This article discusses the new JBL Stage 2 loudspeakers and the improvements JBL has made to this popular speaker series. We’ll discuss each model in the lineup, as well as help you decide which ones will be best for you. In addition, we’ll give you some tips on how to get them set up and discuss why they pair up so well with their new MA series of home theater receivers.

Company History

Few names in the world of audio reproduction have the lineage that JBL has. Started in 1946 by James B. Lansing, the then-named “James B. Lansing Sound” was responsible for some of the most significant advancements in speaker technology. From their legendary D130 15” woofer, debuting in 1948, to the first titanium diaphragm compression drivers in 1979, JBL’s work in speaker design and engineering has influenced many brands and models in today’s market.

If you go to a live music event or movie theater, there is a good chance you will be listening to JBL speakers. In addition, JBL’s legendary M2 Studio Monitor has been a crucial part of some of the best studio albums produced today. They’ve sold over 200 million pairs of headphones and over 100 million loudspeakers which has earned the trust from people around the world. Their JBL Synthesis home theater speakers, receivers, and processors have proven to be extremely popular in the high-end cinema world, but with JBL being one of the fastest-growing brands with the younger generation, they have endeavored to reimagine the home cinema experience. Extensive research led them to discover what kept people from buying these more complex systems, and their new MA Series receivers and Stage 2 speakers is their solution to making a home theater system more approachable, without sacrificing great quality.

Features & Technology

As home theater has evolved over the years into the movie soundtrack powerhouse it is today, things have become more complex, and setting these systems up may seem very daunting. Many people today forgo the complete speaker systems for soundbars and simpler-to-setup, all-in-one systems that might not give the performance they want, but the setup is less intimidating. While JBL makes some really great options for that type of person like the Bar 1300X, they saw this as an opportunity to develop a product line that aims to keep the setup as straightforward as possible while offering a level of performance that is very close to the complex, high-performing, and often difficult-to-set-up reference-level theater systems today.

The new Stage 2 speaker systems and MA Series Receivers from JBL promise great home theater and music performance but, most importantly, offer a system that is easy to set up and enjoy with simple setup menus, a simple but well-thought-out remote, and speakers that offer great, full sound but are versatile enough to be used in any room and will sound better than any soundbar or all-in-one unit on the market today.

It Starts With Great Looks!

The new Stage 2 Series has two very well-thought-out color themes. The espresso theme has a dark wood-toned veneer, an all-black front baffle, and a color-matched horn. This gives the speaker an overall dark appearance that would look great in a room with darker wood-toned furniture or a dark theater room. The Latte theme has a lighter-toned veneer with a white front baffle and color-matched horn as well. These will work excellently in a room with lighter wood-toned furniture and will stand out a bit more in your living room with their bright white front baffle. The choice is yours as to what color theme will work best in your room, as both of these color options look great and give the speakers a high-end appearance not found in most affordable speaker lines.

The Stage 2 260F and 280F are the floor-standing speakers in the line. They feature a base that you attach with a few provided screws, and it adds stability to the tower speaker and is color-matched to the front baffle, completing the speaker's look. The four feet on the bottom of the base can be adjusted to get your speaker perfectly leveled in your room. And if you’re placing them on carpet, they also include small spikes that you can add. This base is pretty nice for a speaker at this price point and will offer better isolation from the floor they are sitting on, ultimately improving their performance.

Dynamics with Finesse, the JBL Way

JBL designed an all-new waveguide for the aluminum dome tweeter in the Stage 2 series speakers. It is larger and offers smoother transitions throughout its body. This new waveguide called the HDI (High Definition Waveguide), benefits from better dynamics and a smoother upper midrange and treble response. The tweeter is specially designed for this new waveguide and promises class-leading midrange and treble response.

The Stage 2 speakers also incorporate polycellulose ribbed coned woofers. JBL has supported using natural paper cones for years due to their natural tone and excellent technical performance. Paper has the benefit of being an all-natural material that many experts say has a more natural tone than many of the other materials used for cones today. This is why you will see paper cones used in all of JBL’s speakers. It offers excellent measured response without the cone breakup issues of plastic, metal, or other man-made materials.

