Ok so that’s a bit of an overstatement, but to be honest the JBL L890 speakers are big, bloody big. Coming in at a pretty impressive 42.1 inches tall and 10.2 inches across these things look impressive and will definitely make it obvious to visitors that you’re serious about your sounds. You are going to need a large room for these or they are going to look kind of awkward and out of place, you are also going to have to give these things a foot or two space from your walls to get the best out of them. The front panel of the L890s is not exactly simple in look having to carry a 3/4″ Mylar dome UHF, a 1″ titanium dome tweeter, a 4″ midrange, and two 8″ woofers arranged top to bottom. This might crowd a normal sized speaker, but as I said earlier these things are man enough to handle it without looking ridiculous or overcrowded.

JBL L890 Floorstanding Speaker

Check JBL L890 8-Inch 4-Way Dual Floorstanding Loudspeaker current pricing on Amazon

So as I said the general appearance of these things is “Serious heavy duty kit”, and that theme is carried through to the sound. We tested these these both with and without the recommended JBL L8400P 12-Inch Powered Subwoofer and though the L80400P did add some reinforcement in the bottom end we found that the output of the JBL L890 speakers was extremely powerful and listenable on their own. The stereo soundstaging was excellent and gave over a very well balanced feel to sonic movement in the various material we put through them. The sonic response was in general excellent and very easy on the ear excepting a slight harshness at the very top end when played at high volumes, this problem was easily resolved with a light EQ cut at 4Kz and 9Kz. This could also be resolved by matching the system with a less top heavy sound source. In the end we found these speakers to give best results for reproducing punchy impactful source material, action sequences, bassy dance, hip hop and rock music music all fared well as did more bombastic passages of classical and jazz. We did from time to time feel that the L890s were ever so slightly lacking in subtlety in the quieter passages of some of the acoustic music we played. Over all these speakers would be ideal as part of a home theathre set-up or for those who tend to like it loud and heavy, perhaps not so much for the trad jazz on vinyl crowd.

Pros:

• Exceent Soundstaging and precision of sound
• Easily Driven
• Punchy and Impactful sound
• Mostly neutral, may introduce a little in the top end of the spectrum

Cons:

• Can be a little hash at the top end at high volumes
• Not fantastic for listening to intimate quiet material
• Pretty Large & Heavy
• To get fuller bass end we suggest paring with an appropriate sub

Manufacturers Specifications

• Maximum Output Power: 1000 Watts
• Frequency Response: Hz: 28 – 40000
• Impedence: 8 Ohms
• Sensitivity: 91 dB
• Connectivity: Wired
• 1″ pure titanium dome tweeter for exceptional high frequency performance
• Aluminum waveguides provide better dispersion and a larger listening sweet spot
• Freeflow port technology for low THD
• Gold-plated, 5-way bi-wirable binding post
• Single unit, packed and sold separately
• Dimensions Depth: 15 inches, Height: 42.1 inches, Width: 10.2 inches
• Weight: 60.2 pounds
• RRP: $799.00 Per Speaker (Check JBL L890 8-Inch 4-Way Dual Floorstanding Loudspeaker current pricing on Amazon)

Tweet This Post

Thankfully this first impression does last. We found the components to be easy to install and rig up (for the more impatient of you the set comes with its own ample supply of wire in the box) and after installation the sound give off by this reasonably compact system is actually quite exceptional for this price bracket (especially when recent pricing cuts are taken into account).

Audio performance wise the systems bass end is tight and has good power and punch, enough volume to entirely fill all but the biggest of living spaces. The center channel is crisp and with no discernible distortion even at high volume levels, the surround units create a nice and consistent audio environment and work well in balance with the center channel. The subwoofer is almost unnecessary but still adds a nice deep sonic edge to the system. You don’t at any point feel that the systems sound gets mushy or out of focus from any point in the room. Over all we rated this system 4.5 to 5 stars. We feel that this is definitely one of the best 5.1 speaker set-ups available for under $1000.

