This is a continuation of my thread "JBL 4367 Am I crazy or stupid?"
: https://audiokarma.org/forums/index.php?threads/jbl-4367-am-i-crazy-or-stupid.1039914/
Sometime in October 2023 all 4 speakers arrived, I wasn't home for the event sadly.
My father took it upon him to replace our JBL array 1400 with 1 set of the JBL 4367 for the time being.
He was well impressed by their sonics and dynamics which he told me over the phone.
But the idea of stacking the speakers would have to wait until I was back home to help lift the speakers into place.
It wouldn't be until early December before I was back home to test, evaluate and assess.
During that time my father had the opportunity to further his impressions.
Having read a lot of good talk about class A amplifiers I've always wanted to try one.
I've a soft spot for good looks and a no BS approach to a manufacturers product and philosophy, hence why I've grown an interest to the Accuphase products.
Around November we had the opportunity to acquire two Accuphase A-75 60w into 8ohms Class A power amplifiers, so we did, for testing purposes.
They would arrive close to Christmas (Coincidence?)
It's now early December, I've arrived home.
As I enter the livingroom I'm taken aback by the shear size of the 4367 compared to the 1400, they barely fit in their current position in regards to the TV and door.
It wasn't long before a listening session started.
I indentified the 4367's to be much more "horny" "Bright" "Sharp" than the 1400 on the top end, much less forgiving of the source material and other components in the system to my ear.
The bass was astonashing, so much so, that I've decided the JBL Array 1500 subs aren't a good match for the 4367, therefore they're out of service for now.
A week of listening has now been done, it's time to mount the other set of 4367's on top and hope the Mark Levinson 532h doesn't explode due to the excitement.
5 pieces of soft nonslip material was placed, 1 in each corner and 1 in the middle, to avoid scratches and what not.
Lifting the 4367's into place was a challenge due to their weight and the height they needed to climb, but it was done.
Speaker cable is connected from the bottom 4367 to the top "Piggybacking" sort of to achieve a parallel setup in regards to what the amp sees.
When all was set and done, double checked for correct wiring, our fingers were crossed as the 532h was turned on.
As the rest of the components were turned on and music started flowing, we were relieved to hear that all 8(!) drivers were playing as intended. Mission success, so far.
This experiment did exactly what I'd hoped for. It was now a wall of sound, incredible soundstage. These speakers out of the box are superb at creating a live sound, now it's as if the stage is right in front of me.
Initially my father wasn't too keen on the idea, but after hearing the results he wouldn't have it any other way.
A thing that was bugging me was the horn, it wasn't being tammed correctly by our gear.
For now, we were awaiting the arrival of the first A-75 to conduct further tests.
And it's here. Out comes the 532h carefully and put into storage.
A-75 is connected and turned on, we wait the appropriate time to start playing music as it's warming up.
It's immediately apparent that the sound has changed, for the better.
So much more detail and texture, it's a joy to listen to.
Furthermore, it's even a bliss to listen to at low volume as every nuance is kept and preserved.
The bass is so much faster and precise.
All in all, I'd say all aspects of the sound has improved tremendously.
But the horn driver, still, is a bit too bright and "in your face" for my liking.
It might also be the way it interacts with our room, I'll admit our room is a livingroom and not a listeningroom.
Incorporated in our system we've the McIntosh MEN220 to help with the aforementioned livingroom acoustics.
This does help enormously, but now we're at the point where I'm douting if solid state is correct amplification for the horn driver.
The 2nd A-75 arrived.
My intention was to do a horizontal biamp configuration with the help of the MEN220's built-in active crossover, crossover set to 700hz as per the 4367 whitepaper.
1 A-75 handles the 4 woofers. 1 A-75 handles the 4 horns.
This further increased the soundstage and separation as I imagined it would.
But it also allowed me to do something else, adjust the volume of the horns compared to the woofers.
This is due to the A-75's built in gain switch. It goes from 28db at max, to 25db at -3, 22 at -6 and 16db at -12.
As it states in the 4367 white paper, the horn driver is much more efficent that the woofer.
Ergo I tried to adjust the A-75 which handles the horns to the -6db and viola, now the horn and woofer is much more closely matched in volume to great effect.
Now, we're almost done.
This -6db trick really allowed the system to be played louder, cleaner and more dynamic than ever before.
However, I can't change the sonics of the A-75 by adjusting the gain, and I still wasn't satisfied on some tracks with a lot of treble.
So I looked towards tubes, a 2 channel tube power amplifier to replace the A-75 which drives the horns.
And I found one, to be my test subject initially.
Accuphase doesn't dable in tubes, so I looked at forums and came to the conclusion that I'd like to pair it with another Japanese brand, Luxman.
A MQ-88uC was acquired. I looked at it's 25w per channel in 8ohms and calculated it's gain to be around 24.02db.
Previously I thought it was important to gain match when biamping, now I understand it can depend on the drivers just as much.
With the A-75 driving the horns disconnected and the MQ-88uC taking it's place we've finally arrived at our destiantion.
The MQ-88uC sounded it's best connected via the 16ohm tap. I first tried the 8ohm tap (the horns and 16ohm, but when run in parallel I understand that would be 8ohm) but it just sounded correct on the 16ohm tap.
1 reason for choosing the MQ-88uC was the volume control on the front just as I'd had with the A-75, but to a pleasent suprise it perfect volume was max hence it was switched from variable to direct.
Now the speakers, all 4 of them, are providing me with clean, powerful, and sublime dynamics I've never heard before.
The powerful class A controlled bass paired with the Class A tube horn is absolutely astounding.
The treble is just as it should be, even when turned up loud. It's pleasent, not hurtful in any way.
I've tried uploading some pictures of the journey as it took place and realisations were made.
