JBL 4367's in my listening room

[Mr Peabody]

My friend, the audio dealer, brought in a set of JBL 4367's, the new model based on the M2 Master Reference Studio Monitor. The 4367 is passive though and marketed for home use. I've had a passion for true horn type speakers, or pro speakers, since back in the day when I sold Electro-Voice, so I wanted to give the 4367 a listen.

The 4367 is like having the performance in your room. This is the type of speaker you want if you really want to hear and feel a drum kit in the room. The horn drivers are not fatiguing and provide great detail. The bass is big and powerful while being quick and detailed. I had to do some breaking in when I got them so they could still have even more improvement in store. The bass isn't quite as fast as the 6" drivers in my F52's at this point, nor do they play as low. However, the two sounds are quite different. I read one analogy I thought fit well, the 4367 is like a sports car where speakers you read about in TAS or Stereophile are typically luxury cars. Meaning the luxury is designed for "audiophile" type sound and speakers like the 4367 is like, well, as I mentioned prior, when you want to hear and feel the drums in your room. You can give the 4367 as much clean power as you can stand and it will be distortion free presenting the same frequency response as it will at a lower level. And, you know how sometimes you'll get a recording and you can tell there's horns in the background but it's a bit undefined or lacking clarity, the 4367 is able to present the horns to where you can hear a defined horn and someone is back there playing it. Things like piano, cymbals and brass sound great. Vocals come through like the person is there, you get good detail and inflection. But as with a sports car none of the bumps get smoothed out on the road and it's always raring to go.

The sound stage is wide but it doesn't arc up like most dome tweeter speakers, just a limit of a horizontal horn. Plus, I don't have the spikes or platforms. The horns should be a bit closer to my ear level. The 4367 has two sets of binding posts, rated at 94dB & 6 ohms. 94dB would lead you to believe these could be easily driven, and maybe so, but if they are like the Array 1400's you'll still need some sturdy solid state or powerful tubes. My CJ 100 watt monoblocks didn't get the 1400's off the ground.

[Hyfi]

Sounds like a fun time. at $15K a pair, they better sound as good as you thought. Since they are originally a Studio Monitor, would you say they have a similar sound to Harbeth? (obviously no similarity in design)

Why are these and the M2s not even mentioned on the JBL site?

[Mr Peabody]

I thought on the JBL Synthesis site I saw a link to the M2. I'm not sure why the 4367 isn't there yet, I wanted to look at the manual. Maybe they are just slow in updating the site. The 4367, and all the Synthesis, sound different than Harbeth. I think one reason is nothing sounds like a compression driver and horn like a compression driver and horn. JBL's sound exceptionally good. I always said if they got the marketing straight companies like Klipsch would have a hard time staying in business. I shouldn't have mentioned Klipsch because again they sound nothing like the JBL though they made the company off using horn type sound for home. JBL seems content selling the horn speakers to pro and custom installers. I do think there are a few Synthesis dealers in audio but not many. I think also the British idea of studio monitor and U.S. may be two different things. Just my opinion but I didn't find Harbeth to be a particularly flat response or studio monitor like.

Sounds like a fun time. at $15K a pair, they better sound as good as you thought. Since they are originally a Studio Monitor, would you say they have a similar sound to Harbeth? (obviously no similarity in design)

Why are these and the M2s not even mentioned on the JBL site?

[Feanor]

Very interesting. The 4367's are in the "high-end" category. I think you comparision to the Revel Performas, a classic Floyd Toole-type design, is apt.

No 4367's on my horizon on account of price, but also because "kick" isn't what's important to the type of music I listen to.

I note the JohnMichael still likes his more realistically priced JBL's with the a horn mid-tweeter.

[Mr Peabody]

You know for Classical the 4367 is pretty good, you get that live feel like being in venue with the orchestra, the instruments have a great realism but at least in my room, and, for now, I'm not getting a sense of depth I had from my F52, and as I mentioned the soundstage is some flat, though wide, but a different feel to what I'm used to for Classical. Then again, when I go to the Synphony we are usually up from the orchestra so maybe the JBL is more accurate, LOL. When listening to Reference label recordings or others with low program I can tell that bottom octave is not coming through. The 4367 is rated at 30Hz so I'm not sure why. The 4367 is very neutral so there isn't any artificial warmth to strings or violin etc. The price, well..... I don't think you will see them in everyone's listening room to be sure.

Very interesting. The 4367's are in the "high-end" category. I think you comparision to the Revel Performas, a classic Floyd Toole-type design, is apt.

No 4367's on my horizon on account of price, but also because "kick" isn't what's important to the type of music I listen to.

I note the JohnMichael still likes his more realistically priced JBL's with the a horn mid-tweeter.

[harley .guy07]

Well I am still interested in hearing them because for most of the music I am in to these sound like the ticket. The price on entry is quite high though and there are plenty of options out there for 15k and under so it would be a very long process if I went to that price point before settling on a pair. But I will say that JBL Synthesis has always stuck to their guns in building home audio speakers that are very much like their pro audio products.

[JohnMichael]

Anyone interested can see the speaker on JBL's Facebook page.

https://www.facebook.com/JBLsynthesis

Looks pretty impressive Mr. P. I know how good my little Synthesis Studio 530's sound so those must be awesome.

[Mr Peabody]

The 4367's are sounding really good. I'd say the break in time is pretty long, now the horns are so good, highs are pristine and a delight to listen to, vocals are excellent, especially on good recordings, the bass is nicely flat and detailed, still not extended like the 52 was. When I say flat regarding bass, it still sounds like more of a live bass but it's accurate to the recording.

The sound is tough to describe with a string of adjectives, I don't know how reviewers don't keep from sounding like they are writing the same thing all the time. The 4367's just sound right, I find myself gravitating to acoustic Jazz a lot now because I get such a kick out of the liveliness, the cymbals, realism of the snare, tonally the brass sounds really good. Like a good speaker they sound good on most genres.

I'm thinking of trying these iso stands that will get them up from the floor about 5 more inches. They're supposed to improve sound as well but I'll have to see how much they cost and it's difficult to imagine the 4367 sounding better.

I feel like I've rambled and somehow missed my point, the 4367 I liked when I first got them but the sound has really improved upon break in. I used to wonder if I'd like Revel's Studio's better but now I don't think I could live without what the 4367 does. If you've never had the chance to hear a real pro horn with high quality compression driver you don't know what you're missing. Typically, JBL is shown with Levinson at Axpona, so many get a taste but I've noticed they tend to bring a model that's really too much for the room and I wonder if the heavy bass is what draws the attention. OK, enough,