JBL CS6100BG 6-Piece Home Theater Speaker System

Check current JBL CS6100BG Home Theater Speaker System pricing on Amazon

Technical Specifications

• Overall Frequency Response 30Hz – 20kHz (–6dB)

Satellite Speakers

• Maximum Recommended Amplifier Power 100 Watts
• Impedance 8 Ohms nominal
• Sensitivity 88dB @ 1 Watt/1 meter
• Frequency Response 100Hz – 20kHz (–6dB)
• High-Frequency Driver 1/2″ (13mm) Titanium-laminate dome, video-shielded
• Midrange Driver Dual 3-1/2″ (75mm) Drivers, video-shielded
• Dimensions (H x W x D) 11-3/8″ x 5-1/8″ x 3-3/8″ (289mm x 131mm x 86mm)
• Weight 3.2 lb (1.5kg)

Center Channel Speaker

• Maximum Recommended Amplifier Power 100 Watts
• Impedance 8 Ohms nominal
• Sensitivity 88dB @ 1 Watt/1 meter
• Frequency Response 100Hz – 20kHz (–6dB)
• High-Frequency Driver 1/2″ (13mm) Titanium-laminate dome, video-shielded
• Midrange Driver Dual 3-1/2″ (75mm) drivers, video-shielded
• Dimensions (H x W x D) 5-1/4″ x 11-3/8″ x 3-3/8″ (133mm x 289mm x 86mm)
• Weight 3.2 lb (1.5kg)

Subwoofer

• Amplifier Power (RMS) 300 Watts Peak 150 Watts RMS
• Frequency Response 30Hz – 120Hz (–6dB)
• Low-Frequency Driver 10″ (250mm) Woofer, bass-reflex enclosure
• Dimensions (H x W x D) (including feet) 18-1/2″ x 12-3/4″ x 15″ (470mm x 324mm x 381mm)
• Weight 41 lb (17.3kg)

General

• Optional Accessories CS Stand – Floor Stands For CS480 and CS6100
• CS600SAT – Pair pack of two matching satellites to expand to 7-channels
• Original RRP: $1,199 (Check current JBL CS6100BG Home Theater Speaker System pricing on Amazon)

Tweet This Post

Basic Features
The AVR-2809CI comes with 4 HDMI 1.3a inputs and a Faroudja FLi2310 to allow convertsion of analogue signals to 1080p, audio wise it also decodes Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio ensuring great audio from Blu Ray players. Overall the AVR-2809CI does a fantastic job with diverse video and audio sources.

Denon AVR-2809CI Front - Click to enlarge

Check current Amazon Pricing on the Denon AVR-2809CI Home Theater Receiver

Interesting features

The AVR-2809CI comes with Audyssey Dynamic Volume, and Audyssey Dynamic EQ the first of which is an audio mode that keeps a stable volume level to stop the annoying tendency for commercials to be played at a louder volume than programming that gets on so many peoples nerves these days, I see this feature as a great boon that is likely to be used by many owners. Secondly there is the Audyssey Dynamic EQ which is supposed to make quiteter passages sound richer. We felt that this option didn’t really deliver and in fact we felt the unit performed better and with more clarity with this feature left off. Denon has also fitted the AVR-2809CI with Audyssey MultEQ® XT, a proprietary automatic speaker calibration system. The units included microphone is used to analyze sound from up to eight different listening positions, then automatically adjusts level, equalization, and delay settings for each speaker. We found this feature quite interesting and fairly simple to set up, likely to keep the tweakers amongst you happy for quite some time.

General Sound & Specifications

The surround processing section of the AVR-2809CI is powered by two 32 bit floating point DSP chips, and features extremely high resolution surround decoding with 192kHz/24-bit digital-to-analog converters for all channels. The  seven channel amplifier section features 115 watts of power per channel, and provides the choice of driving a 5.1 channel system in the main room, with another stereo speaker pair in another room with independent source selection.

The AVR-2809CI’s channel isolation is second to none and provides excellent signal purity, the unit also includes denons “Dynamic Discrete Surround Circuit” technolgy which gives you discrete circuit blocks for such tasks as DtoA conversion, AtoD and surround decoding. All of which makes for an extremely clear, responsive and pure sound.

