JBL 4430 vs. EV Sentry III - Opinions? Experience?

[markustubesnow]

Greetings all -
Been a while since I posted here.
Here's today's situation. A pair of EV Sentry IIIs has popped up locally. Not a screaming deal - $1,750.
My question is how these might compare to my JBL 4430s? Has anyone had a chance to compare them?
I'm driving my JBLs with ~6.5 watts of single ended triode power and they sound great. I listen in the near field, typically below 70dB.
Markus

[spkrman57]

4430 has superior woofer(2235) but i like the horn/driver(SM120/1823M) in the Sentry III better.

Comparing these 2 speakers is not easy due to different designs and goals.

Different efficiencies and power handling.

When I had my 4430,s I found I liked for rock and roll with high current amps, Sentry III nice with tube amps and classical/jazz music.

They are as different as night and day.

I'm going to rebuild my Sentry III with JBL 15", retain midhorn driver and 2404 for high end and custom DIY crossover. Original woofers gone as well as Tweeter horn, so going with my own design for high efficiency, power handling and less LF extension.

Regards from crazy old audiophile,
Ron sends

[spkrman57]

I'm driving my JBLs with ~6.5 watts of single ended triode power and they sound great. I listen in the near field, typically below 70dB.
Markus

Are you using 300B SET amp?

I found tube amps did not bring out the best in my 4430,s.

Curious on your running tubes comments...

Regards, Ron

[markustubesnow]

Are you using 300B SET amp?

I found tube amps did not bring out the best in my 4430,s.

Curious on your running tubes comments...

Regards, Ron

Ron,
Thanks for your input. I suppose it's a matter of familiarity, experience and expectation.
I listen to my 4430s primarily in the near field at volumes typically less than 75dB. So I'm still below one watt from my 300B amp.
I am aware that the "quality" of power from my amp is likely somewhat compromised, as it was a fairly budget unit when it was originally sold 25+ years ago. That is, the transformers are not the most boutique ones possible, so they might not be controlling the woofers in the way that a powerful, well designed SS or even tube unit would. However, it sounds pretty good to me.
Regarding music, I listen to a little bit of everything and find that the 4430s excel on music with deep bass. Jazz, acoustical music, electronica. I listen to a lot of film scores and they seem to have a lot of very deep bass, probably from a synthesizer. The JBLs sound great on that kind of music. The deep bass has an almost electrostatic quality to it.
Given the information I've provided above, do you have any other input to share?
Mark

[spkrman57]

It seems you are happy with your setup. Sentry III's much more efficient but you may find bass light compared to 4430's.
Regards, Ron

[Mike Caldwell]

The EV Sentry III series had an external processor called the "SEQ" while you didn't need to use it though you should use it with them, among what it did was let you operate the speaker in what EV called "step down", you covered over the bottom port and it took the response down to 30hz.

I'm sure finding one of the processors would be tough these days. If anyone knew the EQ curve applied it could probably be replicated with DSP.
Better yet find one and do a transfer function measurement of it for reference.