Dayton Audio B652 vs JBL Studio 530

The cabinet is simply too small for this size woofer. That means there's not enough air volume to allow the cone to move as it should. This hurts bass response and also low frequency volume. Since these are not ported, I decided to remedy that

These are exciting speakers to play and they really suck you in. I have Usher, PSB and NHT here and I like these a lot. Sound quality compares well with the NHT Classic 3 overall which were once called the best speakers under a thousand dollars. At the price difference I strongly favor the JBLs and the very tight bass helps make these speakers way more exciting and fun than the NHT

That said, they do produce stereo sound so if your sound system currently consists of a sound bar, or something similar, you will definitely notice a night and day difference in sound quality because they will produce true stereo separation. In addition, the B652s may make excellent rear surrounds in a surround sound system but I have never used them in this manner. If you have never listened to better speakers and you have only used computer speakers or the cheap speakers that come with MP3 player docks in the past there is no reason you will not enjoy these speakers. Sound quality is up to the listener and the listener's experience is what often dictates what that person thinks about the quality of a pair of speakers

These things make a wonderful sound in a way that others just can't seem to produce and is just hard to explain. The other most important thing to me at least, is that they produced absolutely zero listening fatigue.

One small, but nice (and important) touch is the rubber de-coupling pads on the base of each speaker. Instead of felt pads or thin rubber stickies, they put decent thickness rubber pads on, which help to reduce sound transmission and reverberations (I usually use florist's clay or a square of dense camping mat to accomplish the same thing). For someone (me) who overspent on underdelivering speakers in the 70's, '80's, and early '90's, it's amazing the sound that comes out of these speakers. It goes to prove that careful design and consistent materials and manufacturing are about 85% of what it takes to produce musical speakers - the many "exotic materials" and "new technology" speakers that fell by the wayside just go to show that cost (in the past) doesn't guarantee better performance than mass-produced China-speakers from a parts company

The height is perfect and my wife likes the look of these far better than the old Yahama towers these replaced.