JBL 4312M II 3-way Studio Monitor Review

[617]

One of my many fringe audio theories is that the reason why the live sound of an electric guitar is so alive and appealing is that it is incredibly chaotic, with cone breakup and interactions with other woofers and partial dipolar radiation creating a stew of chaos which lends to the expressiveness of the instrument. These JBL speakers are basically guitar speakers in a sense, with 90% of the audible range being reproduced by a very dynamic undamped paper cone woofer that only goes down to 80hz or so.

 

[Adamant11746]

This is bad enough that I posted a link to the review in the Worst Measuring Loudspeakers thread. It might not be the absolute worst, but it looks close! I'm surprised JBL, with all their resources and several good speakers, put out something so poorly designed this recently.

 

[617]

The JBL product I really want to see reviewed is the LSR6332, a powerful, modern, passive 3 way monitor.

 

[GXAlan]

4312 too
It is truly awful.
Below is a nearfield measurement of 4312mkii woofer. I guess, JBL did nothing to try to smooth that breakup
View attachment 341002

I am really curious about the 4312E since it uses a low TCR, differential drive 12” woofer that is basically a 12” version of the JBL M2 woofer. It also runs full range!

 

[DanielT]

View attachment 341008

The JBL product I really want to see reviewed is the LSR6332, a powerful, modern, passive 3 way monitor.

It seems good.

JBL Pro Studio - Spinorama data

Objective loudspeaker measurement data - how to find it, how to interpret it, how to choose speakers based on the data.

speakerdata2034.blogspot.com

 

[Robbo99999]

View attachment 341008

The JBL product I really want to see reviewed is the LSR6332, a powerful, modern, passive 3 way monitor.

And those are exceedingly impressive distortion measurements if they hold out to be true!

 

[JohnBooty]

It doesn't sound nearly as broken as you would imagine. Why? Because the response is actually pretty good up to 1 kHz. A lot of music spectrum that is important is carried in that region.

I had the exact same experience and conclusion when measuring my big ugly BIC EV-15s, which I think I would say actually measure better than these JBLs as they don't start to really misbehave until closer to 2khz.

BIC EV-15 Eviction Measurements

After many years, I finally took some fairly detailed measurements of the BIC EV-15, following @Dennis Murphy's measurements that showed them to be a bit of a trainwreck. Here’s my makeshift outdoor measurement rig: https://www.dropbox.com/s/oo5r2fcbhmfvyws/BIC-Measurement-Rig.jpeg?dl=0 I have...

www.audiosciencereview.com

It was a bit of a revelation to me and a good educational experience for a relative newcomer like me. Don't get me wrong, the BICs are not "good." But they're not really offensive either as their graphs might imply. All in all that measurement experience gave me a better feel for how to correlate measurements to actual listening experiences.

 

[enricoclaudio]

I would call this review: How to properly waste Klippel NFS and @amirm time.

However, thanks @amirm for another revealing review. Hopping the next one gets the Golfing Panther

 

[Great Sun Jester]

"At that 86 dBSPL, I could hear the speaker squealing." Squealing like a stuck pig, you would think that you either received a defective speaker or Danny has a side job at JBL.

 

[tomtoo]

Hehe that FR looks like a slime mold on acid.

 

[dukanvadet]

I always though these old jbls that looks like a box with randomly choosen dimensions and drivers put wherever they fit seemed like odd designs. Recreating them after all the research harman done now just seems silly.

 

[testp]

well alright, not half bad, not half bad indeed, but the other half is bad > 1kHz

 

[Haskil]

We never had these in the UK until possibly the 90's... I'm going back to the 1970's L100/4311 and IMF/Spendor era of UK 'high end' speakers...

The great glory days of Cabasse and Elipson were the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s. The 1990s were the end of the great Elipson, a brand which still exists but no longer has anything to do with it. Cabasse is still there and develops very impressive concentric HP: three ways!
Cabasse and Elipson speakers were far ahead technically at Spendor and even Celestion, two brands nevertheless appreciated in France, especially the latter in the 1970s and in the hi-fi field... The 4311 JBL was widespread in studios of variety music: I have a pair of 4311s which pale in comparison to the three-way Cabasse or Elipson from the same era which reigned in the ORTF and Radio France studios and among high-fidelity enthusiasts. And also on an aesthetic level: the Elipson models in molded staff were also famous for their incredible aesthetic... and their impressive sound quality...

 

[Thomas_A]

Candidate for the worst speaker tested so far?

 

[GXAlan]

Candidate for the worst speaker tested so far?

I think so. It’s extra worse when you know that theoretically all JBLs would have been tested anechoically and in blind testing. It’s one thing when a design by ear measures bad and another thing when a company with engineering knowledge puts this out.

 

[Toni Mas]

I think so. It’s extra worse when you know that theoretically all JBLs would have been tested anechoically and in blind testing. It’s one thing when a design by ear measures bad and another thing when a company with engineering knowledge puts this out.

Yes but this one is not really about knowledge, rather strictly about vintage...

 

[DMill]

Talk about a brand that could be the next great retro thing. JBL… so much heritage and innovation. It actually makes me a bit sad.

 

[thunderchicken]

I believe these were meant to be used on their sides with the tweeter up and to the inside. Amir deduced that just from the measurements. The man knows his stuff

I wonder if some internal bracing and a better crossover would fix the response. Do the crossover points seem absurdly high to anyone else? 7 kHz to 12 kHz is squarely treble, not midrange. I imagine that the tweeter is capable of crossing over closer to 3 kHz if not lower, and the mid running from 500 hz up to wherever the tweeter should really be. As they sit, I would pay $70 for the pair to experiment with. Crazy that they go for $1000.

 

[Ra1zel]

What the... you would think that these are quite literally broken, but it's by design here.

"Studio monitor" lmao

I pray no one will have a bright idea of mixing with them.

 

[dfuller]

What on earth is happening here? There's no way this is intentional.

@amirm did you by chance grab a picture of the crossover?