Intro
Contents
JBL is an American brand that really needs no introduction. The brand, whose full name is James Bullough Lansing, is part of the Harman Group (now Samsung) and makes both products for consumers and professional equipment for artists. Including complete arrays for live music. Impressive. We are certainly not testing such a ‘big ass’ array, but stick to a pair of active streaming monitors: the JBL 4305P.
We like small, active monitor speakers. The reason is simple: not everyone can use large speakers with separate amplifiers and / or has the money for it. Certainly not now with all the uncertainty surrounding energy prices (applies to all of Europe).
JBL 4305P
This new JBL 4305P really does have everything integrated. We see a built-in streamer with ROON (yet to be approved at the time of writing), Chromecast ánd Airplay. Streaming can be done via Ethernet or wifi. We also see bluetooth 5.1. Unfortunately without AptX or other advanced codecs. Then we see balanced, analog inputs, digital coaxial, optical AND USB, and finally an analog 3.5mm jack in.
Aside from all the inputs, we also see a sub-out as well as a digital link via Ethernet. The link between left and right can also be wireless, but then the link is 24/96 kHz instead of 24/192 kHz. Finally, the speaker can be set to left or right with a small switch.
The front contains two units. First, a compact unit for the mid and bass. This one is only 5.25 inches but can make more (longer) movement. As a result, the JBL still manages to build quite a bit of pressure in an average room. Above the mid-bass unit, we find JBL’s famous compression driver with HDI horn. Your author is not a fan of horn speakers. Certainly not the traditional horn systems, but frankly, this is different. More on that later.
Looking at amplification, we read that 150 watts of Class D power is reserved per speaker. With that, 25 watts goes to the tweeter and 125 watts to the woofer.
