JBL Control 2.4G

JBL's Control 2.4G is a set of speakers with a wireless receiver included. Their design makes them highly versatile, able to be used as a PC, home theatre, stand-alone or even outdoor Hi-Fi speakers. In addition, their excellent audio performance helps to highlight them as a fantastic product. The design is slightly less user-friendly than we would have liked; however, overall their versatility and quality make them hard to pass up.

The Control 2.4G's sound is incredibly clean, delivering maximum clarity and definition with very little distortion. The entire audio range is well balanced, with bass, the mid-range and treble all being well represented without overpowering any of the other aspects of the sound. Treble performance is outstanding, and the speakers are capable of reproducing high frequencies that are both clear and powerful. Bass is fantastic too, but only to an extent. The in-built woofers do a great job of handling bass down to a certain level, at which point a sub is really required to get the most out of the very lowest frequencies. A connection option for a subwoofer is provided on the back of the speakers, however.

Volume is very respectable, although the lack of any sort of front panel display means that users are left guessing as to what the volume level is. Additionally, the only means of increasing or decreasing the volume of the speakers is through a tiny remote, so care should be taken not to lose it. Nevertheless, volume is quite good, and definitely adequate for our tastes. You won't be able to reach ear splitting levels with these speakers, but they'll do a great job for a single room or as supplements in a home theatre system.

The wireless nature of speakers essentially means that no cables are needed to connect them from the source (such as a CD player, receiver/amplifier or PC). In any case, they'll still need to be connected to each other, as well as to a power outlet. We found the wireless reception to be very impressive in our tests, and didn't notice any loss in quality when passing the signal through multiple walls or over distances of 20 metres or so. No guarantees can be made with wireless, however, although if you're currently able to use wireless connections in your home you shouldn't have a problem with these speakers.

The Control 2.4G speakers have a simple design, comprising two roughly rectangular speakers, with a metallic mesh over the drivers and cable connections at the rear. The wireless receiver is very small and unobtrusive, with connections for power, and a single analogue audio input. Overall it's quite a versatile design, and the speakers are well suited for use remotely in a different room, or supplements to a home theatre system. They could even be used outdoors, although they do not include any weather resistance, so care needs to be taken to protect them from the elements. One of the biggest downsides is their almost complete lack of customisation of audio, which is limited to volume adjustments, meaning that any equaliser settings or sound fields are reliant upon the source.

Overall, these speakers can be summed up in a single word -- versatile. Both in terms of their audio performance and design, these speakers are well suited to use in a variety of roles, from music to radio to home theatre use. The relatively limited number of calibration options as well as the bass performance does recommend them to use with additional components, such as a subwoofer and amplifier, although they still manage to do excellent on their own.