0:01 you may have caught my recent review of
0:05 the JBL Studio 630 bookshelf side
0:08 speaker kind of looks like the HDI
0:12 1600 what 700 bucks or so a pair and
0:14 frankly I just wasn't that happy with
0:15 them there was a a strong mid-range
0:19 scoop of about five or so Deb depending
0:20 on where you draw your little line you
0:23 know and overall I'm just like what's
0:26 going on here the same person who sent
0:29 me those also had the 698 tower speaker
0:31 drop Shi to me now the tower speaker is
0:34 a true three-way design with dual 8in
0:38 wolfers a 6in mid-range and then a 1-in
0:40 compression driver loaded into a wave
0:42 guide and so the deal is that I first
0:46 listened to the 630 bookshelf speaker
0:48 and you know I did all that stuff and
0:50 then I pulled in the 698 and I set them
0:53 up and I got to be honest I was kind of
0:55 expecting the same thing with just with
0:57 more output right the Dual eight wolfers
0:59 I thought okay I'm probably going to get
1:00 a little bit lower going to get a little
1:02 bit louder but it's probably going to
1:04 have that same underwhelming tonal
1:06 characteristic that the 630s had at
1:09 least to my ear but fortunately that was
1:12 not the case the 698 Tower to me
1:14 represents an incredible value now it's
1:18 not the most linear speaker it's not the
1:19 best overall sounding speaker that I've
1:22 ever heard but man it's pretty freaking
1:24 close I mean well I shouldn't say pretty
1:26 freaking close to the best I've ever
1:28 heard but as far as being an incredible
1:31 value with good out put good linearity
1:34 overall good neutrality not perfect but
1:37 overall man it's right there so I listen
1:39 to every track that I could throw at it
1:41 you know just wanting to really see what
1:42 this thing does because at some point I
1:43 thought I'm going to break this speaker
1:45 not in terms of physically mechanically
1:47 breaking it but breaking the point at
1:49 which I thought it was a good speaker
1:51 again I was influenced by the negative
1:53 bias of the 630 thinking that I must be
1:56 missing something you know but the
1:57 mid-range sounds like it's there doesn't
1:59 sound like it's missing the overall
2:01 trend of the high frequency was there it
2:03 wasn't too bright the only thing that I
2:06 really ever ran into was I felt like on
2:09 certain instruments where there's air
2:12 and some Sizzle and some Shimmer to
2:15 Let's for example symbols it just wasn't
2:17 quite there and I thought well maybe
2:19 that's the aiming you know I aimed them
2:20 on axis directly at me but then I also
2:23 played around with Towing them off axis
2:24 but that wasn't it it wasn't the aiming
2:26 it didn't really matter which way I
2:27 aimed them as long as you know they were
2:29 pointed directly at me that really wound
2:31 up being the the best sound sometimes
2:32 pointing the speakers away from you
2:34 works out better sometimes pointing them
2:36 directly at you works out better in this
2:38 particular case with the 698 Towers I
2:40 would recommend pointing them directly
2:43 at you maybe maybe slightly off axis but
2:46 I would not go the route of lining them
2:47 up with the wall behind them and
2:49 pointing them 30° off axis to where
2:51 they're firing straight out into the
2:53 room if you do that I think you're going
2:56 to lose a little bit too much top end
2:59 now the flip side of that is with the
3:01 speaker like this you're probably going
3:03 to be using Equalization cuz these are
3:06 at least in my opinion these have the
3:09 look and the feel and the JBL history of
3:12 being a home
3:14 theater um what's what I'm looking for
3:16 here like targeted type speaker so
3:17 you're probably going to be using
3:19 Equalization if you do that you can
3:22 boost up the highend bring in some of
3:23 that sparkle that Shimmer if you need to
3:26 turn them off Axis or if in general you
3:28 just find that you're missing that you
3:31 can do that reasonably safely without
3:33 increasing a lot of distortion because
3:35 the distortion on the high end of these
3:37 is super super low but we'll talk little
3:40 bit more about that the radiation
3:42 pattern on these
3:44 horizontally is awesome it's about plus
3:49 or minus 65 degrees which is that's
3:53 like sliding right into that perfect
3:57 spot for where I want horizontal width
4:00 to be and the good thing about this wave
4:03 guide design is that it's matched well
