When I went to “Club JBL” here in Berlin I was as always impressed by the new stuff JBL is bringing to market, but there was one set of products I took an extended glare at and when the formalities ended I rushed to get a closer look – JBL Authentics.
If you’ve been around audio for a while you’ll know the iconic look of some of the classic JBL speakers. That Quadrex foam look was so very different to just stretching mesh over the front of a speaker – that was how JBL stood out.
Having focussed so much of their energy on dominating in the bluetooth speaker market, and in headphones, JBL has looked at it’s heritage in the home and decided to win back some of that space with the new JBL Authentics range.
These three speakers are made to sit in your kitchen, dining room or lounge room. They don’t look like a portable Bluetooth speaker, they look like they should live on a cabinet, on a shelf or be part of your home’s decor.
Easily identified by their model numbers, the 200, 300 and 500, they get bigger as those numbers increase, and features of course start ticking off too.
The JBL Authentics 500 has it all, not just Bluetooth but WiFi streaming, as well as Dolby Atmos – enough to really fill the room with sound.
Because it’s portable, the JBL Authentics 300 has a stylish handle just to emphasise that fact with it’s 8-hour battery life meaning it’s great all round the house.
At the smaller end, the JBL Authentics 200 still fills the room – and just to emphasise how great the range is, the entry level 200 has a one inch tweeter, 5 inch full range woofers and downfiring 6 inch passive radiator.
When they launch in Australia on October 3, the Authentics 200 will retail for $499.95, Authentics 300 Portable for $599.95, and the Authentics 500 will be $999.95.
Here’s the thing that really blew my mind when these speakers were announced. You see, these are not just a Bluetooth speaker in fancy dress. The technology inside these allow them to operate as WiFi speakers, individually and multi-room.
And of course, they will be smart speaker enabled so you can use your voice assistant to control them. Normally on such devices during the setup process you choose your smart speaker ecosystem of choice and that’s the one that works.
Oh No, Not with the JBL Authentics. JBL has done something I quite frankly have never seen done before – they have united two of the biggest tech giants (Amazon and Google) not just to allow something to happen, but to collaborate in announcing how it will work.
While they were not on stage in Berlin, John ‘Duke’ Dukellis Senior Director, Product Management at Google – Assistant and Mark Yoshitake, GM, Director, Amazon Alexa filmed a video introduction to a new way of using a speaker like the JBL Authentics.
You can pair both your Google and Amazon Alexa accounts and use both on the same speaker. Ask Google to set something in you calendar and ask Alexa to play a song, or Ask Alexa a fun fact about Australia then get Google to turn off the patio light.
What I found most compelling about this collaboration was the amount that both Duke and Mark referenced each other’s brands in their comments – they didn’t shy away from uttering the words that are the name of their clear opposition, they spoke about each other’s products in terms that showed genuine collaboration on their part.
While I’ve no doubt they are working on this with other brands, that JBL was able to be the first to launch this, and bring them together to announce it I think says a lot about the status of JBL in this space and most importantly as a feature, it puts the customer – the listener first.
Honestly, these are the most exciting speakers we’ve seen for the home in a very long time, and my own guess on pricing was was off the mark, these are a great price for the outstanding features, quality and design on offer – they go on Sale on October 3
General Specifications
Audio Specifications
USB Specifications
Wireless specifications
Dimension Specifications
General Specifications
Audio Specifications
USB Specifications
Wireless specifications
Dimension Specifications
General Specifications
Audio Specifications
USB Specifications
Wireless specifications
Dimension Specifications
EFTM’s coverage of IFA 2023 is supported in part by Samsung, as well as the many great companies who advertise here at EFTM.com. For more information read our full commercial interests disclosure.
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