Over the course of its long history JBL has had many ups and downs but it has always managed to dodge the fatal blow. The last few years, following the 60th Anniversary of this legendary American company, have been down years.

This time last year Harman went through a restructuring that resulted in the closing of Harman Consumer Group at the Woodbury, N.Y. location by mid-year. Many of those jobs were outsourced to Wipro (JBL Consumer, Infinity, Harman/Kardon). Some people were relocated to Northridge. People all across the country were laid off. One of our benefactors, Paul Bente left his position as President of JBL Consumer. JBL Synthesis became part of HPAV (Revel, Lexicon, Mark Levinson, JBL Synthesis) and support now comes from Crown in Elkhart, IN.

This year it has been announced that manufacturing in Northridge will cease by the end of June. This will impact JBL Professional, some say in a very negative way since many people in the entertainment industry still demand American made products. Crown is in the process of finding out just how much impact ending manufacturing in the United States will have on its brand. Last year it too went through a restructuring that saw all manufacturing moving to China and their becoming nothing more than a prototyping company. It would appear that JBL is headed for the same fate.

JBL Professional also made all the high end components that go into the Everest II, K2-Series and Synthesis Series, as well as legacy cone and diaphragm kits for past JBL products that have attained legendary status worldwide. This all comes to a rather inglorious end by mid-year. Like Crown, JBL will become a shadow of its former self, and no longer "Made In U.S.A"