Are the JBL 530's still Endgame?

Cambridge has more power and less distortion.

It also doesn’t sound as good to the ear, specs are not everything

Ah NVM then.

It’s still solid tho, it just didn’t preform as well as the denons did when I got to listen to them both at a dealer

Thanks, yes I was thinking the Cambridge cx60a as well but this has the usb input, looks great/compact and is a good discount from the original (albiet overpriced) price. Was also looking at the Denon PMA-600NE ($400) and Onkyo A-9110 ($299) - but both need a seperate DAC and are out of stock until next month. So the consensus is that the amp1 is underpowered for the 530s??

The 600ne has a built in dac that’s actually pretty good, can recommend

I would say you would really be pushing it if you wanted to use them in a room but on a desk you may be fine, but I do think that the amp1 isn’t the best match for these speakers

Gotcha - do you mean its not a good fit in terms of the tonality or the power? I’d be using it mainly in a smaller room/office. Seems the denon only handles 192 kHz/24 bit vs 32-bit/384 kHz for the AMP1, but more than enough for tidal MQA. Guess I’ll pass on the AMP1s then and wait for the others to come back in stock…

Hmmm, in that case, I do think the amp1 is pretty nice, but if you wanted to get loud it might not be the best pick, you might be a bit limited on headroom if you wanted to push them (so power basically)

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I really think 50WPC is great for a desk/small room. I’m using a FOSI HD-A1 (50w/c at 8 ohm) to power my 530s right now on my desk. Plenty of room to get loud and have some headroom for dynamics. But for a big room, even 50wpc isn’t enough to get really loud.

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Hmm well maybe I’ll give it a go then! I have a wife and toddler at home so cant get too loud these days :slight_smile: But I do have a tower/sub setup in the basement for when I really want to party :slight_smile: The speakers would be in my office/sitting room on speaker stands - so would not be in my face on the desktop, but more for intimate//private listening to enjoy my music/read on a listening char. If I don’t like it I’ll eat the return fees and maybe by that time the denons/onkyo will be in stock.

Doesn’t sound like a bad idea, should still be pretty nice

Well, I can honestly say that the hype and great reviews about these speakers are legit. Just got them in today, threw them on 16” stands on top of SVS PB 1000’s, powered by Outlaw Audio RR2160, in my living room 20x15 and 10’ ceilings. Wow! Haven’t turned them up yet (wife is sleeping in next room over), but so far I am impressed. Exceeded expectations. These are going on my desk for awhile.

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Nice, glad you enjoy them, they are pretty sweet speakers :+1:

Ive been listening to primarily headphones lately, with the 530s sitting on my desk staring me in the face. Just now took the headphones off, now playing through the 530s and i just leaned back in my chair and thought “my god these things are lovely”

EDIT: Cant imagine what its going to be like when i finally get around to doing room correction through the minidsp, as well as a little room treatment in the future.

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I’m listening to mine right now. They sound sooo good. They definitely take off for me at about 85dB.

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Just picked these up from the sale for a small to medium living room space and was looking for some advice for a dac/amp pairing around the $200 range. I did see a lot of recommendations for the denon pma-800ne, but that pushes me out of the budget area quite a bit sadly.

I don’t think I would require a dac right away (can always get one later down the road) so I was thinking of going for the something like the SMSL sa300 but with the speakers at 86dB, 6 ohms I worry that it would be too weak. Could also consider a Yamaha R-S200 model for more power but not sure how they sound.

Also plan to pick up a streamer/raspberry pi later on if that impacts anything

—Great resource after I had already typed my reply
An amp for JBL 530

$239 for a pair on the JBL website with free shipping. The whole line is on a very good discount, new stuff is around the corner

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No three hundred dollar speaker is end game lol Ave if speaker means little not like iems who are constantly changing.

I wish these were easy to get in Canada.

I had the 9110 and can strongly recommend it. But $300 looks a bit expensive; they sell for less than 200€ here