JBL EON Compact Unboxing/Initial Review

[stephenT]

Mine's on the FedEx truck to be delivered today. My hope is it will be the perfect light weight acoustic guitar amp, PA functions are secondary but important.

I use a Fishman Blackstack or Sunrise w/ the Sunrise Buffer/preamp box which give me enough output for most situations. My bar for the JBL is very high, I'll be comparing it to my Schertler Jam 400.

I'm guessing to access and store the ten band EQ/reverb/delay settings you always need a bluetooth device?

[Cuki79]

Originally Posted by lpa53

I'm clueless about electrical issues, but would using a 1/4-to-XLR adapter into a Mic channel solve the gain problem if one didn't go wireless?

Here is what I understood:

The wireless is just to convert the jack input into hi-Z.

If you don't, all the low end of the K&K is lost.

The jack input 1-2 are gainy enough once the mic setting is chosen.

[roylor4]

Nice review. Sound is good, preamp execution is horrible.

Not getting my 500 bucks. It misses the mark as a grab and go amp IMO. Too bad.

It almost seems like the engineers are building it more for a prosumer speaker for streaming music via Bluetooth. They need to hire some actual musicians.

[AeroUSA]

Originally Posted by roylor4

Nice review. Sound is good, preamp execution is horrible.

Not getting my 500 bucks. It misses the mark as a grab and go amp IMO. Too bad.

It almost seems like the engineers are building it more for a prosumer speaker for streaming music via Bluetooth. They need to hire some actual musicians.

I would agree with you. It’s for DJ’s and gym classes (ducking feature). But the wireless trick works great if you own and use a wireless system.

[lpa53]

Originally Posted by Cuki79

Here is what I understood:

The wireless is just to convert the jack input into hi-Z.

If you don't, all the low end of the K&K is lost.

The jack input 1-2 are gainy enough once the mic setting is chosen.

How does wireless, in and of itself, without regard to delivery hardware, make that conversion? The wireless system I've been using is the generic of the new Carvin 5G offering.

[Groberts]

Thanks Aaron.

[martingitdave]

Originally Posted by Cuki79

Here is what I understood:

The wireless is just to convert the jack input into hi-Z.

If you don't, all the low end of the K&K is lost.

The jack input 1-2 are gainy enough once the mic setting is chosen.

Correct. This is the case with all the JBL products. And, this is my solution for all the portable equipment - a wireless unit.

[martingitdave]

Originally Posted by roylor4

Nice review. Sound is good, preamp execution is horrible.

Not getting my 500 bucks. It misses the mark as a grab and go amp IMO. Too bad.

It almost seems like the engineers are building it more for a prosumer speaker for streaming music via Bluetooth. They need to hire some actual musicians.

I think they are just trying to prevent their primary user group (prosumer) from blowing out their speakers. Every prosumer maker seems to be doing similar things. Pro users can use the speaker with a little work around (mic gain). And, it's relatively cheap. Most pro combo systems with proper class A preamps start around $1000.

[guitargabor]

Excellent review Aaron!Thanks!

Like yourself I also own the Bose S1.My pedal board has a Baggs align pre amp which really helps reducing feedback from the S1.

Do you think the Baggs pre amp will give me enough volume to play outdoors?

Also, i really dig your chair with the high back.What make would that be?

Gabe

[Cuki79]

Originally Posted by lpa53

How does wireless, in and of itself, without regard to delivery hardware, make that conversion? The wireless system I've been using is the generic of the new Carvin 5G offering.

Well... It's the old "impedance matching story".

Here is how I see it:

A passive K&K pickup is just 3 piezo discs connected to an endpin jack. A piezo-ceramic crystal is not a proper source of electricity. It's not able to deliver a strong current and maintain a voltage over a long cable.

A piezo crystal just produce a small amount of "charges" when squeezed or bent. A voltage appears. It is proportionnal to that amont of charges. If you use a low impedance input (low-Z), the charges will be quickly drained and the voltage will collapse (especially at low frequency). If you plug it into a hi-Z impedance input (1 Mohm or higher), you won't need much current to produce a decent voltage.

A line input is a low impedance input (in order of 1-10kohms). Why? Because it is meant to receive a fair amount of current. When you are on stage, you might have very long cable between you and the mixing board. You prefer to have a strong current going through this cable so that the small electromagnetic induced currents (induced noise) are negligible compared to your signal current. That's why DI box and mixing boards have low impedance inputs.

A wireless emitters has usually a high impedance (hi-Z) input, because it does not need to draw much current (no length, no exposure to EMI) and hi-Z inputs are more flexible as they accomodate all kind of sources.

A wireless receiver has usually low impedance output and thus accomodate with line level input. In other words, it has a built-in line driver powered by a battery that is able to supply current as opposed to the bent piezo crystal.

