With its world class facilities and world class engineering staff, I hope Harman was generous to JBL in full access to all. With JBL, Infinity, HK, and Revel, Harman has a large consortium of expertise, from design to engineering to production to marketing.
Often a company like this will turn out compromised products, and we've commented from time to time on the trade offs evident in some recent JBL models. However, if the Revel Ultima Salon is any indication of the Harman Group's potential for making magnificent speakers, then this announcement ought to be nearly earth-shattering.
We'll see what the mainstream, fan boy audio press makes of it. Can it even appreciate a monumental speaker from JBL?