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Thread: JBL speakers ain't no good for classical music?

  1. #16
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    Quote Originally Posted by johnhere View Post
    Hi folks, several friends warn me JBL is best for jazz & rock, classicals will sound like hell, I'm not sure about this.

    My speakers are DIY 4350 and I am strictly into classical, myexperience with these JBL’s are exact opposite of what your friends are tellingyou.
    Well recorded hi-rez classical SACD’s sound spectacular, Pop& Rock and any highly compressed recordings sound just awful, with thesemonitors garbage in garbage out.

    Vahe


  2. #17
    Senior Member gibber's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by hsosdrum View Post
    ...We've all heard speakers that didn't "come alive" until played at louder volumes. This is because they don't begin to reproduce the microdynamics until we feed a fair amount of power into them. High-sensitivity speakers like vintage JBLs don't need to be played loud to sound "real" ...
    Welcome to a small club. We're three now. Judging from previous footprint, Barry (1Audiohack) is in our boat, i presume

    My avartar tells you where i'm at so far, short/light coil - deep gap, light cone.
    Just got a brace of K151's and will report on those "early" 18" a.s.a.p.
    Charah,
    Ralph

  3. #18
    Senior Member 1audiohack's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by gibber View Post
    Welcome to a small club. We're three now. Judging from previous footprint, Barry (1Audiohack) is in our boat, i presume...Ralph
    Your presumption is correct!
    Barry.
    If we knew what the hell we were doing, we wouldn't call it research would we.

  4. #19
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    Stop listening to classical music.....Simple....

  5. #20
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    What they said is Wilson and Magico do better than JBL in the case of classical music, but I ain't get no money to buy those Wilson. Only one of them told me JBL is good for classics, but he thinks PMC is certainly a better choice.

  6. #21
    Senior Member JuniorJBL's Avatar
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    This is a very personal hobby so listening to some different speakers to get what you want is of the utmost concern.

    With that said my JBL's play everything very well IMO.
    Always fun learning more.......

  7. #22
    Senior Member 1audiohack's Avatar
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    I think it is pretty easy to make a violin sound good on a cone speaker and a sax sound good on a compression driver horn speaker. It is harder to do the inverse. There is no speaker that does it all best.

    It is my experience and firm belief that the very well engineered speakers like 4365 and Everests do it all very well though.

    Have fun while you are figuring out what you like.

    Barry.
    If we knew what the hell we were doing, we wouldn't call it research would we.

  8. #23
    Senior Member Ducatista47's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by JuniorJBL View Post
    This is a very personal hobby so listening to some different speakers to get what you want is of the utmost concern.

    With that said my JBL's play everything very well IMO.
    Since nearly all the distortion in an audio system comes from the speakers, auditioning speakers is a must. Listen to music you are familiar with and if possible with sources, and amps of similar power level to what you use at home.

    My 4345s, while antiques, have no problem with Classical music. And they don't sound like Junk But Loud either.
    Information is not Knowledge; Knowledge is not Wisdom
    Too many audiophiles listen with their eyes instead of their ears


  9. #24
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    Classical music is a very general term and it's a sweeping statement to just refer to JBLs

    There are numerous varieties of classical.

    The AR claim to fame was really the acoustic suspension principle that enabled a smallish box with descent LF extension.

    The market likes small and AR were astute to corner the Jazz and classical music lover in New England.

    This was along way from the mid west where country music in Naahville and Rock in LA and SF dominated.

    The acoustic suspension principle was at a disadvantage in reproducing rock and country due to its lower efficiency.

    But the relatively more sensitive JBLs and the poorer performing Souncraft while loud and punchy in the bass had pronounced mid range and a sometimes aggressive high frequency response.

    The same division held true in the recording industry but it was acknowledged that horns were sweeter at very high levels than soft domes.

    It's a myth that large loud monitors have to be all things to all people. They don't because the sound recording engineers know the characteristics of the monitor and they mix accordingly and they like familiarity.

    In old studios in Memphis you can still find JBL 4320's and Altec 604 for this reason.

    Back to the HIFI business in the past 15 years JBL has closed the gap on the two trains of thought with new technologies and listening evaluation techniques so that a loudspeaker can be both efficient and accurate.

