hello,

as mentioned by a few above, jbl is some of the most awesome stuff out there and if it weren't for jbl, speakers would hardly be what they are today. jbl pro is exceptional as is most of the vintage product. a friend of mine, Dr Bruce Edgar makes some absolutely amazing systems and actually uses 20+ year old jbl drivers and just installs new diaphragms or gets them reconed before installing in his systems. trust me, 1 listen of one of his large systems and you will have to re-think your whole audiophile way of thinking to date and that's listening to 20+ year old speakers in new boxes with new x-overs. freedom from distortion is just unbelievable and instead of thinking of how well it reproduces the soundstage, you are instead wondering why all the musicians are invisible as they have got to be there somewhere. the high efficiency and miniscule levels of distortion is the cause and again, basically it can be touched by nothing. yeah yeah, i have some old acoustat 2+2 mixed in with my jbl synthesis 2 system as mains but if i could have some of the edgarhorn's i wouldn't think twice, just a little big for my room and yes i do love the panels also, just totally different sound. NOTHING is as revealing of gear and source material as a high efficiency horn system and most are based on jbl so... many of the innovations of jbl have shaped the loudspeaker driver insdustry and are still in use today.

the standard under $1000 consumer junk from jbl is just made because that's what the market has gone to but it is definately not true "jbl" for those who appreciate jbl. that's business these days though, too few people who know the difference or actually buy for any other reason than a picture in a magazine or the look of the cabinet. if the salesman can tell you it sounds good it must right??? anyone say bose... i do some custom installs and i have installed my share of acoustimass systems (only if they own it already, i would never think of selling that crap). i can honestly say that nothing has ever come close to sounding as continuously bad as those acoustimass systems with the little cubes sound. the last few i installed i didn't even demo as i just didn't want to hear how bad something can sound and still be regarded as premium product and pull a few grand from someones pocket. the drivers in the sats are too big not to beam so they use 2 tilted... ehh, ok... on the other hand they are too small for any midbass so they ALWAYS sound thin. there is a hole in the response between the sub and cubes as they can't cross the sub over high enough and still avoid having it's location become obvious... it just goes to show how retarded the general consumer is. truly shocking but i bet there are a ton of users here that would take bose anyday and call jbl pure junk...

cameron