JBL Arena 120

The JBL brand is part of the music giant Harman and is famous for its portable speaker systems. But the classic stereo will not go out of fashion for a long time, so the brand successfully realizes itself in this segment as well. Arena 120 is a compact bookshelf stereo pair with a tight and confident Hi-Fi sound.

Appearances are not deceiving

The speakers are housed in a closed MDF cabinet and are available in white or black wood grain vinyl. The loudspeakers are protected by grilles, top and bottom framed with a thin aluminium profile and covered with black fabric.

"Subtleties"

The products are quite compact and occupy a height of 34 cm, a width of 19. But they are most favorably distinguished by a depth of only 11 cm. The speakers will not take up much space on a shelf or wall. By the way, it is quite convenient to mount them on the wall; for this, special canopies are provided on the rear panel of the case. The weight of one speaker is only 3.5 kg, so you can safely mount it even on a drywall surface.

Small and daring

The two-way system uses a 140mm polycellulose woofer/midrange driver and a 25mm dome tweeter to deliver sound from 100-40,000Hz.

The lows, of course, are rather dry, they do not differ in depth, it simply has nowhere to come from in such a thin case. For listening to music with a predominant rhythm section or watching films with special effects, a subwoofer obviously does not interfere. But the power reserve of 200 W in the system, as they say, is in excess. In a room up to 25 m². half the volume is enough to annoy the neighbors. High and mid frequencies are worked out accentuated and clearly, without blurring, while providing volume and openness to the sound.

Partner selection

In pair with the system, you will need an amplifier with a power of 20 to 100 watts per channel. Switching is carried out using gold-plated screw terminals on the rear panels. Thanks to the noble metal coating, you can not be afraid that the contacts will oxidize, and the conductivity of such a connector is better than that of a conventional one.

In general, JBL Arena 120 leaves a good impression. But the price of $ 200, in our subjective opinion, does not quite correspond to the sound parameters, which, in general, is usual for JBL, and its ardent fans are not at all embarrassed. Others may prefer less "arrogant" brands.