Listening test:JBL P560 components

I have long been an avid JBL fan,however certain aspects started drawing my attention away from the brand.So,after much decision and staring and reading,I have decided to give their new Power series speakers a good listening to,to see whether they match ,precede or dampen my expectations.

I wasn't very impressed by the previous Power series speakers as the tweeters were a bit too bright,and they were far too punchy and the mid bass was a tad bit sloppy.Anyways,enough rambling about the old & in with the new.My component set of choice are the P560C,(I know many of you are grumbling away,why 5's??). Well, to be pretty honest, I have had a lot of 5in speakers that had the potential to inspire me,even though they dint have the low end grunt that bigger drivers have,I was very keen to hear if the JBL's would fit into this category.On a side note,1 of these brands that really blew me away was the Phoenix Gold RSd series.Mighty impressive,and with a sweet price too.More on those in another review,not forgetting the formiddible Focal Polyglass range,not in everyone's pocket book range but worth the hefty price tag that they do carry.

Cosmetics & Layout
At first glance these splits have a really cool look to them.A lot of it saying more 'street appeal' with the funky rubber edged grills and silver trim with small screws around the center mesh.A Power Series logo across the center gives a clear indication of the series in the range and the aluminium JBL badges are a nice touch.Looking deeper, you can see the cone of the speaker has not changed from the previous models.JBL has stuck to using there propriety HCL cone which is a combination of two woven layers of glass fiber with an epoxy coated Nomex honeycomb core,which is exceptionally stiff yet lightweight and also helps with great effeciency.
New for the main drivers across the range are the separate connecting terminals with an extended cable,which make hooking these speakers up to factory wiring harnesses a cinch especially for when they're only needed as replacement speakers on factory systems(which to me,ofcourse, would be pretty useless).JBL claim's their power series range to be 'True Four Ohm'.Here's a little write up from their site explaining this-"All Power Series speakers feature two ohm voice coils. Original factory-installed speaker wiring in many cars is 18-22 gauge. This wire, and heating in the voice coil when power is applied, increase the impedance “seen” by the amplifier or head unit. The impedance of Power Series has been adjusted to compensate for this increase and can be safely driven by any head unit. "
The passives are a real treat compared to the previous ones.Boasting large plexi covers showing off the neat but simple layout,a -6db attenuation switch and neat and sturdy terminals,big shout out to the JBL R&D design crew,great job on the design.
Lastly,the tweeters!Finished off in a semi-gloss black they're not very different in terms of cosmetics(besides the colour and the grill)compared to the previous range.Again,taking a closer look at the tweeter domes show another change.JBL who were synonomous over the years for using metal domes have opted out of it this time.The new Power series boasts silk dome tweeters ala most European built speakers,which leads me to believe that the Harman crew in Europe were probably left with the dirty work here.

The Set Up
My listening setup is not the greatest but it has proven to be quite adaquate.I had the speaker mounted onto my 16mm MDF enclosure,and had both mid and tweeter playing on axis.Amplifier wise, I used my faithful JBL GTO4060,I initially had the splits run in for just over a week for about 10 hours continuous per day,having them wired direct to only two of the four channels.For my test I opted to bridge these splits across the four channels to see how they would fair with some decent power being fed to them.For the best signal transfer I used Audison's Sonus directional interconnects from my Kenwood source unit and Audison's Flame range speaker cable from the amplifier to the passives and from them to the speakers.I had a pair of twelves wired to another amp for integration tests.I used a Hertz DS300 in a sealed enclosure and a JBL GTO1204 Anniversary in a ported enclosure.I turned off all equalization and loudness settings as well as setting the amp to full range on the crossover setting.

Listening
Fusion
By now most of you should know that I have a very particular liking to Jazz/Fusion.I fired these babies up with some of my old time fav's....Fourplay.My track of choice on the Best of Fourplay disc was the last track featuring Phil Collins,Why can't it wait till morning.
The track opens up with some light piano work and percussion's before Phil lets that smooth voice flow.Although the percussion instruments were being played lightly,they came through clear and with a hint of sparkle.No brightness just nice and sweet.The bass guitar came through prominent and controlled,quite impressive considering the speakers overall size.(Just to make mention,as with all Harman Car audio speakers,these too have the trademark Plus-One cone technology.Which,with the use of stronger adhesives and clever mounting of the rubber surround closer to the edge of the speaker rim,gives at least 30% more cone area.)
Mid bass attack was spot on,tight and deep as this track has a rather tight bass line to it.Phil's voice gave me the sensation that he was actually peering through my demo board,three dimensionality of these speakers were really awesome with this song,and placement of instruments and Phil's movement to and fro from the mic was just stunning.As with every song I had the splits playing with and without the sub,making use of the sealed enclosure for better integration when doing more conservative sound quality listening.These splits sure integrated well with the Hertz 12,on this track showing no hint of where the sub really was,they created the effect that they were actually doing the heavies all by themselves.Overall,they sounded really smooth with this track both with the sub on and off.
Score: 8.5/10

