Does JBL get a bad rap?


For years, all one heard regarding almost any JBL product, especially vintage consumer grade products was that they were all boom(bass) and sizzle( highs). I feel this is an unfair generalization. Surprisingly, I find much of their budget minded gear(80s-90s) actually soft in the treble and very non-fatiguing(titanium laminate tweeters). I also have experienced the L100T and found them fairly well balanced and nuetral. The midrange does lack some realism magic especially on vocals but so do other highly touted speakers. In short, I am a little late to the game in regards to the JBL, but as a mainstream maker I am impressed. And that doesn't even take into account their 4xxx studio monitors which are highly regarded. Back me up jbl fans!
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Boy, you guys are plucking my Low E, on my Ampeg fret less bass guitar with all this JBL talk. Really nice thread.
+1 with what Kiddman has said about horn speakers in general, my most enjoyable listening exsperiences have come from Horn speakers through out the years of past, to this day, I believe the folded surround woofer's has the most taunt accurate bass I ever listened to, even over these over thought out designs of today, even Cerwin Vega got this one right years ago along with JBL, who still makes a folded woofer design for home audio these days?, last time I used one of these, it was PA speakers that was made for the keyboards on stage, best mid range ever, LOL, most of the mid range came out of the 15" woofer along with the bass, vocals were incredible real sounding,mated with world class High end audio componets and cables, spooky!
There is a very old Audio Critic issue where a Disney engineer gave advice and schematics for what he felt to be the best speaker you could buy or make. All of the drivers were JBLs. He felt they made the best drivers in the business but (at the time) weren't so good with their crossovers, or something like that.

When I saw this review http://www.highfidelity.pl/@main-450&lang=en of the JBL 4429 I lusted for it for the longest time. :-)

All the best,
Nonoise
Hi Nonoise, that was a great!, I enjoyed your link, It appears this speaker might have been the beginning of the JBL synthesis model line of today?, the appearance is strikingly exactly like the cost no object JBL speaker line of today, check out the similiarity's of the JBL-DD Everest 67000 speakers and the JBL 4429 you are speaking of, Happy Listening.
Hello Audiolabyrinth,
The JBL 4429 is actually one of their current offerings but you can only order them from Japan. As to which came first, the 4429 or the Everest, I can't say.

The speaker and article about the Disney engineer was this one: http://www.theaudiocritic.com/back_issues/The_Audio_Critic_19_r.pdf
Scroll down to pg (pdf) 24 and the article begins there.

Sorry if it was confusing referring to one article and providing a link to another of a different speaker from the same maker. Either way though, I'd still like to hear that 4429.

All the best,
Nonoise