K2 S5800 and K2 S9800SE on sale

[MikeBrewster77]

I thought the horns were shipped detached and had to be assembled.

Only the 1400 does, not the 1000 or 800. Clearly, not a good choice..........

[hjames]

Wow, so sorry to see your dream shattered like that!
Its a real WTF moment - seriously, unless they give you HUGE additional rebates/discounts,
Call your bank and get a charge-back on your VISA card PRONTO!
Just refuse to own them and drop kick those suckers back to the factory
anyway that Harman wants to pay to get them back.
Not a PENNY for them!!
That's just inexcusable!!

[KCM]

Wow, so sorry to see your dream shattered like that!
Its a real WTF moment - seriously, unless they give you HUGE additional rebates/discounts,
Call your bank and get a charge-back on your VISA card PRONTO!
Just refuse to own them and drop kick those suckers back to the factory anyway way Harman wants to pay to get them back.
That's just inexcusable!!

There are three possible ways to resolve it. I did not accept their first offer (yet), return these and they ship another pair. I pointed out that doing the same thing and expecting a different result is the definition of insanity....... Plus, who knows where they've been ? They may already be damaged.

There is the option to ship replacements via motor freight, but they want me to pay for that. Maybe......

Or, maybe they offer me a partial refund and I fix them, sorta'.......

[JeffW]

It bums me out since I have really enjoyed mine so far. To see such killer little speakers all mashed up like that just sucks.

Since shipping is free, I'd still consider the send them back and get a new pair strategy. That's the same packing mine had and they survived. I described the packing of mine as great, but obviously it ain't so great when they are upside down.

I'd kinda like to have a busted set to experiment with. That tweeter is like $331 without the horn, but I sure wouldn't pay $2300 for them

[vettedrummer]

Here is my story regarding the sale. I thought about it too long ( kept thinking about how the TiK10 came all messed up for our fellow JBLer on here.) so I missed the 9800's. I decided to go with the 5800's and placed my order. No problems with that part at all. Everything lined up just right and the white Roadrunner truck pulled up at my place on Tuesday. I had been told by the guy at the trucking office here in the Metro Detroit area that the speakers would be moved to the rear of the truck and it would be up to me to get them off the truck and moved into the house. he said the truck would not have a lift gate. As it turned out the truck did have a lift gate and one of those small hand fork lifts. The driver was only too happy to bring them into my garage. I had gone out an bought a new 2 wheel hand truck just for this occassion. I used it to bring the speakers to the front step, but couldn't pull them up so I slid them in the front door on a rug lifting when necessary. The unpacking was very easy and I used the pillow method as well. Once they were all unpacked I changed the 9 volt battery on both of them and hooked them up to my McIntosh MC 501's. This was on the second day since I didn't feel like going out for the new battery Tuesday night. OK, they sound wonderful. The speakers that are in there right now are the 250Ti's cause they are teak and our furniture is teak see how this works??? Wife loves the looks of the 250's. At any rate they blow the 250's away. No contest! The best sounding JBL's in the house right now and I do also have a set of L-300's! The Project Array 1000's that I got last spring are in the same ball park as the 5800's but the 5800's win on looks! OK, so what is the problem??? The finish on one of the 5800's on the top of the speaker has pooled clear coating finish on the edges left and right side and alot more on the back left corner looking from the front. I thought it would go away after the speakers warmed up, but no such luck. I sent an email to Harman cause I don't speak Indian and I felt this way I could send photo's of the problem area. They got back to me and agreed that this needed to be replaced. The guy said they had never come across this issue before. I get to send this one speaker back to them and once it gets back to Alt., Ga. they will inspect it and then ship a new one out to me all at no cost whats so ever. I'm just not clear yet on how the picking up of the bad speaker will be handled since they keep talking about a UPS mailing address that will be emailed to me. I can't figure out how UPS will ever get this 185# speaker on the brown truck. Maybe they have another way??? I guess I'll see when the shipping label gets here. I already have the RA number from them and 30 days for it to get there before the deal is off. They have sent me the new order number for the replacement speaker and so it has been put aside so they don't sell out of them before I get my replacement. They were very nice about the whole issue and moved very fast. This was not shipping damage, but a quality control issue. Now as for the top breaking off of the PA800's my 1000's came in the same kind of packing and there was no issue. I think the difference was they were sent frieght and not by UPS so they were on a pallet and didn't get turned upside down. Sorry to hear about that problem, but as long a Harman is paying for all the shipping let them do it their way. I just hope you get a good set before they run out. Cheers, Frank

[vettedrummer]

Oh yes, you'll want to see a photo of the pooling. OK let's see if I can do that on here.