4:06 to that midwoofer that's underneath it
4:08 and that gives you a smooth continuous
4:10 handoff as you go from mid-base to
4:13 midwoofer to mid-range and there's no
4:15 shrinking of the images in The Sound
4:17 Stage the images don't shift from way
4:20 out to the side to way narrow because of
4:21 a poor crossover design where a poor
4:24 crossover design may have poor matching
4:26 between the radiation pattern of the
4:29 Tweeter and the mid and then that would create
4:33 nonlinearities for a lack of better
4:35 words in the Imaging Precision of
4:36 instruments in The Sound Stage like if
4:38 it's supposed to be over here at 2 khz
4:40 but the crossover is crap and the
4:41 continuity and the handoff between the
4:43 mid-range and the Twitter isn't good
4:45 then the image may be over here or maybe
4:47 over here and just like it's not quite
4:49 where it should be you don't have that
4:51 issue with these speakers the only
4:54 downside is that they do they the
4:57 speakers do start narrowing around like
4:59 10 khz or so it's not super TI height
5:01 not like a dome Tweeter is normally
5:03 going to be because again this is a wave
5:05 got to design so it has a little bit
5:09 more flare so in my listening test I'm
5:11 like 10t away and then I do 6 feet away
5:14 and no matter where I was that mid-base
5:17 bump was pronounced it's around 80 HZ
5:18 and you'll see that in the data in a
5:20 little bit now I noticed that because
5:22 certain tracks I have you know they're
5:23 going to have a kick drum kick drum
5:25 fundamentals like 50 to 60 htz give or
5:27 take but then a lot of times in the room
5:28 what you'll have is you'll have kind of
5:31 the missing effect of a kick drum around
5:34 like 70 80 Hertz or so CU that kick drum
5:36 you know it's not just one Spike at 50
5:38 or 60 HZ it kind of tapers off like
5:41 almost like an EQ Bell and for that
5:43 reason in room a lot of times we'll have
5:45 a null around 80 HZ you it depends on
5:47 your room but most of the time you'll
5:49 have a null somewhere in that region 70
5:52 to 90 htz right around 80 htz now it's
5:54 interesting that this speaker features a
5:56 bump in there and it almost makes me
6:00 wonder if that bump was designed
6:03 to possibly and this is just a theory to
6:07 possibly counteract some of what most
6:10 typical rooms have in that dip in that
6:13 mid-base dip right in that region it
6:15 could just be coincidence it really
6:19 could just be but I noticed that now at
6:22 10 ft away I like that it was there at 6
6:24 feet away my room does a little bit
6:27 something different and that dip isn't
6:30 as prominent naturally in the room
6:32 so there was a little bit extra mid-base
6:35 Bloom at around 80 HZ that I didn't
6:37 necessarily care for so that's going to
6:39 be room dependent but I thought I would
6:41 mention that and put it out there for
6:44 you positioning of these speakers I
6:45 would say that if you can get them three
6:47 feet from the wall at least from the
6:49 baffle if ideally if you can get the
6:51 back of the speaker 3 feet off the wall
6:53 that's going to be
6:55 better if you move them closer into the
6:58 wall what I found was that the base is just
6:59 just
7:02 that mid-base area is just too prominent
7:04 now you can always go and EQ that down
7:06 that's fine and some will say and I
7:08 would tend to agree that I would rather
7:11 have too much of something than not
7:12 enough of something especially in the
7:14 base now on the higher end the mid-range
7:16 frequencies I'm I don't necessarily feel
7:18 that way but on the base end of things
7:20 because your room is doing so much wonky
7:22 stuff that you're going to have to use
7:24 Equalization so if you can use
7:27 Equalization to bring something down
7:28 then it's better to do that than it is
7:30 to try to bring it back up most of the
7:32 time you can't do that anyway cuz a null
7:34 in a room is an acoustic null and the
7:36 only thing you can do to fight that is
7:39 to move like peace I'm out you walk
7:40 around you go find somewhere else to sit
7:41 well you can't really do that in a room
7:43 because your seats are fixed your
7:46 speaker locations are fixed so maybe in
7:47 this case it's better to have that bump
7:51 at around 80 htz now going above that I
7:54 will say just kind of the overall tamber
7:57 sound of the speaker is mostly neutral
8:00 it really is uh you you know I mentioned
8:02 that higher frequency area like the 10
