During High End 2025 in Munich, Germany, held from May 15 to 18, the renowned American loudspeaker brand JBL unveiled three new additions to its flagship Summit series: Ama, Pumori, and Makalu. The Summit Ama is a two-way standmount speaker, while the other two are three-way floorstanding speakers. The new Summit speakers represent the pinnacle of JBL’s engineering and design, and their names reflect that: Ama Dablam, Pumori, and Makalu are among the most impressive peaks in the Himalayas.
Summit Pumori floorstander and Ama standmount
The retail price for a pair of Summit Ama speakers is $19,995 in the US, €17,498 in Europe, and £14,998 in the UK; a pair of Summit Pumoris is priced at $29,995, €30,998, and £26,998; and a pair of the flagship Summit Makalus is priced at $44,995, €43,998, and £36,998.
A brief history: JBL and Harman
JBL has been a cornerstone of American loudspeaker design for nearly 80 years. Founded in 1946 by James Bullough Lansing, JBL became part of Harman International in 1969, a company that traces its origins to a New York audio company named Harman Kardon, established in 1953 by Sidney Harman and Bernard Kardon. Harman quickly grew into a dominant force in high-end audio, professional sound, and automotive acoustics.
Over the decades, Harman has acquired several prestigious brands, including Arcam and Mark Levinson, some of whose components were showcased alongside the JBL Summit setups at the High End 2025 show. Recently, Harman entered into a formal agreement with Masimo Corporation to acquire its Sound United portfolio, which includes Bowers & Wilkins, Denon, Marantz, Classé, Polk Audio, Definitive Technology, and Boston Acoustics. The acquisition is expected to be finalized toward the end of the year; these brands are not yet represented by Harman.
Design impressions
I won’t delve into the technical details of the new Summit speakers (you can find more information on them in Matt Bonaccio’s report on SoundStage! Global and on JBL’s website). But I do want to touch on their appearance. After all, you don’t just listen to speakers—you look at them too.
With their horn-loaded tweeters and pro-style drivers, the three Summit models have an unmistakable JBL look. But the high-gloss black and wood-veneer finishes seemed awkward and flashy to me under the show lights, almost plasticky. The carbon-fiber front baffle, though structurally advantageous, didn’t appeal to me either. Aesthetics aside, the speakers looked well built.
Summit Makalu floorstander
This was not the first time I felt disenchanted with JBL’s aesthetics. For the past two decades, aside from a few standouts such as the JBL Project Everest DD67000, Harman’s speakers have failed to impress me with their looks. JBL’s Classic-series speakers aim for retro charm but end up looking cheaper than their actual prices. Harman’s Revel speakers, which are designed in-house, often look uninspired too. It’s clear that Harman prioritizes performance over aesthetics, but why can’t we have both?
Summit systems and setup
Many new Harman products were showcased at High End 2025 in a vast multi-section exhibition space that included two listening rooms. The smaller of the two (though still one of the largest at the show) featured the Summit Ama loudspeakers, paired with the new Arcam SA45 integrated amplifier. Cables were all by AudioQuest (an American company not affiliated with Harman, known for its high-quality audio cables and accessories). The larger listening area featured the Summit Makalu, driven by a full suite of Mark Levinson electronics: the newly introduced No. 632 dual-mono stereo power amplifier and No. 626 dual-mono preamplifier and the No. 519 streaming CD player, which has been available for almost ten years. This system also used AudioQuest cabling.
Makalu system
Although Matt Bonaccio was already working on his report about the two systems while we were at the event, I felt compelled to listen to them closely and share my impressions as well. Given JBL’s immense popularity and the novelty of the Summit series, I knew it would attract much interest among our readers. On the final day of the show, I dedicated more focused time to these systems than I had during the previous three days and formed some impressions.
Listening impressions
The same playlist was playing simultaneously in the two Harman listening rooms. I would have liked to listen to specific tracks of my choosing—recordings I know—but there was no one on DJ duty to take requests while I was there. Of the five tracks I listened to during this session, I was familiar with only two.
I started with Daft Punk’s “Doin’ It Right” from Random Access Memories on the Makalu setup. What struck me immediately was the overall sound clarity above the bass, the openness of the midrange, and the prominence of the highs. Having heard this song hundreds of times on dozens of systems, I felt that the high register was in fact overly prominent—more prominent than what I consider neutral.