[hwirt]

OK, they sound wonderful. The speakers that are in there right now are the 250Ti's cause they are teak and our furniture is teak see how this works??? Wife loves the looks of the 250's. At any rate they blow the 250's away. No contest! The best sounding JBL's in the house right now and I do also have a set of L-300's! -snip- Cheers, Frank

Vettdrummer,
Great to hear you like the new K2S5800’s, they are beautiful speakers and If the 9800 were sold out would have definitely pick up a pair myself. Your system looks great. J

[jblnut]

Note to self, stop reading this thread before a large bill appears on credit card and two large boxes appear in the drive way. Just keep repeating "the 250Ti was JBL's top of the line, the 250Ti was JBL's top of the line...."




Congrats vettedrummer!!!!


jblnut

[4313B]

Congratulations on your purchase! It's nice to see you guys taking advantage of this sale.

[vettedrummer]

Hey thanks hwirt, JBLnut, (The 250Ti is still a great speaker with great looks) and 4313B

[JBLAddict]

Note to self, stop reading this thread before a large bill appears on credit card and two large boxes appear in the drive way. Just keep repeating "the 250Ti was JBL's top of the line, the 250Ti was JBL's top of the line...."




Congrats vettedrummer!!!!


jblnut

No Kidding, this is contagious!! So far 800Array, Ti10K, 880Array, 9800, 5800 through these deals, ~$25K spent..... only 2/5 by the way shipped without damage

It's only unfortunate that it took the demise of NR and these deals to get a Lansing product dedicated forum to move beyond monitors and into synthesis gear. There may be enough new purchases and followon purchases to keep a next generation of discussion going here, which IMO would be great I never seriously considered spending so much coin until this spicket opened.....if I can get a few additional job security feelers soon, I'm jumping in.....

[vettedrummer]

Hey, I even got my childhood friend out in California to pick up a set of the 5800's. He said he was looking for a new set of speakers after getting some new McIntosh gear. He said he was looking in the $8,000.00 range so my first suggestion was the Project Array 1400, but he just couldn't take the look of it. When this sale came up I knew that the 5800 would be just the ticket for him. He is getting his today so I'll let ya know if his got there OK. He like me is getting our last equipment to enjoy in our retirement years. I'm already in mine and his starts in 22 months. I had him join up here already plus Ivans McIntosh forum AudioAficionado.

[jblnut]

Congratulations on your purchase! It's nice to see you guys taking advantage of this sale.
JBL "horns done right" versus JBL direct radiators... if you don't compare them directly in the same room you should be ok. I will admit though that it did take me awhile to get over Greg's 1200 Array system. That was a rough year. All my legacy JBL's sounded dead. The fix was to go listen to a few other sound systems and then my old JBL's sounded really good again.

BTW - Greg's 1200 Array used the same twelve that was used in the K2-S5800, 4428 and 4429.

That's the only thing that's saved me thusfar - all the time spent listening to my buddy's Klipsch Fortes. Now don't get me wrong as these are a fabulously revealing speaker and can really sing. But they are always SHOUTING AT YOU and for me, that sonic memory of horns is something I can't easily shake.

I'm sure the new JBL's have the best of both worlds - great "live" dynamics without that bullhorn sound, but I'm going to put my head back into the audio sand and pretend the problem hasn't been solved yet. The risk of shipping damange is also a big factor here as its far from certain that these will arrive they way they left the factory.

There's no realistic hope of me avoiding this thread. Like many of us I'm THRILLED that JBL produced some really high-end speakers to forever silence the "junk but loud" critics.
I'm really happy that they sound as good as they look and I couldn't be more envious of those of you who have taken the plunge.

Just be nice and stop telling me how much better they are than 250's, OK ? I'm only human and it's only credit card debt .

jblnut

[JBLAddict]

only disappointment so far is expecting more up close photos and detailed listening observations like this:

"imaging and retrieval of ambience were equally good. I could make out the many layers of voices of the Turtle Creek Chorale in the Rutter piece. And when I played the L.A. Four's Going Home (Japanese CD, Ai Music 3 2JD-10043), the JBLs laid out the group as follows: Shelly Manne's drum kit at rear center, Ray Brown's bowed bass at front center, Bud Shank's alto sax and flute to extreme right, and Laurindo Almeida's guitar to the left. Willie Nelson's cover of Bob Dylan's "What Was It You Wanted," from Nelson's Across the Borderline (CD, Columbia CK 52752), benefited from the recording's deep, wide soundstage: Debra Dobkin's voice was off to the right rear, and Jim Keltner's drums and percussion at rear center.

Hearing Suzanne Vega sing "Tom's Diner" a cappella on her Solitude Standing (CD, A&M CD5136) was a revelation—the speakers disappeared to reveal a floating, three-dimensional, strikingly realistic and natural-sounding voice. "

[jblnut]

I come here so I don't have to read audio reviews like that !



jblnut