High end vintage JBL

[Tim Catt]

Any one on here heard any of JBL's high end vintage gear? The Japanese are into it in a big way and it goes for silly money!

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[Tim Catt]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r8MrNKmBBEo

[Lindsayt]

JBL Hartsfields look like my type of speakers.
Vintage JBL's from towards the top of their product ranges seem to go for more money than Altecs and EV's, which is the main reason I ended up with EV's.
I've got some vintage JBL drivers in custom cabs, which I've never really evaluated properly...

[jandl100]

I used to own vintage JBL L110 Monitors - and excellent speakers they were. Not 'high end' but I suspect they gave more than a hint of what can be achieved.



10" paper cone woofer - yum!

Amazing musical enthusiasm , made most other speakers (regardless of price, up to several £k) sound earthbound and limp. But they earned their "Monitor" monicker as well - quite decently neutral, and the top not too tizzy for my delicate classical sensitivities. The clarity and openness of the mids (paper cone again ) were very enjoyable indeed.

Really nice speakers.

[_D_S_J_R_]

The big 'proper' JBL's were the polar opposite of the polite over-warm 'BBC style' speakers of the 70's. On 70's rock, those classic JBL's are incredible, as are big Tannoys on this material. Later much improved versions of the 4310 and 4312 carried on as crackle paint 'pro' models until the mid noughties I believe and I was sorely tempted as the price wasn't hideous for the build and tech on offer..

[Daniel Quinn]

Bass reflex . Must have been shit

[Dr Bunsen Honeydew]

Been edited more information added.

Different sort of bass reflex, those ports don't fart. !950s type drivers as these JBLs are based on different loading principles. The holes are not to produce bass notes they are to relieve back pressure on the bass drivers. It is a different design principle. Sealed acoustic suspension cabinets and drivers are designed to get you good bass from a small enclosure. JBL type design requires a LARGE enclosure and large drivers. Modern smaller bass reflex ported speakers are designed to give an artificial hump or fart in the bass response to give false bass at the frequency that the port is set at which is normally just below the resonant frequency of the driver. So it farts at that note.

The drive unit design is (should be) different in all three cases. Acoustic suspension drivers have very compliant surrounds and stiff cones. JBL type drivers have a cone that flexes and a stiff corrugated surround so the sound waves ripple out, as opposed to being like a piston in the acoustic suspension type driver. Modern bass reflex uses an acoustic suspension type driver with a less compliant (stiffer) surround as the driver is not supported by the air pressure in the cabinet.

[Lindsayt]

My EV Sentry III's have old school type bass reflex design with 15" drivers. Their bass isn't as tight as my Bozak Symphonys - sealed box, two 12"ers. But then the Bozaks don't have as wide open a midrange as the more efficient Sentrys. It's one of those large vintage speaker design compromises.

[jandl100]

Not exactly vintage, but a few years old now, and certainly a very different (and rather inferior) sound to my L110 Monitors. But these Ti2K were nonetheless fun in their own way.



They still had a fair dollop of the funky jive of the L110, but lacked their musical insight and transparency. I think they were £3k rrp - which is more than a bit cheeky, imo. I paid £250 used, I think, and that was a decent buy.

Note the pushed in tweeters - the guy I bought them from said he had the speakers from new, and the domes were pushed in by his toddler within 5 minutes of them being unboxed!
Actually, it was fairly easy to pull them back into shape - not that it made any difference I could hear to the sound.

[jammy395]

Well they're certainly Loud, Brash & Jump out at ya - And that's just the fukin wires........Get it sorted man.
I would be bloody embarrassd to leave cables like that let alone take a photo of em........