The crossover for the floor-standing 260F and 280F models is a 2.5-way design. This patented crossover system takes the lower woofer up to 1.1kHz on the 280F and 1.3kHz on the 260F. Then, it crosses over the top woofer to the tweeter at 2.1kHz for the 280F and 1.7kHz for the 260F. Crossing over the drivers in this fashion allows better coherency and phase characteristics since the top woofer and tweeter are very close together on the baffle. In simpler terms, it crosses the top woofer directly to the tweeter for a better transition, and the bottom woofer is crossed over a little lower so as not to disturb this critical transition point.

Stage 2 Series Speaker Models

The JBL Stage 2 Series loudspeakers have eight models, with a model that will work in almost any situation or system.

Floorstanding Speakers

The Stage 2 260F and 280F are floor-standing speakers with a 1” anodized aluminum tweeter with the HDI waveguide. The 260F uses two 6.5” polycellulose cone woofers with dual rear ports. At 40.8”x 12.2” x 14.3” and 43.3 lbs they are small and light enough to fit in most rooms. With their racetrack-style rear ports, these speakers should have room between them and the front wall for the best bass performance(this can be adjusted to preference). For the most accurate soundstage and imaging, JBL recommends angling the speakers 40 to 60 degrees from the listener. The 280F uses two 8” polycellulose woofers with dual rear ports and is 40.8in x 12.2in x 14.3in (1036mm x 310mm x 362mm) and weighs 55.2 lb. These speakers use the same tweeter and cabinet design, so the positioning requirements are the same. With an impedance of 6 ohms and Sensitivity at 90dB for the 260F and 91dB for the 280F, they are sensitive enough to easily be driven by today’s home theater receivers, including JBL’s own new MA Series receivers, which were designed specifically with the Stage 2 speakers in mind. The model you choose should be determined by room size and system performance needs.

Bookshelf Speakers

The JBL Stage 2 speakers also offer two bookshelf models. They use the same 1” aluminum dome tweeter as the towers but with a slightly smaller waveguide to match the woofers. The 240B uses a 4.5” polycellulose cone woofer. At 10.7in x 6.9in x 8.5in and 10.1 lbs, they are small and light enough to place almost anywhere in the room and have ¼”-20 inserts on the back panel for aftermarket mounts. These mounts allow you to mount these speakers on the wall, making them great for surround speakers. Plus, JBL includes port plugs to install when mounting the 240B on the wall to contour and tighten the bass. The 250B uses the same tweeter with a slightly larger waveguide and a 5.25” woofer. It is designed for speaker stand use at 12.6in x 7.9in x 9.5in and 12.4 lbs, as it does not have port plugs or wall mount holes. If you plan on stand-mounting your surround speakers or need a main channel speaker for smaller rooms, the 250B would be a great choice. They are rear-ported so just like their floorstanding brothers benefit from some space between them and the front wall. JBL also recommends 40 to 60 degree toe-in for best imaging and soundstage. The 240B and 250B come with anti-slip pads for stand or shelf placement. Impedance is 6 ohms with a sensitivity of 85dB for the 240B and 86dB for the 250B. While these are not very sensitive speakers in their specifications, JBL has designed them with home theater receivers in mind, and they should perform well with good clean power.

Center Channel Speaker

The 245C center channel speakers are designed with the same 1” aluminum dome tweeter with 4 4.5” polycellulose woofers. The crossover uses the same 2.5-way design as the Stage 2 tower speakers, with the crossover point for the inner woofers and tweeter at 2.0kHz and the outer woofers at 1.3kHz. This offers the same tweeter transitional benefits that the Stage 2 towers enjoy, which is crucial for the 245C center channel speaker to produce the most natural vocals and on-screen action. With a sensitivity of 91dB and a 6-ohm impedance, the 245C is receiver-friendly. At 6.1” x 29.1” x 8.5” and 26.4 lbs the 245C is small enough to install in most theaters easily but large enough to handle the complex and often dynamic soundtracks of today's demanding movies. The 245C is designed to be smaller in height to sit right below your television or projector screen, just like an average soundbar would. This makes installing the 245C much more manageable than some of the large and heavy center channel speakers on the market.

