2 hours Ago
I recently had the opportunity to experience JBL's new MA AV Receiver and Stage 2 Loudspeakers. What's exciting about these releases is their suitability for the average consumer in terms of price, ease of setup, and features. I put them to the test by playing a track many speaker systems would struggle to do justice to, and I was pleasantly surprised by the result.
More on that later. The event was held at the Republic Studios in Manhattan, the official space for the renowned Republic Records. We took turns visiting various rooms in the facility to experience a different speaker setup.
A host of models were released for both categories—five AV receivers and nine loudspeakers, to be exact—with retail prices ranging from $400 to $1,600 for the MA AVR and $300 to $1,200 per pair for the JBL Stage 2 speakers. We enjoyed a listening party (of sorts) that included three entirely different speaker setups for a range of price points. The setups ranged from $1,000 for barebones bookshelf loudspeakers (250B) and AVR mix to the full-fledged $3,500 5.
1.2 surround sound system. The latter included a single center channel loudspeaker (245C), a pair of floor standing loudspeakers (260F), a pair of bookshelf speakers (250B), two Dolby Atmos enabled height module loudspeakers (240H), a subwoofer (220P), and, of course, the AVR (MA710).
This elaborate setup may look intimidating, but it's easily tweakable in multiple ways. You can do away with either the floor-standing or bookshelf speakers to convert this into a 3.1.
2 setup or remove Dolby Atmos from the mix and make...
Dua Rashid.