8:04 khz and above missing some air and some
8:06 sparkle there were a couple times where
8:08 I thought maybe maybe the speaker was a little
8:09 little
8:11 bit maybe just a little bit cilent but
8:13 you know that could have been track to
8:14 track I don't really see anything in the
8:15 data that jumps out at me and says here
8:18 I am this is your problem so that could
8:21 have just been from track to track the
8:23 dynamic range capability of the speaker
8:25 I mean yeah it's got two 8 inch wolfers
8:28 is really good but but it's worth noting that
8:29 that
8:32 below around like 60 HZ or so at least
8:34 what I noticed in my room is that when
8:37 you really get on them they don't make a
8:39 mechanical noise but you can tell that
8:43 the mid base isn't quite as impactful as
8:46 it is at lower volumes and let's just
8:48 you know ballp part range if I'm
8:50 listening around 80 HZ not 80 HZ sorry
8:53 if I'm listening around 80 DB at about
8:59 10 ft away they pair of speakers um then
9:01 then if I crank it up to like around the
9:04 98 to 100 dbel range which I know is
9:06 really loud but it's important for me to
9:08 convey this information and and numbers
9:10 that are easier to
9:13 follow then what I noticed was that the
9:17 mid-base snap in the impact wasn't quite
9:20 as there on the lower mid-base end below
9:23 about 60 HZ now some people will say sub
9:24 for territory is 30 HZ and Below some
9:26 people will say sub for territory is 80
9:28 HZ and Below that's why I'm kind of
9:30 defining my lower mid-base end is like
9:32 around 60 to 80 you know just kind of
9:33 giving you an idea there it may change
9:34 next week but at least I'm giving you
9:37 numbers now that would really be the
9:39 only caveat to saying that these things
9:41 have a lot of output capability and for
9:43 that reason you know I would definitely
9:46 recommend you run subwoofers with these
9:48 you don't have to run subwoofers with
9:51 these but if you want output below about
9:53 50 HZ you are going to need subwoofers
9:56 with these again going back to the
9:57 consideration that most people looking
10:00 at these are going to be y yying buying
10:02 subwoofers and using them in a home
10:04 theater then that kind of makes sense
10:07 these speakers retail at about $1,700
10:09 prare which I think is a good value I
10:10 really do they feature like I said
10:13 earlier a three-way design a 1-in
10:16 compression driver a 6in midwoofer and
10:20 two 8 in mid-base drivers this does have
10:22 two rear firing ports so that kind of
10:24 goes toward the notion of maybe don't
10:25 put them right against the wall for sure
10:27 not right against the wall but maybe not
10:29 necessarily close to the wall either
10:31 power handling by JBL is rated up to 250
10:34 watts per speaker these do come with a
10:36 removable magnetic Grill which I did not
10:38 use for my testing or my listening but I
10:40 like the fact that the grill is curved
10:43 to match the baffle of the speaker it's
10:45 just a nice good-looking overall design
10:47 in my personal opinion and the weight of
10:50 this speaker is at about 80 lbs just
10:51 maybe a little bit under that so they're
10:53 pretty heavy you might want to have
10:55 someone to help you pick them up out of
10:57 the box if nothing else one of my
10:59 favorite characters from The Goonies is
11:02 data I think my overall favorite
11:04 character I'm torn I like mouth because
11:06 he wears the Prince Purple Rain shirt
11:09 and I like I mean his mouth but data is
11:11 one of my favorite characters not just
11:15 because he has slick shoes but also
11:18 because his name is data so speaking of
11:20 data let's get into that portion of this
11:22 review all the data that you're about to
11:23 see is captured using my clip old
11:25 nearfield scanner is a state-of-the-art
11:28 device that allows me to get anaco data
11:29 which means data without room
11:32 interaction in a nonanoic environment
11:34 such as my garage which you see in this
11:37 video or alternatively in my literal
11:39 dining room which my patrons have seen
11:41 but I'm not publishing that publicly
11:43 because it's a little bit embarrassing
11:45 to show off my dining room with a big
11:47 machine in it first up is the impedance
11:51 minimum impedance of 4.1 ohm above 80 HZ
11:55 this is the Ona response mean SPL 90 DB
11:57 dead onto the spec I like seeing that
12:00 you know a couple DBS off is typical
