Quote Originally Posted by glen View Post
from the Hartsfield article on this site:
http://www.audioheritage.org/html/pr...hartsfield.htm
"The logic of stuffing a $25 driver into a $300 enclosure was questionable at best and was never a marketing success. This option was dropped within two years. "
© 2000 Don McRitchie

But I wonder if that D208 option might have been influenced by the Lowther loudspeaker single-driver philosophy and designs that were popular with hobbyists in England. The D208 would have been the LE8T of it's time, and there are still plenty who still think the LE8T is the best option available.

Around the same time the Hartsfield was introduced Lowthers were being used in large rear-loaded folded horn cabinets. The TP1 London enclosure, introduced in the 50's and still being made, is a big front and rear-loaded corner horn, but at 39x31x23 inches (102x80x60 cm) not quite as big as a Hartsfield.

Maybe someone at JBL thought the D208/D216 was special enough to spark a wave of interest similar to the Lowther popularity that is still going strong today.

Has anyone ever heard a D208/D216 in a Hartsfield cabinet?
Believe it or not, I had a pair of Hartsfields for a while with Lowther's in them and they did sound pretty damn impressive. The 208 adapter kit was a curved smaller wood horn arrangement, that sat where the lens goes, and arched down to the woofer opening. I'll try to draw something up today as to what it looked like.