JBL 

L82 MkII Standmount Loudspeakers

AUD $4,499 RRP

Classic loudspeakers like JBL's L100 break every rule in the modern hi-fi design book. Launched in 1970, this big, wide-baffle monster sported a chunky, large-diameter bass driver, which was generously spaced out from the mid and treble units. But since the nineteen eighties, the hi-fi world has been moving speedily away from this sort of design – it's just not the done thing any more. Today's speaker market is awash with tall, small footprint, narrow-baffle speakers with multiple, long-throw, small-diameter drive units. These, we have been constantly told, image better and are a more space-efficient way of getting a high quality full range sound.

Trouble is, some people haven't quite got the memo. JBL is one such example – not least because it did so much to popularise this 'old school' standard in the first place. The company does, of course, sell modern-type loudspeakers alongside its Classic range, but it obviously feels there's still a real demand for retro designs. Several other brands have also clung to their classics, such as fellow US brand Klipsch and Spendor in the UK. And now the Wharfedale brand's best-selling designs are its retro Dentons and Lintons. Hi-fi buyers, it seems, aren't as keen on those abandoning big baffle behemoths as many manufacturers were!

UP CLOSE

Like its MkI predecessor, the L82 Classic MkII is ostensibly a down-sized L100, which follows the same basic design philosophy and, of course, the nineteen seventies styling cues. So here we have a biggish box measuring 472x281x315mm [HxWxD] and weighing 12.8kg. By seventies standmounter standards, it is a compact product, but to modern eyes, it looks quite big. JBL has really maxed out on the kitsch look, because it comes with a genuine walnut satin wood veneer cabinet and the iconic 'Quadrex' foam grilles. Speaking as someone who was around in the seventies, and reading hi-fi magazines, these were the absolute epitome of cool. Many speakers used these sculpted foam pieces, from the Marantz 3G to the Jim Rogers JR149, but JBLs were the best and even came in gaudy colours. With this new speaker, you can choose between black, blue or StereoNET orange – well, JBL's burnt orange, really, but it's pretty close!

The L82 Classic MkII is more than just a pretty face because its form follows its function. One of the defining aspects of early JBL monitors, and something that's been retained even in the company's modern ranges, is efficiency. Back in the seventies, this was needed because most amplifiers were low powered. In 1970, if you had a 25W RMS per channel solid state integrated, you were riding high – many on sale were under 10W! As a result, speakers needed to be able to go louder for a given power output than they do now, when budget amps routinely have 70 or 80W per channel and no one raises an eyebrow. So, the new L82 MkII delivers a quoted 88dB (2.83V/1m).

This isn't an exceptional figure, but it's still good. Many rivals, with narrow baffles and twin small diameter mid/bass drivers, weigh in at closer to 86dB – which, in practice, if not on paper, means considerably less loud for a given amount of amplifier power. This, alongside its claimed nominal 8 ohm impedance rating, means that this JBL should produce highish volume levels even with low powered Class A solid-state amplifiers (i.e. Musical Fidelity's latest A1) and push-pull valve amplifiers (i.e. PrimaLuna's EVO200). You don't have to use these speakers with low-powered amps, but the point is that you can – when other less sensitive speakers will barely make a squeak. This, I think, partly explains why retro designs like this are making a comeback because they actually deliver more choice to customers – it's not just the disco-tastic orange foam grilles.

The reason that the L82 MkII goes louder than many bookshelf speakers for a given amount of watts is down to several things – the main ones being its cabinet volume, its reflex ported design and the 200mm diameter (8 inch in old money) JW200PW2-6 mid/bass driver. A largish cabinet means the drive units can move air more easily, and the reflex port helps this propagate around the room as well as aiding bass extension. That big bass driver – which, by the way, was bog-standard size-wise in the seventies – also helps move more air. Then, because you don't have multiple small bass drivers, you're not getting any loss from their motor systems.

JBL claims a frequency response of 44Hz to 40kHz, which is very good until you realise that the company is quoting -6dB points. That's a bit naughty, as it flatters the figure; most specs are given at -3dB points, where this speaker would fare significantly worse. All the same, simple frequency response plots don't make that much difference in the real world, unless you're dealing with unusual speakers. The main thing is the flatness of the plot, which isn't specified by JBL. The crossover frequency is put at 1.7kHz, and the optimum amplifier power is said to be 25 to 150W RMS, which is good for a speaker of this size.

Despite looking like it was made in the seventies, this speaker's mid/bass unit is bang-up-to-date – this latest Mk II version of the speaker gets a brand new, uprated driver with better power handling. It sports a cast frame, and a white Pure Pulp cone. The seventies, eighties, nineties and noughties all saw new trends in speaker cone materials – from Bextrene and polypropylene to High Definition Aerogel, glass fibre, Kevlar and carbon fibre. But here we are in 2024, and many manufacturers are turning back to good old paper, because it still offers an attractive combination of lightness and stiffness. "Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose" as a clever French man once said – the more things change, the more they stay the same. As aforementioned, it is reflex-loaded with the port front-firing – which should make placement easier.