12:01 more than three or four DBS off is when
12:04 I start going man what are they doing
12:06 how are they specking this 90 DB dead on
12:08 that's good you can see that the
12:10 response is within about up here it's
12:14 Nega 4.51 to two but the negative is
12:15 because it's high frequency dip right
12:16 here and this is what I was talking
12:18 about earlier about losing some Shimmer
12:20 some Sparkle from certain effects aside
12:22 from that the speaker is actually pretty
12:24 close to within about plus or minus 2 DB
12:27 F3 is at 53 Herz F10 is at 34 Herz this
12:30 goes back to me saying that for response
12:32 in room below around 50 HZ give or take
12:34 you're still going to want to sub for
12:36 because the rate of rolloff is it's not
12:38 super fast I've certainly seen higher
12:41 rolloff rates but it's enough that if
12:42 you're trying to get down to 40 HZ or 30
12:44 HZ in the room you're just really not
12:46 going to get a lot of it unless you're
12:47 lucky and your room happens to light up
12:50 a certain mode in that region this is
12:53 the ca 2034 data set this is a really
12:55 good way to look at the overall
12:57 performance but isn't the only way so
12:58 this is one portion of the review that
13:00 we're going to look at on AIS response
13:02 same thing we saw here listening window
13:05 plus orus 30° to the side plus or- 10°
13:07 up and down tracks the on axis response
13:08 good so this green and this black the
13:10 fact that they track pretty well is a
13:12 good sign it means that the reflections
13:14 are going to be similar to the direct
13:16 sound that you're going to listen to
13:17 another way to check that is to look at
13:20 the erdi down here this dashed blue line
13:23 and whenever this is linear that's also
13:24 another good sign that the reflections
13:27 match the listening window response or
13:29 close to the on-axis response
13:31 what's important to note also is that
13:33 there's a little bit of a bump right
13:35 around here so if I draw a line through
13:37 this region this bump remains now this
13:39 bump is due to the distance between the
13:42 Tweeter and the midwoofer below it are
13:44 you going to hear that directivity
13:46 pronouncement probably not now it does
13:49 indicate that you need to be careful
13:51 about where you position your ears with
13:53 the Tweeter and this particular case
13:55 your ear should be in line with the
13:58 Tweeter sometimes sometimes designs like
14:00 wave got designs will require you to put
14:02 your ear between the Tweeter and the mid
14:04 wolfer so in that mid spot but in this
14:06 particular speaker's case I found that
14:08 right at the Tweeter axis is the best
14:12 response axis going back to this line
14:13 the fact that it's linear means that
14:15 this speaker will take well to
14:17 Equalization at least within this region
14:18 now it's going to be a little bit
14:20 tougher right through here but that's
14:22 not a big enough deal for me to say
14:23 don't buy the speaker this is the
14:25 estimated in room response and what I'm
14:28 about to show you pay attention is my
14:31 subjective take on what I heard overlaid
14:35 onto the objective representation of
14:38 a estimated inter room response so here
14:39 we go this is the blue line that I'm
14:41 overlaying this is kind of how I heard
14:44 the speaker first off mid-base peak
14:46 around what is that around 80 HZ 70 HZ
14:48 or so gives some extra punch but note
14:50 that I'm saying it can be boomy
14:54 depending on the room this drop right
14:56 down here around 2 khz there's a bit of
14:58 clarity or detail missing it's not
15:00 something that really like jumped out at
15:02 me but in some tracks I felt like maybe
15:03 it was slightly missing and when I
15:05 looked at the data I'm thinking okay
15:07 well maybe that's it this peak right
15:09 around 3 khz I actually didn't catch
15:10 this earlier maybe this is kind of what
15:12 I was hearing when I said it sounded
15:14 like the speaker maybe was just a little
15:16 bit cilent at times maybe that's it
15:18 maybe that gives a little bit of a glare
15:20 to certain sounds but I don't know if
15:22 I'm too concerned with it and then up
15:24 here this is the real thing that just
15:26 stood out to me the most was the lack of
15:28 air and sparkles with certain instruments
15:29 instruments
15:31 again you can equalize this up if you
15:33 want to heck you could even equalize
