JBL One Series 104-BT Compact Desktop Reference Monitors w/Bluetooth - Black

The JBL 104-BT is a set of compact desktop monitor pair with excellent sound and lots of flexibility. Whether you can use them as a reference monitor to edit your sound creations depends on what you’re really looking for. The ovoid-shaped 104-BT speakers look great on a desk, with a unique profile and minimal fuss on the front. They accept input from a variety of sources, including standard RCA jacks (mini-to-RCA cable included), balanced TRS, and, as the BT in the name implies, Bluetooth. The amplifier, inputs, and controls all sit in the left speaker, with the passive right speaker connected via a shielded wire pair. While the included wire connector should work for most situations, if you require more distance any wires will work. Build quality is typical JBL, ... MoreThe JBL 104-BT is a set of compact desktop monitor pair with excellent sound and lots of flexibility. Whether you can use them as a reference monitor to edit your sound creations depends on what you’re really looking for. The ovoid-shaped 104-BT speakers look great on a desk, with a unique profile and minimal fuss on the front. They accept input from a variety of sources, including standard RCA jacks (mini-to-RCA cable included), balanced TRS, and, as the BT in the name implies, Bluetooth. The amplifier, inputs, and controls all sit in the left speaker, with the passive right speaker connected via a shielded wire pair. While the included wire connector should work for most situations, if you require more distance any wires will work. Build quality is typical JBL, that is to say, very solid. When used as a desktop sound system for your PC or tablet, the 104-BT sounds great, particularly at higher volumes. Lows are clear (down to the 60Hz cutoff), mids are clean, and highs are crisp. There is no muddiness to the bass or lower-mid ranges like you find in a lot of lower-priced monitors. Overall, the sound is balanced, without the v-shape equalization present in many competitors. The 104-BT would likely be a step up from your current computer speaker setup. As a reference monitor, they are quite nice for the price. Using them this way, I connected a guitar through a mini-amp to them and was surprised at how solid the sound was. Connecting a digital synth from my computer yielded similar results. When editing more complex, multi-instrument sounds, there is a loss of clarity from these as compared to a full-sized reference monitor set or a pair of audiophile headphones. Still, compared to other monitors in this price range, they sound great, and the size makes them quite portable. Overall, the 104-BT is an excellent choice for a portable, low-cost reference monitor or simply as an upgrade to your current computer sound.

As a video content creator, I spend a lot of time with headphones on my head, but that can get tedious and tiring pretty quickly, so it’s always nice to use reference monitor speakers to help me work more efficiently and give my head and ears a break. These JBL 104-BT Desktop reference monitors are compact, versatile, and have four input options: Bluetooth, RCA, stereo ¼-inch balanced TRS, and Aux. You’ll receive a pair of flat-bottomed capsule speakers, a master monitor (default right channel) and extension (default left channel). Thick rubber pads on the bases of the speakers keep them from sliding around and isolate them from your work surface. You’ll connect the master monitor to the extension using the included 6 foot black and red speaker wires, which can be ... MoreAs a video content creator, I spend a lot of time with headphones on my head, but that can get tedious and tiring pretty quickly, so it’s always nice to use reference monitor speakers to help me work more efficiently and give my head and ears a break. These JBL 104-BT Desktop reference monitors are compact, versatile, and have four input options: Bluetooth, RCA, stereo ¼-inch balanced TRS, and Aux. You’ll receive a pair of flat-bottomed capsule speakers, a master monitor (default right channel) and extension (default left channel). Thick rubber pads on the bases of the speakers keep them from sliding around and isolate them from your work surface. You’ll connect the master monitor to the extension using the included 6 foot black and red speaker wires, which can be cut to length. Volume and input controls are located on the front of the master monitor as well as 3.5mm headphone output jack and Aux-in port, while the power switch is on its back. Note that the speakers are automatically muted when headphones are plugged in. Select an input by pressing the toggle button to switch to an individual source or choose “all” which allows you to monitor all inputs simultaneously for mix monitoring. The master houses a 60-Watt amplifier that delivers 30 Watts to each speaker, allowing you to get a lot of volume out of these relatively small speakers. The sound is very clean with crisp detail and a buttery, full midrange. While the balance is neutral and flat, I found that there was excess sibilance in the upper registers, resulting in sizzly cymbals and shushy, lisp-y sounding S’s in both spoken and sung voices. There was also a general lack of punch in the bass despite having a low-frequency port on the back, 4.5-inch main driver and ¾-inch high-frequency tweeter. Bass reproduction was a bit more pronounced at higher volumes, but in general, listening to these at super loud volumes isn’t all that helpful for content creation, so if you’re mixing content where bass reproduction is critical, I highly recommend adding a subwoofer to your setup to round it out. Just be aware that if you use the supplied RCA to 3.5mm cable that this is an unbalanced cable and some interference or white noise will likely be present; I found that when using the RCA to Aux cable, at all volume levels there was audible white noise through the speakers, especially when absent a playback signal, though at lower volumes it was less perceptible. Using the TRS connections with balanced cables and an audio interface that supports balanced output may help eliminate the noise, barring any ground loop issues. Since these are designed to be desktop monitors, placement relative to the listener does have an impact on how they will ultimately sound. The ideal position is at arm’s length angled inward so the speakers are both pointed toward the listener’s ears. This will be the sweet spot where you’ll find the clearest audio and most accurate soundstage for depth and sound placement. This also means that the best sound will usually only be perceived by one person at a time. The Bluetooth 5.0 input option is an interesting feature that’s useful for reviewing your mixes post-production to hear how it’ll sound with BT compression applied. Be aware that this input option isn’t great for watching movies or video since there is a noticeable lag between audio and video streams using Bluetooth, though it’s fine for listening to music. Due to the relatively flat and neutral balance of these speakers, for media and entertainment, they won’t sparkle out-of-the-box; that can be easily remedied on a computer or audio receiver with a few quick EQ adjustments but may be a bit more challenging if you plan to use them with other consumer electronics like a gaming console or movie projector. The speakers enter a low-power standby/sleep mode after a 20-minute period of inactivity, but initiating playback or pressing the toggle button will wake it back up. This feature can also be disabled manually. As for portability, each speaker weighs around 4 lbs, so while they’re not “toss in your backpack” portable, you could still tuck them into a suitcase or pack them in the trunk on a road trip, which is what I did on a recent weeklong vacation to the shore. Overall, I found the sound from these speakers quite suitable for monitoring my recorded creative content, which consists mainly of spoken word narration and voiceover work. If working with musical content, adding a subwoofer will likely be necessary, and for casual consumptive use, they’re fine, but not fully immersive. They’re nicely designed and somewhat portable, though probably are just unnecessary travel weight if you have a decent pair of reference headphones.

