What’s New

For those of you wondering why the Luxury Audio team was tasked to develop these products for HARMAN, the answer is simple. We looked at the state of the existing AVR and loudspeaker market and recognized that there had not been any meaningful innovation occurring in these categories for some time. The manufacturers and the industry were waiting for sound bars to make these products extinct, and nobody wanted to invest in a declining business, or the industry was not paying attention to the wants and needs of the younger generations of music and move enthusiasts. Regardless of the reasons why the categories became stale we saw an opportunity to reimagine the home cinema experience for today’s consumers.

 To help us better understand why consumers were opting for sound bars and portable speakers and not considering component audio for their systems, we partnered with Huemen, our in-house research and design organization and Samsung’s UX (User Experience) team to commission research into the wants and needs of Millennials and Gen-Zs. After years of interviews with consumers in many regions of the world, we had incredible insights that would guide our product ideation and engineering efforts.

JBL has always been the audio brand of choice for film, music, and gaming enthusiasts around the world. We have sold more than 200 million headphones and 100 million loudspeakers globally, earning us the trust and admiration of consumers globally.

Today, JBL continues to be the fastest growing audio brand among Gen Z and Millennials – a testament to our commitment to authenticity and innovation. Given our heritage and legacy in producing exceptional cinema sound, we have endeavored to reimagine a new home cinema experience. With a younger customer in mind, we researched the limits of what has prevented younger consumers from considering component audio.

Our team took a unique approach to designing and marketing component audio for a generation that has trusted us with their other JBL audio products, who aspire to premium audio but have been put off by the dated styling, confusing set-up, complicated interfaces, and expensive prices of other products already on the market.

We focused our attention on four main pillars of the research findings. SIMPLICITY, MODERN DESIGN, SCALABITY and AFFORDABILITY.

Starting with SIMPLICITY, the research told us that all consumers, regardless of the generational differences agreed that most of the products that were on the market were intimidating to look at and even more objectionable to operate. They have all experienced the ease of connecting their mobile phone to their favorite audio speaker and within seconds and without a complicated interface they were listening to music. When asked about the need for additional buttons and controls to switch between surround modes and other parameters of a system, they shared with us that we should be determining what sounds best for the various sources they listen to and automatically default to that setting for them. They do not want to experiment with the variable settings, they want to enjoy their music and movies without the complexity the industry has forced upon them. You will notice that we leaned into that directive when you look at the front panel and the remote control of our AV receivers.

The request for MODERN DESIGN was not only heard but observed during the interview process with these consumers. We were able to see where our products would be set up within their living spaces. We noticed how the consumers were decorating and furnishing their rooms with products that served a need but also represented who these individuals were or in some cases, aspired to be. We saw how color was used in the space and how relevant LED lighting has become. Our senior industrial designer, Jason Gokavi dug even deeper into the trends in lifestyles and brands to guide his design inspiration for these products. Jason knew that the AV receivers and the loudspeakers were going to live together in unity with colors and materials already chosen by the consumers.

We all remember the first mood board that Jason presented us with for his designs. It was hard for some of us to fathom how to engineer our products to compliment his design approach. However, after we started seeing early prototypes of the products, we quickly realized that we were going to wake up an industry that has been dormant for years. We have struck a perfect balance of geometric shapes, patterns, and profiles, which are enhanced by an x-factor of color, asymmetry and on some of our models, lighting effects ensuring that these products were not only easy to operate, performed to JBL standards but also looked beautiful as well.

When it came to SCALABILITY, we recognized that consumers will be coming to our product offerings from unique needs and past experiences. Whether they want to upgrade from their Bluetooth portable speaker to a better performing 2-channel hi-fi system, or upgrading from a sound bar that has left them wanting more, or wanting one of our integration partners to build them the ultimate home cinema system for their budget with 8K HDMI, immersive sound created Dolby Atmos and DTS decoding, these new products are designed to scale with your customers’ needs. With five new AV receivers, eight in-room loudspeakers and eight more in-ceiling and in-wall loudspeakers, there will be something for everyone in our product and systems portfolio. Special thanks to Audio Advice for capturing the scalability in their great review of these products.

Lastly, we needed to make these products not only aspirational, but we needed to address the need for AFFORDABILITY. This is where the sheer scale of HARMAN and Samsung are brought to bear. We were able to collaborate with our suppliers and their sub-suppliers to maximize the buying power of our companies to meet the prices of our customers. Our AV receivers start out at $399 USD MSRP for the MA310 and range up to our flagship in the line the MA9100HP at $1,599 USD MSRP. Our bookshelf loudspeakers start as low as $299/pair USD MSRP for the 240B and scale up to the flagship in the line, the A280F at $1,199 USD MSRP. If you are designing a system with our in-wall and in-ceiling loudspeakers, they start as low as $150 USD MSRP for a 260C in-ceiling loudspeaker.

We were excited to share these new products in Hollywood, but we also debuted them in other launch events across the globe like the one we had at the Casacor in Sao Paulo, Brazil.

As you can see, regardless of where the consumer lives, these products are designed to deliver exceptional experiences at affordable prices. We have developed high performance audio for the next generation of movie and music enthusiasts and know that you will want to get these onto your show floors and engage with a new target audience that we feel these products will address. We believe with a younger customer in mind, JBL component audio will continue to be the brand of choice for those interested in exploring the many wonders of music and film.

To get a better feeling of what it was like to be in Hollywood for the launch of these new products, check out this short video that captured the moments of that evening.