When JL Audio was acquired by Garmin Ltd. in 2023, many audiophiles feared that the multinational tech company would prioritize JLA’s larger and presumably more lucrative car- and marine-audio divisions, and that its home-audio products would suffer in comparison. Industry insiders, who knew of a long-rumored project to develop a statement active loudspeaker system, wondered if it would still come to fruition. Fast-forward to the spring of 2026, when I found myself invited along with a select group of other audio journalists to the Garmin Experience Center in Miramar, Florida, for the unveiling of JL Audio’s Primacy audio system.
As the concept’s description suggests, Primacy is more than just an active loudspeaker; it’s a full-on luxury audio system. In addition to the active speakers themselves, there is a hardware-based control centerpiece, a separate remote control, and advanced DSP to optimize all aspects of its performance, including a proprietary room-correction system called P.A.R.O. (Primacy Automatic Room Optimization). There are two options available: the three-way floorstanding T6 system, priced at US$105,000/pair, and the two-way standmounted S3 system for US$53,500/pair, which includes stands.
When the T6 and S3 were first unveiled at the event, Doug Schneider and I agreed they were not particularly impressive-looking. From the outside, they both have the appearance of pretty regular speakers (very nice-looking speakers, mind you), but nothing on their exteriors even hints at the extreme engineering that lurks inside their enclosures and the control centerpiece, or at the sophisticated DSP and software that controls the entire system. After the unveiling and an introductory presentation, we were divided into smaller groups for listening and information sessions as well as a factory tour. It was then that the magnitude and complexity of the Primacy project became clear.
Many of Garmin’s top engineering staff were on hand to explain the design and construction of the Primacy speakers. We learned that each T6 weighs a whopping 272 pounds, while the comparatively diminutive S3 weighs a still-surprising 82 pounds. Much of the mass comes from their cast-aluminum-alloy enclosures, which are machined onsite to an incredible tolerance of 1/1000th of an inch. Both models utilize a 1″ carbon-fiber tweeter and a 5.5″ polypropylene midrange, though the driver has been modified to be used as a midrange-woofer in the S3. The T6 adds four 5.5″ aluminum-alloy woofers. All of the drivers have extremely robust motor structures, which became evident to me when I handled the compact drivers and found them deceptively heavy. Proprietary class-D amplifiers power each driver section, with a total of 400W for the S3 and 1000W for the T6. Every aspect of the system’s performance is controlled by the aforementioned DSP, which I’ll get to shortly.
As befits a luxury product, in addition to its cutting-edge engineering, the Primacy system is exquisitely manufactured. Seemingly every aspect of its construction, from the super-high-quality neodymium magnets used to attached the grilles, to the beautifully finished removable side panels available in multiple colors (including one with only a primer coating to allow for a custom finish), to its modular construction, has been carefully considered in its design. In fact, while its enclosure is incredibly dense and inert when assembled, we saw that the 0.9″-thick extruded-aluminum front baffle of the T6 is actually designed to be easily removable to allow access to the drivers for servicing in the field.
The centerpiece controller is as well-designed and -constructed as the speakers themselves. It, too, has a modular design, with multiple high-quality circuit boards isolated in their own compartments within its chassis. A high-performance triple-core DSP from Asahi Kasei Microdevices (AKM) running at 32-bit/192kHz resolution powers the system, which features ESS Technology A-to-D conversion and multiple ESS Sabre D-to-A chips. All of the expected wireless and wired connectivity options, including analog inputs for legacy devices, are provided. The speakers communicate with the centerpiece via the Dante low-latency, high-resolution networking protocol, which is normally found in professional gear. What is quite unexpected is the inclusion of a fully balanced, high-quality MM/MC phono stage featuring highly optimized discrete circuitry with no op amps or coupling capacitors in its signal path. RIAA equalization is performed fully in the analog domain to avoid the loss of any information. The phono stage is located in its own shielded sub-compartment and looks like it would not be out of place in its own chassis and marketed as a high-end standalone phono preamplifier.
P.A.R.O. is different from any other room-correction system I am aware of. Its user interface is well-thought-out and intuitive, and although a luxury system like this will typically be set up by a dealer, anyone who has used a room-correction system should easily be able to configure P.A.R.O. However, P.A.R.O. is designed to work specifically with the Primacy active loudspeakers. As such, it doesn’t just make each speaker’s overall response fit a target; it first measures and corrects the response of each driver section prior to measuring and correcting the overall response, an approach made possible by the system’s active design. Additionally, it iteratively measures both the uncorrected and corrected responses in both the frequency and time domains in a closed loop, until the best possible response is achieved. This is unlike other systems that simply measure, then calculate and apply correction to provide a predicted corrected response that is not subsequently measured to check for accuracy.
The design and construction of both Primacy loudspeaker systems is flat-out amazing, but the sound quality is just as impressive, if not more so. And you can configure a Primacy system to fit unobtrusively into any domestic space within reason. In fact, my favorite demo system was based on the smaller S3s, which were stunning on their own. The sound was so big and articulate you might have thought it was coming from a large floorstanding speaker—and that was without subwoofers. When the S3 system was augmented with inwall subs, the soundstage opened up into a huge virtual space, extending well outside of the speakers with pinpoint imaging. It was hard to believe that this level of fidelity was possible with such an unassuming-looking system in a small room.
And as great as the S3s sounded, the larger T6s when mated to a pair of Gotham v2 subwoofers (US$30,000 each) were staggering. The system wasn’t just loud; the presentation was super-tight and focused, devoid of any discernible distortion even at room-crushing levels. Some might consider this system overkill, but at a total cost of US$165,000, and without the need to add a huge stack of costly electronics to drive them, these speakers will run with the best. In fact, I would put this system up against the very best passive super speakers, many of which cost much more than the entire Primacy T6 system, even with the addition of a pair of Gotham subs.
The last time I was this impressed by a demo was at the introduction of B&O’s BeoLab 90 at CES 2016. That fully active speaker system took both Doug Schneider and me totally by surprise. Its use of DSP and multiple drivers to control directivity provided a fantastically holographic soundstage, even though the system was placed at the side of a very large meeting room. A lot has happened in the 10 years since, with DSP becoming much more common in stereo products. However, JL Audio’s Primacy really takes things to the next level by combining their new state-of-the-art P.A.R.O. room-correction system with extraordinarily well-designed and overbuilt active loudspeakers in the T6 and S3. Having seen them in person and having met the team behind their design and manufacturing, I am confident that JL Audio and their home-audio division are still on course.
Roger Kanno
Senior Contributor, SoundStage!
