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JBL MS-62c First impressions. These surprised the hell out of me!

235K views 837 replies 154 participants last post by  Anamolydetected 
#1 ·
Ok, I do not normally post reviews on DIYMA but I am pretty excited about these components and figured I would share my experience with them. First, some of my previous commercial component sets I have used in my Infiniti qx4 include: Alpine SPX-17pro's , MB Quart PSD 216's, Rainbow Profi Vanadium CS365, Kef Kar series uni-q 6.5's. I have also ran a 3 way active set up using the peerless sls 6.5, Fountek FR88EX, and the seas 27TAFNC/G. I have been into car/home audio for many years and am also an avid drummer. Ok, so I am not coming from Sony Xplode gear or the legendary Roadmaster ;) . Lets get on to my set up. My source is a Pioneer DEH-80prs. The amp I am running is an ARC XXK-4150. two channels running to the fronts and two channels bridged to my single phoenix gold rsd 10, a nice subwoofer for the dollar.


On with it. I have been content with my Kef's for a while but, The ferrofluid in one of my tweeters dried up, a common problem with older Kef tweeters. This left me looking for a new set to keep me happy during rush hour. I did not want to spend very much as I was just looking for something to get me by until I figure out something serious. Anyways, It was between these and some rainbow slc265.ng's. They share the same basket. I thought that was strange. I have had a few rainbow set ups and have only been impressed with the profi line so I kind of just said what the hell and ordered the jbls for $187.00 via Ebay.


So they get here a few days ago and to my surprise they seemed very well built. The woofers build quality seemed much higher than the other commercial sets I've ran, other than the SPX17-pro's which are about the same. The tweeters are titanium inverted domes, similar to focal, but not in sound. Good build quality all around. Of course, the crossovers are not as impressive as the type x's but they are solid.

I managed to get them installed the same night and have been listening to them for the last two days.



So far, I would have to say that these are the highest value purchase I have made in car audio. Being a drummer, cymbal accuracy is very important to me. I had always heard that MB Quart Titanium tweeters were the best at this aspect. Hah. In my install the MB's were good on certain songs but fell apart while trying to reproduce anything complex. Miles Davis, decent. Nirvana, Ouch! I do not know who made the tweeter in this set but without a doubt, these JBL tweeters have more air and leading edge detail than any other compact tweeter I have ever used. I do not know how they sound so good. No Focal/MB Quart harshness what so ever! They remind me of the
cal26 titans but without the grain and fatigue at louder listening levels.


The mids perform very well. They have the midrange accuracy of the SPX-17pro's and the mid bass of the rainbows. One thing that I enjoyed about the MB Quarts was that even though their excursion capabilities were far less than the others, they managed to have a snap and awesome upper midbass-lower midrange. Toms always sounded full with the MB Quarts. The Alpines were the weakest in that area. Rainbow's and JBL's are right in the middle. I think the JBL's can go a little bit lower but I don't plan on high passing below 63hz/12db.



Overall I am astonished so far. It is a nice relief to not have to spend $500-700 on a two way "commercial' set up to reach acceptable fidelity. If anyone else has used these I would love to hear what you think of them.

Well that's it for now. It's late..... Wheel Auto part Automotive wheel system Rim


Audio equipment Electronic instrument Computer speaker Loudspeaker Technology


Loudspeaker Audio equipment Subwoofer Car subwoofer Sound box


Auto part Rim Tire Automotive wheel system Wheel
 
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#329 ·
I got mines from Savinglots.com, but for only a few bucks cheaper ($172 shipped) I'd say it's not worth it. I didn't investigate (rushing like a kid on xmas) who I was dealing with. I received it, but didn't get a tracking number. Just as I was about to call & cancel the order, I got home & seen the delivery. For safety sakes & peace of mind (not to mention I don't know if they're authorized, doubt they are) I would just order from Sonic.
 
#335 ·
Doubt that's going to happen anytime soon unless you can get them directly from JBL. At that point, you'd be better off buying a the entire comp set at the cheapest prices from a distributor then offing the mids/xover to offset the price. I'm sure JBL will be almost near that price since they are selling the GTO tweets for $99. By the time they start offering the tweets separately you may be able to find them elsewhere for about half... maybe. I just don't see that happening anytime soon since this is a tier below their flagship comp sets, but I could be wrong.
 
