JBL 305 speakers ... opinions?

The Lounge Other Gear
1

just wondering if anyone uses these or has experience with the 305’s…
would they work okay with a direct trs-xlr lead connection from the OT main outputs?

personally i am keen to spend five thousand dollars on a pair of Genelecs in some mystical dream-future where money grows on trees.
(the ones that do not require a sub - i fell in love with these quality specimens 12 years ago in 2006).

anyway i thought perhaps the JBL 305 monitors, for the mere price of three hundred bucks could be a somewhat more realistic investment plan for the mid-term.

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2

i LOVE my 305s…i would just have speaker stands or (space not permitting,) padding underneath and good control for the first reflection points with absorption. depending on the distance from the wall i would keep an eye on that switchable hipass filter

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3

I use them. They sound really good for the price. You just need to listen to music through them to get a sense of how they behave.

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4

Fantastic for the price.
Get em.

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5

Speaker stands are one of the coolest and affordable studio investments.

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6

i love my 305’s

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7

For the money, i’m not sure they can be beaten.
Like AdamJay said… get’um!

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8

I have the 308’s '& Adams 8X & the JBL’s stand up really well.

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9

i wonder if there is a similarly economic-pricing JBL sub that would go with them in a fairly cogent fashion?

10

This is the one that goes with the monitors

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11

very cool, cheers for the link; on the subject of expansive frequency monitoring,
i’m now exploring the idea of the JBL 308mkII’s as an investment…
the two-way 8 inch speakers partly make it possible to monitor some of the frequencies handled by the subwoofer.
making it possible to avoid buying the subwoofer.
and in my case, the room or “studio” is not audio treated whatsoever, thus reducing the benefit of a sub.

$410au for the mkII’s, or $300au for the non-mkII’s.
free shipping offered for either deal.

maybe it’s fetishistic but if there is a mkII model i automatically want it.
even though i have no idea of the benefits, if there even are any :joy:

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12

If your room isn’t treated you definitely do not want a sub, it depends on the room size and what else is in there but you tend to get far more problems with standing waves with low frequencies due to the wavelength.

Back on topic, heard nothing but good things about the 305s, I was considering them myself a few years back, but I ended up getting Equators, the JBLs are :thup: as @adamjay said - Get em!

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13

I love my 305s! Best suited for small Homestudio. And best bang for the money. Stands relatively well also against much more expensive brands.

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14

Hmmmmmmmmm…

$229 for the 305’s … if they truly are “all that” (to quote a dated 1990’s saying), then that surely must be described as interstellar value. especially with free shipping as a sweetener.

although i do currently have a single Genelec 8020 that sounds okay if i don’t turn it up past halfway. the speaker has done a lot of living shall we say.

15

Love my 305s, especially for IDM and other precise forms of electronic music.

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16

Fantastic for the price. Get a pair of IsoAcoustics and add a sub when you can.

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I’d been using the old Mackie hr624s for many many years, then bought and compared the 305s over a few months.
Sold the Mackie’s.

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18

305’s are shockingly good for the money. Get something like IsoAcoustics stands to get the best out of them.

If you have a small untreated room and want accurate monitoring, you should probably avoid 8” speakers and subwoofers.

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19

ah okay, i begin to grok the difference betwixt five and eight inch speakers.

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A couple of weeks ago I wanted to buy the JBL 305 as well because everybody was very positive about them, but I decided to do a listening test in the store. Had 3 different monitors at the same price range placed and had my own music thru these. The jbl’s sounded nice indeed, but I decided to go for another, because of the high tones in the JbL’s they sounded not as crisp as I wanted to. i eventually went for monkey Banana’s. Never heard of them, but they werent that more expensive and sounded more balanced to my ears. I am very happy with them!

Mind you, I never went shopping for mixing monitors. I just wanted nice sounding monitors for jamming and listening.

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