THE EMPIRE
Hey Team,
So today we’re taking a look at hte Quantum Duo desktop ( PC intended) Speakers from JBL
Usual disclaimer, these are not gifted. On loan for review and evaluation purpose only – This is not sponsored at all.. ( do we really need to point that out every fuckin time? )
Anyway..
So As you guys know from reviews we’ve previously done we generally like what JBL does, from their party boxes to their wireless earbuds etc. So my hopes for these speakers was quite high. As far as I know these are the only ones they have done so far and the first time they have had a crack at this market. I think for the PC people wanting speakers tend to go for logitech cause they are generally the only PC speakers in most shops. Now that I think of it, MY PC speakers I’m listening to music on as I write this are Logitech Z533’s I think i picked up from harvey norman about 4 years ago. which have served their purpose well and are what I compared these QuantumDuo’s against as I had them set up right next to each other – Now the Z533’s do have a subwoofer but we’l get into that in a bit. That said, I had hoped for a lot from these speakers so lets crack into it
Specs
Transducers 2.5″ woofer, 0.75″ tweeter
Rated output power 20W RMS
Frequency response 60 Hz – 20K Hz
Signal-to-noise ratio >80 dB
Dimensions (W x H x D) 89 x 210 x 176 mm each
Weight 2.8 kg
So as I said I’m going to be losely comparing these to my Logitech (60wRMS) speakers purely because its what I have, I have been looking to upgrade these for better audio for video editing but to be honest havent found anything I’ve loved and am in part waiting till I get my shit together and build my PC desk.
Connection is a piece of cake, straight into the USB and it sorted itself out entirely – became an option on my sound out put options and they were away. The Duo’s also have Bluetooth which again was a simple connection but I wonder why you would want to stream music from your phone when you’re already connected to your PC? I guess its a nice to have and they clearly have the technology to just chuck it in, but it seemed a bit redundant to me.
Size wise they are a fair bit taller than my Logi’s but if you only run 1 monitor that wont be an issue. Running 2 or 3 monitors you’d either need to space them far apart or have them on a shelf because annoyingly, they only have feet for upright orientation. I would have liked to have seen a side feet option or even be wall mountable. there’s a great big volume knob on the fron of the left side speaker which is handy, personally I had them sitting at 80% and I adjust my volumes off either the windows overall slider or my DAC ( which these were not running through)
The RGB is cool if you’re into that – it wont sync with the Razer Software that I could see ( that would be a nice to have) but with a wide range of static colour options you can get a nice clean overall look – they can cycle or be reactive which is cool if you’re into that, I however am not I just like 1 clean colour which is usually green on black.
So the sound all important, not bad – just not very big ( heard that before) – the sound is clear and can get a bit of volume, But switching between 2.0 of the Duo and the 2.1 ( subwoofer) of the Logitech, the Logitech speakers just give such a fuller sound profile which is great for all aspects. I play music all day every day when I’m sitting at my computer and I like to feel it, these Duo’s fall short of delievering that – however if you just want something to get by on, and take into account the cool factor, they are pretty cool.
But at $100 more than my current speakers I see no reason to change from what I have to these Duos. and for the price of the Duo’s you could also get the Razer Nommo speakers which are 2.0 with all the chroma sync.
So I’m a little disappointed that these fell short of expecations, however its not a bad starting place for JBL. I’d like it if they had another crack at something more powerful. We know they have the skill to make a pumping system with great sound profiles. Lets see that adapted to the Gaming PC range.
Any questions fire them through
Nick
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