JBL EON Compact Unboxing/Initial Review

[jonfields45]

Originally Posted by wood nacho

Thanks for this post. I busk full-time in the summer and have been dreaming up a new setup. I had never heard of either of this units and now I have some new ideas after reading your post. Awesome. Thanks.

Can you explain 'and after rectification both PSW and MSW have a list of nasty harmonics that need to be filtered. So no reason to prefer PSW but Amazon has a generous return policy." in layman's terms? Is there noise when using these two units together? Will to much volume shut the whole thing down?

A cheap transformer, in theory, runs hotter with a modified sine wave (MSW). Transformers are only used in expensive gear these days and can take the worst any power supply can deliver.

Cheap electronics won't always be noise free with a dimmer or motor nearby. MSW and PSW (pure sine wave) exhibit similar noise sources in the final analysis but MSW has that noise component as it leaves the inverter. Both should be fine but you can send it back if you've got some older gear that exhibits a problem (the classic example is a tube transformerless black and white TV - got one of those? :-).

[meb]

[QUOTE=stephenT;6217540]Well,.. it's back in the box. I'm afraid I set a high bar as an alternative to hauling my Schertler Jam 400 when I don't need the extra channels and use it as a singular acoustic amp. It is the best acoustic amp I've heard/owned.

Not enough volume for my use, didn't like the initial sound,.. upper mids/top end being harsh to my ear, maybe w/ a mic that wouldn't be a bad thing, might help w clarity. I'm sure you could EQ and get a better sound

From what I recall from my Bose S1 demo at Guitar Center (w my guitar) the Bose sounds better for acoustic. Though I don't think the S1 would suite my needs any better.

Hello StephenT-
I was looking hard at the JBL, but somehow ended up coming home with
an S1 Pro after A-B'ing with a CP8 and K8.2. It even had plenty of gain
for me to directly plug in my Sunrise passive. After your findings with the
JBL, I think this may be a better synergy than the JBL for me. (I also own
the L1C and L1mod2.) The QSCs were a totally different 'laid-back'
presentation vs the S1 Pro's forward projection. The S1 had the most
perceived volume output. The A/B was done with my active AG-6.
You may need some EQ on the Sunrise before you like the sound though.
I wanted more than the TM would give me. It was great thru my
regular rig though.

[Cuki79]

Originally Posted by meb

The S1 had the most perceived volume output. The A/B was done with my active AG-6.

To get enough gain on the QSC K8.2 you must set the sensitivity to MIC in the menu of input A. If you don't, it is going to be very quiet.

I never tried them side by side but from my little experience with those speakers, QSC K8.2 is MUCH louder than the Bose S1 pro.

[DavidE]

Originally Posted by Cuki79

As a general matter it is disappointing. However their is not much competition out there.

The only battery powered speaker with proper gain settings are the Fishman mini charge and the Elite acoustic amps. They are all heavier..

I don't have any gain issues with my S1, so there's another. And it's lighter.

[Cuki79]

Originally Posted by DavidE

I don't have any gain issues with my S1, so there's another. And it's lighter.

What I meant is the presence of physical gain pots. Bose like many competitor uses fixed gain stage and volume pots. However the fixed gain are high enough to provide the expected volume.

Bose only problems are:
1) The battery draining issue that has not been solved yet.
2) the farting issue if your guitar+pickup has too much bottom end

Those are the only reason why I did not buy one and waited for a competitor.

[DavidE]

Originally Posted by martingitdave

I own the Eon One Pro and it works fine for me. Part of the problem is a lack of understanding regarding their mixer layout. The Eon One pro has 4 channels. The first unit (Eon One) did not have a proper high Z input option. But, the new unit solves that problem.

Now, with the Pro, each channel has two fixed gain settings. They are labeled "mic and line". Mic is close to 30dB and line is close to 20dB. Regardless of what you are plugging into it, you can choose one of those two. I don't have any issues with using the higher "mic" gain setting for any of my inputs. In addition, the first two channels have a phantom power option and the last two channels have a high Z option. Again these phantom and high Z work with either fixed gain setting. It works great for my purposes.

The only problem I have with new Compact unit is that they kept the first two channels the same, but they deviated from the Pro design and eliminated the higher gain option from the High Z (3rd) channel. This makes it too weak for a passive pickup without a preamp.

Now, there are users, like DavidE, for whom the 30dB gain is simply not enough for their instruments and mics. This makes the JBL product a non-starter for him. But, this is all dependent on need and use case. For me, the Pro design, with an app for the effects and EQ, would have been the perfect solution.

If I were to purchase a Eon One Compact, I would probably limiting myself to the two channels, as I don't typically use any pedals that would make channel 3 usable. I would use my wireless system to correct impedance for the guitar with passive K&K into channel 2. Channel 3 would not be usable without a pedal or preamp. I'm not sure, for me, the EQ and effects are enough reason to change from the Bose S1 Pro to the Eon One. But, if I were starting from scratch, I might get the JBL for the added features knowing that 30 dB is enough gain for me, and I would only be using two channels.

