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JBL Authentics 500 review: This speaker is big on bass, power but also price
Summary
The JBL Authentics 500 speaker is meant for users who like their music big in every sense, but all that sound and sonic performance comes at a premiumJBL’s portfolio of speakers spans practically every size you can imagine, from concert-grade professional speakers all the way through to weather-proof party speakers and portable speakers that you can slip into your pocket.
The new JBL Authentics 500 ( ₹69,999) slots somewhere in the middle, designed for folks considering splurging a not-inconsiderable amount on a tastefully designed wireless speaker for their living spaces. It’s a classy mix of good looks and attention-grabbing sound, with a dollop of modern conveniences that belie its retro styling.
Design and controls
There’s no two ways about it - this thing is massive. At 17.6 x 9.5 x 10.1 inches and 7.8kg, you’ll want to ensure you have a large and robust spot, with enough depth for the bass vents to not be impeded, to place the Authentics 500 before you even hit the ‘Buy’ button.
Side note: if you want something smaller, you could look at the smaller Authentics 300 and 200 variants, with the 300 packing an internal battery and a carrying handle for true portability.
The Authentics 500 is meant to be set down and admired for its classic good looks. It takes inspiration from the iconic JBL L100 speaker from the 1970s, with the eye-catching waffle-like ‘quadrex’ grilles on the front encased in sleek metallic trim and a faux-leather vinyl enclosure. The hint of inspiration from classic Marshall guitar amps is undeniable. While it can be lugged around, you will need to keep it plugged into a power outlet as it lacks an internal battery.
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On the top are a trio of circular controllers, one for play/pause/volume and the other two for treble and bass controls, all of which have LEDs around the dials to show you the level when you make a change directly on the device or via the app. Aside from these, there are two buttons – one for enabling pairing and the other to fire up a previously favorited playlist, again setup via the app.
The latter, called a “Moment" within the app, works with a limited set of streaming services to fire up any given playlist at a predetermined volume, and all you need to do is touch the speaker’s physical Heart button to start the playback. What’s missing is a power button – having to switch the speaker off at the wall switch isn’t ideal.
Features
Smarter than most smart speakers I’ve used, the JBL Authentics 500 doesn’t force you to pick one voice assistant, and consequently one smart ecosystem, and this is perfect for multi-platform households like mine with Alexa and Google Assistant devices set up around the home.
Once set up within the companion app, both assistants work simultaneously depending on which one you summon, and you can disable the always-listening microphones entirely if you want a moment of privacy, or sanity, during a party where multiple friends are trying to one-up the other and play the song of their choice. When music is playing, you can join another Google/Amazon smart speaker via a multi-room group. You can do so with multiple Authentics speakers as well, if you’ve splurged on more than one!
With both Wi-Fi and wired internet support, you can stream far higher quality music such as Apple Music’s lossless music tier, over Apple AirPlay 2 or Google Cast wireless streaming standards, than you could over the omni-present but ageing Bluetooth 5.3. Wi-Fi is clearly preferred, evident from the support for basic SBC and AAC Bluetooth codecs.
The clincher is the support for Dolby Atmos Music spatial audio for a far wider and more spacious soundstage than you’d imagine from a single-box unit. And of course, there’s a 3.5mm AUX input, for when you want to go retro and directly plug an audio source in.
Sonic performance
Thanks to its substantial dimensions, the JBL Acoustics 500 is able to pack quite a bit of hardware, housing three 1-inch tweeters and three 2.75-inch mid-range woofers, both of which are arranged so that left and right units point to each side resulting in a wider stereo image. No mucking around with passive radiators here: this one has a massive 6.5-inch downward-firing active subwoofer that pounds bass into whatever surface that lies beneath the unit. Altogether, you get a 3.1 sound system with a total power output of 270 watts.
No surprises then that the Authentics 500 is big on bass, delivering the sort of powerful bass response that you feel in your chest. It’s altogether too easy to skip the club on a Saturday night and instead crank this up and have a bunch of neighbors complaining about the sound levels.
There’s a discernable sense of presence, both in terms of volume and bass, which allows the Authentics 500 to be used in larger halls and independent farmhouses that are its natural habitat. Not to mention, an element of energy and fun that the JBL instinctively latches onto. The flipside is that at full tilt, it ends up muddling the mids and the vocals at times, and that’s when you need to tame the machine via the treble/bass dials or the app’s equalizer.
Once you take the attention away from the bass, the mids and treble are allowed to really shine, and I’d have loved to see presets in the app that would make the job easier.
Verdict
There’s a lot to like about the JBL Authentics 500, right from its build quality and looks to an exceptionally strong feature set but know this. This speaker is meant for folks who like their music big in every sense, big on bass, big on volume and big on scale and power. If that’s what you’re looking for, you won’t be disappointed. It’s also big on price, so unless you need to go big, you could look at the rest of the Authentics range or those from Marshall for equally classy options.
Tushar Kanwar, a tech columnist and commentator, posts @2shar.
