JBL - MA710:  MA710 90W 7.2ch Bluetooth and WiFi Capable HDR and Dolby Atmos 8k Ultra HD Compatible AV Receiver - Black

JBL is no stranger to home audio. The parent company Harmon holds many brands deeply entrenched in pro audio, and acoustic research. JBL’s products tend to fill the more consumer friendly products, but absent from their portfolio for quite a while are AVRs. JBL introduced the Synthesis series based on their acquisition of Arcam. Honestly I’ve been out of the truly nerdy side of Audio Video Receivers’s (AVR) for a while, so the depth and history of the relationship is lost on me; however I will say JBL has been out of this game for a while. The MA series is JBL’s introduction to the lower end AVR market, a space dominated for years by fairly well known names. Does the MA701 have what it takes to help JBL return across the market. First of all, let’s take a look at the new lineup. You have the MA310, MA510, and MA710. The MA310 solves the basic needs of a 5.1 surround setup, but with pretty anemic power output. The MA510 offers a bit more grunt, 5.1 Atmos, and 8K support. The MA710 is the mac daddy of the entry level and it boasts Atmos, 7.2, 6 HDMI ports with 3 of them are version 2.1 supporting 8K or more likely for most use cases, 4K 10-bit HDR. eARC is support from the output HDMI port and means you can receive high definition Atmos from your TV and its input source. The MA710 comes out of the box with the remote, batteries, power cord, some documentation you can probably ignore, and the MA710 unit. On first inspection, you’ll notice some high quality surfaces, and fit and finish. JBL is making a nice product here, and it shows. Just like other lines in its series (including the Stage 2 speakers) there is a hint of orange just behind the front of the unit. Normally invisible, it stands as a nice brand identifier and gives a bit of character. The MA710 is available in black or white, so there is a desire to carry a design aesthetic. The back panel of the unit carries a good set of connectors. Most importantly are the HDMI 2.1 ports, of which there are 3 and they are marked ‘8K’. The other HDMI 2.0 ports support 4K, but don’t do fancy tricks like VRR, ALLM, or high refresh rates at 4K HDR. Beneath the HDMI are the speaker terminals that offer several ways to connect your speakers, including banana plugs. In addition to multiple digital in’s (coax, and optical), there are phono plugs if you want to get your record player on. A set of analog stereo input, as well as a zone 2 output are found back here, along with 2 subwoofer outputs. A dedicated ground terminal, USB, and network jack round out the back along with 3 antennas (2 for WiFi, 1 for bluetooth). The unit supports 5GHz wifi, even the rarely supported 5.8GHz band (but not 6Ghz AX, this is WiFi6, not WiFi6e). Setup is fairly straightforward, except for the fact that the unit literally locked me at a fairly high volume as it updated the firmware without a prompt or warning. To be fair, I plugged it directly into my network jack, so if there was a WiFi update flow, I bypassed it. Once it did its forceful firmware update, the unit allowed me to continue setup. Setup doesn’t prompt, you have to seek it out, but just do the first several speaker menus under setup and you’re golden. There are basic adjustments for audio tuning: speaker size (small or large), and what speakers you have in your setup: front, center, surround, rear surround and subwoofer. Once you have them selected, you need to measure how far the listening area is from the speaker setup and input the distances. Now comes the tricky part, there are apps that are supposed to be used to help you setup the unit, which to be fair again, I bypassed with my pesky RJ45 network cable. If you download the app, it will discover the unit, and let you adjust some basic settings. And by basic, I mean very basic, and mostly network setup. You can play USB content (who does this?), uPNP (Universal Plug and Play, which hit its stride in 2006), and internet radio. A bit of digging, I found this is just a website hosted by the AVR on port 80, with no security. I’m mildly annoyed by this, but the worst that can happen is borked network configuration. Here’s the kicker, this app is different than JBL’s one app, which you use for almost all of JBL’s other home audio. To make matters worse, this isn’t the app that tunes and does room correction, which there is no link to. You need to download the manual to find the ‘Ez Set EQ’ app that, if you’re a lucky iOS device owner, allows you to use your cell phone to calibrate the speakers for the room. Otherwise if you’re an Android owner, its recommended to buy a specific microphone to connect to calibrate. This Ez Set EQ app is by far one of the most interesting pieces of this pie. It does an extraordinary job of room correcting, and making your surround setup sound its best. You basically walk around your room letting the phone listen to the speakers for 60 seconds for each zone. Once it’s done, the EQ will tune to compensate for the room. It's quite effective, and the before and after are quite pronounced. Physical design is attractive. The aforementioned orange coloration is the only thing