I bought one of the Eon One Pro units when Sweetwater was selling some B stock dirt cheap. $400? $499? I can't remember which. It basically had little volume. I'd have to look at my email correspondance with JBL, but they knew there was a design issue though not too many complained. They were working on a fix, but couldn't tell me when it would available. After trying two units from Sweetwater, I just returned it. Months later I got a call from JBL claiming they have a fix. Too late. They said the same with my original Eon One but what they did was add gain to the mic channels. They didn't do anything for the line level channel. I don't know how they got that wrong since I was very clear about the issue.

Anyway, I'm still interested in the JBL compact if I can use a wireless from the guitar to the third channel and get enough gain. My guitars have preamps built in and I now run it through an AD10 usually. My duo is two mics and 1 guitar, so a workable 3 input mixer would be great. With my S1s, I have to take a Bose T4 mixer.

[BoneDigger]

Mine should be here tomorrow. I have not tried the Bose yet, so I don't have direct experience for comparison purposes. Right now I am using a Fishman Loudbox Mini Charge. It's a nice little amp, though battery swaps are a mess! I look forward to just seeing how it works for my needs. If it works well I'll keep it. If not, it'll head back from whence it came.

[Cuki79]

Originally Posted by BoneDigger

Mine should be here tomorrow. I have not tried the Bose yet, so I don't have direct experience for comparison purposes. Right now I am using a Fishman Loudbox Mini Charge. It's a nice little amp, though battery swaps are a mess! I look forward to just seeing how it works for my needs. If it works well I'll keep it. If not, it'll head back from whence it came.

We are waiting for your feedback!

[stephenT]

Excellent, I liked the sound of the Bose. Glad you found something that works for you.

Originally Posted by meb

Hello StephenT-
I was looking hard at the JBL, but somehow ended up coming home with
an S1 Pro after A-B'ing with a CP8 and K8.2. It even had plenty of gain
for me to directly plug in my Sunrise passive. After your findings with the
JBL, I think this may be a better synergy than the JBL for me. (I also own
the L1C and L1mod2.) The QSCs were a totally different 'laid-back'
presentation vs the S1 Pro's forward projection. The S1 had the most
perceived volume output. The A/B was done with my active AG-6.
You may need some EQ on the Sunrise before you like the sound though.
I wanted more than the TM would give me. It was great thru my
regular rig though.

[Cuki79]

Hi StephenT

Did you also Fokine the QSC CP8 to be quieter than the Bose S1?

I find it very surprising...

[stephenT]

Quieter, yes. And much louder.

Originally Posted by Cuki79

Hi StephenT

Did you also Fokine the QSC CP8 to be quieter than the Bose S1?

I find it very surprising...

[meb]

Cuki and StephenT- for my quick and dirty comparisons I simply ran
a TS cable from my guitar to the input of the speaker being tested.
I think we must assume the salesperson did NOT have the sensitivity
set to MIC. I guess that would make my comparison pretty worthless; :-(
CRAP!

I guess I need to rerun the comparison. Do you have
any thoughts as to whether a T1 mixer which uses TRS and not xlr
would be able to get the most out of the QSC's

Thanks.

[stephenT]

I'm going into a Sunrise buffer/preamp w/ 12db boost, similar to an active system. I'm running a healthy signal into the CP8 and I have the gain at +4 on the CP8.

At that level the CP8 matches the volume I use on my Schertler Jam 400 for the loudest acoustic gig I do w/ two other acoustic players each w/ amps and a amplified stand up bass in a medium sized club. At that volume the bottom is tight and the speaker still sounds neutral to my ear, and still has a good dynamic range. This is all in my studio, I have that gig coming up this weekend so we'll see.

Also have a month of Mondays w/ acoustic duo at a BBQ place and I'm looking forward to not hauling the Jam 400.

Originally Posted by meb

Cuki and StephenT- for my quick and dirty comparisons I simply ran
a TS cable from my guitar to the input of the speaker being tested.
I think we must assume the salesperson did NOT have the sensitivity
set to MIC. I guess that would make my comparison pretty worthless; :-(
CRAP!

I guess I need to rerun the comparison. Do you have
any thoughts as to whether a T1 mixer which uses TRS and not xlr
would be able to get the most out of the QSC's

Thanks.

[BoneDigger]

Mine was just delivered. I won't have much time to play around with it until later but should have some initial thoughts later tonight.

[DavidE]

Originally Posted by Cuki79

What I meant is the presence of physical gain pots. Bose like many competitor uses fixed gain stage and volume pots. However the fixed gain are high enough to provide the expected volume.

Bose only problems are:
1) The battery draining issue that has not been solved yet.
2) the farting issue if your guitar+pickup has too much bottom end

Those are the only reason why I did not buy one and waited for a competitor.

The lack of gain pots doesn't bother me. There's enough gain to easiy go in the red on both channels.

Yeah, the wait for the battery drain issue is getting ridiculous. Poorly handled in my opinion.

It farts out when using too much bass. I sometimes use too much bass.....