At the end of 2024, I attended a listening session hosted by JBL to check out the audio company’s new Modern Audio A/V receivers and Stage2 speaker system. JBL pitched the receivers and speakers as a "baby’s first sound system" for those looking to upgrade from a soundbar to something more robust.
I’ve had an ancient LG soundbar hooked up to my TV for years, and a set of Sonos One smart speakers for music. I am that baby looking to upgrade their home theater.
Introducing myself to the MA510
Off the bat, the MA510 receiver looks great and feels like a stalwart piece of equipment for first-time buyers. JBL has gone for a clean aesthetic, reflected in the large volume and input knobs on the front, but also the reduced number of ports on the back (that's a good thing for someone like me). Plus, it comes in slick espresso (blackish) or latte (white) colorways.
During the listening session, JBL told me that it designed the MA receivers to be less overwhelming for newcomers by limiting the number of ports available on the rear. As someone who recalls my dad’s giant Onkyo receiver from the 1990s, this is a blessing.
The front of the 5.2-channel receiver only has five buttons in total, plus the two giant knobs. The rear has five HDMI ports, USB-A, optical, and Ethernet ports alongside a coax in, analog, and two sub out plugs. For speakers, there are only plugs for two surround, center, and two front. All in all, fairly compact. Of course, the larger and more expensive MA9100 and MA710 versions offer a few more inputs, but not by much.
The Stage2 speakers, also available in latte or espresso, are equally sleek-looking with grey speaker grilles that attach magnetically.
The painful setup process
Part of upgrading from a simple soundbar to a 5.2-channel system means organizing cables and double-checking your connections. That isn’t necessarily a bad thing in my book, but it did require more learning on my part.
I'll admit, one of the joys of a soundbar system is that you pull it out of the box, plug it in, and, in general, you’re ready to rock. By comparison, the Modern Audio system doesn’t offer out-of-the-box readiness: While the JBL quickstart guide and owner’s manual are well-written and feature handy diagrams and images, they don’t include everything.
For one, neither the receiver nor the speakers comes with speaker wire. Which also means that you need to buy a wire stripper; two things I didn’t have.
My setup area was littered with strands of copper as my initial attempts to get appropriate lengths of wire unsheathed from their tubes proved destructive.
For wires, I bought a reel of Rocketfish 30-foot 16-gauge pure copper wire, mostly because that’s all my local Best Buy had in stock. The audio guy on the clock vociferously told me not to buy banana plugs. I wasn’t planning on it, but that is advice you might get. He strongly insisted they were “unnecessary” and for people looking for “an aesthetic.”
The store did not have a wire stripper, which necessitated a different trip to the local Ace Hardware, where I picked up a pair of Klein cutters.
Y’all, I had forgotten how frustrating stripping wire can be, especially if you either a.) don’t know what you’re doing or b.) are deeply out of practice like me. My setup area was littered with strands of copper as my initial attempts to get appropriate lengths of wire unsheathed from their tubes proved destructive.
It is a pain point that I don’t know if anyone unprepared for the step up in connectivity difficulty will be ready to tackle. Plus, the plugs on the back of the JBL speakers are slightly angled which turns trying to slip the wires in before tightening into a ‘thread the needle’ level of frustration. Perhaps I should have bought those banana plugs.
JBL does have a Premium Audio app that you’ll need to use so that you can finish setting up the receiver. It also lets you enable and connect streaming apps via your phone — perfect if you don’t want to plug your phone in.
Once you’ve hardwired everything and stretched wire from speaker to receiver, you are — for the most part — ready to go.
Here's where I ran into a problem
My current furniture situation does not allow for every speaker in the system to be plugged in. The console table under my TV has a lot of small cubbies, but not a larger open one like you see in most media centers.
I couldn’t properly set up both the receiver and the center channel speaker on the console table without some finagling. And you’re not going to stack them, or at least, I’m not. Additionally, I have a narrow living room with a fireplace I hate, which forces certain furniture arrangements, especially when you’ve invested in a sectional couch.
The floor-standing speakers don’t fit my current living room layout, and thus, the bookshelves became the main speakers. I did try a precarious setup with everything connected, and I admit, these JBL Stage2 speakers sound great — and, with the receiver, are easy to use. But my partner is not interested in buying new furniture just so I can set up speakers better.
Unfortunately, when you start removing speakers, like the center and the floorstanding, the receiver gets confused. It wants to default to Dolby sound, which means it pushes movie dialogue to a non-existent center channel. Everything sounds fine when you switch to Stereo 2.0 or 2.1, but the receiver refuses to stay on that setting. It has to be manually switched every time I turn the TV on.
In the end, I figured out this is a settings issue you have to change in the menu by disabling the center channel. I also turned the surrounds off since I didn’t have that setup.
What I’m saying is that unless I buy a new seating situation and a new console table, I can’t really use the speakers in the way JBL intended for them to be used or the system in full without some very ugly finagling. All of this is before you get into EQ testing your room, which can require a whole other app and an understanding of the physics of sound.
Not quite the easy step-up I was searching for
If the soundbar is meant to be your first step into the world of home theater audio, is the JBL Modern Audio system the next rung on the ladder to a full AV system? Yes and no.
If you’re interested in a system like this and you are upgrading from a soundbar to a full home theater system, it takes research, practice, extra tools, and possibly additional furniture.
The home theater audio world is a rabbit hole that goes past Wonderland and into the ethereal. On one hand, the capped JBL receiver with its sleek design and limited inputs takes an overwhelming device and makes it far friendlier to beginners like myself.
On the other, the leap isn’t a toddler learning how to waddle faster as JBL would have you believe. If you’re interested in a system like this and you are upgrading from a soundbar to a full home theater system, it takes research, practice, extra tools, and possibly additional furniture.
For my current situation, a setup like this may not be entirely possible, but for folks like me there are many excellent soundbars out there to choose instead. In fact, JBL has the awesome JBL Bar 1300X built for movie lovers — even if it does cost nearly double the cheapest setup of the Modern Audio system.
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