Wow I didn't know I would face a riot just because I simply questioned the merits of why a simple box ported designed speaker with drivers which were not that exotic demand such high prices. I love just surfing the net looking for good deals on classic audio gear espesically speakers, and I always come across scores of JBL's at high prices. Even though they didn't sell for that much new, and are of pretty basic design. I only have three pairs of basic box type enclosure speakers, don't get me wrong I like them but they just don't really seem that good to me. Those are, one pair of Yamaha NS1000m's, a pair of Yamaha NS500m's, and a Infinity QLS-5. Of those three pairs I paid more for the yamaha's than for the QLS-5, but of the three I prefer the Infinity. I didn't pay much for the QLS-5's but I bought them just because they were baby bothers of my larger Infinity's and I thought they would make some good rear surrounds for a home theather set up, which I have never set up. I maybe paid around 100 dollars for the pair, it is a sealed enclosure, with a 12" bass Dual Voice Coil driver which I IMO is far better than that of most JBL 12 drivers. The midrange is I beleive a German made soft dome driver which is incredible sounding and is the same that is used in all of the Older big Infinity QLS line, and the hi frequency driver is one of their EMIT drivers, a magnetic version of a electrostatic ribbon driver. I paid less for the Yamaha NS1000m for many pairs of JBL's I have seen sold and it and the lesser model the 500 use the Be (don't know how to spell it) driver. They have some great Mids and Bass drivers and the crossovers in them are of very good quality. I see that the new top of line JBL everest is using the Be in the mids and hi drivers, took them thirty years to do what Yamaha did in the 80's. The rest of my line of speakers are
Infinity QLS-1's, a six foot 200lb line source di-pole design with 7 forward firing EMIT's,I rear firing EMIT, 6 mid-dome midranges, I beligum mid base driver with rear firing port, and 1 12" Dual Voice Coil bass driver. The QLS was introduced in the 1970's so like the JBL's they are a vintage speaker but unlike the JBL were much more expensive. They were feature by Sterophile magazine in their dream system.
I paid 800 dollars for them, repaired a few drivers, and cleaned them up with some wood polish. I am wondering which pair of JBL's would be on par with them.
Infinity QLS-2's almost the same only it has only three EMIT's and Two mid-domes, I paid 400 for them, but had to refoam the bass driver.
Infinity RS-1b's system of four speaker enclosures, two bass towers each with 6 8 inch servo controlled from a OEM active crossover which has considerable adjustments to suit different room settings, 2 mid hi panels consisting of 7 EMIM's and 3 EMIT's all of which are set in a di-pole arrangement. The entire arrangement around 400 pounds. These to are a vingage set built around 1980or so.
I also have a pair of Kappa 8's which I paid less than a hundred dollars for
A Pair of Kappa 9's both pairs 25 years or older I think.
And I also have a pretty old pair of Phase Linear III's, designed by Bob Carver when he was with Phase Linear. They are two panels of 5 way design, di-pole in that the drivers are firing both front and back 1 super tweeter forward firing, 4 di-pole 360 degree tweeters, two mids one forward firing one rear firing, two mid bass drivers open in the back as a di-pole arrangment, and a bass Commode with two rear firing 12" drivers, all controlled with speaker control module wired between the pre amp and main amp.
Their are so many other kinds of speakers like these that had great reveiws in the days, sold for many times the price of the more simple JBL's, and I would have to say I can't beleive would come near the audio quality of these types but still the JBL's seem to sell for so much money, for what they are. I have heard a few JBL's at friends homes, I found them quite boring, but I question if they were some of JBL's best. Some day I hope to hear someone who has a good system set up with some good JBL's to help me understand the large popularity of the JBL's.