that stands out from the otherwise black exterior. The front of the unit is flanked with 2 jog dials, one for input, and the other for volume. The volume has text reminding you it's safe to turn to past 11, a nice touch (if the volume scale wasn’t 0-100 it would have been even better). There are 3 buttons for functions: back, menu and select plug selector buttons. This mirrors the remote to some extent, which for an AVR is super simplistic. The on screen display is very basic. The menu is mirrored on the on device display, but only offers a black on white text aesthetic. For a unit so polished physically, this seems like an user interface from the late 90’s. That said, you won’t spend a lot of time here; maybe basic things like changing labels for your inputs. The volume OSD is unobtrusive, that’s about the only good thing I can say about it. Sound quality is solid. I’m no audiophile, so I won’t try to give it a signature, but the power is strong. 160W when doing stereo duty per channel, and 110w when powering all 7 channels (again only driving 2 channels). In practice, it glady powered the fairly large Onkyo THX speakers I've had for a while. I’m also in transition to newer speakers, and I’ve tried it with a set of floor standing speakers that it powered to painful levels no problem. Now, the HDMI and 8K support: works well. I will say I had a devil of a time, and never successfully got it to work reliably with my Hisense TV. It would swap back and forth, black screen flash, stop working randomly. This receiver and my Hisense TV hated each other more than any two pieces of electronics I’ve ever owned. To the point I thought I had a bad unit, with constant flickering, input switching, and sometimes refusing to even display a signal. It didn’t even want to work correctly in eARC not even passing a video signal.. Then I moved the unit to its actual use case: with my projector and surround setup. There it worked flawlessly. CEC worked fine, 4K HDR pass through, and pretty much everything I threw at it. The AVR remote will not pass any CEC navigation, so keep in mind, the auto power on/off, and trickle down volume seem to be the extent of the CEC feature set. Overall for an entry level 7.1 Atmos receiver, the MA710 is a solid unit from an audio standpoint. CEC compatibility, OSD, and a confusing app setup aside, the features are quite good, and having HDMI 2.1 that sports VRR, and ALLM offers those with PS5’s or XBox Series X’s some recourse for their fancy feature set. There are quite a few options loved by fans in this market, but it’s good to see JBL back in it, offering unique features, like Ez Set EQ, and an overall simplified user experience. I hope there’s more time spent on the out of the box welcome as well as the on screen display of the unit. Still, it’s an attractive, powerful unit that’s definitely worth consideration.

Overall, I think this is a pretty impressive AV receiver for the features it has. I’m not impressed with the apps, that either don’t work or crash. More on that later in the review. Technically, going by old school standards, the MA710 and its siblings are not receivers as they lack an AM and FM tuner. Even though it has WiFi and Bluetooth and those are radios, in my opinion, they don’t count. This unit should be categorized as an integrated amplifier. It has inputs and EQ controls and that’s why it fits that category. I’m not listing all the specs as those are already covered. However, I will where necessary. Build quality looks and feels premium. I really like vacuum fluorescent display. I like the feel of the input knob and volume knobs. I don’t much care for the “safe to turn beyond 11” printed on the volume knob. Silly over use of a classic line, er, theme, from a classic movie. BTW, I’ve played with lead guitar players that would have cranked it to 1100 if they could. That’s why I used earplugs when necessary. I think it goes to 99. I didn’t turn it that high. The unit was well packed and comes with a quick start guide that directs you go download the JBL Premium Audio app. The app will guide you to connect your WiFi router to the receiver. The Android app on my Galaxy S23 Ultra didn’t work for me the first 3 times I used it. It showed the MA710 and wanted my WiFi password. I gave it that 3 times and 3 times it hung, but on the 3rd time I noticed that the MA710 was displaying that it was getting an update. The app was hung saying connecting. I closed the app again and brought it back up. This time it was connected to the MA710 and I was able access options for radio streaming services, Podcasts, UPnP and USB. If you can’t get WiFi to connect, there’s an ethernet port on the back of the unit. I didn’t test that port and doubt all but a very few will use it. There’s a lot of streaming radio channels to choose from. I think most have commercials. Some I listened to did and some didn’t. Sorry, but I don’t do Chromecast or Podcast, so that wasn’t tested. Several times when I have brought up the app, I got a blank screen and had to close it and bring it up again. Also, you must hit a back arrow at the top to go back to the previous page. Hitting the back button on the boom of the screen and you’re back to the app’s