new JBL EON 515 question

[DrumScum61]

Just compared my brand new Eons to the old Mackie 450s.
The Eons are just slightly warmer but way, way, more quiet set the same
as the Mackies. Anyone know why? I've heard this complaint before and
I'm no "sound guy."

[jroberts]

This is being discussed all over the web right now. One of the DJ forums had gotten a response from someone in marketing at JBL that they redesigned them from the ground up to be more compatible with various inputs so they won't be identical to the old Eons. Even with the selector switch in the right position they don't seem to go as loud (what I've read I don't own them). I suggest you look at the new QSC K-Series which on the other hand have gotten a lot of pre-release praise from the trade shows - haven't read a first hand user report yet though.

- Jon

[jroberts]

Here is a snipper from that e-mail going around the web:

Good news. I just got off the phone with Simon Jones at JBL. His title is Director, Portable PA Marketing.

I wrote JBL a few days ago and asked them about this problem you all are having with the EON 515. He replied and said he would be out of the country for a week, yet he would call me when he returned.

We had a nice conversation where he described the intentions of the new design for the EON 515 compared with the G2 or my (older) EON 15-PAK (made for PA and/or keyboards).

88FingersLouie hit the mark when he said, "On both the piano tones, I found the new Eon to have a more even frequency response, but again, not cutting as much. I find them sonically to sound completely different."

According to Simon, the EON 515 is a redesign from the ground up and JBL is trying to market this speaker to a very broad range of users. Because of this, they have altered the crossover frequency to produce a smoother overall output from the speaker. They have also lowered the sensitivity of the input (preamp) section to accomodate mixers with a high output without overloading and causing distortion.

Simon is recommending three alternate solutions:

* use a mixer between the output of your keyboard and the EON 515 to increase the gain

* set the mic/line switch to the mic position

* use the headphone outputs of your keyboard instead of the line outs to feed the inputs of the EON 515.

[DrumScum61]

It's just that it's SO drastic. I'm afraid it's going to turn off a lot of people. Thanks for the heads up and the info from JBL.

[yamahaha]

I've owned the SRM450s and EON G2s. I was very excited about the 515s on paper, but was very disappointed by them in when I actually heard them. It's almost like the squeezed all the life and presence out of a G2 and put it in a pretty (and much lighter) cabinet. It's a very flat sounding speaker to me. You really have to use the bass and treble knobs, which I rarely had to do before with my G2s, to get a decent sound. Maybe a processor like a BBE or something might be able to bring out the magic in these, but out of the box, they're not that great.

[Landon]

I try to stay away from plastic speakers. They just don't sound 'right' to me. I guess I have been spoiled with quality resonating wood speakers

[TimmyP1955]

I've owned the SRM450s and EON G2s. I was very excited about the 515s on paper, but was very disappointed by them in when I actually heard them. It's almost like the squeezed all the life and presence out of a G2 and put it in a pretty (and much lighter) cabinet. It's a very flat sounding speaker to me.

Then I'd like to hear the 515s, as I find the G2s to be thumpy and brash - even the Chinese SRM450s sound a lot better.

Like the new Eons, the PRX are lower gain than most things I've encountered. When driven by a mixer, this can be a good thing. Might be a problem for keyboard use though.

[DAS]

I try to stay away from plastic speakers. They just don't sound 'right' to me. I guess I have been spoiled with quality resonating wood speakers

Totally respect your viewpoint, but for what it's worth, resonance is not generally considered a good characteristic in a loudspeaker cabinet. The cabinet's job is to enclose the speakers and not flex or resonate at all.

[Landon]

Totally respect your viewpoint, but for what it's worth, resonance is not generally considered a good characteristic in a loudspeaker cabinet. The cabinet's job is to enclose the speakers and not flex or resonate at all.

To revise my previous statement, I believe QSC's are an exception to the polymer speaker v. wood debate. I still have to hear them this Gearfest to be sure

[dboomer]

way, way, more quiet set the same
as the Mackies. Anyone know why?

Rookie mistake. Just because the knob is in the same relative position does NOT mean that the gain is set the same. Simple case of bad gain structure. If you set the gains the same the speakers are just about the same level.

Turn your mixer up until it just clips then turn the speaker controls up until the limiters just fire. That's the same way you set anything.

[StuntHunt]

OK, here's some real world experience. I've been playing gigs forever, and have dealt with lots of different PA systems. I just finished another gig where my JBL 515 mains had volume problems. Now, let me say these are beautiful sounding speakers and are super lightweight (major plus), but they need a TON of input gain to be able to do a gig. To make the 515 acceptable, I need to set the speaker volume at FULL, and then bring up the mixer gain level to acceptable volume levels. I also have a EON 510 as a monitor, and it has the same problem. Way too quiet. If you only use these type of speakers (G3 mains and monitors) and are not playing a very big room, you'll do ok. Just set everything at full, and adjust your board outputs accordingly.

However, if you try to combine the 515 or 510 speakers with other powered speakers (say, for playing larger venues), you're going to have major problems, because these are just too quiet--they won't match up with other speaker systems. I tried doing that on 3 occasions, with EON G2s, Behringer 15" powered speakers, and the Bose column system. With the exact same input, you couldn't even hear the 515, even set to max volume. That's not good. I've heard some folks say that the 515's input should be switched from "line" to 'mic" to increase volume. Yes you do increase your volume, but it's WAY too much gain and you wind up with a ton of noise, feedback issues, and a huge drop in overall sound quality. That's not acceptable. The idea is to have good sound, at a good volume.

When I had a lot of free time, I did a direct comparison with the G2. With an identical input level, the G2 is AT LEAST twice as loud as the 515. JBL needs to rethink this speaker system.