#337 ·
I've got to add to the chorus of praise for this set. While they aren't perfect, they are darn good for people who want to install, set gains, and enjoy music and not have to go jumping through hoops trying to get a set to sound good. I'd bet my impressions would be much better if my tweeters weren't mounted so far away from the mids.
 
#340 · (Edited)
Ok, finally got my WT3 running on my old XP desktop. Good thing I it kept around. :D Here's the results after several sweeps starting from successful calibrations. Keep in mind when using the WT3 actual cone diameter plus half surround (peak to peak) is used which yields roughly about 5" diameter for the MS-62c. This is not an oversized driver like the usual JBL comps. Since xmax is not given in the spec sheet it is unknown at this time.


SPL (1w/1m)= 86.53

RE= 2.952 ohms

Fs= 67.29hz

Qts= .6278

Qes= .7267

Qms= 4.614

Le= .6457 mh

Mms= 18.18 grams

Vas= .2451 cu ft

Xmax= N/A



All parameters check out in BB6 Pro and shows the driver to be more suited to vented enclosures which is obvious from the Fs/Qes ratio shown above. Sealed box with a Qtc of .707 is in .235 cu ft heavily stuffed with a F3 around 92hz. Won't bother with ported. I'll let someone else do that. Insignificant as we all know in car audio, but figured I'd include that for anyone thinking about kicks. Also shows JBL's use of factoring in cabin gain. I've noticed this same thing before with a Diamond audio 5.25" comp set when tested. The driver's parameters suggested it was more suited for vented, but IB in the door it performed great with surprising amounts of midbass for it's size as compared to drivers more suited for sealed and seemingly IB. Just goes to show how we should not get hung up on parameters for IB, especially for midwoofers ran above Fs.
 
#341 ·
Also, for anyone wondering about the tweeter's resonance, an impedance sweep shows a peak around 2800hz. The tweeter also registered at 3.9 ohms Typical for a small format metal tweeter, but speaks nothing of the actual dynamics of the driver. At least there's a starting point for active xover points.
 
#342 ·
Got some play time with these puppies today since I finally have both installed. Decided to run passive with the tweets directly above the woofer behind the door card. I thought that would screw up imaging, but it actually enhanced it for me. Localization was difficult across the whole spectrum (think my new ported enclosure for my ID10 helped), midbass was dramatically improved, and the clarity! Oh, how clear my system is now.

I tested on various tracks like Romeo Machado and Satisfaction from the Focal discs, a couple soft rock pieces, and some electronic/EDM from Sander Van Doorn and Nero. Everything was played extremely well and I was absolutely gushing over the fact I was hearing new details in songs I hadn't previously heard. There's clear separation between picked notes on a guitar, the cymbal crashes are the most accurate I've heard from a door speaker (attack and release were spot on), and vocals were buttery smooth. There were new basslines that were fiercely prominent and sounded like they came from an actual bass guitar instead of some half-assed attempts at notes.

I ended up putting a layer of CLD in between each metal/MDF and MDF/MDF surface as well as a ring of CCF weatherstrip between the speaker ring and the midrange itself. Finally, I added one more layer of CLD to cover the CCF which overlapped the outer ring of the woofer itself. I feel this was the best method of creating a true IB environment without severe modifications and the payout is palpable.

No worries about harshness of tweets, even directly on axis (only on axis while wrapping up laying CLD on the doors). JBL scored a slam dunk in this regard. To make a metal dome that sounds so lifelike and accurate without being ear-bleeding harsh is a modern marvel IMO.

Final note was the natural accuracy of this component set. I noticed that my EQ curve when referenced with an RTA was significantly flatter than previous. I still had to make a couple cuts at 400Hz and 8Khz, but only at -4dB instead of a more severe -6 to -8 that I've had to in the past. Otherwise, everything else is pretty much flat from the get-go.

Definitely a believer in the MS62c. I can only imagine the benefits of going active with this set, but will be waiting quite some time before I make that step. Probably in the next vehicle...
 
#350 · (Edited)
My p900.4 and ms-62's showed up on Friday.

The way the Jaguar xj6 is built, speaker mounts are on the door card instead of the inner door skin. the over all O.D size is much bigger than the factory 6.5's. After some dremel work and 1/4 speaker ring to give some clearance to the speaker surround, these guys got mounted nice n tight. The doors need some deadening treatment but for the most part solid.