opening screen. JBL, please fix! Then there’s the EZ EQ android app. I only got it to work once. It generates white noise and you “sweep” the room for the app to set the EQ for the room. The graph shows you the frequency response changes made to optimize the sound in that room and saves it in the receiver, I assume. You can enable or disable the EQ setting the app creates. Directions are vague. Both apps have no help or instructions that I can find. Cool option when it works. Also, the apps do not appear to let you set the receiver up, select surround sound modes or speaker options, change inputs or even the volume to individual speaker groups. You must use the controls on the MA710 or the remote to do that. I didn’t find a way to set the volumes individually for each of the speaker components. Next you will need to set the system up. Go into the menu and tell it what kind of speakers you have, which speakers, size, distance apart and such. You can do this on the unit’s screen, or plug it into a TV via HDMI and use the TV’s screen. The latter is better because it shows more info. You have the options of using as many speakers as the device allows or as few speakers as you want. Want to listen to music only with just Left and Right speakers? No problem. Just tell it that in setup. The MA710 supports center channel, surround, surround height for Dolby Atmos and a couple of powered subwoofers. Also, a second line level out for another room, known as Party. Now for inputs and there’s plenty. For video there’s a total of 6 HDMI inputs and 3 support 8k video. You can input FHD or 4K into any of the 6. There is only 1 HDMI output, with eARC. The specs in the listing states 2. No, just 1. For audio there’s 2 digital inputs. Coaxial - S/PDIF and optical – TOSlink. 1 phono input with a ground connection. Ironically, there’s no ground pin on the power cord. Probably a good thing. I could tell some stories about grounding problems in old buildings and equipment problems. And there’s 2, not just 1, analog audio input. The specs are incorrect here too. Sound quality is superb. The MA710 is a digital amplifier as opposed to old school class A, AB and C amps. I’m not going to explain the differences here because it gets a bit complicated. Do research it for an interesting read if you’re not familiar with the differences. I connected it to the JBL 260F speakers that came with it to review. It made them walk and talk without overheating and cutting out. I played my usual music I like to test a system with. Steely Dan, Alan Parsons, as well as some classical to hard rock to classic country. Sorry, no metal or rap. I ran my Sony ES series CD changer into the MA710 via optical and analog inputs. I couldn’t tell the difference between the two. Maybe some golden eared audiophiles can. Strangely, I never saw any “audiophile” gear in any recording studios I was ever in. Pros don’t use RCA patch cables on Neve mixing consoles. Rant over. The MA710 delivered clean crisp highs and punchy bass that didn’t break up when the volume went up. I connected my 42 year old Technics turntable to it and played a vintage half speed master LP, ABBA Arrival, on it. Sounded as good as I expected it to. I connected my Sony DAT deck to it and discovered that it no longer functions. Bummer. I streamed music from my phone to it without a problem. No adjusting the bass and treble with BT streaming. Use the phone’s music app(s) to adjust the EQ. Speaking of EQ, does the room EQ settings from the app stay in place when you change inputs? I don’t know. I assume they do. And sound from the TV via eARC sounded as good as anything else depending on what was playing on the TV. In other words, if you’re watching a 1960s sitcom, don’t expect twenty first century sound quality. But I’m sure that’s a no brainer. Maybe AI will fix that in the future. LOL! I also hooked my 37 year old Polk Audio Monitor 10Bs to it. It rocked those too! I also borrowed a pair of surround and center speakers form one of my other AV setups and tested those with the MA710. Sounded great. But I never could find an adjustment for the volume levels for center and surround. The remote that it comes with looks and feels good and I like the clicking button tactile response. Much better than the typical rubber buttons that can be mushy and quit working over time. It lets you change inputs, adjust overall volume, cycle through surround sound options, and dim the display and navigate the menu. But the glossy finish shows hand and finger prints big time. Conclusion: The MA710 packs a solid punch sound wise and feature wise. The support apps need some work. At least the Android ones do. I would give it a 4.5 star rating if I could due to the one app required to connect the WiFi gave me trouble during setup and still crashes from time to time. If it didn’t work at all, then no WiFi streaming and I would have to give it 3 stars on that alone. That’s like removing a key feature. I don’t think the room EQ app is as important, and to get the most out of it, JBL recommends that you buy a USB mic to attach to your phone when using the app. I’m giving it 5 stars and hoping JBL fixes those apps and they might work better on an iPhone than Android.