    My personal preference is for the 4435 over the AR and the JBL LRS6332 because the 4435 makes the other 2 sound like small speaker whether playing classical or rock music. The 9800 systems and more recent are significantly more accurate and dynamic than the vintage counterparts.

  10. #25
    Senior Member hsosdrum's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Ian Mackenzie View Post
    It's a myth that large loud monitors have to be all things to all people. They don't because the sound recording engineers know the characteristics of the monitor and they mix accordingly and they like familiarity.
    This. Right. Here.

    The #1 most important characteristic of any studio monitor is the engineer's familiarity with the way it sounds. It does no good to record and/or mix on an unfamiliar monitor, no matter it's reputed quality, because you have no idea if what you're hearing is in your mix or is being caused by the speaker. That's why I use a pair of Klipsch Cornwall IIs that I've had for 35 years—I know exactly what they sound like on every conceivable type of sound, so I can tell if a problem I'm hearing is in my mix and needs to be fixed, or is a characteristic of the speakers and can be ignored.

  11. #26
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    But l guess we need to remind ourselves at home we are not engineers and the role of the loudspeaker is ideally accurate reproduction of any kind of music.

    My personal view is that the 4350/4355 are accurate enough for classical music but they may not necessarily image as well as certain narrow fronted floor standing loudspeaker. Half the time imaging is a wank unless you listen with your head in a vice anyway.

    They are in a different league to the L100's and the L150's of the 80's imho as they are flat and clean. You can trick them up with done enhancement like the CC crossover or even a Be diaphragm or a smith horn atop if you want more transparency (the law of diminishing returns applies).

    If you want a big room filling presentation, low distortion and are not too fussed about imagining they are fine but would not compare to the HiFi diddle dee in terms of the last once of detail and transparency delivered by the 9900 or other recent soa JBLs but then again they are not a second mortgage either.

    The compromise with efficiency is size so if you have a partner and l know my 4345 are destined for the boy cave, not the living room and l have no doubt the 4355s would be in the same boat.

    The JBLs respond well to the best bi amp crossover you can afford (l recommend the First Watt B4)and or charge couple the passive crossovers. This will really close the gap in terms of the revealing the otherwise hidden low level detail that the JBL drivers can reveal.

  12. #27
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    In terms of comparisons to other domestic loudspeakers a bi amped JBL 43XX it's not by degree frankly or needs a double blind test. It doesn't and never will. The sheer scale and reverberant quality of the presentation is over whelming and starts where even hi end domestic loudspeaker start to fall over.

    The Late John Eargle (who recorded numerous classical recordings) in his book is very matter of fact about loudspeaker requirements for playback at levels close to the original performance and presents some examples using JBL drivers in biamp configuration and amplification. Don Davis made similar recommendations in his red book on loudspeakers and referred to using 2 15 inch woofers per channel to ensure bass distortion at 50 Hz was not compromised.

    The AR and for that matter any domestic loudspeaker would be having a meltdown with massive amounts of amp power to compete with the 4355 running 10 watts peak. The simple reason is the JBL is in the realm of 10 Db more sensitive so it needs only 1/10 the power of the AR. Then build in a 6 db crest factor when biamping which makes the power amp look like 2 x their rated power in terms of dynamic range. So 2 x 150 amps biamp per channel would look a 600 watt amp. The AR would be crapping itself at 100 watts with like 86 db sensitivity while the JBL is just going with only 10 watts for the same volume level.

    If you did have the AR side by side its a total
    No brainer and the AR would be on the nature strip.

    I forget the expression in the USA but it's like Game Over Man, Game Over we've just had our arses kicked.

    This is why the real vintage JBLs that Greg reminds us we should hang on to are still to this day highly sort after.

  13. #28
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    I have 4 JBL 4301B for classical music.

    JBL 4301Bs are pretty good with Jazz and Classical music. Try it if you have a chance.

  14. #29
    Senior Member BMWCCA's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Ian Mackenzie View Post
    The Late John Eagle (who recorded numerous classical recordings) in his book is very matter of fact about loudspeaker requirements for playback at levels close to the original performance and presents some examples using JBL drivers in biamp configuration and amplification.
    For those trying to follow along at home, I believe Ian meant to type "Eargle".
    ". . . as you have no doubt noticed, no one told the 4345 that it can't work correctly so it does anyway."—Greg Timbers

  15. #30
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    Yep

    Thanks

    Damn auto spell-edited original post

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