JBL 4349 Review (Studio Monitor Speaker)

[amirm]

it's an I30, right? is it any good subjectively?

Yes. It is excellent to use in addition to subjectively. Love the remote, display, relay click as I change things, etc. I don't use its power amp by the way, just as a pre-amp.

 

[2440]

Just looked...JBL specs say -6db at 38 Hz...........

The specs in my owner's manual say -6db at 32hz.

My 4349s are only a few days old and still breaking in, which they seriously need, but there is strong bass down to the mid-30s in my listening room. The bottom end is effortless, musical, and often breathtaking.

However, like a v-twin Harley or a rear-engined Porsche, these speakers are an anachronism, and probably not for most people.

 

[ROOSKIE]

In this case, @amirm did everything right, because the user manual explicitly states:
View attachment 125391
Whereby I do not know whether Amir has actually read the user manual
If the manufacturer recommends the tweeter axis, then the measurements should be taken that way.

Obviously Amir can't calculate every option however with all due respect who cares what the manual says?
If we are going to listen to the manual then why measure the frequency responses, that is published there.
If there is a solution that is better than what the manual says then that is awesome. Reality is a marketing department or a technical writer likely wrote the manual, not the engineers (though darn I wish they would)
If in fact this speaker is designed to be angled and that was confirmed, that would be superb news.
Anyway just saying the manual is likely not really qualified to tell folks anything.

 

[Tips]

Revel sound

What type of sound is that then?

Would Revel Salon 2 be ideal for electronic music that require gigantic bass and WOW factor in sound?

Is there any chance you can test Ohm Walsh Tall 2000 ?

 

[MZKM]

What type of sound is that then?

Would Revel Salon 2 be ideal for electronic music that require gigantic bass and WOW factor in sound?

Is there any chance you can test Ohm Walsh Tall 2000 ?

If you want loud & deep bass, subwoofers are always recommend.

 

[hex168]

Doesn't matter how many there are, you only need one Don't care too much about the dual diaphragm. If you want annular, get Faital HF1440. It works down to 700 Hz. BMS has coaxes down to 300 Hz, as does B&C. All of them are annular. BMS also has some 1" drivers that can go down to 850/900 Hz in studio or home environments.

Exactly! Why did JBL cross this robust compression driver so high? The horn is large enough for 1K for sure.

 

[Tks]

Looks so cool. Why didn't they make it better performing :-\

 

[richard12511]

Why are most high end JBLs limited to 2 way designs?

 

[Lorenzo74]

I am going to put the JBL 4349 on my recommended list. Go ahead and hate on me due to objective measurements above.

Don’t worry @amirm , you just got Audiophiliac! It’s a daily flu, just listen to the brother “Saloon” twice a day and it will go away...

Ps. I love the daily show

 

[richard12511]

Have you measured speakers where it was the other way around? Like, they measured well but sounded off.

Sony SS-CS5 and SVS Ultra are good examples. The SVS measures very similar to the Revel M106, but sound was nowhere near as good. It's obvious to me that our standard measurement interpretations are perhaps still missing something.

 

[Vintage57]

Sony SS-CS5 and SVS Ultra are good examples. The SVS measures very similar to the Revel M106, but sound was nowhere near as good. It's obvious to me that our standard measurement interpretations are perhaps still missing something.

Agreed, that a good measurement may not guarantee a good sound.
I have a difficult time believing that the opposite can also be true, ie. measure bad and sound good.
Not in my limited experience.

 

[richard12511]

This JBL 4349 model and an equivalent priced Revel F226Be are worlds apart in my opinion, so I would be careful to make a generalized statement about the Harman group.

Yeah the F226Be looks considerably better than this speaker, at least to my eye.

 

[AudioJester]

Is there a highly efficient horn system that measures with the best?

I wonder if a point source horn, like the Danley Synergy versions would be the perfect counterpoint to the Salon 2's?

 

[richard12511]

Either measurements matter or they don’t, which is it?

I don't see it as an either or like this. Measurements always matter. It's just a question of "how much?". It's never gonna be 100% correlation. The 708p also didn't measure as well as the KH310, yet it was preferred subjectively. These JBLs don't measure badly.

 

[richard12511]

Agreed, that a good measurement may not guarantee a good sound.
I have a difficult time believing that the opposite can also be true, ie. measure bad and sound good.
Not in my limited experience.

These don't measure bad, though. They're not SOTA, but definitely not bad. Look at @TimVG 's slightly different axis measurements.

 

[richard12511]

Is there a highly efficient horn system that measures with the best?

I wonder if a point source horn, like the Danley Synergy versions would be the perfect counterpoint to the Salon 2's?

Synergy Horn won't do well in a mono listening test imo. Dispersion that narrow really only works with multiple speakers(ime), regardless of how neutral it is.

 

[ctrl]

Obviously Amir can't calculate every option however with all due respect who cares what the manual says?

In past loudspeaker measurements, Amir was criticized (rightly, in my opinion) for not following the manufacturer's specifications when choosing the reference axis.
In this case, Amir did it right and followed the manufacturer's instructions.

If after the measurements it turns out that another vertical reference axis could provide a better result, then the manufacturer is to blame if the manual is faulty or sloppy.
It is not the reviewer's job to present a speaker as favorably as possible, the manufacturer should pursue that in their own interest.

It's really a bit much to expect Amir to think before starting the measurement, "reference axis where?...manual says tweeter axis...surely a marketing guy wrote the manual...it's a speaker with a big waveguide...the speaker designer must have tuned the speaker to a reference axis between horn and woofer...yep, okay that's it! Screw the manual!"

 

[JohnBooty]

I have a difficult time believing that the opposite can also be true, ie. measure bad and sound good.

I can think of some examples.

1. Narrow dips in frequency response. They look absolutely wretched on a graph, and are objectively a "bad measurement", but in reality our brains tend to filter these right out.
2. Frequency response shenanigans in the treble region. They also look absolutely bad on a graph. Of course these are not ideal but I believe these matter much less than frequency response abnormalities in the crucial < 1000hz region and particularly the < 500hz region. As an extreme example I would present these BIC monsters. Objectively, these speakers are a complete disaster if you look at their full frequency response. But subjectively they are so much better than the graphs would indicate. I attribute this to the fact that they are actually fairly well-behaved below 1khz and their efficiency and power handling means they

The first one is well-accepted, I think. The second one is probably more controversial.

Bear in mind that I'm not disputing the basic tenets of objective audiophile-dom. All other things being equal, better measurements equals more enjoyable sound. However the exact correlation is definitely a work in progress and some things clearly matter more than others.

 

[Matias]

Yeah the F226Be looks considerably better than this speaker, at least to my eye.

A lot better.
https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/revel-f226be.15283/post-483012

 

[2440]

Obviously Amir can't calculate every option however with all due respect who cares what the manual says?
If we are going to listen to the manual then why measure the frequency responses, that is published there.
If there is a solution that is better than what the manual says then that is awesome. Reality is a marketing department or a technical writer likely wrote the manual, not the engineers (though darn I wish they would)
If in fact this speaker is designed to be angled and that was confirmed, that would be superb news.
Anyway just saying the manual is likely not really qualified to tell folks anything.

Every published spec for the speaker states 32hz, so I was just making a correction. Whether that's marketing BS or engineering fact, I don't know and you probably don't, either. I'll take leave of this forum; life is too short for snark like this.