The JBL MA710 is, in some ways, the perfect mixture of old and new school audio components and design - in my view, it's the perfect centerpiece for a modern audio system. Is it right to be the centerpiece of your system? Read on to find out. As a bit of background, my primary testing setup is with two JBL 260F floorstanding speakers in a stereo configuration, though I did also add a 10" subwoofer and satellite speakers to test those capabilities. The display used is a 4K projector. First off, this receiver supports the modern standards you want to see in surround, namely Dolby Atmos and DTS:X. And with support for up to 8K @ 60Hz video and 850W of audio power, it can certainly back up those ratings. Setup, as with most modern electronics is done via an app that is available for iOS or Android (at least if you want to use the Wifi / internet streaming radio options) and the app seems to be straight-forward and easy to use. You can also set up with the the app, though then some of the advanced streaming and settings will be lost though core functions will work fine. There's also an "automatic" room adjustment setting which is handy, but you'll get the best results if you use that as a base then "tinker" to some degree to your own ear tastes. So in these senses, it's definitely a very modern receiver - it even lacks the AM/FM tuner that my older model had (which we seldom/never used, favoring streaming audio instead these days). The inputs are a mixture of old(er) and new with three 8K-capable HDMI in, three more 4K-capable, the aforementioned WiFi (for both streaming radio and casting / Apple Airplay), gigabit ethernet, USB and Bluetooth. But you also get some ports that have been around a bit longer with optical in, coax in, analog RCA jacks and even a phono input. Output is similarly balanced with an 8K eARC HDMI out for video....and standard wire / banana plug jacks for speakers (RCA for the subwoofers, of course). All the ports are laid out and labeled as you would expect. Accessories are simple with a power cable, 3 WiFi / Bluetooth antennas and a simple IR remote (with batteries). Performance-wise, the speaker simply knocks it out of the park. On any of the combinations of speakers I tried, the sound is clear and packs a punch from any source (streaming boxes, video game consoles, PCs, or internet sources). Of course your experience will GREATLY depend on your sources and speakers, but with the JBL MA710, you know it won't be the receiver that is holding you back. Video is passed through cleanly without a delay and without any degradation. I was able to use end to end 4K with HDR without any issues (I don't have any "8K" sources just yet outside of cranking my PC up...but then I don't have an 8K display / projector - I assume this would work just fine, but could only test up to 4K). Style-wise, the receiver is simple and fits in well in most setups (old or new) - I do like that they've balanced the large volume knob (always nice to see in place of up / down buttons) with a second knob that controls input selection (since there is no tuner here). The balance of the two knobs makes the receiver more pleasing to the eye in my opinion and gives it a bit of an old-school look (or an analog look, if you prefer). The footprint of the receiver is fairly standard though it is a little shorter (height-wise) than my prior receiver which is just fine with me. And while it's not a lead brick, it does follow the old adage about sound equipment that heavier is indeed better. And the whole device is the quality you would expect from JBL (these days, a subsidiary brand of HARMAN which itself is a subsidiary of Samsung - all names known for quality electronics and home theater). So if you're looking for a top notch and to some degree "future proof" receiver to be the heart of your AV system for years to come, the JBL MA710 is a great option to look into - give it a try today!