The Stage 2 FS stand was specifically designed and built for the Stage 2 speakers and will be a great asset to people wanting to mount the 240B or 250B stand mount speakers. It is well known that putting a Bookshelf speaker on an actual bookshelf is not the most recommended place for the best performance. With these stands, you can place your surround channels at the 27.8” height where they perform the best and at the height to match the floor-standing 260F or 280F. We like the fact that the Stage FS stands are color-matched to the tones of the rest of the speaker system. This gives the whole package a level of integration and a premium feel that most entry-level products do not possess.

Subwoofers

JBL’s Stage 2 speaker system also has two available powered subwoofer options. The 200P is a 10” front-firing subwoofer with twin rear ports and a 150-watt (300-watt dynamic) amplifier. It has a full complement of controls for volume, crossover frequency, and phase, as well as an auto power circuit that will turn the unit on when it senses a signal. At 14.2in x 13.8in x 15.2in and 31.8 lbs, it is small enough for almost any room while remaining very manageable in weight. JBL designed this subwoofer to go as low as 32Hz, which is excellent for a subwoofer this size and should fill small to medium-sized rooms very well. For folks with larger rooms, the 220P subwoofer is available, and it sports a 12” front-firing subwoofer with twin rear ports and a 250-watt (500-watt dynamic) amplifier. The 220P has the same full-featured controls, is 16.4in x 15.9in x 17.5in and 41.2 lbs, and goes as low as 29Hz. This extra power and driver size are needed for larger rooms and listeners who like to hear their movies at reference levels. You can run one Stage 2 series subwoofer, or if you want the ultimate Stage 2 bass experience, run multiple 200P or 220P subwoofers, which will balance out the in-room bass response and offer the benefits of more power and drivers sharing the load. We also liked that JBL chose to use the same aesthetic theme for the subwoofers as the rest of the speakers in the line.

Surround Speakers

Lastly, there is the Stage 2 240H Dolby Atmos add-on speaker. This is designed to be an add-on Dolby Atmos height speaker with the 280F or 260F floor-standing speakers. They are designed to sit right on top of the speakers and connect directly to the available height speaker output on the 280F and 260F. This will allow you to have Atmos height channels without physically installing ceiling speakers. The drivers and crossover are specially designed to have these speakers bounce their sound off of the ceiling to create the Atmos height channel. But these speakers have a unique option. There is an added switch on the ear panel of the 240H. If you switch it from Atmos to Surr, you will now have a surround speaker tuned to hang on the wall or ceiling to use as a surround speaker. You could use a pair of 240Hs in Atmos mode on top of 260F or 280F floor-standing speakers and mount another 240Hs around the room in surround mode as your surround speakers. This would be a high-performing speaker system with wall-mounted speakers that are out of the way. Or install 240H speakers as height speakers on your wall to complement a set of floor-standing or stand-mount Stage 2 speakers at floor level. JBL has designed the new Stage 2 speakers to be as versatile as they are good-looking. The 240H is a sealed box design with the same 4.5” polycellulose cone woofer as the 240B bookshelf speakers. The tweeter is the same 1” anodized aluminum dome tweeter, and a smaller version of the HDI waveguide the larger speakers have. The sensitivity of 87dB and 6-ohm impedance means it is a good match for the other speakers in the Stage 2 lineup.

JBL offers many options with the new Stage 2 speaker systems. If you have any questions or want help choosing which models will work best in your space, please call, email, or chat. Our experts at Audio Advice will help you select the models that will work best with your components and home theater space.

Overall Recommendation

Overall, we are very impressed with JBL's work on the Stage series. They have upgraded the Stage 2 speakers to improve their performance while keeping the price affordable. They use the same tweeters and waveguide design for every model, and the woofers are all designed with ribbed paper cone drivers, giving you the same sonic traits. For our music-listening and movie-watching, the Stage 2 speakers were balanced, dynamic, and smooth and allowed us more realism than many products even close to this price class. If you want to move from soundbars or Bluetooth speakers into your first real Hi-Fi or theater system, look closely at the JBL Stage 2 Series. They will give you a performance that soundbars and Bluetooth speakers simply can’t provide and be affordable doing it. We also recommend looking at the matching JBL MA Series receivers, as they were tailor-made with these speakers in mind. Call us, chat, or email here at Audio Advice, and let our knowledgeable staff help you see if the JBL Stage 2 speakers are for you.

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