Kreshna
...but I have to know.
Ah, it seems what you meant is west coast sound? The "rock speakers"?
What Is The Secret To The JBL Sound?
- Thread starter SoundOfSound
- Start date
Kreshna
...but I have to know.
I also love the Ti series. They also sound nice with jazz and lounge music, especially the one with lots of cymbals.
jobimdream
Member
I know what this guy is talking about with the JBL sound. I have never heard any speaker sound like my C36's. They are my system. Anything else in the system can be replaced. These speakers can't be matched. Once you've owned a pair with the 075 tweets and 16 ohm DL130 subs pushed by an undampened old high power monster receiver there is no where else to go. People spend crazy money on everything but speakers. Speakers are the only thing you need to spend crazy money on. Vintage gear from the 70's is pretty uniformly high quality. Prices get crazy for the pretty stuff. Who cares about pretty, put your money in your speakers.
Dynamic is always the word that comes to mind with JBL drivers and systems ...
Manufacturing your own drivers and being able to tweak them on the fly might have something to do with it ..
Certainly doesn't hurt that the professional demand for them seems to be unending ..and
They've had a lot of practice ..
I have a bi-amped pair of L-7's in the basement that are surprisingly neutral for a "JBL" .. not at all West coast in the frequency balance sense.
But purely JBL in the crank em til the windows rattle and dance sense .. I always give in to the volume button urge with them..and start pounding on things.
They must have a power limit somewhere but I'll break the windows first ..
I've owned a lot of speakers over the years ... but never one that's quite so purely dynamic ..
Manufacturing your own drivers and being able to tweak them on the fly might have something to do with it ..
Certainly doesn't hurt that the professional demand for them seems to be unending ..and
They've had a lot of practice ..
I have a bi-amped pair of L-7's in the basement that are surprisingly neutral for a "JBL" .. not at all West coast in the frequency balance sense.
But purely JBL in the crank em til the windows rattle and dance sense .. I always give in to the volume button urge with them..and start pounding on things.
They must have a power limit somewhere but I'll break the windows first ..
I've owned a lot of speakers over the years ... but never one that's quite so purely dynamic ..
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JBLs... Meh... Sorry...
Not saying that there aren't some good JBL speakers out there but there are thousands of speakers that may sound even better. But for me to find out any of this I would have to go out and buy up all of the speakers and compare them and frankly I won't go there. But I doubt that JBL had any special magic or did anything different from any other reputable speaker manufacturer. I started out with Speakerlabs and still use them to this day...
Not saying that there aren't some good JBL speakers out there but there are thousands of speakers that may sound even better. But for me to find out any of this I would have to go out and buy up all of the speakers and compare them and frankly I won't go there. But I doubt that JBL had any special magic or did anything different from any other reputable speaker manufacturer. I started out with Speakerlabs and still use them to this day...
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Yes ..
They were originally studio monitors on the West Coast of the States and most of the early "Rock and Roll" music during the late 60's early 70's was being
produced in the West coast recording studios ..
The recording engineers were boosting the mid bass and lower treble to give the music a kick, and the original monitors had that bent frequency response.
Eventually we started referring to the "West Coast" sound ..
I'd have to agree ..
I don't think that there's much question that at this point JBL engineers can make it sound pretty much how they want it to sound ..
There have been an incredible variety of JBL designs with an ever changing array of drivers, and driver types over the years ..
Back in the 70's they were selling a copy of the West Coast monitor L-100 that had an intentionally bumped up mid bass and lower treble just to make it Rock & Roll.
At the same time they were selling the same box and drivers for less money with a flatter frequency response .. L-112 or L-114 .. I forget..
Marketing ..
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jobimdream
Member
Accuracy. That's it. Think about a speaker reproducing the sound of a kick drum. The only way to make that sound is with tension. My C36's replicate the sound exactly. The punch of the padded strike and volume of the sound. Accuracy is the true art of speaker production. To make a speaker sound like a piano that is sitting right over there (and you point to the spot in your living room).
Nixxuz
Super Member
Really? Tell that to my Sansui SP1000s... They are terrible speakers.
