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JBL 940's

M

Matt Timson

New Member
I have been trying to do some research on these but can't find much info are they good at all? I have a seller who I got down to 275$ for the pair plus delivery and they are all Original and in really nice shape! Thoughts? as well as any specs on these! Thank you for the help I appreciate it! I am new to audio equipment and looking to get these for either my father or just to resell but I do see the weight of these wow haha!
 
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It was not really a high-end JBL, but one of the better mid-tier models.

The TLX tweeters are pretty decent and IMO don't really give up much compared to the higher-end titanium-dome tweeters of the time. The biggest downside of the TLX tweeters is the brittle plastic frame and especially the plastic piece in front of the metal dome. They also lack the protective screen over the tweeter that other dome tweeters like the 035ti have, making them a tempting target for little-kid fingers. For those reasons, it's actually pretty rare to find a pair with the tweeters still in pristine condition, but if yours are, that's great.

The mid and woofers are a bit lower quality compared to top-end JBLs but again not really that bad. In this case the speaker benefits additionally from being an actual 4-way design, so each driver in the system only has to handle a smaller fraction of the audio frequency spectrum. The tweeter doesn't have to reach too low. You have an 8" acting as a mid-bass woofer between 200 and 800hz, keeping the mid-bass clean regardless of what your main woofer is doing. Fairly similar crossover frequencies compared to the JBL L5.

They are 4 ohm speakers. That shouldn't be a problem, but if your amp is tiny or has issues with low impedance loads then it might be a factor.

I think that they would be a great set of starter JBLs if you don't have any yet. I think that $275 is maybe on the high side. I would say that $200 is probably more of a fair price for these, but if they really are in exceptional condition, and JBLs don't pop up very often in your area, then $275 wouldn't be a huge stretch I guess.

https://manuals.harman.com/JBL/HOM/Technical Sheet/JBL940 ts.pdf
 
Chris Brown said:
It was not really a high-end JBL, but one of the better mid-tier models.

The TLX tweeters are pretty decent and IMO don't really give up much compared to the higher-end titanium-dome tweeters of the time. The biggest downside of the TLX tweeters is the brittle plastic frame and especially the plastic piece in front of the metal dome. They also lack the protective screen over the tweeter that other dome tweeters like the 035ti have, making them a tempting target for little-kid fingers. For those reasons, it's actually pretty rare to find a pair with the tweeters still in pristine condition, but if yours are, that's great.

The mid and woofers are a bit lower quality compared to top-end JBLs but again not really that bad. In this case the speaker benefits additionally from being an actual 4-way design, so each driver in the system only has to handle a smaller fraction of the audio frequency spectrum. The tweeter doesn't have to reach too low. You have an 8" acting as a mid-bass woofer between 200 and 800hz, keeping the mid-bass clean regardless of what your main woofer is doing. Fairly similar crossover frequencies compared to the JBL L5.

They are 4 ohm speakers. That shouldn't be a problem, but if your amp is tiny or has issues with low impedance loads then it might be a factor.

I think that they would be a great set of starter JBLs if you don't have any yet. I think that $275 is maybe on the high side. I would say that $200 is probably more of a fair price for these, but if they really are in exceptional condition, and JBLs don't pop up very often in your area, then $275 wouldn't be a huge stretch I guess.

https://manuals.harman.com/JBL/HOM/Technical Sheet/JBL940 ts.pdf
Click to expand...
How are these for resale are they are sought after unit? see them for high prices on ebay and labeled as "Rare"?
 
That specific model is not really sought after. They are rare in the sense that they are one of the top-end models of their respective series, but it was a somewhat budget-oriented series of JBLs. Most of the people in the market for "cheaper" speakers would have just gone with a smaller cheaper 2-way or 3-way - which is why you see many more of those.

They should keep their value because they are JBL and that is worth a ton in terms of name recognition. People might buy them purely for style reasons simply because they are "vintage JBLs". Hipsters have lots of money to spend these days and vintage JBLs are trendy. Especially if they are in very good physical condition, with good grills and fully intact tweeter frames, you could probably make some money.
 
I had never heard of them, but someone posted this that might let you know how they sound if you can't hear them prior to purchase:

Screen Shot 2020-10-18 at 9.26.02 AM.png
 
I have a pair of these. They are very dynamic and will play loud (if you want that). 4 ohm but they have high sensitivity so the amp does not need to be high power. I kinda' like them.
 
I still have my pair and more than one ebay seller has copied my old review from audioheritage.org verbatim. My kids have them now in the basement and they don't seem to mind all the different kinds of music that get thrown at them. I rate them very high on the "fun" scale and not quite as much on the "accurate" end of things. They are easy to drive and will play as loud as you dare.

Jblnut
 
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