JBL Quantum Duo - Review

Speakers are becoming more powerful and smaller in overall size, so it stands to reason that there are many folks who are coming up with new ways to stand out. JBL is no stranger to the speaker game, but they recently broke out into the gaming sector, with some headphones, but they also created a speaker set as well. The question remains, has this combination product balanced both worlds, or is the equaliser way out of whack?

Normally for a piece of hardware, we would focus on does it perform its task well first, but the JBL Quantum Duos actually have what can be best described as a unique look, so we shall start there. Most speakers will hide their various parts behind a screen, giving them a uniform look, but JBL threw that out this time and went with an exposed look, which achieves a look that is striking and unique, but also lets one of their other design elements shine through. That other element is that the speakers light up, now while you can just enjoy them in a colour of choice, they can also cycle through the spectrum, which is controlled via a button on the right speaker. Turning the lights on or off is actually done on the front, allowing you to hide the speakers away on a bookshelf if you want, and with the button there are four settings, off and then three levels of brightness. While at first I had them turned off, because I am honestly not one for flashing lights whilst I am on my PC, I started to turn them on and found myself enjoy them being up at full.

The reason why I liked it was simple, the lights being on actually pulse in time with the music, throw something on like The Imperial March from Star Wars or Sandstorm by Darude and they light up differently. It is not just one light on each speaker, no there are three visible locations, each side of the speaker and around the main speaker. While the sides are harder to see, there is a wicked effect around the woofer, that is that the louder the sound, the more the light goes up around it, so with a quiet song, it sits around the bottom, but through on some AC/DC and the lights start heading to the top. Finally, at least in terms of lights, there is also a ring light around the volume knob on the front, which even if you have the rest of the lights turned off, will show up dull, letting you control the volume without having to fumble for it.

The other buttons on the speaker, again all of them are located on the right speaker, allow you to turn the speakers off, change the way the lights react, pair a Bluetooth device and located near the volume wheel, change the soundscape. Specifically that button turns the speakers from a stereo set to a surround sound set and, for the most part, they work as advertised, now you won’t see it with music, unless it is some special track, but you will notice it with games and movies. The effect is not quite as impressive, at least comparing it to a full surround sound setup, but when you are watching movies at your PC, it does the job it needs to do.

As far as connections go, there are a few ways you can use it, the most common way for many people will be that of using a 3.5mm jack, like your average set of headphones, to connect it to a PC. The other option is to allow a connect via the USB port, the quality of the sound is not impacted by the connection type you use, but it can allow for a higher quality source to begin with. Thankfully, the cables provided are a decent length as well, letting you find the optimal position for your speakers. There is a catch with the connections, if you are using the 3.5mm cord, you have independent control over the volume, ie your speakers output, doesn’t change the computer, but if you go through USB, they are the same, so changing one does change the other.

If you want, you can also pair a Bluetooth device to the speakers, letting you play your music form your phone or iPad through them, without the need for it to be connected to your PC or other media device. This is actually a massive win for the speakers, especially for those folks who only have one set in their place, because now you can enjoy your content from the phone, without needing to have two different audio devices. The only thing that stops this from being perfect is that there is no way to swap back to a corded source, PC or gaming device, without disconnecting from the phone, at least no way that I found. The button to enable the mode on the top of the device is not clear in terms of how it functions, this might be something that can be addressed with more time or a clearer sense of how it operates, but sadly the included documentation are basic at best.

Another bizarre design choice is that the speakers, for lack of a better term go to sleep, when not used for a period of time, now devices going to sleep is great, if they run on batteries, but these do not. They are powered by a connection to a power outlet, no batteries, so them going to sleep is weird and if I placed the PC to sleep, I could understand them going to sleep, but it could be as simple as not having anything playing for a time and then, when you do, having to wait around 5 seconds for them to come back to a state in which you can hear things. It gets weirder because when you shut down a computer, if connected, they remain on, the lights are illuminated and everything. Now there might be some method of stopping them from going dark, as it were, but as there is no control with any app, either on a phone or by PC, so if there is, I couldn’t find it.

Now I briefly talked about the sound earlier, at least the surround sound mode, but we haven’t talk about the sound overall and while I might have had issues with the lights, or power, there is nothing wrong with the sound. As I said at the start, JBL know speakers and that shines through here, as the quality is amazing, regardless of the connection you use. Now as the 3.5mm jack, also known as an AUX port, will likely be a common connection, you would imagine the quality of the sound is going to be limited, but the speakers don’t seem to indicate that. No matter what music, game or movie I had playing through it, the quality of what I was hearing was crisp, there was no crackle to the audio, quiet songs were clean and easy to hear as well.

When I swapped to the USB cable, things were just as clean, not that I expected it to drop, but the quality is just as solid and again, quiet songs were easy to hear. When I say quiet songs, I don’t mean at a low volume, though that is fine as well, no quiet songs are what you might call easy listening, like Michael Bublé. The Bluetooth connection was also clear and no matter how far away I moved the phone I was using, it never dropped signal, the result was some amazing sound.

I can safely recommend these speakers for two reasons, one is that they provide amazing sound, across a variety of connections, making them some extremely versatile speakers. The second reason and a little less important is that they have style, which is not something you might normally think about when you consider speakers. Their size is large enough to provide some amazing sound, but they are small enough to be tucked away if desired and while their ability to light up is not going to impress some folks, given that you can turn those lights off, means that you can enjoy them, pretty much however you would like.

The Score

9.0

Review unit provided by JBL

The Pros

+Amazing sound in such a small package, complete with optional surround sound

+Multiple connection options, means that you have choice on what to connect them to

The Cons

-Speakers go dark when not actively producing noise and take a bit to come back online when you do

-No easy way to turn off Bluetooth when you no longer wish to use it