Also new to the L82 Classic MkII is JBL's 25mm JT025TI2-4 titanium dome tweeter, set into a waveguide. Historically, audiophiles gasped in amazement at the (then) new-fangled titanium tweeters back in the late eighties – so it's certainly not a new technology. Many manufacturers began to switch from metal domes to fabric domes by the mid nineties, but JBL is ploughing its own furrow here. The genre isn't famous for its smoothness, yet never fails to give a fast, well defined sound. Should it be a little too well defined, the company has thoughtfully fitted an 'L-pad' attenuator so you can turn it down. Round the back, you get bi-wirable gold-plated speaker binding posts, a change over the Mk I version that was only monowired.

JBL offers an optional pair of JS80 matching speaker stands. These are frame-type affairs that are more redolent of the nineteen eighties than seventies. Each one lifts the speaker sixteen inches off the ground, and is angled to tilt the speaker upwards slightly – presumably in the cause of time alignment. For my review, I used Sugden A21 SE Class A solid-state and World Audio K5881 valve amplifiers, both fed by a Chord Electronics DAVE DAC. I found this speaker pretty easy to position in my listening room, about 30cm from the rear wall and angled slightly inwards, with the mirror-image tweeters closest to one another.

THE LISTENING

If you audition a pair of L82 Classic MkIIs expecting them to be super clean and forensic, then you're in for some disappointment. For example, if you're a classical music fan playing the first movement of Beethoven's delightfully jaunty Pastoral Symphony, then you won't be impressed by timbral accuracy of orchestral instruments, or their positions relative to one another in the concert hall. There's some opacity to the upper midband, and obvious chestiness to the upper bass – and the stereo image isn't especially accurate. It soon becomes clear that this speaker prefers Saxon to Sibelius…

That doesn't mean it's bad, though. It may be inaccurate in absolute terms, but not everyone wants a matter-of-fact rendition of what's on the recording. What this JBL does have is a certain 'disreputable charm' – it's not there to be nice, it's there to have fun. It makes certain types of music move you in a way that modern, pencil-thin, small footprint standmounters simply cannot. It's all about pace, attack and punch, rather than retrieving the nth degree of detail from a perfect recording. If it was a car, it would be an old tail-happy, gas-guzzling Ford Mustang V8, as opposed to a battery-powered Volkswagen Golf.

In absolute terms, this JBL has a slightly bright treble when set flat, which drops down to a seriously chunky bass which has a sweet spot that brings a slight 'one-note' effect to the bass guitar work on Journey's Girl Can't Help It. Nor is its midband the wonderfully even and open experience that you get from its slightly less expensive QUAD Revela 1 rival, for example. There is some accenting on higher vocals, as evidenced by playing Kate Bush's Snowflake – her magical, ice-pure voice sounds a tad nasal yet forward. The piano work isn't the most tonally accurate either, lacking the easy translucency of rivals like NEAT's Ministra. Indeed, if you spend your time listening to loudspeakers for a living, you will definitely notice the cabinet colouration, and hear the bass reflex port joining in the fun.

So it's rubbish, then? Not at all, because the JBL does extremely well rhythmically and dynamically. The L82 MkII conveys the passion in a piece of music very well – both in the phrasing of Kate's singing and her piano playing. This alone makes it quite an engrossing experience, and there's more. That largish mid/bass driver gives great weight to the lower piano notes, and compresses less when they get loud on crescendos. So you find yourself immersed in an enveloping and tactile soundstage, one that conventional small standmounters simply can't recreate.

It's the same with big, banging techno. The L82 MkII is king of the disco, with a tolerance for high listening levels that few of its rivals have. It loves to play thumping and banging electronic music, like Age of Love's early nineties trance classic, Age of Love. Its combination of physicality and speed is quite a thing to hear from a speaker of this price. It gets into the groove with aplomb, and noodles along like it's really having fun. It plays the bass synth notes decisively and percussively, while at the opposite end of the frequency spectrum, it fires out the hi-hat cymbals with dizzying speed. It may not be especially smooth, but is seriously compelling.

It's when you move to old-school rock music that this speaker does its best work. Lynyrd Skynyrd's Sweet Home Alabama is engrossing. Raw, rough and ready, the JBL absolutely hits the spot. Vocals are brilliantly syncopated with the rhythm guitar work, with the singer hanging around the beat without ever being right on it. Percussion is hard and gutsy, and bass guitar work is fulsome and propulsive. The lead guitar solo is so sharp that it practically stings, but it soars and sings too. This is a pretty lo-fi recording but a high-energy one, and this big box shows why.

THE VERDICT

Here we have a classic case of a great 'character speaker', one that doesn't try to be all things to all people – or indeed to be totally faithful to the original recording. Yet the L82 MkII's consummate prowess with rhythms and dynamics very much gives it a 'get out of jail free' card. It's quite system-dependent, so it is best matched with a sweet-sounding amplifier and source, and it also knows what it likes in terms of music, too – which is anything with a punchy beat and strong bass. If you're a rock fan or like pounding electronica or high-energy jazz, you simply must hear this new retro-styled speaker to see what's possible at this price point. This latest JBL Classic isn't so much about recreating hi-fi's past, as it is improving it.

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