I received the replacement JBL LSR305 speakers yesterday, connected them up today, and there's little difference, if any. That damn pounding bass that gives me an ear-ache is still there. However, I find that the heavy bass drops away at about 20 inches from the wall as as opposed to the 9 inches that I had before. But what is the use of that? It would suggest that these are a bad, impractical design for home use, unless you like to overdose on bass - but using this in audio production will cause a bass-light mix. Hopeless.

I've noticed that these things have a tendency to resonate at somewhere around 140Hz. If I reduce that area it starts to become more tolerable. Another thing is that, just like the previous ones, there is an imbalance between the two, where one is producing more upper mids - the jangle of steel strung guitars - than the other one.

I particularly noticed today on 'Lyin' Eyes' by the Eagles that the word 'seem' in the first line is distorted (modulated?) by the bass in that 140Hz region. This is more apparent in the unit with more upper mids. When I knock that area down with a 32-band graphic equalizer the word sounds smooth.

I don't know whether it's relevant, but the serial numbers for these begin with DY0009, as did the last pair. I wonder if that denotes batch number?

I guess It can't be helped.

Here's the frequency response from an independent reviewer, taken within in an average/poorly treated listening room.



The speakers are pretty much flat.

I keep saying there is something else affecting your speakers, but since I can't get a hands on with them, I can't really conclude that.

Mine are DY0006. Not sure it means anything though.

Good luck.

It occurs to me that perhaps a design modification has been applied to these speakers that has boosted the bass, as mine are likely from a later manufactured batch, reflected in the higher number.

I'm just finding them unusable unless I apply equalisation, which is not acceptable. I tried listening to some streamed speech at 320kb/s from the BBC website and it was just an horrendous series of low frequency thuds that can in no way reflect a flat response.

Hmmm....I can't imagine (at least sensibly) them boosting the bass, particularly when they claim the aim is flat response. Not to mention, that would destroy the whole purpose of this (mostly) lauded product. Sounds more like a design flaw/defect.

Where did you buy these speakers, if you don't mind me asking?

I still suggest you try them with a different source/computer. If only just to verify.

BTW, you probably want to use this, particularly at this point.

Europe Form

Yes, I'm already doing that right now. Thanks anyway. I bought them from Gear4Music in England.

Unfortunately, I don't have any suitable connectors for any other gear. If only they had been sensible enough to provide it with RCA phono sockets.

LOL. Keep us updated. I can't seem to find anything on those DY0009 units. Every pic I see in a review or occasional store (most blur out the number) is DY0006.

I'm guessing it's a defective batch that somehow got released.

It's been over 60 hours since I contacted JBL, and have still not received a reply, so stuff them. I've now contacted the dealer and asked for a refund. I'm finished with these awful JBL speakers. I think I may as well get some decent small hifi speakers to hook up with an amplifier, and perhaps add a graphic equaliser to match the response curve with some reference audio files. It can only be better than my experience with the LSR305s.

Very unfortunate experience.

Hope you find something good though.

I hadn't realized the 305's were that upsetting. LOL. If your comments on some other sites are any indication.

I can't agree with your opinion that "all" studio monitors on the market are likely colored, lack fidelity or a proper reference, and that most people who record on them have a preference for poorly detailed, "bassy" music.

I was disappointed to read that. That's all I wanted to say.

Ianpb doesn't like the LSR's...pfffft who cares..??!!

It seems if someone don't like the LSR there is a fault with the actual speakers

It seems he now doesn't like studio monitors in general, as stated above.

He was the one that initiated the faulty argument, since his experience differed from many others, myself included. These were his first monitors as well.

The speakers he owned being a batch of different quality is quite plausible.

I could care less if he dislikes the speakers sound wise. He came here looking for help.

deary me..!!

Frank Filipetti seems to like the 3 series JBLs - you can see a pair of what looks like 305s on his desk near his M2s for near field monitoring:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c5ptvPya7Mc
You get a glimpse at 19 seconds in.

The 305 was not intended for "home use" they were intended for studio use. It seems that you were still evaluating these at a distance from the wall of 9". You say "what's the use of that" regarding the fact they sound better at 20" (still presumably on your desk). The "use" is that when you move them away from reinforcing acoustic boundaries like your wall and desktop you are positioning them as intended by JBL when they were designed. A speaker designed to be flat in free space only sounds flat in free space. Acoustics 101.

I submit you have needlessly wasted a lot of our and your dealer's time with your ignorance of basic acoustics and logistics as regards studio monitoring.