15:36 this down if you needed to this area is
15:37 going to be a little bit tougher to
15:40 equalize but as long as you are online
15:41 with the Tweeter you can equalize this
15:44 up smooth it right out and you're okay
15:45 now this little bit of an area you can
15:47 see there's kind of a a bit of a gap
15:49 here about 1 dbel or so between the
15:53 mid-base and the mid-range trend line I
15:55 mentioned that it sounded like the
15:57 mid-range lower mid-range was just a
15:58 little bit off but I thought it was was
16:00 because the mid-base was extra Punchy
16:01 and this kind of backs that up you know
16:03 the mid-base being a little bit extra
16:05 Punchy we hear things relatively you may
16:06 key in on something that I don't key
16:08 into you may initially say that I can't
16:11 take this and I love this for me I'm
16:13 thinking well this might be a little bit
16:16 too much I can handle this and I can
16:18 make a tradeoff and then actually I
16:19 could just equalize the speaker pretty
16:22 much to flat on axis and have a great
16:23 sounding speaker out the gate horizontal
16:26 radiation plus orus 65° look how well
16:28 controlled that is now it balloons out a
16:29 little bit and there's some defraction
16:31 elements here a little bit go into the
16:34 vertical stay on the Tweeter axis see
16:36 how this dark red dips down through here
16:38 this is where the crossover is between
16:40 the Tweeter and the midwoofer and really
16:41 what this means is that the radiation
16:45 between those two is starting to diverge
16:47 enough to where if you're sitting
16:49 directly on the tweeter's axis and then
16:51 you sit below it or you sit above it
16:53 more than about 20 Dees as I've shown
16:55 here you're going to hear a pretty
16:56 significant difference in the overall
16:58 tamber of the speaker now that probably
17:00 doesn't matter for most people because
17:01 your vertical position isn't really
17:03 going to change but it would matter if
17:05 you have multiple rows in a home theater
17:09 setting because those secondary rows
17:11 they may not be within that 20° window
17:13 do you really care if the person behind
17:14 you hears everything perfectly I mean
17:16 they've got a person in front of them so
17:18 that's already changing things but it's
17:19 just something to consider harmonic
17:23 Distortion at 86 DB and then at 96 DB
17:26 these both look clean to me I said
17:29 earlier if you eqed up the higher
17:31 frequency yeah I I said you could do it
17:33 without really causing any issues I
17:34 still think that because it would be
17:36 above 10 khz if you added one or two Deb
17:38 to the higher frequency I don't think
17:39 it's going to be enough to really wreck
17:41 this and I didn't have any problems in
17:43 doing that multi-tone Distortion is more
17:45 important by far than harmonic
17:47 Distortion and as long as it's below
17:49 this 3% Distortion threshold personally
17:52 subjectively speaking this is my
17:54 personal opinion based on my listening
17:57 test as long as it's below that 3% line
17:58 I'm okay with it now if we're talking
18:02 it's up here at -20 DB we got problems
18:04 okay but because it's below this 3% I'm
18:06 okay with it and it stays well below
18:09 that for the entire bandwidth from 20 HZ
18:12 to 20 khz what happens if you use a
18:14 subwoofer and cross this speaker this
18:17 tower speaker above 80 HZ this is what
18:19 you get you really notice there's not a
18:21 lot of change there except for this
18:23 mid-range area go back see how this
18:26 mid-range area on the 80 HZ version gets
18:28 lower the Distortion gets lower
18:31 that implies it doesn't guarantee that
18:33 you're going to hear this but it implies
18:36 that you could hear improved Clarity
18:39 improved possibly dynamic range in that
18:41 particular area now we're at the SPL
18:45 limiting portion of things 76 DB
18:50 reference to 86 96 102 DB at 1 meter in
18:51 each of these respective colors a couple
18:53 things to note first of all the one that
18:55 caught my eye was the higher compression
18:58 in this crossover region so I don't know
19:01 maybe that's crossover components maybe
19:03 using a better component might lower the
19:05 Distortion here I can't say that I think
19:08 it would for sure it's possible it'd be
19:09 interesting to test that out one day
19:11 it's possible but more than likely
19:13 you're just talking about decreased
19:17 power handling due to the lower
