 21st. I have no ideas why they send them freight. I've personally sent bigger and heavier speakers through ups in 4 days 1k miles. I hope they do sound great but they'll always leave a bad taste after the hassle. This could all been avoided if jbl stated...These speakers are shipped freight, could take two or more weeks for delivery, will need someone there with SIGNATURE on delivery. Then I could just keep my KLF 30's in place and forget em.......
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You need to talk to the freight company. I contacted them directly and they really took care of me. Be patient, they’ll be worth the wait.
 
Agree, communication blows. Mine came monday like the jbl gall on chat said they would, and she sent me a real link to the actual shipping companies tracking, vs the crap 'tracking' they use on the jbl website/ email.

Go on JBL's website and click on chat with a person, have your order number ready. Don't mess with the ai chatbot, it's useless.

I've been listening to them obsessively every free moment since, and I like what I hear.
I like it a lot. It's obviously going to take hours and hours of listening to form a full opinion of them, but I can definitely say, they aren't going back.

@7.62 These things rock! What they don't do , is that glorious, glorious midrange lushness. But, I've been listening to them and only them for four days now, with all kinds of music, and they really have that 'live' sound I have been missing. instruments have 'heft' and 'weight' like they should, including the percussive strike of a piano, for example.

listening to Ghosts VI right now by NiN.

oh, yeah, one thing. these are significantly smaller speakers then most all of my other speakers, so those of you complaining they're big.... it's all relative, my friends.
 
When I ordered my 590s 3 yrs ago they came by UPS 2 boxes.My friend just got his 580s and they came by a shipper on a pallet. Doesn't make sense. UPS has to be a lot cheaper but maybe theres to much damage and too many returns do to this. I remember when I got mine several others were complaining about damage to theirs.
 
Shame about the freight, it's pretty much always a pain. My JBL 590s arrived last year via UPS, on-time, no hassles. Though the driver very much appreciated that I was willing to help unload them from the inside of the UPS truck.

On the other-hand, we just got a new 75" TV for christmas. Shipped freight... weeks of delays including them claiming once that they tried to deliver it but no one was home - even through our security cameras clearly show they were never anywhere near our house. Only finally got it delivered after spending hours on the phone and getting a supervisor.
 
I also did the chat with JBL through their site a week and a half ago, and they confirmed the shipping company, tracking info and delivery date for the next Monday (always seems a Monday huh?). I got a call on Friday from the shipping company and they delivered the pallet right on time on Monday. Considering the weight and size of the boxes I'm happy as hell they didn't send them UPS. The outer boxes would likely have been wrecked and I would guess the risk for speaker damage to be high if asking a UPS driver to muscle two of these monsters to your door.

I have been very happy with the 590s only five days in. They do voices and percussion spookily well. They image very well and the soundstage is massive. Bass is aplenty and the midrange has been filling in over time. I'm very happy with them but they have me thinking about more amplifier to drive them. I've read that they need power to sound their best and I'm getting that sense. I tried them with a small NAD that makes 40-watts and then went with a Cambridge Audio that puts out 100 watts and they sound fuller. I'm not sure they wouldn't do even better with more juice!

Anyway, if you have a large room and can deal with their physical size, these are a no-brainer for me. Really excellent sounding speakers.
 
Well it is great to hear the support for the 590. If they can belt out some rock n blues/jazz maybe all will be forgotten. Lots of good points about shipment info for future buyers lucky enough to make their way here.
 
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RE the delivery thing: I advised them that their initial confirmation showed a delivery date that was highly suspect - 3 days hence. After two further postponements I was in touch with World Cargo and a date was given and they arrived about 3:30 PM on the posted day. There are just too many variables in this covid mess so some of you may have high expectations. Just stay on top of the situation. Perhaps JBL could change the outgoing confirmation, it could happen.

So now I have 580s hooked up to my bought-on-sale Rotel RA-1572. A friend clued me into "Open Box" option which I choose and the box(es) looked to be pristine. I am breaking it all in and adjusting placement of everything. A huge improvement to what I had, so it is hard to give assessment other than I'm happy with the speakers, and expect to love them more as I tweak my Dual 1219 and a new cart. In another thread there was discussion that the stylus was gunked up and causing to stick and repeat grooves. Got a full refurbishment from South Street Service Co. here on Long Island, which I highly recommend. (turntableexperts.com) The problem was hardened material that was checking the tone arm.
 
I'm interested in hearing about placement from other users of 590s, 580s and 570s. I'm about 50 hours of use into my 590s and I'm finding that I prefer them toed in very little, if at all, in my room. When used with the JBL-recommended toe-in, I perceive a beaming effect (I assume from the compression drivers) that creates almost-holographic upper registers but is unbalanced with the rest of the sound coming from the speakers.

This may be complicated by the requirements of my room, which is my den/great room/primary living space. It's where we listen to music but also watch television and movies. It also opens up to the kitchen behind, dining room to the side of that, and sitting/living room and stairway to the side. My listening spot moves within the den and kitchen too. So, it's a large but irregular shape overall. Last, there is no way I can move the speakers out into the room and so they are tucked close to the back wall and the corners, something like seven inches from the back and 13 inches from the sides. Because of the furnishings, carpet, irregular shape stone fireplace surround, excessive bass is generally not a problem in this room, even with speakers tucked in as they are. I've had them toed in, not directly toward the center position on the couch, but perhaps 30 degrees in as compared to flat-to-wall orientation.

