Rubbish, Laddie, pure rubbish. Now git back ta work!
We can take some comfort that JBL's brand doesn't only make crap that brings in millions then, eh? :dont-know: 'Cuz some companies only make crap and still bring in millions. (If anyone Nose of a brand either Direct or by Reflecting, Radiate the brand name with a Wave.)
All right, a bit of sarcasm that, but I do think it's well that Harman International did devour JBL if only to keep the brand alive. Yes, a lot of weak product has come out over the years, and yes we can gripe that JBL marketing didn't do a great job of promoting the better lines, and yes JBL rewarded those markets that continued to buy more expensive product while it ignored other markets.
What do we expect?
The average American consumer is a fickle, bargain hunting, trend driven, easily duped purchaser. He follows the product of the moment, buys safe, spends as little as possible, and abandons a brand with little or no inducement other than it's 1) new, 2) like everyone else's, 3) costs less but is "equal to" other brands, and 4) is made by the brand of the moment (often recommended by "knowlegeable" friends and Consumer Reports).
If JBL were making only the speakers of quality matching those 30 years ago, it would be out of business by now, at least in the USA, or perhaps only doing pro sound. Fortunately, by being a part of Harman, it's been able to sell tons of consumer grade speakers, from the abysmal multimedia PC crap speakers to the not-so-bad iPod add ons to the pretty-good-for-what-they-are HTIB stuff to the OK Northridge line.
For the money that these generate, JBL gets to continue employing some pretty great people, including a few legends, gets to share a world-class testing facility at its (now Harman's I guess) Northridge works, and still can produce some a$$-cracking, mind blowing bleeding edge speakers. Think K2, think TiK, think Performance Series, think Synthesis--have you ever heard a Synthesis set up? Holy CRAP!
As Mr. Widget wisely brings up, the amount of support that JBL provides in terms of drivers, repair items, spare parts, manuals, etc., is amazing. It could just declare anything over seven years old too much trouble to support, but it doesn't. It probably supports a lot of stuff long after it makes any economic sense.
Don't get me wrong; I truly respect the old lines. I revere my own set of L100s and dream of a pair of 443X. But I really think the best of today's JBL trumps most of that vintage stuff in most important ways, but, of course, NOT in every single way.
I really appreciate and value the enthusiasm on this board for the truly great speakers produced over the years by JBL. The fact that we can still buy them and treasure them--even tweak them--is a testament to their heritage. My hope is that we can recognize that JBL is still in the high quality speaker business today and get excited about some of today's products.
Yes, I realize that the company makes this hard due to availability issues and PP marketing. You all know the story of my pursuit of the Performance Series--not exactly a triumph of JBL marketing and distribution. Maybe we need to look at a little activism with JBL?
The thing is, if we go from complaining to demanding, we'd better be prepared to actually buy some stuff if they put out. I live about 30 miles from Northridge. I'd be glad to be part of a delegation to go there with our manifesto for change. Now, what's in it? :deal: