I purchased JBL Studio 590s from Harman Audio as I managed to get 20% off the sale price. That was $800 delivered. Original budget was about $1,000 for my entire system. I almost purchased for $600 a set of Definitive Technology Studio Monitor 55 speakers and an Onkyo receiver. In retrospect, I probably should have stuck with that plan as saved a lot of money! I do not regret returning KEF Q350s (6.5" bookshelf speaker) and optional speaker grills I had previously purchased from Magnolia. The 590s only cost me just a little more than the Q350s.
I have ended up using MiniDSP's DDRC-24, which makes bass management, a term I was not really familiar with a couple months ago, easy. The MiniDSP DDRC-24 is being used as my pre-amp and DAC and an Emotiva A-300 as my amplifier. Having thrown aside my original budget, I now am running two SVS SB2000 subwoofers in a stereo configuration (not summed). What attracted me to the 590's was wanting my music to sound more "live". I now have a 2.2 system used for 60% music, 40% home theater.
Experience with Dirac Live and my set-ups
- On the Q350s the clarity was night and day. Without the Dirac Live, the speakers just did not come to life.
-On the 590s, Dirac makes the sound stage feel even more 3 dimensional and accurate. Noting that the 590s sound good even with the Dirac off. The better the recording, the better Dirac seems to work. However, with some music, such as Elvis singing Love Me Tender via Tidal, his voice sounds fuller, sounds more live with Dirac off. Or to be it another way, Dirac made the song sound too clean, almost like it lost some of the atmosphere in the recording studio. It can sometimes be like applying too much unsharpen mask in Photoshop--the image is sharper, but you loose some of the details by defining the edges. However, I do prefer it on most of the time. It comes just short of being awesome, and is instead "just" very good.
-On the 590s, I also experienced DIRAC boosting the low end all the way down to 26hz. Truth be told, I thought is sounded okay, but was no comparison to using a subwoofer in the lower ranges.
-I found that when integrating my subs, 80hz with a steep 36db roll off as a crossover (low for the subs/high for the speakers) made the sound stage feel shallower. They sound much better crossed over at 55hz with a 24db roll of.
--On the 590s, when I set them up, I had read somewhere that horn drivers can sound bright if aimed directly at the ears. I did in fact experience mids/highs (not actually sure which one) that made my ears strain/hurt. My solution ended up being moving my speakers about 10 feet apart to better accommodate sitting about 12 feet away. They are toed in and aimed at the back wall about 16 feet away. They do not cross in from of me, but behind me. Very loud volumes still can feel piercing to my ears, but I am not sure if that is the speaker's fault!?
-On the 590s, they images very well particularly if you are centered between them. Even a foot away from the speakers, centered, imaging is excellent. I have not tested it, but from my experience, I cannot imagine crossing the 590s in front of the listener to be ideal. I have heard of this method being employed on some of the newer Klipsch speaker such as the RP-280 that some think are bright, but I am not sure this would apply successfully to the 590s.
-On the 590s, it can feel like the performers are actually in the room with me. Takes my breath away and stirs emotions at times. I recall that the Q350s had a great sound, but I would say that the 590s are like a great artist. A great artist will paint a better picture with lower quality paints than an amateur with high quality paints. Sometimes, particularly with some classical music, I think the Q350 may have had nicer paints (in certain frequencies), but the 590s create more beautiful paintings. However, a songs like Nora Jones' Come Away with Me or Jeff Buckley's Hallelujah are hypnotizing and truly highlight where the 590s shine- it is hard for me to imagine those songs sounding much better on any system. I didn't think I even liked jazz, but keep on finding myself enjoying it on the 590s. For home theater, the 590 sound like you are at the cinema. They just have "that" sound. Even with the speakers 10 feet apart, there is no need for a center channel. Voices seem to come straight out of the TV. The three dimensional sound of the 590 along with the dual subs creates excellent atmosphere and impact.
-A notable difference between the Q350s and the 590s: when I walked into the open kitchen out of the main listening room, the 590s make it sound like there was a band playing the the next room, where the Q350s just sounded like music playing form another room, far less pleasant from a distance. Just an observation I thought worth sharing.
-I found it nearly impossible to make my subs sound right without using Dirac. I am no sound engineer. Glad that Dirac has a wizard style interface that pretty much anyone can work through. Dirac and the bass management built into the DDRC-24 makes my speakers and subwoofers work seamlessly--nuff said.
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