JBL ES10 - Manual

H

a v i n g u s e d J BL s p e a k e r s i n
recording studios a nd at home
for ma ny yea rs, t her e’s some -
t h i ng about t hem I’ve a lways

found reassuring. I may or may not have
wa r med to t he voic i ng of a pa r t ic u l a r
model, but I’ve always respected what I’ve
heard. So when cartons bearing the famil-
ia r ora nge JBL logo a r rived on my door-
step recently, I was eager to check out the
company’s latest efforts.

The ES Ser ies occ upies J BL’s upper -

m idd le pr ic e r a n ge, a hot ly c onte s te d
ma rket where prospect ive buyers k now
w h a t s o u n d s g o o d b u t d o n’t w a n t t o
spend stupid amounts of money to get it.
I u npacked t wo ES80 towers, a n ES25C
center speaker, two ES10 surrounds, and
an ES250P subwoofer. With their sizable
bulk filling my listening room, I expected
significant sonic results.

The ES80 tower sta nds waist-high. Its

trapezoidal cabinet, which widens in front
and tapers to the rear, looks very stylish.
(All of t he satellites, and t he subwoofer,
work t he t rapezoidal styling angle.) The

ES80’s five ver t ica l d rivers a re a pa i r of
6-inch woofers, a 4-inch mid ra nge, a nd
a module with two

3

⁄

4

-inch tweeters, one

covering the normal high-frequency range
and the other covering ultra-high frequen-
cies. Th is sa me modu le appea rs i n t he
other satellites as well. Two pairs of stout
binding posts allow mono- or bi-amping.
There’s also a rear-firing port.

The ES25C center speaker uses an MTM

(midrange/tweeter/midrange) driver con-
figuration, with a pair of 5-inch midranges
fla n k ing t he tweeter module. Adjust ing
t he por ted cabi net’s t wo feet ca n lower
its vertical angle. The ES10 surrounds are
direct-firing, with one 4-inch driver and
the tweeter module. There are two mount-
ing brackets on the back and two ports on
top. Ma ke da rn sure t he k ids don’t drop
pennies in there — or your car keys.

The ES250P subwoofer spor ts a f ront-

firing 12-inch driver, a downwa rd-firing
port, and an amplifier rated at 400 watts.
Its cont rol set prov ides adjust ments for
level and crossover f requency (50 to 150
Hz with a 24-dB/octave slope), phase (0°

and 180°), and LFE/stereo line inputs. A
switch toggles between LFE (for the mono
low-f requency-effects channel on Dolby
Digital and DTS t racks) and Normal (for
a regular stereo input), with the crossover
adjustment bypassed when the former set-
ting is selected. All six speakers are faced
with removable black grilles.

SETUP

I n s t a l l i ng t he J BL s d id n’t pr e sent a ny
unusual obstacles. I placed the ES80 tow-
ers 10 feet apa r t, about 1 foot out f rom
t he f ront wa ll, a nd toed t hem in to face
t he l i s ten i ng posit ion. The tower s a r e
supplied wit h t h readed spiked feet, but
I used t he included r ubber feet instead.
As with any floorstanders, the proximity
of t he d r ivers to my t ile f loor created a
reflect ion t hat colored t he di rect sou nd
path. To mitigate this, I placed throw rugs
on the floor in front of each cabinet.

The ES25C center speaker went below

my TV. Its ver t ica l a ngle was good, so I
d id n’t adjust it s feet. I placed t he ES10
surrounds on speaker stands in the back
of t he r oom. I w i sh t hey h ad t he sa me
adjustable feet as t he center speaker so I
could have aimed them down a bit.

Subwoofer performance is very depen-

dent on room acoust ics a nd on t he sub

–

+

Snapshot

Classic JBL sound quality from towers
and a massive sub, complemented by
a tonally matched center speaker and
surrounds

Plus

::

Loud, natural sound

::

Clean high-frequency extension

::

Solid low-frequency extension

::

Robust construction

Minus

::

Sizable cabinets require a sizable room

::

Sound may be too bright and forward for
some

The Short Form

Price

$2,395 (as tested)

70

july/august 2008

SOUND & V ISION

soundandvisionmag.com

ES Series home theater speaker system

JBL

test

reports

Ken C. Pohlmann