LOVE PSYCHEDELICO's NAOKI verifies! In the first installment of the new series "Audio Checks" where SPICE approaches various audio equipment, check JBL headphones!

――The JBL CLUB series of headphones, including the JBL CLUB ONE that NAOKI would like to review, are said to be tuned for EDM DJs and fans.

Now, let's listen to the record. Actually, I want to listen to the Beatles with everyone, but even if I listen to mono (sound source) (laughs). For easy understanding, I think Donald Fagen's "Nightfly" is good.

――It was the 1st solo album released in 1982 by Donald Fagen, who was a member of Steely Dan. There is a "QUIEX II Limited Pressing Edition" sticker on the jacket.

This is a very rare board. At that time, only the promo discs to be distributed to radio stations were pressed with a higher quality process than the commercially available ones, with the intention of Donald himself that he wanted it to sound good on the radio. After that, "Nightfly" has been remastered in various ways, but among Steely Dan maniacs, this one is said to have the best sound. I'm not a maniac.

――You listened to the first song "I.G.Y." through the speakers while listening to it through headphones.

Right. Before talking about the appeal of these headphones, let me first talk about my thoughts on headphones. Art related to sound starts with things, then stereo, then surround. With video, VR has been added to it, and the way to enjoy it has gradually expanded. I think everyone was surprised when it changed from mono to stereo, but when you think of it as entertainment, it's fun to have a pseudo-real experience. I think sound media has developed in that way.

In our generation, there was a Walkman boom in the 80s, and everyone started listening to music that they used to listen to through speakers through headphones and earphones.

One thing to understand here is that left-right panning when wearing headphones is more exaggerated left-right than what the music producer mixed on-site with speakers.

For example, in front of the speakers in the real world, the sound from the L speaker, which is turned to L100 and no sound is heard from the right, can be heard with both ears using the right ear. It's ringing."

When you wear headphones, you can have an extraordinary experience of hearing sound only from your left ear. It was the Walkman boom in the 80's that made this sort of interactive experience all of a sudden familiar, and at that time I think it was cutting-edge entertainment for the general public.

――Nowadays, listening with headphones or earphones is the norm.

Of course it's convenient, but I think it's because it's a pseudo-experience that gives you a better sense of stereo than listening through speakers. In other words, if you want to listen to the sound exactly as it was made by the music creator, I think the best way is to put two speakers, L and R, in front of you and listen in the middle of the triangle. When I use headphones--I think the creators do L-R panning, including emotional stuff, when they mix, but the surprise of hearing that emotion in a more exaggerated way is probably the first Walkman in the 80's. I think it was at the time of the boom. What is this!? 　Music is more interesting when listening to it with headphones. We are a generation that was surprised by the experience of entering into such sounds. I think the joy of using headphones is the extraordinary feeling of becoming one with the sound the moment you put them on. When you're on the train, or when you're alone in your room, the moment you touch the play button, you can trip into the world of sound. I think that's what it is.

In that sense, this headphone is also a recommended model for monitoring DJs and live artists, but if you rely too much on headphones for mixing work, the stereo feeling on the monitor will be pseudo. There is also the danger that dynamic left/right panning will be lost, so if anything, I would like to expect it to be useful during performances such as recording monitors and DJs, rather than mixes. It's a sound that you don't have to get tired of using for a long time. Therefore, it is also suitable for enjoying music life as a daily item. Actually, when I pick it up, it's a little smaller than what I saw in the picture, so if I were you, I'd wear it on the train. It also has a good amount of tightness.

--Is airtightness important?

Yeah, if it's too tightly sealed, the semicircular canals will get messed up. I think that the development of headphones is a constant repetition. I think that we are doing various things with various ideas, such as whether it is better to increase the degree of sealing, or whether it is better to prevent vibrations from entering from the outside by changing the density of the sponge of the ear pads, but these headphones are long. I think it's just the right amount of airtightness that you can wear for hours.

NAOKI (LOVE PSYCHEDELICO) with JBL CLUB ONE Hybrid Noise Canceling Headphones

--How is it comfortable to wear? "When I held it in my hand, it came in quite a bit."

Oh, I thought it was heavier than I thought. However, heavy = sound does not escape outside / does not enter from outside. It's the same in the studio, but the easiest way to keep sound from escaping is weight. If the wall is light, it will vibrate, so that wall will become a speaker. So the next room in the apartment told me it was noisy (laughs). But if the walls are iron, they are heavy and don't vibrate with the sound, so you can't hear it in the next room. Soundproofing is not the thickness of the walls. Recording studio doors are heavy, aren't they?