To conclude:
1) When Aaron plugs his passive K&K piezo pickup into the Hi-Z. He does not get degraded tone due to correct impedance matching but has low gain. [as illustrated by his video]

2) When Aaron plugs his K&K pickup into the line input (combo jack), he gets more gain (JBL design) but also a degraded tone because of the impedance mismatch. [NOT illustrated by his video]

3) When Aaron plugs his K&K pickup into a wireless transmitter. He gets proper impedance matching from the wireless.

When he plugs the wireless receiver into the line level (combo jack) he gets the extra gain from inputs 1 and 2 (JBL design) and no impedance mismatch because the wireless receiver is a real electronic device, it is not a piezo crystal... It has a line driver circuit that is powered by a battery that is strong enough to feed the JBL line input with a fair amount of current. [As illustrated at the end of the video]


My 2 cents,
Cuki

[AeroUSA]

I guess it’s fair to complain that JBL could have an option to increase gain but it’s also fair to say the S1 costs more and has limited EQ and effect options.

I will continue to test but my thoughts so far are that the S1 is the most compact. JBL handles bottom end better and has a lot of features and you cannot beat a K10.2 with a Ui24 mixer.

They all have their place and they all have compromises.

[stephenT]

Being a non-fan of the K&K experience, sadly the demo does me no good in understanding how the JBL will work for me. I know a lot of folks seem to like the piezo disc approach, I'm just not that guy.

My intended use is with a magnetic pickup w/ buffer box used in a four piece acoustic band (no drums) and an acoustic duo. I'll post my impressions later today as soon as FedEx stops by.

[DMZ]

Really enjoy all the talking points and demo. Would this provide phantom power my Trance Amulet MVT phantom? Not an expert. I don’t have a need for this amp but then that hasn’t stopped me from GAS in years!

[lpa53]

Originally Posted by Cuki79

Well... It's the old "impedance matching story".

Here is how I see it:

A passive K&K pickup is just 3 piezo discs connected to an endpin jack. A piezo-ceramic crystal is not a proper source of electricity. It's not able to deliver a strong current and maintain a voltage over a long cable.

A piezo crystal just produce a small amount of "charges" when squeezed or bent. A voltage appears. It is proportionnal to that amont of charges. If you use a low impedance input (low-Z), the charges will be quickly drained and the voltage will collapse (especially at low frequency). If you plug it into a hi-Z impedance input (1 Mohm or higher), you won't need much current to produce a decent voltage.

A line input is a low impedance input (in order of 1-10kohms). Why? Because it is meant to receive a fair amount of current. When you are on stage, you might have very long cable between you and the mixing board. You prefer to have a strong current going through this cable so that the small electromagnetic induced currents (induced noise) are negligible compared to your signal current. That's why DI box and mixing boards have low impedance inputs.

A wireless emitters has usually a high impedance (hi-Z) input, because it does not need to draw much current (no length, no exposure to EMI) and hi-Z inputs are more flexible as they accomodate all kind of sources.

A wireless receiver has usually low impedance output and thus accomodate with line level input. In other words, it has a built-in line driver powered by a battery that is able to supply current as opposed to the bent piezo crystal.

To conclude:
1) When Aaron plugs his passive K&K piezo pickup into the Hi-Z. He does not get degraded tone due to correct impedance matching but has low gain. [as illustrated by his video]

2) When Aaron plugs his K&K pickup into the line input (combo jack), he gets more gain (JBL design) but also a degraded tone because of the impedance mismatch. [NOT illustrated by his video]

3) When Aaron plugs his K&K pickup into a wireless transmitter. He gets proper impedance matching from the wireless.

When he plugs the wireless receiver into the line level (combo jack) he gets the extra gain from inputs 1 and 2 (JBL design) and no impedance mismatch because the wireless receiver is a real electronic device, it is not a piezo crystal... It has a line driver circuit that is powered by a battery that is strong enough to feed the JBL line input with a fair amount of current. [As illustrated at the end of the video]


My 2 cents,
Cuki

Thanks for the explanation. What is the dfifference between the line and mic settings on the Eon channels 1 and 2? As I recall, in the video he got more gain for the instrument when setting the channel to mic. I would imagine something is compromised when doing that.

[BoneDigger]

Originally Posted by stephenT

Being a non-fan of the K&K experience, sadly the demo does me no good in understanding how the JBL will work for me. I know a lot of folks seem to like the piezo disc approach, I'm just not that guy.

My intended use is with a magnetic pickup w/ buffer box used in a four piece acoustic band (no drums) and an acoustic duo. I'll post my impressions later today as soon as FedEx stops by.

Will be looking forward to your review!