Regis
03-18-2004, 08:58 AM
Some thoughts on the Model Nine, series II. I've only restored the one speaker so far (awaiting Ebay to finish today for the other woofer). This is a good little speaker, the date stamp was Aug '78. The highs are clear and distinct and the midrange speaker has very good presence. My first thoughts were that the midrange has a better output than the LE5's. I didn't say anything to my roomie, who's a musician, but he said the same thing, when we listened to them, verifying my thoughts on this. The bass is tight and clean with no boominess. Ample power to at least vibrate the furniture well, but no mudiness either. I really like this speaker. If there's a fault, it's that it doesn't have the same degree of musical 'separation' that it's JBL brethren exhibits, other than that, it's certainly a good example of a late 70's bookshelf speaker. The oak finish on the front really looks good and is a sharp contrast to JBL black. Another drawback is the rear speaker wire input is a single dished piece that is glued in and can fall out. Ditto with the port. But these are easily fixable. I paid $220 for them on Ebay. Add $50 shipping and a $30 surround kit (thanks Rick!) and we're up to $300 total. Not a bad set of speakers for that price.