SterlingOne
Super Member
The secret is efficiency, meaning the ability to drive speakers effortlessly at high volumes with common low cost, low power 8 to 4 ohm amplification. I've been very satisfied with my JBL L100t3's since purchased new in 1986. They have been powered with amps rated at 100 to 200 watts. I now have them in my 5.1 system where a JBL B380 sub supports bass from 60 to 23Hz.
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If by “clear” you mean “boomy”, I agree.
JBLs are not all the same, but they were definitely targeted for loud playing with medium-sized amps, just as their commercial speakers were. It was a great budget setup: JBL (or Altec, depending on the market—Altec’s full name was Altec-Lansing) A7’s or half-A7’s (with added horns) were the standard “club gig” stage PA speakers. They were intended as primary sources—the primary sound people would hear. They weren’t as good for quiet acoustic coffee-shop gigs. But if you want 120-dB peaks from a Phase Linear 400, they’ll do it.
And I think that describes their philosophy—creating the live-sound experience for music that is intended to be amplified when heard live.
If rock producers on the west coast wanted to boost the mid bass, they would not use a monitor that boosted the mid bass, it seems to me. If it sounded right in the monitors, the mid bass would be thinned out in the mix.
I love JBL speakers for PA systems—loud, solid, tough, easy to EQ. Even their tiny line-array PA speakers as currently offered are excellent for the purpose. I used two CBA-50’s—five tiny drivers in a line array, barely bigger than bookshelf speakers—for a church PA that suffered from mid-bass boominess in the room. The room is superb for music but too reverberant for speech, and these speakers punch the weak mids and treble through the reverberation to add clarity to spoken voices. I can adjust them so that nobody even knows they are on. To do that, they pretty much have to be the opposite of the so-called “JBL sound”, except that they are loud despite their tiny size. I’m using a 300-watt commercial Crown amp and have the throttle barely cracked open (though I did “test” them when nobody was around).
I’m building a largish barn this year. Were I to have a party to celebrate its completion, JBLs are exactly what I would want. But for my living room, even at reference levels, I still like my Advents—musical rather than loud, but still quite dynamic without a hint of boominess. To make them louder, I added an extra pair
Rick “loving JBL for what they are, but preferring acoustic suspension approaches for most listening” Denney
Mystic
We're all born mad
Pssst .... it's the letter "B"
Mister Pig
Pigamus Maximus
For a company with such a long history there are different eras of JBL. Various designers and engineer teams, different parent companies, technology advancements, different engineering and lab resources, and so on and so forth. Saying JBL has a house sound is a misnomer, especially for a company that has opted to serve a very large market segment. Everything from sound reinforcement, commercial studios, home theater, car audio, and personal listening devices. People like to simplify things and say a company is this or that, but with JBL the product line and time in business is too vast to do that.
My JBL are a pair of 4365 that come from the Synthesis line. These were designed by Greg Timbers, and from the time period of Harmon International being the parent company. relatively speaking these are accurate and uncolored speakers within their range of operation, although they only extend down to the mid 30 hertz range in room, which seems a bit limited for their size and cost. But what they do cover is refined, detailed, spacious, and textured. I have heard panel speakers I like less than these, but then my system has been built around them and you could argue that associated component selections optimize this pairing, and other speakers may not present their full potential in this system.
JBL from this era and line are a quality product, and don't have a "West Coast" presentation, that was from an earlier era of JBL.
My JBL are a pair of 4365 that come from the Synthesis line. These were designed by Greg Timbers, and from the time period of Harmon International being the parent company. relatively speaking these are accurate and uncolored speakers within their range of operation, although they only extend down to the mid 30 hertz range in room, which seems a bit limited for their size and cost. But what they do cover is refined, detailed, spacious, and textured. I have heard panel speakers I like less than these, but then my system has been built around them and you could argue that associated component selections optimize this pairing, and other speakers may not present their full potential in this system.
JBL from this era and line are a quality product, and don't have a "West Coast" presentation, that was from an earlier era of JBL.
The L7 was a real pig in the power department. I don't imagine more than a handful got the amplifier they needed to sing, nor the room size. All responded well to a well built amplifier. Not the mainstream JBL sound, but more true to the higher end JBL of the past. I've owned L1s and XPL90s with big power and have always been pleased. Not "high end" to be sure, but solid players... when properly placed and fed. Built quality was off the charts at the price points.