JBL S38 / S38BE Speakers Review
Specifications
- 3-way horizontal, mirror imaged, magnetically shielded loudspeaker
- 1" titanium dome tweeter with rubber surround and Elliptical Oblate Spheroid waveguide
- 4" polymer-coated, cellulose-fiber cone midrange
- 8" polymer-coated, cellulose-fiber cone woofer
- Sensitivity: 89 dB / 2.83 V / m
- Frequency response: 45 Hz - 20 kHz, -3 dB
- Crossover frequencies: 800 Hz, 3200 Hz
- Dimensions: 17.5" width, 11.5" height, 12.875" depth
- Weight: 28 lbs each
- MSRP: $599/pair
Naming
S38 and S38BE are the same speaker; S38 refers to the black finish while S38BE refers to birch finish (light wood). There is also apparently S38CH which is the cherry finish.
My S38BE have copper cones which I believe makes them the original version.
Listening Impressions
Decent rock speaker, not a good speaker for EDM.
I had the speakers positioned about 7 feet away and 9 feet apart, pointing at me, on "stands", with tweeters at ear height.
Strengths: Center image is very good. Perhaps could be even better if I experimented with placement. Sound stage is sufficiently wide, extending beyond the speakers. Unlike, say, NHT VT-2 and VT-2.4, I had no complaints about soundstage width.
I could pick out and follow various instruments, especially on rock material. This is probably a desirable aspect of speakers marketed as studio monitors.
Weaknesses: I think I heard woofer buzzing or ringing on EDM material. This is similar to the "flop" I experienced with Altec Lansing Series III and the Sonic speakers I had, but the sound was more of a buzzing than flopping. This particular sound I find highly unpleasant. It doesn't appear to manifest on rock material.
S38 don't play low. I had them out in the middle of the room, perhaps they would do better against a wall but in general all speakers would have more low frequency output near boundaries and generally my living room, where I tested the S38, has plenty of low frequency gain - it makes many speakers sound awesome on the low end that wouldn't otherwise, therefore I think this is an issue with S38 in particular.
At low listening volumes, bass mostly disappears. This isn't even at super quiet level, just quieter than medium volume. It's a decent night speaker in this regard except for example Sony SS-CS5 would sound at least as good while taking up much less space.
Midrange is weird. On one hand I can hear the voices and instruments separately, on the other hand sometimes I hear different voices or instruments from what I hear on other speakers and there doesn't seem to be a rhyme or reason as to what shows up. The Stereophile review mentioned that S38 elevate some instruments, and different ones on different occasions (and this is volume dependent). At low volume level one of my S38 began intermittently not playing anything: it would play musical peaks but then go silent on quieter passages. I figure this is a crossover problem and if it's a result of some intentional design then perhaps the speaker has some sort of nonlinear response behavior where louder passages are further emphasized by the speaker. Perhaps this is helpful when monitoring as the instruments and voices could become more distinct, but I find this behavior annoying when listening to material at home (i.e. when not mixing).
Treble has some noise - perhaps this is due to old capacitors in the crossover. The S38 were made around 2001 or even earlier which would make them 20+ years old in 2023.
Verdict
The lack of bass and the weird midrange make these speakers a pass for me. They are physically rather large and quite heavy, and can be used as stands.
Original vs Series II
In searching out this thread I have uncovered one serious flaw in most
comparisons and opinions posted on this and other sites where the S38
has come up for discussion. That is the confusion between the original
S38BE (designed by Greg Timbers and the subject of a law suit by Bose -
which JBL lost) and the redesigned S38-II. I could be wrong, but when I
see someone like Brutal, who I respect for his JBL knowledge and
experience, say the L20t images better, I know he must be comparing
them to the S38-II. My "new" set are imaging fools that, even when spread
too far apart and badly positioned on top of a pair of L7 "stands", create
real and believable soundstage with 3D depth that many speakers can only
aspire to. The DMC TimeFrame 600s I have are close, but they use two
rear-firing tweeters and one in front.