JBL Control 85M Landscape Speaker

JBL Control 85M Landscape Speaker

The JBL Control 85M is a mushroom-style landscape speaker built to disappear into gardens and planting while covering the surrounding area with sound. Its two-way coaxial design fires upwards into a shaped enclosure that spreads audio through a full 360 degrees horizontally, so listeners hear even coverage as they move around patios, pool decks and pathways rather than a hot spot directly in front of a conventional box speaker.

A 5.25-inch polypropylene woofer with a polyurethane surround and a 0.75-inch PEI dome tweeter deliver a frequency range of 55 Hz to 18 kHz (minus 10 dB), with a midrange presence that keeps announcements and vocals clear over outdoor ambient noise. Power handling is 160 watts continuous programme (80 watts continuous pink noise), sensitivity is 86 dB and maximum SPL reaches 105 dB at one metre. A built-in multi-tap transformer offers 30, 15, 7.5 and 3.8 watt settings at 70 volts and 30, 15 and 7.5 watts at 100 volts, alongside a direct 8-ohm setting, so the 85M drops into constant-voltage landscape systems or a simple low-impedance run.

Key features

• 360-degree horizontal coverage from a mushroom landscape form
• 5.25-inch polypropylene woofer with 0.75-inch PEI dome tweeter, coaxial
• 55 Hz to 18 kHz frequency range (minus 10 dB)
• 160 W programme / 80 W continuous pink noise power handling
• Built-in 70 V / 100 V multi-tap transformer plus 8-ohm thru setting
• IP-56 rated: dust-protected and resistant to strong water jets
• Hunter green polyethylene enclosure, colour compounded through the material
• 86 dB sensitivity; maximum SPL of 105 dB at 1 m
• Powder-coated stainless steel grille

Built for Permanent Outdoor Installation

The enclosure is 6 mm LDPE polyethylene rated UL94V-0, finished in hunter green (RAL 6018) so it blends with planting and lawn. It exceeds MilSpec 810 testing for humidity, salt spray, temperature and ultraviolet exposure, so monsoon rain and coastal air are within its design conditions. Because the colour is compounded through the material rather than applied as a surface coating, scuffs from garden equipment do not expose a different coloured layer underneath. The two-part enclosure twists open for wiring, and the base section forms a fully isolated chamber that keeps moisture away from the driver and transformer.

Constant-Voltage System Design

Landscape audio usually means long cable runs and many speakers on one amplifier channel, which is exactly what a 70 V or 100 V distributed system is for. Each 85M is set to a tap wattage, the taps are summed to size the amplifier, and individual areas can be levelled by choosing different taps along the run. The 8-ohm thru setting covers the simpler case of a single pair driven by a conventional amplifier near the house. A second-order low-pass and high-pass crossover network keeps the woofer and tweeter working within their intended ranges.

Placement Notes

Because coverage is omnidirectional, spacing 85Ms evenly through a garden produces overlapping, even sound fields rather than loud and quiet zones; JBL publishes spacing guidance by layout in the product manual. The highlighted midrange suits mixed music-and-paging duty at hotels, resorts, malls, theme parks and restaurants, and a matching JBL landscape subwoofer can be added to the same system where extended low-frequency output is needed outdoors.

The full specification, including transformer taps, drivers and weather ratings, is listed in the Additional Information section.