Anglo.....The guys on the Klipsch forum are fighting the same fight as here on the lansing site. wanting to see the heritage side of speaker design reserected. The Klipsch JUBILEE horn system was a still born design when Paul Klipsch passed away. And will not be made. The bean counters at Harmon int. Would like the old JBL crowed to fad away. More profets can be had with the plastic line. If they wanted to introduce the K2 to the US they could do better than the Synthesis back ally.
I think they could re-enter the high-end market, there is demand. The reason I'm saying this is because currently, the top brand for studio monitoring is Genelec, and their top end models are indeed dual 15" models that are more advanced designs around the 4350 concept. They cost north of $50,000, yrt they have a business that is economically viable. So is it that JBL does not compete in the market that it invented because its quality is behind, or management is just not seing it? Kind of a shame, there would be buyers, I for one would buy a pair of new 4350's.
Woah! There is a Klipsch forum too.Originally Posted by analogman
I have to echo others here, JBL just part of a large business and the market has changed, and maybe passed us by. I guess I'm a curmudgeon at 36. I too would like to see JBL come out with something for the home, based upon studio monitors, like that available in the golden days (Late 60's to mid 1980's); but I think I'll just have to keep shopping for tired stuff on e-bay and start restoring it with parts now made of unobtanium. I'll stop whining now...
Paying debt to Karma...
I saw where Best Buy had KLH speakers (8 inch three way) on sale for $20 a pair!
Good example of a company that used to make good stuff and got bought out...Unfortunatly the way the market is going. (Hope JBL never sells out like that!)
$20 speakers gotta be cheap crap!
But, I'll bet they sold millions!
new studio series
I talked to a jbl rep back in November,and he told me they were coming out with a new studio series,it may not use the studio series name.He said it would come after the first of the year,and it would be more expensive and higher end then orignal studio series. still waiting.
Soon they'll be in a pawn shop, swap meet, or landfill near you!I saw where Best Buy had KLH speakers (8 inch three way) on sale for $20 a pair!
But, I'll bet they sold millions!
In.
LOL so true!!! I'll net pawn shops will want to charge more than $20 too
P.S. You forgot the local EBAY auction
JBL already has IMOI saw where Best Buy had KLH speakers (8 inch three way) on sale for $20 a pair!
Good example of a company that used to make good stuff and got bought out...Unfortunatly the way the market is going. (Hope JBL never sells out like that!)
$20 speakers gotta be cheap crap!
But, I'll bet they sold millions!
Unfortunatly, on some level I must agree with you....After spending a couple of hours one night on this website reading about JBL and what makes JBL so superior, I went and retrieved a JBL bookshelf speaker I bought a thrift store and pulled it apart. Needless to say I was a bit disappointed. Expecting to see a heavy cast woofer etc all I saw was a generic looking ceramic-magnet stamped-tin-frame woofer with no discernable JBL markings.
The only JBK distinction for this speaker was the JBK titanium dome tweeter.
I must agree that JBL has much "cheapened" between the 1940's and now.
Twenty-five years ago many of us were surprised and disappointed when JBL introduced the Radiance Series with their vinyl clad boxes and cheap stamped framed drivers. Up until then the quality of the drivers in every JBL whether the top of the line Paragon or Decade L26 were superior to most all of their competitors.
Today JBL makes millions of dollars selling crap and a few bucks making K2-S9800s and other high quality systems. I suppose we should be grateful that they still bother to make the good stuff at all. If they stopped making repair kits for the vintage stuff and all of the higher end parts that we use, it probably wouldn't affect their bottom line much. As much as the bean counters run American business, at JBL they obviously don't have full control... yet.
Widget
We can take some comfort that JBL's brand doesn't only make crap that brings in millions then, eh?'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?
In.
One part of the manifesto should read. If they dont support the customer we wonte support them.
Who do I talk to?
David
http://www.jblsynthesis.com/
Put up or shut up
Also, rumor is Tweeter stores will start pushing the Performance Series.
Finally, http://www.jblsynthesis.com/history/...=US&Region=USA here's a snapshot - notice who likes JBL... where there's a demand JBL will supply...
But will JBL SYNTHESIS let me listen before I buy?
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