I ran them active with the gains set to 12' clock on the mids and tweets. mids are crossed at 63hz to handle songs like off Nirvana's In Utero Album, Rage against the machine's Evil Umpire album and of course a favorite of mine, RHCP's Californication album. Rap music pretty much falls in this slope also.

Some songs I can bump down to 50hz and sometimes 40hz with the likes of Pat Benatar's Love is a battlefield and Blondie's Girls just wanna have fun. Same goes for the majority of The Beatles work.

As for the tweets, they are currently low passed at 2 hz along with the mid's high pass at 2hz also. I'm still fighting with how low or high to pass the tweeters. I have had them at 2500 and even 3100 hz. I'm still undecided but 2hz is fine for now till I get some more listening time in. On Nirvana work, I have had to turn the tweet levels down -2 on the deck to tame the highs when he just goes berserk at the end of some songs off "Live at the Reading festival.

I'm looking forward to playing Smashing pumpkin's Mellon Collie and the infinite sadness album to hear some piano and some more subdue clearer tracks like 1979 to possibly dial in the tweet crossover alittle better.

The amp is rated 145 per channel and they pack a good punch for the sane listener. Beware, I'm testing the limits of the mid as I have had it down to 50hz testing some slopes and cranked up at 24-25 on my Alpine 9887. I had a slight coil smell start to fill the cabin and backed off to 63hz quickly and it went away.

Overall, I'm very pleased with my purchase including the amp. I had a discus 4125 before this one and the ppi with it's much smaller footprint barely register's a lukewarm temp compared to the Discus registering a temp much closer to the phoenix sun during similar time trials.

Thanks guys!
 
#354 ·
update...

after some time listening and reversing polarity of my passenger side mid, my bass was more responsive and pronounced. I then set my T.A. 3.6cm LF and 6.7cm LR (Tweet). I also have cut the gain to the tweets -3 on the deck and crossed at 3.1 or 3.5 hz. Mids are now high passed 2.5.

THIS IS AWESOME :) All I need is a pair of 8's to fill in the sub stage then cut the mids alittle higher to about maybe 80hz and retune.

Looks like the JBL 8's or typer R 8's fed by a ppi 2 channel will work.
 
#356 ·
I saw a post on one of the pages that I don't feel like finding where someone was having problems with the tweeters.

I installed this set the other day and the mid is fantastic but the tweeters sound absolutely horrific and its very disappointing.
Super harsh and static-y, BUT the static is present even with the volume at 0, which leads me to believe that this is not a speaker problem but an amp problem (I searched the problem I'm having on forums and someone said that when they switched to a better amp the problem ceased to exist).
The problem was not there with my previous speakers on the same amp so I'm very confused. They are powerbass 2xl coaxs and they sounded way better than the JBL's do right now; the **** man lol.
I almost have a new amp picked out, either jbl804ez or ppi p9004, but if I don't need to buy one because this is not the source of the problem then that would be great. Current amp is autotek10004.

Please help lol, I really only have one day left to mess with everything before I go back to school.
 
#357 ·
Have you tried swapping the channels you are using ok the autotek, or are you bridging? You are using the supplied crossover correct? I'm assuming you aren't running active with an external processor or head unit?
 
#364 ·
I only listened to them for about 20 minutes and wow. Have them on-axis and they're so loud and clear, and keep sounding better with increase in volume.

The tweeter is great on and off axis but I like my music really loud so I prefer on-axis right now. (using the velcro idea for placement from a post on this thread I think)

I can feel the vocals and I didn't even know that was possible. They sound wonderful with my hu setting of 2.5kHz. (also used this idea from a post on this thread; so helpful)

The midbass is great. I have never really heard such a tight snap from door speakers like this. I can only imagine how they would sound if my doors were sealed and deadened, with a better amp powering them. No offense to the autotek of course, it has served its job quite well but it is time for an upgrade. :]

I'll post again after playing some more. Great experience so far though.
 
#366 ·
If your doors are not optimized, then yeah, you're truly missing out on the mids. That applies to just about any midwoofer that goes in the doors though. Honestly, it is the tweets that are stealing the show here. The woofers definitely are nice, but the tweets ability to merge with the mids is very impressive. I am using staggered xover points to correspond to a hot spot in my vehicle (mid lowpasses at 2khz down in doors, tweeter 3.15khz on dash). I must say the tweets have be attenuated quite a bit in my setup even firing across the dash. Damn things really put out, but are clean!
 
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