nedseg
Well-Known Member
Oh, come'on - some brands simply command high values b/c of the quality/longevity reputation - All-Clad, Festool, JBL, Milwaukee (US made), etc all sell used for 'near to new' pricing. Whether that value proposition has any merit varies, of course.
Early in life I fell into the mode of 'buying quality once, keeping forever' - and for the most part, it's worked well.
Never bought another sauce/saute pan, never had to buy new kitchen knives, the original festool saw I have has run thousands of bd ft and still has superb accuracy, the US made Milw stuff still runs like a locomotive, etc etc.
Yes, you have to work your ass off to get good at what you do to make the kind of money that stuff costs....So what?
I dropped (what was a) HUGE bundle on my L200s in the 70s, and no one is more amazed than me that they still sound amazing - granted with a few recent upgrades.
Had they been cheaply made (components and cabinetry) I would have moved on and tried out other speakers to replace them, but especially with the (aforementioned!) 4367 woofs in them, I just don't need or want anything (allegedly) better.
I also spent a LOT of time in my local audio store back in the day, comparing newer JBLs to other 'brands of the moment' and never heard anything - at any price range - that I thought sounded better for all kinds of music (some sounded nicer for some classical recordings), and more recent listening comparos I've done re-enforces that notion, whether it's my ears, my habits, by expectation bias, I dunno.
I've definitely heard far more expensive speakers that sounded like crap to me - or at least didn't justify the asking prices, so for sure it's a matter of taste, so if you don't have 'the taste' for JBLs, then why complain about the cost?
On mine, I've inspected the cabinet interiors, opened the horns, and all look 'good as new' today - so at the very least I think I got my 'value' out of them!
Oddly, in a time when uber-precision manufacturing, and reliable electronics has never been easier to achieve, that Quality Proposition seems to have faded (or reserved for the silly stratosphere market) a lot.
The crazy pricey new 4367 woofers - which appear to be reasonably well built - are shipped in single layer boxes, with just a hunk of plastic draped over them!
I've read that that the cabinet quality on them is poor, at best - suggesting that 'modern precision manufacturing' has not made it's way to replacing the cabinetry craftsmen JBL used back in the day? That's down to the market endlessly chasing cheaper and cheaper, and lower and lower wages ad infinitum.
No idea if the HF drivers for those or the M2s are 'handled' the same way, but their price point is even more absurd (and why I retained the original horns and tweets).
Enuf. Off soap box.
Early in life I fell into the mode of 'buying quality once, keeping forever' - and for the most part, it's worked well.
Never bought another sauce/saute pan, never had to buy new kitchen knives, the original festool saw I have has run thousands of bd ft and still has superb accuracy, the US made Milw stuff still runs like a locomotive, etc etc.
Yes, you have to work your ass off to get good at what you do to make the kind of money that stuff costs....So what?
I dropped (what was a) HUGE bundle on my L200s in the 70s, and no one is more amazed than me that they still sound amazing - granted with a few recent upgrades.
Had they been cheaply made (components and cabinetry) I would have moved on and tried out other speakers to replace them, but especially with the (aforementioned!) 4367 woofs in them, I just don't need or want anything (allegedly) better.
I also spent a LOT of time in my local audio store back in the day, comparing newer JBLs to other 'brands of the moment' and never heard anything - at any price range - that I thought sounded better for all kinds of music (some sounded nicer for some classical recordings), and more recent listening comparos I've done re-enforces that notion, whether it's my ears, my habits, by expectation bias, I dunno.
I've definitely heard far more expensive speakers that sounded like crap to me - or at least didn't justify the asking prices, so for sure it's a matter of taste, so if you don't have 'the taste' for JBLs, then why complain about the cost?
On mine, I've inspected the cabinet interiors, opened the horns, and all look 'good as new' today - so at the very least I think I got my 'value' out of them!
Oddly, in a time when uber-precision manufacturing, and reliable electronics has never been easier to achieve, that Quality Proposition seems to have faded (or reserved for the silly stratosphere market) a lot.
The crazy pricey new 4367 woofers - which appear to be reasonably well built - are shipped in single layer boxes, with just a hunk of plastic draped over them!
I've read that that the cabinet quality on them is poor, at best - suggesting that 'modern precision manufacturing' has not made it's way to replacing the cabinetry craftsmen JBL used back in the day? That's down to the market endlessly chasing cheaper and cheaper, and lower and lower wages ad infinitum.
No idea if the HF drivers for those or the M2s are 'handled' the same way, but their price point is even more absurd (and why I retained the original horns and tweets).
Enuf. Off soap box.