I sold my F5's to buy the lsr305s, the detail & imaging far surpass the F5 which I thought to be dead sounding mud buckets. Very happy with the Lsr305s, what a steal!

What do you expect me to do? Keep them just to please you? I've given plenty of time to this thread and forum, and when I reported poor performance with the replacement pair, only heflys20 took the trouble to respond, albeit exhausted of suggestions. The LSR305s are being touted for home use as well as studio, and people are even using them in spare room home studios as well as with domestic audio-visual equipment. I suspect that part of the problem with these (and probably with others) is the positioning of the ports at the rear, which necessitates them being moved further away from the wall. I'm further suspecting that either forward-facing ports or closed units would likely be more applicable for small room home studios. Even after moving them to 20" from the wall, to me they still sounded cheap, indelicate, and incapable of any fidelity.

I have now experienced two separate pairs of LSR305s and both were damn awful; boomy, coloured, lacking clarity and detail, and both pairs exhibited mismatched upper-mids. Despite that, I keep seeing here and elsewhere, that they are considered amongst the best of their class, which doesn't say much for the rest! Yet, according to my experience, they sound exactly like people's description of the KRK Rokits, which I myself have not listened to, but as they appear to be the favourite amongst the bass-head hip-hop and electronic types, I see no point in even putting myself out to hear a sample.

Certain people who are doing so really should not take criticism of this product personally. I've had poor personal experience twice with these speakers, so I'm hardly going to praise them with sugar coating. It should even be noted that JBL have still not responded to the email I sent them 5 days ago. It may even be of interest if there is further feedback from others who have units with the DY0009 serial number.

How I describe them also, especially compared to F5 and others. But don't worry its user preference / and defensive comments on defending a product they brought.

Personal preference, horses for courses, but some can't handle that.

Hand't realized you thought them to be awful, just that the clarity wasn't on par with the F5. In fact, I thought you previously said they sounded good?

Like you said though, personal preferences. We all get defensive (slightly). I initially thought (not expressed) you were undercutting the LSR305 cause you sold the Adam's at your store. LOL. Forgive me for making that assumption.

But then again, you accused Fiddlestickz of sounding like a JBL shill for "his" opinion on the LSR305' in this topic. I guess such things are unavoidable.

Anyway, I wish I could find out more about this mysterious DY0009 batch.

Reading the manual and reviewing the service site, it seems JBL might not even have an European customer service department! LOL. I think someone was just too lazy to update the site. I've sent them an email to see if they respond.

That's why I always recommend testing monitors yourself if possible. You have one person saying they sound like crap in comparison to the F5 and other speakers. Another guy saying he sold his F5' cause the JBL's sounded so much better.

You seem to think that your experience is dispositive and that differing reports are false. Please include me in the group which finds your reports to border on the incredible. My 305s are not boomy at all: the bass is extended, tight and articulate. The midrange is packed with detail. The treble is open, airy and extended. The level matching between the two is excellent. The pair throws a deep and wide sound stage. I can listen to them for hours without any sort of fatigue. I've had these things for ten months now and I'm still stumbling across details in old recordings that I never knew existed. I would consider the 305s to be excellent speakers at any price. The fact that they are inexpensive makes them one of the more amazing values in audio right now.

I'm sorry to read that your experience with them has been poor. I lose sympathy though when you imply that those of us who have good experiences with them somehow don't know what we are talking about.

As far as I've been able to research, there's nowhere even in the London area (where I live) where this is possible. I found an older Gearslutz thread that suggested Digital Village, who had a number of stores in the area, but they were all closed down about six months ago after a sudden takeover of the company. There is a (now rare) music store about three miles from me that sells monitors, but only KRK. No doubt, the internet has killed them all off.

No, I'm suggesting it may be a factor with many. Plenty of people throughout forums and reviews have waxed lyrical about various monitors and most have been arguing, supporting, and criticising over what is best and what is crap. This would suggest that there are plenty of people who are either wrong (due to poor material), or lying, or who just have hearing defects. I can only go by my own experience, which contradicts most of what I've read about the LSR305s. However, it is a fact that a great deal of commercial and home-made electronic and hip-hop music is all about the bass and the beat, and is devoid of subtle harmonic musical detail. This being the case, then it would be only too easy and cheap for monitor manufacturers to provide what is essentially 'Emperor's New Clothes'.

