Six short months ago I was bitten by the JBL bug. I've been into audio for 25+ years, mostly car audio, because nobody else has to tolerate the gear in my car. (Truck, actually.) Until I found this site while researching a pair of Control 5 monitors that fell into my possession, I had no idea just how huge JBL-dom is. To make matters worse, I've lately entered a stage of life where the cycle of I-see/I-want/I-get has become a lot shorter. So in a few short months I've also been able to find L26's (lunch-money cheap) and L65's (4 nice dinners cheap). But those were easy to come by. Ordinary kind of people bought those originally, and I was just in the right place at the right time to be their next owner. But what were those beautiful, curvy, 2-way horn-laden creatures I keep seeing reference to on the site - studio monitors? Ordinary people don't buy those. Not like I'd ever find them at a garage sale or thrift store where I reside, where MAYBE 450,000 people live within a two-day drive. My local JBL pro said there likely aren't any in the entire state. How would I ever find a pair? Turns out each summer, wife and I take the kids to Northern California and The Bay Area for a couple weeks where there's A LOT more vintage gear available. Doing some research and networking several weeks before travel, I was able to locate a private seller with some good condition 4430s for a very decent price. Not a super-sweet deal worth bragging about, but probably the lowest price you'd ever expect a knowledgeable seller to offer. Definitely too good to pass up or wait on, or even risk offending with a counter-offer. Wifey and I drove 90 minutes to meet the seller, spent 10 minutes doing obligatory small-talk, listened to 20 seconds of something to make sure all drivers worked, checked foam on woofers, handed over the cash, shook hands, then failed to fit them in the rental car. That was akward. I mean, I did my homework. 36"x22"x16" and 130lbs each, that's roughly the same dimensions as the top half of a human, right? Surely they could ride sitting up in the back seat, with seatbelts and all. I even measured clearances in the car with a tape measure beforehand. Except the doors couldn't open wide enough... Had to return the next day with a friend's little station wagon. Played with them for a few days with my travel gear in the garage of our vacation house, then moved them into the living room. Now they play Pixar movies for the kids all day through a quite nice Yamaha receiver I grabbed locally for $40 off Craigslist. Next challenge is getting them back to Alaska. I'll have a lot more to say as I become more familiar with them over time, but my one-word impression so far: Stunning. They very well could be the last speakers I'll ever need.
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Originally Posted by honkytonkwillie