I've been in the market for some small but powerful desktop monitors and had an opportunity to check these out. So far I've been happy with them with some tweaks. My first use was on my desktop with my gaming laptop, which I use for both gaming and listening to music when I'm at the desk. The signal path was laptop>USB>SMSL DAC X6>Line Out>JBL speakers. The JBLs were excellent for both gaming and music with a little tweaking with an EQ (I use the Peace desktop EQ on Windows 11) to bring out the bass and drop the mids a bit. Mids are very forward, but not in a bad way. They are just not exactly neutral. Games had decent rumble and music was overall very nice to listen to. Separation was great with the speakers at arms length as suggested in the directions. I like ... MoreI've been in the market for some small but powerful desktop monitors and had an opportunity to check these out. So far I've been happy with them with some tweaks. My first use was on my desktop with my gaming laptop, which I use for both gaming and listening to music when I'm at the desk. The signal path was laptop>USB>SMSL DAC X6>Line Out>JBL speakers. The JBLs were excellent for both gaming and music with a little tweaking with an EQ (I use the Peace desktop EQ on Windows 11) to bring out the bass and drop the mids a bit. Mids are very forward, but not in a bad way. They are just not exactly neutral. Games had decent rumble and music was overall very nice to listen to. Separation was great with the speakers at arms length as suggested in the directions. I like that the connection from the active speaker to the passive one uses a standard (included) 2-element speaker cable so you can customize the length and aren't constrained by a built-in cable. I have a 32:9 ultrawide monitor and its hard to find speakers that can spread out wide enough with a built-in cable. The back has a couple inputs, namely RCA stereo and dual mono 1/4 jacks. These also have decent Bluetooth connectivity. One really great feature is that you can select an individual input or all of them at the same time, including the BT sound. I've also used these to listen to the output of my Mooer desktop guitar effects processor using the 1/4 inch jacks. Because I'm able to mix that signal with the Bluetooth it makes it perfect for playing along with music from my phone. There's also a headphone jack for late nights where I want to play guitar or games and not wake up the rest of the house. Build quality is superb. They have some heft to them so any distortion is kept to a minimum. They're just the right size for desktop use and look good next to a computer monitor without taking up too much space or looking comically small. Also, thank you, JBL, for using a standard power cord rather than an outboard AC adaptor! I would highly recommend these for a small-space music production desk or even for serious gaming. My only wish would to add a sub-woofer output to give me the option to add a little more low-end.