Garmin is best known for its smartwatches, but it has fingers in many pies – car audio, satnavs, marine gear (“chartplotters and fishfinders”, anyone?)… and now home audio.
It’s not starting from scratch though. In 2023 it acquired JL Audio, a US-based firm best known for its subwoofers. And now Garmin has launched the JL Audio Primacy, a premium home audio system that comes with either floorstanding or standmount speakers.
It makes some pretty bold claims, among them that it “redefines high-end audio” – and, at these prices, we sincerely hope that’s true. It also promises to optimise the audio to where it is situated within the room.
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The system comprises either two T6 three-way floorstanders or two compact S3 two-way standmount speakers, and the CS centrepiece – a network streamer, preamplifier and room optimisation processor. There’s also a wireless remote control for your coffee table.
The speakers are active, with DSP-based (digital signal processing) audio filtering. Each speaker has multiple built-in amplifiers – one for each driver section – with JL Audio’s advanced switching technology. With DSP filtering at the input of each active amplifier channel, we are promised optimal control and damping over each moving diaphragm.
Sound optimisation is handled by JL Audio’s Primacy Automatic Room Optimisation (P.A.R.O.) tech. This optimises crossovers, levels, equalisation and delay for each driver section, to give you the best possible sound for your environment.
This might be proprietary tech, but plenty of other speakers do the same thing, such as the Sonos TruePlay tech found on the Sonos Era 300, among others. Still, it’s a neat feature.
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The DSP operates at 32-bit/192 kHz, and gives you control over crossover filters, equalisation, dynamics, delay and phase.
It also has Dante Digital Network on board, providing pro-grade audio/video networking. Which means higher-quality streaming directly to the Primacy speakers’ internal amplifiers.
The CS centrepiece includes a source connection component, and connects to the Primacy speakers using Dante networking. This preserves a high resolution digital signal flow. The tabletop remote connects over wi-fi, and has a weighted volume knob and touch buttons.
You can also control it via the Primacy app on your mobile device, which you can use to create listening profiles as well.
The speakers are made from a single cast, precision-machined aluminium alloy enclosure with integrated internal bracing and woofer ports. This should deliver “exceptional resonance control, structural integrity and acoustic performance”.
You can customise the speakers’ finishes to match your home decor.
JL Audio Primacy is available now. Pricing is as follows:
T6 floorstanding speakers: £86,000 / $90,000 (around AU$124,000) per pair
Joe has been writing about tech for 20 years, first on staff at T3 magazine, then in a freelance capacity for Stuff, The Sunday Times Travel Magazine (now defunct), Men's Health, GQ, The Mirror, Trusted Reviews, TechRadar and many more. His specialities include all things mobile, headphones and speakers that he can't justifying spending money on.
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