Has anyone heard JBL830's?

[mixsit]

General impressions? A friend has a pair (not hooked up), and due to timing (new speakers are soon to arrive) at this point I am mostly curious if they might be worth lugging over. They are not the 'TI version, and we have also not spoken about price.

Thanks in advance.

Wayne Smith

[Titanium Dome]

Wayne, are you talking about the 20 year old JBL830 or the brand new Studio L830?

If it's the old JBL830 with two 308G 8" drivers (one for bass, one for mids) with a laminate tweeter, then I'd say they're probably pretty tired if they've been used a lot. You're not going to get any satisfaction out of the lower bass reproduction, 'cuz it's not there. At best it goes down to around 45Hz, and 50-55Hz is really more like it for bass that's controlled and loud enough.

The 308G is a pretty decent midbass driver for what it is, but it's not truly a woofer.

If you could get 'em for maybe $90 to $120 depending on condition, they might be worth getting. The first thing I'd do is add a sub to handle anything below 80-100Hz (but the JBL830's first crossover is 200Hz, so one of those 308Gs won't be doing much).

[mixsit]

Thanks there. Yes it's the old ones. They do look to have had very lite use.
'50-55', sounds like my old Klipsch's. Any chance they stay good from there up? (That would be the saving grace as far as my interests go.)

Wayne