New JBL 4349 Speakers

[aac]

I would not call it a lot more, by any means.

4349 vs 4312G sensitivity: 91 db vs 90 dB

The bass is half an octave deeper on the 4349, but that would be moot to me as I'd crossover them over to a subwoofer above that.

I wouldn't call this 'good value for money'.

It certainly is not. It probably competes with speakers like genelec s360 and neumann kh420. Which see around the same price but active, which might be viewed as both advantage or not.
Genelec is crossed at 1.4 kHz and has a 10 inch woofer. This one should be lower.

 

[Valentin R]

I think @dallasjustice sold his 4367, too, if I recall, and went active / M2.

M2 are spectacular

 

[watchnerd]

M2 are spectacular

The ones I heard were quite good, but they have negative WAF in our household.

 

[cistercian]

All humans are not dealers for Harman and have financial motives which is what you said you worried about.

And no, you can't mix me with the general population. I am not situated like you all. I am not protecting a purchase for example. I don't worry how much something costs. I get to play with a new speaker in my system every other day.

I am massively motivated by transparency and providing reliable data to audio scene. You all are not. One wrong move and years of work go out the window together with my reputation which is all I have left in retirement days. In other words, I can't afford to be biased like you all. And despite what you say, I absolutely can control my biases better than most people. It is part of my job, and training. It is
why many of you are here.


It is for a "reason." It is not randomly applied. It is not being used for example to differentiate between a bluetooth speaker and towers.

By your logic we should give a polygraph test to everyone to prove they did not rob a bank....

FWIW I trust you completely. I enjoy your listening tests too! It is obvious to me you are passionate about being transparent
and presenting valid testing data. I am deeply grateful for the resources you provide in this website.

If it were not for this site and the data on it I would never have purchased my RME ADI 2 DAC. This one piece of equipment
has had an absolutely mind blowing impact on my ability to listen to my music and improve my system.

Thank you.

 

[TitaniumTroy]

I was with Amir when they showed the JBL 4367's with the Revel Ultima 2's side by side, at AXPONA. I was asking his opinion on the difference's between the two, his remarks were something along the lines of. The Ultima's would have more detail, sorry if I incorrectly remember that conversation, Amir. As a disclaimer, Amir has to have much better than mine, as do most people.

Amir did not design the speakers, it does not look better than the Ultima's which he owns, he's not a major stockholder in Harmon which also owns Revel. The 4367 or JBL 4349 are not going to be a big seller, retro looks and a low WAF. So I don't see any potential bias, however if you were to write Amir a large enough check I think he could accommodate you.

However, I am very biased, as I bought those JBL 4367's from Audio Solutions out of Indianapolis, IN. Since they were demo's I paid $10k that's including tax. I belive they image much better than the Revel's, dynamics are defiantly better, I really like that 15" woofer too. Though I don't remember how it did against the Ultima 2's in the bass response, maybe it was a toss up?

FYI, my old speakers were Magnepan 3.6's which I need to sell, and I have Mini Mag's with two DWM woofer's as my computer speakers. So no horn speaker bias, an imaging/soundstage bias would be more likely.

Also one more thing, if you are looking for perfection in the audiophile world. Good luck unless you are a Borg, then "resistance is futile".

 

[watchnerd]

However, I am very biased, as I bought those JBL 4367's from Audio Solutions out of Indianapolis, IN. Since they were demo's I paid $10k that's including tax. I belive they image much better than the Revel's, dynamics are defiantly better, I really like that 15" woofer too. Though I don't remember how it did against the Ultima 2's in the bass response, maybe it was a toss up?

FYI, my old speakers were Magnepan 3.6's which I need to sell, and I have Mini Mag's with two DWM woofer's as my computer speakers. So no horn speaker bias, an imaging/soundstage bias would be more likely.

Coming from Maggies, do you find the switch to horns as big of a night and day difference as some say?

What would you say the Maggies do better vs the 4367s, and vice versa?

 

[TitaniumTroy]

Maggies, have a different kind of imaging. As they are dipoles, the soundstage is set farther back like you are in the eleventh row vs row five for conventional monopoles in a concert hall. They are better for acoustical un-amplified instruments, while the True Ribbon tweeter has nearly 180 degree dispersion (that's what Magnepan says) the midrange and mid bass have a more narrow dispersion and a somewhat diffuse sound. Which I feel is more natural, vs say the 4367's more pinpoint sound. Some people say that pinpoint sound is artificial but we like it because we don't have any visual clues in front of us to focus on.

Maggie's main problems is not what they do, it's what they don't do. Higher volume is a problem, dynamics can't match conventional speakers much less horns, bass impact is less (this can be a good thing if you have thin walls like I do in my computer room), low bass requires them to be really big.


Try their new LRS speaker, several month wait time though. However it is a sample of the Maggie sound, for $650.00 dollars. The LRS and the original Quad ESL 57 speaker were the most live sounding speakers I heard at the last AXPONA, Herb Reichart thought so too. In fact I thought they sounded better than my 3.6's in my heavily treated room. Well minus bass and volume, imaging to die for and so clear and pristine sounding. However if you want to rock out, especially at higher volumes with some bass to for classical and amplified music look elsewhere. FYI they love lots of Power, three hundred watts at @8ohms were used at the show, for some small planers.