There are various ways of thinking, but when I first held these headphones, they were heavy. I thought it might sound good. So being heavy is not a bad thing.

――When I actually put it on, it didn't feel that heavy.

Oh yeah. Even if you don't feel like you're being squeezed that tight, you can't hear outside sounds even if you don't use the noise canceling function.

--How did it sound?

The sound balance was compared to the monitor headphones commonly used in recording studios. By the way, I usually don't use headphones in my mixes. I use headphones when recording my takes, but I only use them when checking the mix, including the lip noise. However, when I use it like that, I use the standard headphones in the recording studio that I mentioned earlier, but it's not for listening to an elegant sound, it's for checking the sound as it is. . It's not something you enjoy listening to for long periods of time. So, when you go out, or if you want to enjoy a special stereo feeling that can only be experienced with headphones when listening to music, I think these headphones are definitely better than the monitor headphones you usually use. As I said earlier, it's a good degree of sealing, but in my impression, the sound around 5khz to 7khz, which is tiring when listening for a long time, is relatively gentle compared to monitor headphones. But I'm not shy. It's ringing properly, but it has a gentle tone. It's not sharp. Instead, I think it's a little lower, below 90hz. A little below that, there's no sound with the bass drum. Lower than 40-50hz for club music is 40-50hz. The sound of the makes the percussion instrument richer. These headphones subtly improve that aspect, so whether you're listening to MP3 or listening to a subscription, it's hard to feel that the density of the sound is lacking. But I like that it's not extreme. Recently, I've been a little worried about it, and in fact, I was prepared for it this time as well. Headphones that are extremely high in the range of 50hz to 70hz, so that no matter what you listen to, you can only hear the bottom part are called high-end headphones, and there are more and more expensive headphones. I thought it was JBL. After all, it's a long-established brand that has been making monitor speakers for a long time, so I thought the balance was really good.

NAOKI (LOVE PSYCHEDELICO) with JBL CLUB ONE Hybrid Noise Canceling Headphones

――There is a sense of security unique to JBL.

My impression of JBL speakers is not their strengths or weaknesses, but the charm of JBL that everyone likes. There are many speakers that distort. It squeaks a little. So, when I thought that these headphones were that kind of headphones, I was surprised by one thing that was a little different.

JBL speakers, especially in the old days, had a very characteristic high-pitched sound, around 8-10khz, so I had the impression that the sounds sounded very close. I wonder if I'll say it's crisp. Even with that in mind, JBL has updated these headphones to match the modern era. I think it's great.

If it's not a monitor headphone, it's important to be able to listen comfortably for a long time without getting tired. In that sense, it is good that the sound is not too close even with headphones.

NAOKI (LOVE PSYCHEDELICO) with JBL CLUB ONE Hybrid Noise Canceling Headphones

――On the other hand, isn't that what you're missing? For example, the guitar cut in the intro of "I.G.Y." seems to sound a little farther through these headphones than through speakers.

I'm sure you're right. So that's the way I think. We thought that it was good for music appreciation use. I also do sound tuning for movie theaters, but once you sit in a movie theater, you can't escape from that position until the movie ends. So, depending on the work, if you try to make the volume louder or tune at a powerful peak, you can't tune for each work, so the audience has to endure it for two hours. end up That's not good for a movie theater, is it? I may have added the fact that headphones have something similar to that, from my experience tuning the sound of the movie theater. I think the sound of the guitar cutting is about 5khz to 7khz. I don't know if it's okay to judge that much with only one song, "I.G.Y.", but it's certainly a little more subdued than it actually is, but I think you can think of it as an advantage that you won't get tired even if you listen to it for a long time. . If a DJ considers these headphones to be a live partner, I think it would be better to understand their characteristics before using them. As the 5-7khz sound becomes sweeter, the speed of the sound disappears, so check it with the speaker.

- Ah, I see.

It's certainly an elegant sound for a JBL (laughs). Oh, of course, I mean this in a good way. JBL is originally an image of a rock sound. Especially the generation older than me. In that sense, I think these headphones are a little more elegant and are suitable for music that manipulates grooves with tones from low to midrange, including club music.

――It might be that you're aware of the people who listen to lively music, such as EDM, and make the sounds softer in advance.

I think it's an MP3 countermeasure after all. The band that is easy to lose in MP3 is calculated so that the overtones of that band can be heard naturally, and only one band is not raised strangely. I thought that was also natural.