On the other hand, heflys20 did try playing 'Lyin' Eyes' by the Eagles, which does have a fair amount of harmonic content, and found his LSR305s to be well balanced and clear, yet for me the song was reproduced badly on both pairs of speakers. So for all I know, perhaps JBL has dumbed-down later releases of these monitors in order to accentuate the bass. This is why I, like heflys20, am hoping that other users with the DY0009 serial number report their findings.

I have to confess, mine are from the DY0006 series. I wish you could get your hands on a pair of those, as they truly are little gems! Pretty much every song I play through mine are "well balanced and clear," assuming that was what the artist intended. For example, Loggins and Messina's "Be Free" is simply jaw dropping.

I can't imagine why Harman would go to the trouble of designing an excellent little speaker only to deliberately degrade it later on. One of the things Harman has worked on for years is double blind listening tests for their speakers. Surely such a giant step backwards as you're describing would have been discovered in that process? My guess is that a batch of knock offs got out into the wild or a batch with defective parts got past quality control. Again, sorry you've had such a sour experience. Myself, I'm as happy as a pup in a pansy bed with mine!

I've run them through a variety of genres, and other forms of entertainment. With hip-hop, the most apparent thing I noticed was that rappers tended to sound like they were right on the mic in most recordings; which I take it is a result of the recording process. The beats went more into the background.

There was no longer this exaggerated "boominess". This might be due to the lack of dedicated sub though. However, bass sounded more punchy with less distortion. It sounded more reigned in.

The thing I noticed about rock was the detail of string instruments, it's amazing (for the price).

They probably haven't responded because they read you for what you appear to be and know better than to waste their time.

Have you yet listened to these in any semblance of free field, like not only 20" from the rear wall, but up off the desktop? As intended? Whether the port is front or rear doesn't matter unless you were so naive as to position them with their backs flat against the wall.

If you have not, why not? Do you not believe it makes any difference? If you have not listened to these positioned as JBL suggests you are continuing to mislead yourself and waste our time, because you have not heard them positioned the way they were designed to be positioned. I refer to my post #337 and the quote from the JBL manual.

Excessive bass will create all of the characteristics you have ascribed to the 305 in the first sentence above (boomy, coloured, lacking clarity and detail).
As to mismatched mids, do you mean mismatched left to right? That's easily determined by connecting one of the pair in inverse polarity and placing them face to face nearly touching and adjusting the gain on one or the other to achieve maximum null (cancellation). At that point, if there is a mismatch, there will be relatively strong output at the frequency where the mismatch occurs. Pink noise (especially correlated) as a signal will make this easier. I suspect the pair matching is excellent, because the crossover (and corrective DSP) is all done in the digital domain as I understand it–very unusual at this price point–and probably contributing to the very flat frequency response hinted at in post #362 above.

You should also realize that if it is your intention eventually to make quality mixes that translate to the outside world, then the starting point is accurate speakers properly positioned.

It looks like you have a rocky road of buying and selling in your immediate future until you thoroughly sort this out for yourself, because it is of fundamental importance, and so far it looks like your actions and assumptions are not helping you at all.

You really need to slow down and think this through at length.

You suspect? :-)
I remember seeing a few posts here explaining that stands + positioning + acoustic treatment will probably solve your issues.

Simply putting the speakers 20" from the wall will not remove all the boomyness and give you crystal clear audio etc.....
Your untreated room is simply going ruin the frequency response of any monitor that extends down to 40-50Hz.

Basically you need basstraps in as many corners as possible to reduce the boomyness, then some acoustic panels on the walls to give you better clarity in the mids and highs, then maybe a cloud installed above your mixing position to improve things a bit more etc....

Then there is positioning + stands to try and make things better, it takes quite a bit of patience to get that sorted. You'll have to change the width, height, distance from walls, angle etc... until you get an acceptable frequency response out of your speakers...

Maybe use a measurement microphone + software like REW to guide you through all these steps.
Maybe you can hang around the Studio building / acoustics - Gearslutz.com section for some tips.

and then....but only then............ all you have to do is sit back, take a deep breath, relax and enjoy. :-)

Did i mention that you will have to order those dreadfull lsr305's again? ;-)

I recently ordered my second pair and these have the DY0009 serial number. Sound the same as my older pair, great speakers.

Speaking of which, I emailed JBL about this issue on behalf of Ian. And this is the response I received:

"Good morning from JBL.

There should not be any difference.



If you like, we could test the units and inspect them.

We have the best of the best test equipment on planet earth in our facility.

Most of our skilled technicians have been here for decades.

We can definitely take the guess work out of this one."


Not surprised by the response really.

Funny how I've still not received a reply.