19:21 crossover region of that horn speaker in
19:22 other words you're not going to take a
19:25 tweeter cross it over at 8 khz and
19:27 expect it to sound the same if you cross
19:28 it over at 500 Herz there's going to be
19:30 a lot of distortion there's going to be
19:32 a lot of thermal heating going on in
19:34 that voice coil on the 500 HZ and it's
19:36 going to cause more compression so it's
19:38 kind of walking that line I don't know I
19:40 don't know that it's enough to write
19:42 home about and personally I don't really
19:43 think that I heard anything going on in
19:46 this area if we go up to this 300 HZ
19:48 area I'm not sure what's going on but
19:50 it's below about 1 D I'm okay with it
19:52 and then if you go lower in frequency we
19:55 can see that 102 DB we start suffering
19:56 higher compression some of this is going
19:58 to be thermal heating of the voice C oil
20:00 some of this just is going to be maybe
20:01 potentially Port turbulence or things of
20:03 that nature and and without really
20:05 having the opportunity to try to break
20:06 those down and hear those I can't tell
20:08 you for sure but the data does indicate
20:10 some higher compression at the higher
20:12 output volumes I said earlier if you
20:14 crossed over above like 50 or 60 Herz
20:16 you'd probably be okay and that would
20:17 mean that you're left with this region
20:19 right here of compression I don't really
20:21 think that's a huge deal but below this
20:23 we can see that the compression starts
20:24 to creep in if you're Crossing them over
20:26 at 80 HZ you're probably still going to
20:28 be well okay with output capability
20:30 which the speaker has plenty of now
20:32 let's talk about a comparison to the big
20:36 brother and I say that lightly JBL HDI
20:40 3800 the 3800 is about $4,000 right now
20:43 on sale to about $6,000 and it just
20:45 depends on where you buy it but it is at
20:48 least at least two to three times the
20:52 price of the studio 698 which in my
20:55 opinion makes the studio 698 kind of a
20:58 no-brainer buy but at the same time the
21:02 HDI 3800 is objectively still the better
21:04 speaker so let's talk about that this is
21:06 a cool website that allows you to do
21:07 size comparison you just go to it
21:09 Compares sizes.com you type in the thing
21:11 that you want to put in dimensions for
21:13 you put in the dimensions and then you
21:16 just do your comparison 698 is red JBL
21:20 HD HDI 3800 is in green and you can see
21:22 that they're pretty much the exact same
21:24 I mean for all intents and purposes
21:26 these speakers are the same size let's
21:29 start off with the on-axis response the
21:31 on-axis response for the 698 is in Black
21:36 the 3800 HDI is in blue the studio 698
21:38 actually looks smoother above about 3
21:41 khz 4 khz in that region while the HDI
21:43 is smoother below that and just kind of
21:45 take your pick average sensitivity of
21:47 both I'm just going to say about the
21:49 same maybe they're like 1 d off but it's
21:51 not a big enough deal to worry about
21:52 this is the estimated intering response
21:54 of the studio same thing you saw earlier
21:56 a little bit of a mid-range dip through
21:58 here Peak on the mid base uh dip in the
22:01 clarity detail area a little bit of a
22:03 glare at 3 KZ missing detail and the
22:05 higher frequency missing that air now
22:07 what happens if I overlay the HDI 3800
22:11 in blue okay the blue much more smooth
22:13 to this mid bra region first of all
22:15 little bit better base extension as well
22:17 in room uh the high frequency doesn't
22:21 have this 3 khz glare and it doesn't
22:24 quite have the same amount of Shimmer
22:28 that is going to be lost as the 698 does
22:31 so just again objectively it looks like
22:33 the HDI still is the better speaker the
22:36 horizontal radiation it to me
22:39 subjectively is probably the biggest
22:40 difference between these two speakers I
22:43 mean yes they sound different but the
22:46 69h radiation pattern is about plus or-
22:50 65° as you see here but the HDI 3800 is
22:53 about plus or- 55 that's about 10° on
22:54 average it's kind of depending on where
22:56 I were to draw the line here I'm going
22:59 go back again you can look look and see
23:03 but the 698 has a wider radiation
23:05 subjectively I like that more Distortion
23:08 for the 698 here you go and then the
23:11 3800 here you go so the 3800 has a
23:13 little bit higher Distortion in the two