They have sounded wonderful except a couple of times a day I've thought that the 'beaming' of voices and percussion were not balanced with the rest of the spectrum and it could sound unpleasant. Today I decided to drastically reduce toe in to something like five, maybe ten, degrees. They sound much better to me this way. The sound stage is larger but less precise to my ear, but the upper register beaming effect seems drastically reduced.

How have you gotten best sound from your Studio floorstanders?
 
DavidTT said:
I also did the chat with JBL through their site a week and a half ago, and they confirmed the shipping company, tracking info and delivery date for the next Monday (always seems a Monday huh?). I got a call on Friday from the shipping company and they delivered the pallet right on time on Monday. Considering the weight and size of the boxes I'm happy as hell they didn't send them UPS. The outer boxes would likely have been wrecked and I would guess the risk for speaker damage to be high if asking a UPS driver to muscle two of these monsters to your door.

I have been very happy with the 590s only five days in. They do voices and percussion spookily well. They image very well and the soundstage is massive. Bass is aplenty and the midrange has been filling in over time. I'm very happy with them but they have me thinking about more amplifier to drive them. I've read that they need power to sound their best and I'm getting that sense. I tried them with a small NAD that makes 40-watts and then went with a Cambridge Audio that puts out 100 watts and they sound fuller. I'm not sure they wouldn't do even better with more juice!

Anyway, if you have a large room and can deal with their physical size, these are a no-brainer for me. Really excellent sounding speakers.
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I've driven mine with 100 wpc class D (NuPrime IDA-8), a little over 100 wpc class AB (Musical Fidelity M2Si), 225 wpc class AB (Threshold s/300) and close to 500 wpc (White Oak Phase Linear 700B) and can't really say the added power made a significant difference. The Threshold was the best sounding, but then again, that was in a different system in the acoustically treated listening space. Really, all moving them to that room/system showed me is that they upscale very, very impressively as upstream electronics and room acoustics are optimized. With a tube preamp (Tube Audio Design TAD-150 signature) and the Threshold and in a 16x20 room that's been tuned with the appropriate acoustic treatments, they sound better, or at least more satisfying, than many five digit speakers I've heard.
 
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DavidTT said:
I'm interested in hearing about placement from other users of 590s, 580s and 570s. I'm about 50 hours of use into my 590s and I'm finding that I prefer them toed in very little, if at all, in my room. When used with the JBL-recommended toe-in, I perceive a beaming effect (I assume from the compression drivers) that creates almost-holographic upper registers but is unbalanced with the rest of the sound coming from the speakers.

This may be complicated by the requirements of my room, which is my den/great room/primary living space. It's where we listen to music but also watch television and movies. It also opens up to the kitchen behind, dining room to the side of that, and sitting/living room and stairway to the side. My listening spot moves within the den and kitchen too. So, it's a large but irregular shape overall. Last, there is no way I can move the speakers out into the room and so they are tucked close to the back wall and the corners, something like seven inches from the back and 13 inches from the sides. Because of the furnishings, carpet, irregular shape stone fireplace surround, excessive bass is generally not a problem in this room, even with speakers tucked in as they are. I've had them toed in, not directly toward the center position on the couch, but perhaps 30 degrees in as compared to flat-to-wall orientation.

They have sounded wonderful except a couple of times a day I've thought that the 'beaming' of voices and percussion were not balanced with the rest of the spectrum and it could sound unpleasant. Today I decided to drastically reduce toe in to something like five, maybe ten, degrees. They sound much better to me this way. The sound stage is larger but less precise to my ear, but the upper register beaming effect seems drastically reduced.

How have you gotten best sound from your Studio floorstanders?
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I fire mine straight ahead. Toe in exaggerates a slight upper mid range glare and offers no noticeable improvement to image and sound stage resolution. I think mine are about 9' apart and listening spot about 11' or 12' away.
 
Thanks for confirming that, especially since you are one of the posters most familiar with these speakers. I saw your post and have set my 590s to fire directly ahead. They are now 11' apart, seven inches off of the back wall, 13" in from the side walls. It's as far away from corners as I can get them in this room without facing divorce.

I'm sitting in the kitchen at an island, separated from them by a couch that is 14' away from the back wall and 'opens up' from the den considerably. Where I sit now I'm ~18' or so from them, on center, and they sound larger than life. As soon as I set them to fire straight ahead, the beaming and 'glare' (as you called it) disappeared. Fantastic.


tomlinmgt said:
I fire mine straight ahead. Toe in exaggerates a slight upper mid range glare and offers no noticeable improvement to image and sound stage resolution. I think mine are about 9' apart and listening spot about 11' or 12' away.
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@DavidTT I also noticed that the straight ahead configuration kept image resolution pretty much intact even when I was seated a foot or two left or right of dead center. Sound stage depth suffers when seated off center, but center fill between speakers is still pretty damn good with some depth.
 
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