Manufacturers Specifications

• 115 watts x 7 into 8 ohms (20-20,000 Hz) at 0.05% THD
• 192kHz/24-bit digital-to-analog converters for all channels
• Dolby® TrueHD, DTS-HD™ Master Audio, Dolby® Digital Plus, DTS-HD™ High Resolution Audio, Dolby® Digital EX, DTS-ES™, Pro Logic® IIx, and DTS Neo:6 decoding
• Audyssey Laboratories’ MultEQ® XT eight-point auto setup and room calibration system (microphone included)
• XM Satellite Radio Ready (requires XM subscription and optional XM Mini-Tuner package)
• Neural Surround decoder for XM’s HD Surround channels
• ALPHA 24 Plus upsampling for stereo digital sources
• Dolby Pro Logic IIx – with Cinema, Music, Game Modes
• Active Center Channel In All Surround Modes
• Pure Direct/Direct/Stereo Modes on Digital/Analog inputs
• Analog Audio Inputs, Incl. Tuner: 11 (inc XM)
• Phono Input: MM type
• Analog Record Outputs: 2Composite Video Inputs: 7 (inc 1 in front)
• Composite Video Outputs: 2 (plus Mon/Z2)
• S-Video Inputs: 7 (inc 1 in front)
• S-Video Outputs: 2 (plus Mon)
• Component Video Inputs: 2
• Component Video Outputs: 2 Main Zone
• Dolby Digital Surround EX Decoding
• dts ES Discrete 6.1 Decoding
• dts ES Matrix 6.1 Decoding
• dts Neo:6 Stereo-to-Surround Cinema and Music Modes
• dts 96/24 5.1 for DVD-Video Processing
• dts-HD Master Audio
• SIRIUS satellite radio capable (requires SIRIUS subscription and optional SiriusConnect™ home tuner kit)
• iPod® integration (requires optional Denon ASD-11R, ASD-3N, or ASD-3W)
• Compressed Audio Restorer for better sound with compressed music sources like MP3 files
• Audyssey Dynamic EQ™ for fuller sound at lower listening levels
• Audyssey Dynamic Volume mode to keep listening levels steadythree-room/three-source output:
• line-level and powered stereo audio output with volume, balance and tone control for 2nd room (using powered 2nd room stereo output allows 5.1 home theater in main room)
• composite video output for 2nd room
• line-level stereo audio output with volume control for 3rd room
• conversion of optical or coaxial digital signals to analog audio output for 2nd and 3rd rooms (PCM signals only)
• high-current, low-impedance amp design
• Pure Direct modes switch off all unneeded circuitry for the cleanest possible sound
• on-screen display for easier system setup and operation
• learning/multibrand touchscreen electro-luminescent remote
• basic remote for second or third listening room (requires remote control extender system, not included)

Denon AVR-2809CI Back - Click to enlarge

Check current Amazon Pricing on the Denon AVR-2809CI Home Theater Receiver

Connectors

• 1080p-compatible HDMI digital video switching (4 in, 1 out)
• analog-to-HDMI video upconversion (up to 1080p) with Faroudja DCDi™ video processing and scaling
• HDMI version 1.3a with support for Deep Color, x.v.Color, auto lip-sync, 7.1 uncompressed 24/96 audio, DVD-Audio, SACD, and HDMI-CEC
• component video switching (3 in, 1 out)
• component video conversion (composite to S-video, or composite and S-video to component)
• digital audio inputs: 3 optical (including 1 front panel), 3 coaxial
• digital audio outputs: 1 optical
• 7 audio/video inputs, including: 1 front-panel & 6 rear-panel inputs with composite and S-video
• 2 audio-only inputs (inc phono)
• 7.1-channel analog audio preamp input
• 7.1-channel analog audio preamp output
• RS-232C port for automated control systems
• detachable power cord
• 2 sets of main speaker outputs
• back surround speaker channels re-assignable for bi-amping front left and right speakers

Physical Specifications

• Weight: 28.2 lbs
• Width:17.1 inches
• Height: 6.75 inches
• Depth: 16.55 inches
• Warranty: 2 years
• RRP: $1,199.00 (Check current Amazon Pricing on the Denon AVR-2809CI Home Theater Receiver)

Tweet This Post