23:15 Kilz region probably the crossover
23:18 region but overall less from that region
23:20 and below and that's really the only
23:21 comparative data I have unfortunately at
23:23 the time I wasn't running compression or
23:26 multi-one test for the 3800 when I
23:28 tested it and that's not I mean I don't
23:29 have the means to go back and do that
23:32 again so I don't have that data my guess
23:34 is that the 3800 would probably Faire a
23:35 little bit better there I'm just
23:37 assuming that there are better parts
23:40 used but you know if you're looking for
23:43 the 698 on a budget and you I'm sorry if
23:45 you're looking for the 3800 on a budget
23:47 and you're thinking that the 698 might
23:50 be it I think it's safe to say that
23:53 that's a reasonable assumption now the
23:55 real question is Aaron which one would
23:58 you buy right I mean if I'm if I'm GNA
24:00 buy one of these two which one would I
24:02 buy and that's not quite so easy so to
24:05 me this is this is 100% subjective
24:08 coming forward right now the 3800 is a
24:11 much nicer looking speaker the the 698
24:14 looks great but the overall aesthetic
24:16 quality of the 3800 the gloss finish
24:18 looks really nice however in a home
24:21 theater I don't necessarily want a gloss
24:23 finish speaker because then you just get
24:25 more Reflections from the screen off the
24:26 projector to the screen and then off the
24:29 speakers and it just illuminates more
24:30 I've even seen people throw towels over
24:32 the side of their speaker cabinets just
24:34 to hide the reflection so that's
24:35 something to
24:38 consider the linearity of the 3800 is
24:42 more smooth but the
24:46 698 radiation pattern the width is wider
24:49 and the linearity you can smooth out the
24:51 response of both of them probably to be
24:53 pretty even on
24:56 axis but they will not sound the same
24:58 because the 698 is w so there's going to
25:00 be more room involvement and at plus
25:04 orus 65° again give or take I like the
25:06 698 and I got to be honest I didn't
25:08 think that I would say that you know if
25:10 again just P being honest and the folks
25:12 at JBL may not appreciate me saying this
25:14 and that's not like oh my godah blah
25:17 thing it's the truth um I'm kind of
25:20 wondering why they went the route of
25:23 making the 698
25:26 because you know when they had the 590
25:28 the studio 590 and the 580
25:30 those are really good speakers they were
25:33 competitive with the HDI in terms of
25:35 output you know and overall Clarity they
25:38 they were competitive they weren't like
25:40 tit fortat and they certainly didn't
25:41 look as good the studio series to me
25:43 looked hideous I'm just going to be
25:45 honest the studio 500 looks hideous I
25:46 don't the way those speakers look to me
25:49 I just like not for me but then they go
25:51 and make the studio 600 and they make
25:54 them look a whole lot like the HDI and I
25:56 feel like you're undercutting yourself
25:59 by making a speaker that really looks
26:02 the part of the HDI and at least with
26:04 this particular tower speaker I cannot
26:07 say this for the 630 because the 630
26:10 doesn't sound nearly as neutral as a 698
26:13 but at least for the part of the
26:19 698 objectively is almost as good as the HDI
26:20 HDI
26:22 speaker maybe if I had them back to back
26:25 and I was aing on my might say oh yeah
26:28 definitely the the HDI 3800 is better
26:29 but I'm just telling you like off the
26:31 data and off oral
26:34 memory I I just find it odd that they
26:36 would make a speaker that in my opinion
26:39 might be handicapping them from selling
26:43 more hdis so again purely just my
26:45 opinion that does it for this review if
26:47 you have any questions as always please
26:48 feel free to ask in the comment section
26:50 if you like what you see here and you
26:51 appreciate what I'm doing and you want
26:53 to help support you can do so a couple
26:55 different ways you can do so number one
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27:02 corner or secondly second D secondly
27:05 goodness you can use one of my affiliate
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27:10 it helps me earn a small commission at
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27:17 feel that way until I started trying to
27:19 do this for free and it ain't cheap it
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