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JBL M2: Home Theatre Geeks interview

TitaniumTroy

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This video is from 2013 so somewhat dated, it also gets pretty geeky/detailed about speaker design. However they didn't get into mathematics so I was able to hang with it. I really liked listening to the part about how they designed the tweeter/wave guide to deliver the good qualities of a ribbon tweeter. Without a ribbons drawbacks like compression at high levels and heat changing the frequency response.

I checked the ID and boarding pass of the designer, on the right in the video (Charles Sprinkle) of the tweeters waveguide when he came through the South Bend Airports Checkpoint. He had on a JBL Synthesis polo shirt and said he could only pass if he gave me a pair of M2's. I was joking around I had no idea he designed the waveguide, a lot of downtown time at my airport so I ask goofy questions like this to entertain myself.

Then he explained that JBL had a new 7 series monitor ($2K a pair) coming out that used the same tweeter and a scaled down woofer of the M2. Hence the reason he was in town, Harman does their accounting out of the nearby town of Elkhart IN, and Crown Electronics is located their also.

A few months ago I bought a pair of JBL LSR308 using same tweeter wave guide technology, ($300 used) studio monitors to compare against my Magnepan 3.6's. So will have to post results once I get them up and running, speakers stands coming tomorrow. I know some people will say your comparing apples vs oranges, but to me that's the point I want to compare the differences in my own acoustically treated room.

I've been wanting to do a project like for a long time and had been waiting for the right speakers, so am not just coping Ray Dunzl. Another fellow planer fan who's trying the same thing.
 

watchnerd

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I don't have Maggies, but I do have Martin Logans. And I don't have the 308s, but I do have the 305s.

I'll be interested to hear what you think.

FWIW, I'm on the fence with the 7-series. Technically, they seem brilliant, but they seem to be more designed for AV and, at least for the P-versions, I fear the fancy DSP EQ is already surpassed by the convolution engine in the latest version of Roon.
 

SPFC

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Very interesting video. Thanks for sharing. Even though some of the material covered went above my head, it was nice to see a loudspeaker presentation focusing on objective facts, science and research.
 

Vladimir

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When Scott bursts into laughter it feels like that disturbing brief moment of soberness during drunk sex with the ex that you hate with all your soul.
Otherwise great interview and info.
Two things got me on board with the new JBL product line, 1) Olive's and Tool's research, 2) firing legendary Greg Timbers in a very humiliating way. I realized Harman is not fu*ing arround.
 

Jinjuku

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firing legendary Greg Timbers in a very humiliating way. I realized Harman is not fu*ing arround.

Why Harman, doing Greg dirty, after 43 years of service and giving them design win after design win, get on board with Harman.

While Harman the umbrella company has done very good things, they've also fucked around with very good staff at almost all the brands. A few ex-Crown and JBL people I have had beers with have quite some stories to tell of the utter stupidity of management and marketing and how that has affected morale.

Greg wasn't the only one let go in such a ****** fashion BTW.
 

Vladimir

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Exactly. I really have nothing to add. It's very poor form to treat someone so iconic like yesterday's trash, and then make 'heritage' videos in your marketing youtube channel. I was pissed off like any JBL or audio guy in general would be.

However, it marks a change in company direction that I actually like. Floyd and Olive's research is revolutionary, the new head designer Charles Sprinkle hits all the right spots, the final product coming from that synergy sounds really good. Big changes with excellent results.

The proof is in the 305 pudding, which Floyd attributed as "disgustingly good".

 

DonH56

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I had a chance to listen to them last Saturday but Life happened and I did not... The local dealer was going to keep a demo pair, plus some Revels, so hopefully this summer. I had planned to finally replace my old Maggies but finances just took a wallop, oh well, still want to audition a few speakers (Revel, Sanders, as well as Magnepan, and thinking about Salk -- probably stay with panels to match the rest of the system).
 
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