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Let's experience in detail JBL's latest speaker in the Authentics Series family just launched not long ago to see if with a price of about 18 million VND, the JBL Authentics 500 is really "Costly expensive".
The design is a harmony between classic and modern
Part of JBL's new Authentics Series family with similar looks, the main difference is only in size as well as internal structure and capacity. JBL Authentics 500 has a very nostalgic speaker design, giving users a sense of the 70s.
JBL Authentics 500 has overall dimensions of 447 x 240 x 255.7 mm, making it the largest member of the Authentics Series family. The speaker weight is 7.8kg, so you will definitely need to use both hands to lift and place the speaker in the position in the room you want. To be sure, just hold your hands on the sides of the speaker to be sure. Okay.
Actually, when I lifted the speaker, it wasn't too heavy, it was still within an acceptable level so you can flexibly change the speaker position when needed.
The front of the JBL Authentics 500 is the driver covered by a shield made from JBL's familiar Quadrex material, with the company logo attached to the bottom corner, which is very prominent and luxurious. The entire speaker body will be covered with faux leather material, which feels very good to the touch, not to mention the frame made of high-quality aluminum with gold-plated edges.
The whole thing comes together to create a beautiful, harmonious design and the finishing is very neat. Almost do not see any redundant details or unreasonable points at all. In particular, JBL's combination helps accentuate the luxurious metal edges and bring the details together.
This is my impressive point with the JBL Authentics 500 as the design is indeed inherited from the company's legendary JBL Classic L100, no matter what the sound quality is, but before our eyes we can see the JBL Authentics 500 can play the role of a high-end piece of furniture, helping to enhance the aesthetic taste in your room.
Now the next interesting point is the strip of buttons on the top of the speaker, including Volume, Treble, Bass adjustment knobs along with 2 function buttons for Bluetooth connection. The whole thing is also covered in a luxurious, nostalgic yellow color. Furthermore, when you turn the knobs, there will be a LED light effect that glows and follows our adjustment levels, quite vivid and modern.
In fact, this manual adjustment is quite good, it feels like re-experiencing the feeling of the old days where you can intervene in the treble and bass range effects to get the right idea, or the feeling you are listening to music at that time. For example, for some songs I want to limit the bass a bit to be gentler according to my mood at that time, for example, instead of you controlling it via your smartphone .
On the back of the speaker is where connection ports such as power port number 8, Ethernet, Type-C, AUX are located. Basically, you can connect to Wifi, Bluetooth to stream music from AirPlay, Alexa Multi-Room Music (MRM), Spotify Connect or Chromecast... But I hope if there is an additional RCA port to play music from the turntable, maybe it will be better. Better yet, we will have a combo that plays classic music.
Up top is a switch to turn on and off the voice control feature with 2 virtual assistants including Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant. When this feature is turned on, the LED light on the front will light up white for users to recognize. Obviously, to set up a virtual assistant you need to follow the instructions through the JBL One application on your phone (Android and iOS).
Overall, the JBL Authentics 500 is a speaker with a very beautiful design, it has a good balance of both nostalgic style and today's modern elements, suitable for all customers, but is still the most favorable. Those who love the retro style of the 70s.
This design contributes to expressing the user's taste and aesthetic style as well as embellishing the interior space while still ensuring modern luxury today.
Technical structure with Dolby Atmos simulation driver system
Returning to the front of the speaker, when removing the protective cover, there is a driver system including a 1-inch tweeter driver and 3 2.75-inch mid-woofer drivers. On both sides of the tweeter is a system that simulates 360-degree Dolby Atmos sound effects with a 3.1-channel configuration from supported streaming platforms.
The underside is the part that contains the 6.5-inch subwoofer, which is made of down-firing style to resonate with the floor, thereby creating the deepest, most powerful bass range possible. In addition, behind the speaker there are 2 vent ports that will contribute maximize this bass range performance better.
There's only one thing to note: having a down-firing subwoofer like this is a bit picky about speaker placement, because in the right place, the performance quality will be optimal, but if you're not too picky. I think I can let this point go.
Modern and smart features
Besides the buttons that help you adjust sound effects such as volume, treble and bass, the JBL Authentics 500 also supports control through the JBL One application on smartphones. Connecting via this app is also quite simple and fast.
This JBL One application has built-in integration with popular music streaming platforms such as TIDAL, Qobuzz, Amazon Music,... You can even fine-tune the EQ effects to suit the taste of each good song. your listening preferences.
Besides, you can also control the speaker with virtual assistants (Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant) by flipping open the virtual assistant button on the back of the speaker. Of course, before that you also need to set-up at the JBL One application, just follow the instructions available inside the app.
Experience realistic sound
Overall, the performance of this JBL Authentics 500 speaker is better than expected. The soundstage is wide, bright and warm, and thanks to the Dolby Atmos effect simulation feature, you seem to "see" the stage gradually appearing clearly and slowly spreading throughout the room.
Not only that, its negative space also clearly reproduces the layering and position, not only limited to the left, right, front and rear channels but also diagonally from all angles. It's difficult to describe in words, but the JBL Authentics 500 actually has "magic" that attracts me in a very pleasant way.
For example, with the soundtrack of the movie Dat Phuong Nam, which is hot these days, the percussion instruments sound solid and accurate, even made of bamboo every time they are played. Artist Trong Phuc's Vocal voice is reproduced sweetly, passionately and melodiously to each beat in the mouth, blending with the voices of other artists in a heroic harmony and the JBL Authentics 500 recreates above expectations.
But if you look closely, the midrange feeling is still not very clear, sometimes I feel it is overwhelmed by the bass and treble ranges a bit too much. That's my personal feeling.
If we talk about the most unique thing about this JBL Authentics 500, the first thing is the bass range. Thanks to the integration of a down-firing subwoofer driver at the bottom of the speaker, this speaker exhibits very impressive bass performance. Each downstroke has good dynamics, is smooth, and has control in it.
The bass range of JBL Authentics is so powerful that it almost vibrates in my room of about 30 square meters. The listener can easily feel the spread of the drum sound and the vocal sound when going down very deep but there is no distortion of the sound, the abundant energy conveyed to the ears is really just "happy".
Here is a video of me listening to music from the JBL Authentics 500 with Southern Forest Song:
Even the sounds of musical instruments and drum percussion are expressed accurately and strongly, but combine softly with both the mid and treble ranges. You can even use JBL Authentics to watch movies thanks to its realistic and vivid Dolby Atmos effect, voice and background music, and background sounds are all attractive.
Here is a video of me watching the Oppenheimer movie trailer so you can somewhat imagine the quality of the JBL Authentics 500:
Conclusion
Overall, the JBL Authentics 500 are truly a pair of speakers that meet entertainment needs very well, completely capable of replacing other systems thanks to strong sound performance of up to 270W, modern smart features that can cover up everything. Room space up to 30m2 onwards.
The impressive bass range, soft and sweet vocal voice and clear high treble range exceed expectations with an open and deep sound stage, but the midrange is a bit unsatisfactory. Besides, because it has a down-firing subwoofer driver, it is also necessary to pay attention to placement as well as ensuring quietness so that the speaker can perform best.
In addition, the beautiful design, the beauty of the nostalgic language of the 70s and modern lines are combined together to create a speaker that "satisfies" both today's listening and viewing needs, you just Put aside the fatigue after a day of work and immerse yourself in the magical Dolby Atmos sound space from this JBL Authentics 500. With a price of 16.99 million VND with a free JBL Charge 5 speaker promotion , it can be said that JBL Authentics is a very interesting choice.
