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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!
128x128phasecorrect
dkarmeli
332 posts
 
LOL! Come on guys.
mapman's avatar
Ag insider logo xs@2x
mapman
15,679 posts
 
OHM gets a bad rap as well sometimes. Not from me though.
czarivey
4,494 posts
 
Mapman, Ebm, Magico very often gets bum rap(not from me I don't know them and never used); I bash usually planars and B&W most of models
Nonoise, Bestie boys, RHCP are pretty dorn great rappers (that I know of)
Ptss, Count me in!
dave_72
1,399 posts
 
Ok, thanks Dkarmeli. As just about everyone knows, I currently use the S4700s. It's not a bad speaker at all! Pretty damn good even. But they need a lot of break in time. They weren't very good right out of the box. Also, they're very sensitive to equipment changes and quality of said equipment. If you use a cheap receiver or amp/preamp with these, you're gonna be disappointed. So, they're very revealing. The upshot is that they're easy to drive. You can use a lower powered Class A amp with no problems. Also, they are not too sensitive to placement and they sound great off-axis. So yeah, it's a good solid choice in a high end speaker, imo. Sure, you could do better (at a higher price though,) but you can definitely do worse. At the current list price ($15k) they are a bit overpriced, but from what I understand, there's some great deals on this model as well as the rest of the Synthesis line out there.
audiolabyrinth's avatar
audiolabyrinth
4,483 posts
 
Great post Dave_72, cheers.
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