Electronica
Breaking the slow mood with some hard,fast paced beats from my Renaissance Masters Series.The song of choice called Ahh(D'Julz Remix) by ThugF*cker(nasty name),starts with some really hard hitting bass notes constant for 20 secs before some high notes start to pitch in.Wow,these woofers punch hard,and the tweeter remained sweet as honey.Great test for stability on the woofer as the bass line carries on for quite a while before a staunch varying low tone comes through pulsating the living grief out of these speakers.Even so they remained controlled.They sure do move a lot is what I can tell you,I really jacked up the volume to this track as the mid bass punched constantly into my chest.As with most music of this type there are loads of effects that can give a great impression of space.This song is no slouch at doing this,and these speakers threw such a wide stage I got up from my seat to look behind my set up!Yes it sounded so wide and 3 dimensional.There was however a time when the tweeters did sound a tad bit soft as the mids pounded away.This is where I thought that with music that sounds this way, the attenuation button seemed utterly useless, as,when I used it,made the split sound absolutely dull.More on this with other music.So then all you dance,rave and trance fans will really love these components if the punch is what you seek.Another little feature I should mention, incorporated into these speakers that really improves the overall feel of the 'kick' from the woofer are the Low Q woofer design.Unlike conventional woofers, which normally give you this similar feeling when they reach a certain peak in the spectrum, these JBL's were designed with a flat Q,so you get that response constantly.
So deading your door panels well is going to be a must!
Score: 9/10

Jazz
Al Jarreau and George Benson made a deadly duo with their Givin' It Up album.The return of some classics remastered with an awesome recording and some great instrument use and awesome singing make this a must have to all jazz fans.
My favorite track on this album,track 5,Summer Breeze.It opens up with George playing his Jazz guitar and a tight and heavy kick drum.A lot of speakers failed hopelessly at delivering this deep, heavy bass note without breaking the guitar notes up.The JBL's fared really well.The High hats in this songs are just that High pitched.They came through crisp with awesome shimmer and the decay of the tweeter on these notes,which reminded me of the Focal tweeters,was great.However,as I mentioned before there were some notes that sounded a little softer than usual on these tweeters.I know on a lot of systems that I have listened to, the hats and High hats were quite bright,as is the overall recording on this disc.Again,i used the attenuation and it just mumbed the entire sound completely.
When the duo start singing their voices are discretely separable on certain parts of the song,I could definitely hear with very little effort where George and Al were positioned.Again as with Fourplay,these components sounded ultra smooth,without being too laid back.Turning up the volume on this track also showed that they could play at high volumes without any hint of struggle.Man have these speakers got my attention now.....
Score:8.5/10

World
Another formidable duo,Rodrigo Y Gabriela,this Mexican Duo sure know how to make guitars sound out of this world.My favorite track on this disc,Satori,was my next weapon of choice.The opening of the track sounds really meaty and at the same time woody.The meaty bit came out quite heavy on these mids,but still not being way out of proportion,and also not straining them in any way.The woody bit sounded pretty convincing too.I have been a great fan of the way Mexicans played these acoustic guitars for years,Gypsy Kings are and old time fav of mine and there music gave me pretty good reference as to how these instruments should sound.
Having read up a lot about,and watched videos of this duo,I also had a great reference as to the area they recorded this music in.A small room with wooden flooring with both guitarists playing pretty close to the microphones.
The Power's gave me excellent sense of the environment without exaggerating the area.At one stage I felt as if I was in this room with them engulfed by the sounds of the strings and wooden echo from the acoustic guitars bouncing off the wooden floors and the reverb from the walls close by.Tonally here as well,with just these two instruments being played and the occasional foot stomp and tapping of the guitar body, these components sounded fantastic.
Score:9/10

I spent days,yes days,listening to loads of different music,my all time fav's Linkin Park,some more Deep House by Jimpster and Justin Martin,Michael Jackson, Yello and so on,and regardless of what I played these splits just kept me smiling and nodding and tapping my foot away.With the two subwoofers running for testing both SQ and pounder applications,the Power's did not disappoint all except once.This one occasion however,was when listening as a pounder application,the tweeters just couldn't do enough to keep up to the roaring,rumbling bass from the ported enclosure.That said,these speakers would certainly find there way into the hearts of the Sound Quality minded community and those seeking a component set that can handle power,that can play music,but without the harshness associated with loads of other components using metal dome tweeters.Overall tonality was nothing short of stunning,listening fatigue was down to a big zilch and the speakers ability to show no signs of strain was also very very impressive.I do however find the use of the attenuation switch completley useless as this tweeter is realy sweet if not sometimes a tad bit too soft.JBL have once again caught my attention with this stunning set of components,and now I am really curious to know what the three way component set would perform like.......