JBL Monitor deal
 

The JBL LSR305s are on sale at Musicians Friend for $99 - for the black ones, not just the ugly red ones. the LSR308s are $199 (normal sale price). If you've got room behind the monitors, or bass traps (they have rear bass port) these are one of the best low-priced monitors you can get.
I paid $225 for a pair of the 305s several years ago, have not seen the black ones this low before.

Correction these are th best bookshelf speakers you can buy under 1000$ per speaker period

As flat a response in and off axis as you can get these are phenomenal. They use the same waveguide as jbl's M2 which is a 10,000$ speaker

just ordered a pair...if you call they can gice you another 17% off!

paid 168$ shipped....this is an absolute STEAL for these...

These are pretty interesting speakers in the budget price category and getting great reviews in their price range and slightly higher. And at this nice discounted price ....Probably a genuine bargain .

I could not actually find a frequency response chart on the JBL web site
but I am a big fan of waveguide technology

I haven't heard them but here are some observations from Sound on Sound and Mix Magazine

From Mix magazine 2014
"The LSR305 is by far the best-sounding monitor I’ve heard for under $200 to date. In fact, its performance rivals that of many monitors that are several times more expensive. If you’re looking for an inexpensive near-field monitor that handily outperforms its price tag’s promise, this is the one to buy.

" PROS: Incredibly wide soundstage. Broad sweet spot. Excellent imaging, transient response, midrange clarity and depth. Built-in filters. Very inexpensive.

CONS: Bass sounds a bit pillowy.

BY MICHAEL COOPER



From Sound on Sound 2014
There's a great sense of focus and excellent stereo imaging, perhaps at the expense of a slightly 'forward' upper mid-range. I could hear the same kind of tonality when tapping the plastic flare with a fingernail, so maybe there's just a little coloration being added by tiny resonances in the material. In any event, this is fairlysubtle and doesn't make for a fatiguing listening experience. There is in fact more of a three-dimensional aspect to the sound than I hear from most budget monitors, as well as a usefully wide sweet spot, so that shaped waveguide flare is clearly doing something useful.

Since they are rear ported, you have to be a little careful when positioning the speakers relative to walls (this is especially true for the larger LSR308s), and even when spacing these a metre or so from the wall I found there was still a hint of 'pluminess' to the sound of bass guitars and kick drums, probably attributable to the inevitable LF time smearing that goes hand in hand with port tuning. Realistically though, this attribute is evident with most ported monitors, and it is not excessive in this case. There's always that rear panel switch you can use to drop the bass end by a couple of dBs if you find the lows too lively in your own room.

Any appraisal of these speakers has to be made in the context of their supremely attractive price, and even though we've seen some excellent budget speakers enter the marketplace in recent years, these monitors certainly deserve to be on your short list for auditioning. The LSR305s offer great clarity and sound adequately solid without the deep lows playing havoc when working in a small or acoustically unsympathetic room.



I would think for somebody wanting to get into studio monitors at as modest a price point possible these deserve a close look

Sweetwater (and several other retailers) have the black LSR305's at $99, plus Sweetwater automatically extends the warranty for an additional year.

For the 305s, the low end is spec-ed by JBL @ 43Hz. I found this FR curve: http://noaudiophile.com/JBL_LSR305/J...305_Flater.jpg which shows they are +/-5dB from 43hz up with the exception of a few frequencies and at 40Hz, have dropped off by 10 dB.

:confused: doesn't that graph show from about 110 to 550 as being more like +/- 10 db ?

If you take 90db as the baseline and are generous, the deviations don't seem to be more than about +6 and -7db in the region you quote. I'd probably want a subwoofer, though. ;) That area from 65 to 110 is a pretty big carve-out.

Bob

I mix without a sub (room is not set up to handle one well), and check my mixes on a 5.1 system, and the bass (kick, electric bass guitar, keys) all translate pretty well - but of course I have 'learned' the JBLs, too.