So overall I would say their is a big difference, unless all you listen to is chamber music at low volumes. I like album soundtracks like Gladiator, Star Wars etc... and classic rock, prog rock, some Stevie Ray Vaughn, Eva Cassidy, Enya, Manheim Steamroller.

Magnepan is working on a dipole woofer module with conventional drivers, I heard it in Chicago this past December. It's a game changer, and scalable too boot. Bass impact, dynamics, volume are all increased by a lot. One problem is what I heard was a prototype, Magnepan is small brand that moves glacial like in speed, so who knows when that comes out. They are considering selling it as a stand alone product to use with other planer's it's that good. However I don't think it could ever compete in ultimate volume with the bass of the 4367's but it would definitely get it closer.

 

[watchnerd]

Maggies, have a different kind of imaging. As they are dipoles, the soundstage is set farther back like you are in the eleventh row vs row five for conventional monopoles in a concert hall. They are better for acoustical un-amplified instruments, while the True Ribbon tweeter has nearly 180 degree dispersion (that's what Magnepan says) the midrange and mid bass have a more narrow dispersion and a somewhat diffuse sound. Which I feel is more natural, vs say the 4367's more pinpoint sound. Some people say that pinpoint sound is artificial but we like it because we don't have any visual clues in front of us to focus on.

Maggie's main problems is not what they do, it's what they don't do. Higher volume is a problem, dynamics can't match conventional speakers much less horns, bass impact is less (this can be a good thing if you have thin walls like I do in my computer room), low bass requires them to be really big.


Try their new LRS speaker, several month wait time though. However it is a sample of the Maggie sound, for $650.00 dollars. The LRS and the original Quad ESL 57 speaker were the most live sounding speakers I heard at the last AXPONA, Herb Reichart thought so too. In fact I thought they sounded better than my 3.6's in my heavily treated room. Well minus bass and volume, imaging to die for and so clear and pristine sounding. However if you want to rock out, especially at higher volumes with some bass to for classical and amplified music look elsewhere. FYI they love lots of Power, three hundred watts at @8ohms were used at the show, for some small planers.

So overall I would say their is a big difference, unless all you listen to is chamber music at low volumes. I like album soundtracks like Gladiator, Star Wars etc... and classic rock, prog rock, some Stevie Ray Vaughn and Robert Cray. Magnepan is working on a dipole woofer module with conventional drivers, I heard it in Chicago this past December. It's a game changer, and scalable too boot. Bass impact, dynamics, volume are all increased by a lot. One problem is what I heard was a prototype, Magnepan is small brand that moves glacial like in speed, so who knows when that comes out.
They are considering selling it as a stand alone product to use with other planer's it's that good. However I don't think it could ever compete in ultimate volume with the bass of the 4367's but it would definitely get it closer.

Thanks.

Your description of Maggie sound is similar to how I would have described my old Martin Logans.

 

[TitaniumTroy]

Thanks.

Your description of Maggie sound is similar to how I would have described my old Martin Logans.

Exactly

 

[preload]

I'd like to see @amirm test those fancy Gaia footers....did you dbt those Gaia thingies?

If you're interested, I posted waterfall plots of a set of isoacoustics footers. Not the gaias but same principle.
https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...tion-isolation-devices-waterfall-plots.14743/

 

[e6zion]

$1k each when they go on B-Stock sale a few times a year. The 705p's go for $500. They've got to do something with the returns I suppose. Never saw a scratch on any of mine.

When and where (which website) are these sales? I've been looking for a bit and never seen one.

 

[watchnerd]

If you're interested, I posted waterfall plots of a set of isoacoustics footers. Not the gaias but same principle.
https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...tion-isolation-devices-waterfall-plots.14743/

Thanks.

I use the regular IsoAcoustics underneath my desktop monitors connected to my DAW.

 

[BDWoody]

When and where (which website) are these sales? I've been looking for a bit and never seen one.

Here is the most recent one I've seen. They tend to get posted on that thread when they come up.

https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...hread-on-audio-product-sales.3118/post-337033

 

[Robh3606]

"

That EQ is mostly for the driver. The waveguide is actually well behaved and it's not to hard to do a passive crossover with. You can use any of the 2450/5X drivers and get a reasonable solution.

 

[lok777]

OK, I will recuse myself. Find someone else to test this speaker then.

Oh, so you are a childish asshole IRL. Cool.

 

[snackiac]

Oh, so you are a childish asshole IRL. Cool.

He's addressed the topic a million times. Patience isn't unlimited.

I think there needs to be a review manifesto page or something here with the "subjective review/sighted test/Harman bias" dead horses addressed. It seems to come up in every review thread, and is beyond pointless. It's all just incessant whining about things that are impractical/impossible to change.

 

[Thomas savage]

Oh, so you are a childish asshole IRL. Cool.

Forum ban issued.

 

[Snoochers]

Were measurements even found for these new speakers?

 

[TitaniumTroy]

Thanks to the Moderator, for banning the member who called Amir an A-Hole. Differing points of view's are one thing but personal attacks and name calling need to go somewhere else. What a FartKnocker

 

[amirm]

Hypothetically speaking.... if I were to get a 4349, what color should I buy? It comes in black and Walnut.