1980's JBL Car Audio History?

As a Ford Panther platform enthusiast, I own a 1988 Lincoln Town Car. I think one of the most impressive options that vehicle had at the time was the Ford-JBL audio system. It consisted of a preamplifier, external amplifier and six matched speakers. It could be had with a tape deck or CD player. Probably the first for a domestic automaker.. Anyway, does anybody know about JBL's OEM adventures? I'd love to know who was behind all of it. When I've searched the heritage library nothing comes up about OEM car audio stuff.

Sadly, my car was not optioned with the JBL system, but when I first got it I had all the parts to make it so and did just that. It was night and day going from the standard "premium" system to the JBL, not to mention how impressive the drivers were given their age and most of the cars' speakers I've seen from that era. When I went aftermarket JBL some years later, it resulted in only a minor improvement in sound quality.

I had a ‘90 Taurus SHO with the JBL premium sound system, and it wasn’t much, especially as I sold car audio at the time. The drivers were all pressed steel frames, and were non-standard impedance - 12ohm or so, so you couldn’t swap in better quality aftermarket drivers. There was a trunk mounted amplifier, and I assume the system was EQ’d by JBL to fit the car, which was why the sound was “Premium”. At that time, JBL aftermarket speakers weren’t really competitive, as I just don’t think JBL had enough interest in the market. Their good speakers (t545, t420etc) were amazingly built, with cast frames, large voicecoils, etc, but they were too big (depth and large magnet size) to fit in most applications. Even if you had a hole in your back deck sized for 6x9’s, we would have to re-cut it larger to fit JBL’s. In the sound room, they just didn’t sound good enough to justify the extra work and expense over other offerings. Their subwoofers (1500gti etc) were based on pro audio woofers and sounded pretty good from inside the car at reasonable levels, but didn’t pound outside the car like people wanted them to. JBL was just too slow moving and couldn’t keep up with other car audio companies that were innovating much faster (JL Audio, Fosgate). If you wanted high end sound, you were sold MB Quart, JL Audio, a/d/s, and if you wanted it loud, it was MTX, Fosgate etc. JBL really didn’t have an in. Also, since JBL was mostly sold at Circuit City, no independent dealers would touch it.

It is said that Harman learned quickly that OEM premium audio systems were by far the most profitable thing they could do, and for many years Harman made no money on Home audio - it just kept their name in peoples minds so that they would opt for the $800 extra premium sound system when they bought a new car.

As an aside, about 10 years ago I found a box of old car audio stuff from the early 90’s, including an amp from Soundstream and one from Concord (Harman owned). The Concord amp wouldn’t fire up, but I connected the Soundstream to a regulated 12v power supply and to the Sonus Faber speakers I had in my listening room at the time, and the amplifier sounded amazing - absolutely quite noise floor, great detail - it sounded as good as any home amplifier I have listened to. Very impressive :)

Any idea as to whose decision it was for JBL to get involved with Ford? Where the drivers were made? Compared to the other factory speakers and stuff I've gutted from other cars in yards, the JBL stuff was superior. Nobody had an amp that massive or 6x9's with magnets that large or the sound quality to match back in those days. I can't speak for the Taurus, but the Town Cars and Mark VII's were really nice in their day.

I don't remember the exact model number but there was a 4-ohm version of the 2214H (woofer from L100T, L100t3, 4425, XPL200, etc) that was sold as a car subwoofer back in the day.

That's pretty rad. Their car stuff seemed great, even back in the day. When I went aftermarket in my Town Car I put their Power Series stuff everywhere I could, they were just starting to phase it out. To my ears that sounded better than anything I heard at the local car audio places. I also used one of their 5 channel amps despite kind of being an Alpine guy, but I wanted everything to be from JBL as it was back then, just aftermarket. All of the speakers and the amp are still going strong some eight years later. Shame you can't get Power Series anymore, I'm a little skeptical of the GTO or Stadium series stuff they have.

When I go to "treasure yards" I still look for Mark VII's, Town Cars and "roundy" Lincoln Continentals. Those Continentals were the last Lincolns (I think..) to offer nice drivers. They had 6x9 "Subwoofers" in the package tray that appear to be the same as what the VII's and Town Cars got, minus the coaxial mid & tweeters. They also got 5x7" & 6.5" coaxial door units that you could repurpose in other Ford products or just in general. Can't beat them for the junk yard price of $5 or $10 a unit.