The best feature is that it gently adds a natural and rich bass to the modern environment where you can listen to various sources including MP3, and the midrange that you can listen to for a long time without getting tired. hey. Even though the bass is rich, it's a little more than flat, and it doesn't feel deformed, so I think buyers can rest assured.

NAOKI (LOVE PSYCHEDELICO) with JBL CLUB ONE Hybrid Noise Canceling Headphones

--How was the resolution of the sound?

I thought it was expensive. In particular, the band from the bass drum to the outline of the bass sounds like it's going to be saturated with headphones, but I listened while thinking that I could hear the slapping touch of the bass properly. I listened at a relatively loud volume, but the sound was not crushed.

When I'm wearing headphones when there's a lot of noise, like when I'm playing a recording, I often have to turn up the volume so that I don't lose out to the drums and other sounds around me. Common headphones are weak at volume. I turn up the volume and play, but sometimes I have to put up with the distortion. These headphones don't distort at all.

These headphones also have a noise canceling feature, but to be honest, I don't like noise canceling. I feel like something is going on. Among the people who are thinking of buying these headphones, I think there are many people who are trying to express their music themselves. I think you can do it with a more natural sound if you ride it all the way through.

- So the sound doesn't distort that much.

I think there are recommended volumes for speakers and microphones, including headphones. I think it's different for each person, but since it's produced by physically vibrating the diaphragm, if you exceed a certain decibel level, you'll reach a structural limit. However, despite the small size of these headphones, there is still plenty of room.

The structure of the speaker that emits the sound and the microphone that picks up the sound are the same, but it is better to have a little leeway in the dynamic range, that is, from a small sound to a loud sound, rather than playing or picking up the sound at the very limit of the specifications. Reproducibility is high.

That's why I'm going off topic, but isn't there a lot of great jazz records?

-Yes.

Since the 1960s, many rock classics have been released, but many people return to jazz when they fall in love with analog records. As for why jazz sounds so good, in my opinion, the jazz equipment of the 60s and the rock equipment of the 70s and beyond are not that different. especially the mic. But in the rock era, the sound of the guitar became louder, didn't it? Then, the drum sound is not like jazz, it's ton ton, and you can't hear it unless you do it da dan da dan dan. That's how each sound got louder and louder, but I still used the same microphone to pick up the sound.

――Ah, I see.

For rock music with a loud sound, we had no choice but to record all sounds at 70% to 99% of the potential of the mic, at the very limit of distortion. Even if the sound is loud, it will fit in about 70%, so the diaphragm will vibrate easily. That's why I can express everything from small sounds to the loudest sounds of the song. In other words, the strength and weakness of the sound can be recorded properly, so the mix also has depth. I think there's a reason why jazz sounds so good even though it's from a long time ago.

I think it's a speaker with that kind of room. When played loudly, it's not just that there's no distortion, it's that the dynamic range stays the same from soft to loud.

NAOKI (LOVE PSYCHEDELICO) with JBL CLUB ONE Hybrid Noise Canceling Headphones

--What kind of music would be most suitable for listening to these headphones?

That's right. Isn't there rock music that is popular in the recent club scene? For example, I think it's fun to listen to new generation rock like The xx, a British band. That's Billie Eilish. On the other hand, 70's electric guitar-centered rock may sound a little calm. In that sense, the Donald Fagen I heard earlier might have been right. I don't want to force my own musical views on you, but I feel like anything from the 90s onwards, like Beck, who has a lot of different approaches in one rock song, would fit. . Someone more knowledgeable about club music might have come up with a lot more, but maybe you interviewed the wrong person? (smile)

――No, I'm glad I asked NAOKI. I think that NAOKI was able to convey the appeal of these headphones to people who aren't fans of club music.

In the sense that although it is JBL, it is close to the modern scene. JBL is the same with movie theaters, but I think it was a rock image used for monitor speakers at live houses, but these headphones are a new proposal for the club scene where JBL had no image until now. I feel like that.

Interview and text by Tomoo Yamaguchi Photo by Takahiro Kikuchi

JBL CLUB ONE

Premium noise-canceling hybrid headphones. When connected via a cable, it supports high-resolution sound sources, providing higher resolution and more realistic sound.

With the dedicated app "JBL Headphones", you can adjust the equalizer to your liking and easily experience the sounds of world-famous DJs.

[Price] Open

[Contact] Harman International Co., Ltd. 0570-550-465

https://jp.jbl.com/