JBL Club A758 High Performance Class D Eight Channel Amplifier Review

We all like our music. When it comes to our car stereo speakers, they are not all created equal. And to get the best sound quality they need power. For the best power, you need a separate amp. All amps are also not created equal. And there’s many different designs of amps. You can get them in one, two, four, six and even eight channel designs. Up for review is the JBL Club A758 High Performance Class D Eight Channel Amplifier. MSRP is $599.

 

Features and specs:

Club Series Class D 2 ohm Stable 8-Channel Amplifier

RMS Power Rating: 

4 ohm: 75 watts x 8 channel

2 ohm: 125 watts x 8 channel

Bridged: 250 watts x 4 channel @ 4 ohm

Total power output: 1000 watts

LED Power/Protect Light

Speaker-level (high-level) inputs and preamp outputs

Balanced Differential inputs for low noise and distortion

Turn-on switch between DC to REM

Input mode for multiple switching

Short circuit, high temperature, overvoltage and undervoltage protection

Input sensitivity:

Low level: 200 mV - 5 volts

High level: 1 - 25 volts

Variable high-pass and low-pass filters

Fuse Rating: 105A

 

The JBL Club A758 came in a nice-looking color printed box with photos and specs of the amplifier. Opening the box revealed a well-protected amplifier held in place by custom foam. Materials used is mostly metal with some plastic. Quality of materials used, as well as fit and finish is very good. Also included was the mounting screws, RCA hi-level adapters, and manual.

 

I love the design of the JBL Club A758 Class D amplifier. With eight channels, it gives you a lot of options. It’s rated at 75 watts x 8, or 250 watts x 4. Two channels can be bridged together for 250 watts at 4 ohms being 4 ohm stable in bridged mode. This means four channels can be bridged to two channels for use with a subwoofer. So it can be used as a whole system amp: four channels used for your door speakers, and the other channels used for a dual voice coil subwoofer, or two single voice coil subs.

 

Or, it can be used to power a fully active system. Most car stereo systems have two-way component speakers in the front and coaxial speakers in the rear. The better ones also use component speakers in the rear. But component systems, while using a separate woofer and tweeter for better sound, still use a passive crossover network that separate the frequencies between the woofer and tweeter. Passive crossovers can affect sound quality. While it sounds really good, you need a fully active system for the best sound. This replaces a passive crossover network with an electronic DSP.

 

Let’s briefly discuss how a DSP works. The DSP has electronic crossovers, and gives you full control of frequencies, gains, and even time delays. You can assign which frequencies, gains, time delay go to each individual tweeter and woofer for their size and location in the vehicle. You can even adjust equalization for each individual tweeter and woofer.  Each speaker has its own amplifier channel. The electronic DSP sends the adjusted signal to each channel output.  These outputs are then connected to the inputs of an amplifier, like the JBL Club A758, and the tweeters and woofers are connected to their appropriate amplifier channels speaker wire connections.

 

With a component speaker for each door, a tweeter and woofer each, two in the front and two in the rear; that’s a total of four tweeters and four woofers, for eight speakers. You’ll just need an electronic DSP and mono amplifier for your subs. The JBL Club A758 can handle all your door speakers in a fully active system. But if you aren’t ready for that, and need to build up to it, you can use it to power your 4 component speakers using their passive crossovers, and bridging the other 4 channels to power your subs. And then save up for the electronic DSP and sub amp. It’s a great amp that you can grow with.

 

If all that flexibility wasn’t enough, it keeps coming. The JBL Club A758 is also flexible to work in multiple vehicles. It integrates into factory car stereo systems, as well as aftermarket car stereo systems. It features the standard RCA inputs for using it in aftermarket systems. But also included are adapter connectors. If you are integrating into a stock stereo system, you tap into your existing system with speaker wire, and connect these hi level inputs to the adapters. The adapters then connect to the RCA connectors on the JBL Club A758.

 

When it comes to installation, the manual is not always easy to follow. With so many products being made in China, their manuals are often harder to follow. It was a pleasant surprise, seeing the manual for the JBL Club A758 being easy to follow. If you’re doing your own installation, and don’t do a lot of car stereo installs, this is a big help. Installation was rather simple. Now let’s see how it performs.

 

Rush: Tom Sawyer – Vocals were smooth like honey, with excellent texture of the timbre. Bass drum was very dynamic with very good motor control, which enabled tight yet powerful output. And I could tell the speakers were well fed, as resolution was also really good with the tom drums, with excellent pitch definition of the mid bass. Resolution of the pad of the snare was excellent. And sound stage was both wide and deep.

Pat Benatar: Heartbreaker – Pat Benatar can really wail, and the excellent vocals and texture came out in spades. It just had to be blasted, and the JBL amp easily obliged. Guitar was nice and saw with great harmonics. Kick drum was nice and tight with very good depth and impact like a punch, which was thanks to the excellent motor control from the amp. It was really loud, yet really clean doing so!

Electronic Light Orchestra: Mr. Blue Sky – The snaps were really dynamic, as were the bass beats. Vocals were silky smooth with excellent resolution of the texture. And this is such a phenomenal recording. With the right speakers, there is an amazing soundstage that is really wide, deep and extremely forward as well. Thanks to the well powered and controlled motor, this amazing soundstage came out in all it’s glory. There’s also several instruments, and they were all resolved really well.

 

When it comes to car stereo, is really easy to think why spend the money on a separate amp?  If you are doing an aftermarket car stereo system, most receivers have a four-channel amp built-in.  The amps in a receiver will work in a pinch, but don’t expect very good sound.  The speakers will play, sure.  But they can sound so much better if they were not being starved. Feed a speaker the power they can handle, and the motor performs so much better. This translates into significantly better sound overall.  And with 8 channels of amplification, you get a ton of flexibility with the JBL Club A758!

 

JBL is known for providing great products. I’m glad to see that JBL is not sitting on their laurels. The JBL Club A758 is a well-made amplifier that puts out a good amount of power. It’s also flexible enough to be used in both a stock or aftermarket system. And it also has enough channels to be used as a whole system amp, or as a main amp for all of your door speakers in a fully active system. MSRP is a fir $599, and it’s also made well enough to provide years of use. Based on its design, features, quality and performance, the JBL Club A758 has earned our Editor’s Choice award. For more info and complete specs, check out it’s website at www.JBL.com.