JBL Synthesis HDI 5.1 pack

For the last speaker package in our rising group, we revisit JBL, a Samsung/Harman brand which is active, of course, across both the professional and hi-fi speaker markets, right down to little Bluetooth speakers, but right up to hi-fi speakers which sometimes have the full heft of that pro background, so that even their loving owners — and we use JBL Studio Monitors in a key reference system at Sound+Image — might be pressed to describe them as ‘decor-friendly’.

That makes the recent introduction of the ‘HDI’ series a new direction for the company. The HDI range has been designed to be easier on the eye, less wide, with new finishes, and with cabinets where only their tops and bottoms have flat surfaces. The HDI title, meanwhile, comes from the ‘High Definition Imaging’ waveguide technology and the associated high-frequency compression drivers used by all