I will be satisfied for a while now.
: https://audiokarma.org/forums/index.php?threads/jbl-4367-am-i-crazy-or-stupid.1039914/
Sometime in October 2023 all 4 speakers arrived, I wasn't home for the event sadly.
My father took it upon him to replace our JBL array 1400 with 1 set of the JBL 4367 for the time being.
He was well impressed by their sonics and dynamics which he told me over the phone.
But the idea of stacking the speakers would have to wait until I was back home to help lift the speakers into place.
It wouldn't be until early December before I was back home to test, evaluate and assess.
During that time my father had the opportunity to further his impressions.
Having read a lot of good talk about class A amplifiers I've always wanted to try one.
I've a soft spot for good looks and a no BS approach to a manufacturers product and philosophy, hence why I've grown an interest to the Accuphase products.
Around November we had the opportunity to acquire two Accuphase A-75 60w into 8ohms Class A power amplifiers, so we did, for testing purposes.
They would arrive close to Christmas (Coincidence?)
It's now early December, I've arrived home.
As I enter the livingroom I'm taken aback by the shear size of the 4367 compared to the 1400, they barely fit in their current position in regards to the TV and door.
It wasn't long before a listening session started.
I indentified the 4367's to be much more "horny" "Bright" "Sharp" than the 1400 on the top end, much less forgiving of the source material and other components in the system to my ear.
The bass was astonashing, so much so, that I've decided the JBL Array 1500 subs aren't a good match for the 4367, therefore they're out of service for now.
A week of listening has now been done, it's time to mount the other set of 4367's on top and hope the Mark Levinson 532h doesn't explode due to the excitement.
5 pieces of soft nonslip material was placed, 1 in each corner and 1 in the middle, to avoid scratches and what not.
Lifting the 4367's into place was a challenge due to their weight and the height they needed to climb, but it was done.
Speaker cable is connected from the bottom 4367 to the top "Piggybacking" sort of to achieve a parallel setup in regards to what the amp sees.
When all was set and done, double checked for correct wiring, our fingers were crossed as the 532h was turned on.
As the rest of the components were turned on and music started flowing, we were relieved to hear that all 8(!) drivers were playing as intended. Mission success, so far.
This experiment did exactly what I'd hoped for. It was now a wall of sound, incredible soundstage. These speakers out of the box are superb at creating a live sound, now it's as if the stage is right in front of me.
Initially my father wasn't too keen on the idea, but after hearing the results he wouldn't have it any other way.
A thing that was bugging me was the horn, it wasn't being tammed correctly by our gear.
For now, we were awaiting the arrival of the first A-75 to conduct further tests.
And it's here. Out comes the 532h carefully and put into storage.
A-75 is connected and turned on, we wait the appropriate time to start playing music as it's warming up.
It's immediately apparent that the sound has changed, for the better.
So much more detail and texture, it's a joy to listen to.
Furthermore, it's even a bliss to listen to at low volume as every nuance is kept and preserved.
The bass is so much faster and precise.
All in all, I'd say all aspects of the sound has improved tremendously.
But the horn driver, still, is a bit too bright and "in your face" for my liking.
It might also be the way it interacts with our room, I'll admit our room is a livingroom and not a listeningroom.
Incorporated in our system we've the McIntosh MEN220 to help with the aforementioned livingroom acoustics.
This does help enormously, but now we're at the point where I'm douting if solid state is correct amplification for the horn driver.
The 2nd A-75 arrived.
My intention was to do a horizontal biamp configuration with the help of the MEN220's built-in active crossover, crossover set to 700hz as per the 4367 whitepaper.
1 A-75 handles the 4 woofers. 1 A-75 handles the 4 horns.
This further increased the soundstage and separation as I imagined it would.
But it also allowed me to do something else, adjust the volume of the horns compared to the woofers.
This is due to the A-75's built in gain switch. It goes from 28db at max, to 25db at -3, 22 at -6 and 16db at -12.
As it states in the 4367 white paper, the horn driver is much more efficent that the woofer.
Ergo I tried to adjust the A-75 which handles the horns to the -6db and viola, now the horn and woofer is much more closely matched in volume to great effect.
Now, we're almost done.
This -6db trick really allowed the system to be played louder, cleaner and more dynamic than ever before.
However, I can't change the sonics of the A-75 by adjusting the gain, and I still wasn't satisfied on some tracks with a lot of treble.
So I looked towards tubes, a 2 channel tube power amplifier to replace the A-75 which drives the horns.
And I found one, to be my test subject initially.
Accuphase doesn't dable in tubes, so I looked at forums and came to the conclusion that I'd like to pair it with another Japanese brand, Luxman.
A MQ-88uC was acquired. I looked at it's 25w per channel in 8ohms and calculated it's gain to be around 24.02db.
Previously I thought it was important to gain match when biamping, now I understand it can depend on the drivers just as much.
With the A-75 driving the horns disconnected and the MQ-88uC taking it's place we've finally arrived at our destiantion.
The MQ-88uC sounded it's best connected via the 16ohm tap. I first tried the 8ohm tap (the horns and 16ohm, but when run in parallel I understand that would be 8ohm) but it just sounded correct on the 16ohm tap.
1 reason for choosing the MQ-88uC was the volume control on the front just as I'd had with the A-75, but to a pleasent suprise it perfect volume was max hence it was switched from variable to direct.
Now the speakers, all 4 of them, are providing me with clean, powerful, and sublime dynamics I've never heard before.
The powerful class A controlled bass paired with the Class A tube horn is absolutely astounding.
The treble is just as it should be, even when turned up loud. It's pleasent, not hurtful in any way.
I've tried uploading some pictures of the journey as it took place and realisations were made.
I will be satisfied for a while now.