Makalu rear
The bass was immensely powerful and undeniably deep, but it was also quite boomy. It sounded like the Makalus were exciting room modes. At one point, I checked behind one speaker for bass-output controls. I suspected the bass might be boosted, in which case I would have toned it down, but I found no such controls. Since the Levinson preamp lacks equalization capabilities, little could be done to mitigate that boominess without making significant changes to the setup.
On “N Perfect Time” by Sheila E. and the E-Train, a song I had never heard before, the highs, once again, were clean but pronounced. The tight, fast snap of the drums drew my attention in particular. The sound floated in the open at the speakers’ end of the room free of their bulky enclosures, but the boominess in the bass persisted. I darted to the other listening room to continue listening to this track on the Ama system. The highs retained much of their detail and presence, I noticed, and conferred a similar sense of openness, but the bass was noticeably more restrained. Often, subdued bass makes attack transients in the higher register sound faster and appear more forward. Surprisingly, this was not the case here. The drum snap on this track had decidedly reduced immediacy.
Ama system
The next track I listened to, “Francine Thirteen” by Queen Mary, was also new to me. I first heard it on the Ama system. Considering the Ama’s size, the bass was impressive but, as before, not excessive. I noticed a slight overemphasis in the highs again, which I concluded must be inherent in the Ama’s voicing. Moving to the Makalu setup, I observed that the bass was fuller and more impactful, and this time it was free of boominess. The tonal balance was more natural, and although the highs were still somewhat crisp, they felt better integrated. During certain passages, however, that perceived crispness sounded like a metallic sheen. Other listeners in the room also noticed this; one surmising that there was something going on around 6kHz. I thought it might have been slightly lower, perhaps around 5kHz.
The most revealing track was Enya’s “On Your Shore” from her album Watermark. I know this song well, and it sounded spectacular on the Makalu system—open and room-filling. The midrange, in particular, emerged in full bloom, clean, pure, and entirely natural. My focus during this listening session had been on bass and treble behavior, but this track demonstrated that the true strength of the Makalu may in fact lie in its ability to reproduce the human voice and midband instruments with near-flawless neutrality and realism. How I wish I had the opportunity to hear a piano track on this setup! It would have been the ultimate test of the system’s performance in this frequency range and beyond.
The Ama system handled the same track admirably, but its bass is less weighty than the Makalu’s, which diminished the overall impact of the presentation. The difference between the two was substantial: if the Makalu system rated a 10 out of 10 on that track, the Ama system rated a 7.5 out of 10.
Makalu listening room
I headed to the door at that point, feeling I had heard enough; but as I was leaving, “The Summit” by Avi Kaplan started playing, a track I was completely unfamiliar with. This was the only male-vocal track I heard during my visit, and it sounded so good that it drew me back in.
On the Ama system, Kaplan’s voice had full-bodied presence replete with expressive nuance, but the lean bass made it seem baseless, floating untethered in space. On the Makalu system, the heavier bass made the presentation more cohesive and gave it greater gravitas. The vocals sounded palpably real and detailed, without a hint of chestiness or bloating. JBL seems to have nailed the midband, especially on the Makalu. The jury is still out on the frequency regions above and below, though.
Final thoughts
Even though JBL’s Summit series was one of the most talked-about launches at High End 2025, I left the show unconvinced of the Ama’s and Makalu’s greatness. Undeniably, they have their strengths, not the least of which is the strikingly clear and natural midrange, particularly with the Makalu. But I found their overall voicing to be questionable. Most troubling was the persistent boominess in the bass with the Makalu pair and the somewhat pronounced highs in both models. I couldn’t help but wonder whether Harman intentionally boosted the high and low registers in their show units to create a strong first impression—whether production units would be voiced similarly. A thorough audition in a controlled environment would determine that.
JBL, Mark Levinson, and AudioQuest
If review samples from the Summit series do become available, I would gladly audition the Makalu or the similar, albeit smaller, Pumori (though I’d probably pass up on an opportunity to audition the Ama). My listening room is the proper size for either model, and based on what I heard from the Makalus at High End 2025, I’m intrigued enough to want to listen more. I’d like to find out whether JBL’s Summit floorstanders are closer to being summit speakers than their performance at the Munich show suggested.
. . . Doug Schneider
das@soundstage.com