I actually thought about putting this in the ordinary HiFi section as these speakers are so good, irespective of their age. But as they are made in 1981 and of a mid 1970's design, they are vintage.
http://www.lansingheritage.org/html/jbl/specs/pro-speakers/1977-4331-4333.htm
Even if they where sold as studio monitors (there where a home HiFi equivalent in L200B) these have been privately owned from new and is very near to mint condition. They are "only" two way, with a 15" bass and a midrange/treble horn with that cool looking lens thing in the front. The horn only goes up to 16 kHz, but at my age I can't probably hear even that far! Anyway, it should be very easy to convert them to three way 4333's with 077/2405 slot tweeters, there is even holes in the baffle for them. Something I might experiment with one day, I have the 077's in my L65's.
To begin with, timing is as spot on as I ever heard. And, no, big cones in the bass are NOT slow (if they are, it's in the tuning of the loudspeaker, not the size). I have, by the way, put bath towels in the reflex ports and converted them to closed boxes, fb roughly at 35 Hz with a low Q of 0.5. The sound is, at all frequencies, very "short" and controlled, without any overhang, reminding one of a good set of headphones. For the first time in my home, pianos is reproduced so that they sound believable!
It is as if the musicians wind back and goes through the notes with just that bit more care and poise, and that without really having to work hard. They are simply playing a bit better.
They even do soundstaging! Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young 'Deja Vu' is a record that I knew very well. Or so I thought... It has always sounded quite mushy, but here it turns out it is in fact a big and wide room sound on the record, particulary on the lovely 'Country Girl'. Generally they are very good at separating the music from the different, extra noices that are common on 1960's pop music.
Dynamics are totally effortless, on Led Zeppelins live 'I Can't Quit You Baby' from 'Coda' I set Robert Plants voice in the intro so that it wasn't to loud. When the other guys came in it got so loud that I jumped out of my seat (and quickly lowered the volume)! The excellent scaling of course helps on all music and makes it sound real and live as opposed to the small size copy of it that most speakers can muster.
I have a Philips recording of what I think is the 1972 Last Night Of The Proms, I once read in some HiFi mag that you should be able to hear how everybody draws the breath before the coruses on 'Rule Britannia'. Now I can hear that.
On Blood, Sweat and Tears 'Spinning wheel' there is a cow bell in the left channel during the intro that's just awsome, loud and clear with that tremendous transient response from the horn.
I have always thought of Tom Petty's 'Wildflowers' as rather harsh sounding, but it turns out it isn't. It sounds like it's recorded with not to much processing, including not filtering the individual instruments on mixdown (my guess). This makes the recording sound muddy or harsh on a lesser system, on a good one it makes it sound just that, good!
Are they perfect? No:
The upper treble is a bit colored and papery sounding from the horn rolling of and one can miss some sparkle to the treble. Yes, one can hear some faint horn coloration on voices, but on the other hand one get the resolution and transient response of a proper compression driver horn assembly. An easy trade!
In my small room, 3,8 x 3,0 x 2,5 there is a tad to much mid bass (but not to much low bass), I have to use an EQ to lower 2 dB around 125 Hz. I'm working on the problem.
As they are extremely efficient, you can clearly hear the hiss from the output stage of the NAC when nothing is playing. Not the JBL's fault, though.
There isn't much left to upgrade to now
Well, installing the 077 tweeters is one, maybe one day a pair of 4430 'Dolly Partons' can be found, and, of course, dreaming on about the DD 66000's...
JohanR
http://www.lansingheritage.org/html/jbl/specs/pro-speakers/1977-4331-4333.htm
Even if they where sold as studio monitors (there where a home HiFi equivalent in L200B) these have been privately owned from new and is very near to mint condition. They are "only" two way, with a 15" bass and a midrange/treble horn with that cool looking lens thing in the front. The horn only goes up to 16 kHz, but at my age I can't probably hear even that far! Anyway, it should be very easy to convert them to three way 4333's with 077/2405 slot tweeters, there is even holes in the baffle for them. Something I might experiment with one day, I have the 077's in my L65's.
To begin with, timing is as spot on as I ever heard. And, no, big cones in the bass are NOT slow (if they are, it's in the tuning of the loudspeaker, not the size). I have, by the way, put bath towels in the reflex ports and converted them to closed boxes, fb roughly at 35 Hz with a low Q of 0.5. The sound is, at all frequencies, very "short" and controlled, without any overhang, reminding one of a good set of headphones. For the first time in my home, pianos is reproduced so that they sound believable!
It is as if the musicians wind back and goes through the notes with just that bit more care and poise, and that without really having to work hard. They are simply playing a bit better.
They even do soundstaging! Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young 'Deja Vu' is a record that I knew very well. Or so I thought... It has always sounded quite mushy, but here it turns out it is in fact a big and wide room sound on the record, particulary on the lovely 'Country Girl'. Generally they are very good at separating the music from the different, extra noices that are common on 1960's pop music.
Dynamics are totally effortless, on Led Zeppelins live 'I Can't Quit You Baby' from 'Coda' I set Robert Plants voice in the intro so that it wasn't to loud. When the other guys came in it got so loud that I jumped out of my seat (and quickly lowered the volume)! The excellent scaling of course helps on all music and makes it sound real and live as opposed to the small size copy of it that most speakers can muster.
I have a Philips recording of what I think is the 1972 Last Night Of The Proms, I once read in some HiFi mag that you should be able to hear how everybody draws the breath before the coruses on 'Rule Britannia'. Now I can hear that.
On Blood, Sweat and Tears 'Spinning wheel' there is a cow bell in the left channel during the intro that's just awsome, loud and clear with that tremendous transient response from the horn.
I have always thought of Tom Petty's 'Wildflowers' as rather harsh sounding, but it turns out it isn't. It sounds like it's recorded with not to much processing, including not filtering the individual instruments on mixdown (my guess). This makes the recording sound muddy or harsh on a lesser system, on a good one it makes it sound just that, good!
Are they perfect? No:
The upper treble is a bit colored and papery sounding from the horn rolling of and one can miss some sparkle to the treble. Yes, one can hear some faint horn coloration on voices, but on the other hand one get the resolution and transient response of a proper compression driver horn assembly. An easy trade!
In my small room, 3,8 x 3,0 x 2,5 there is a tad to much mid bass (but not to much low bass), I have to use an EQ to lower 2 dB around 125 Hz. I'm working on the problem.
As they are extremely efficient, you can clearly hear the hiss from the output stage of the NAC when nothing is playing. Not the JBL's fault, though.
There isn't much left to upgrade to now
Well, installing the 077 tweeters is one, maybe one day a pair of 4430 'Dolly Partons' can be found, and, of course, dreaming on about the DD 66000's...JohanR
