Stereophile reviews the JBL 4367, finally

[TitaniumTroy]

JBL 4367 Studio Monitor loudspeaker | Stereophile.com

One day in the mid-1990s, my friend J and I sat sprawled on the carpeted floor of a hi-fi shop in lower Manhattan, playing records. J, who was employed there as a salesperson, had dimmed the lights and locked the door of the listening room behind us to make sure we wouldn't be disturbed by...

www.stereophile.com

Since these are my current main speakers since 2016, I have been waiting for this review it seems like forever. I am curios why now, maybe Amir or someone can use their contacts at Harmon to find out.

 

[Steve Dallas]

Have you seen this?

JBL 4367 review by Erin

Written review https://www.erinsaudiocorner.com/loudspeakers/jbl_4367/

www.audiosciencereview.com

 

[TitaniumTroy]

Cool, I have not seen that. I have seen a few other reviews but I always wanted to see it in Stereophile. HiFi Review did one last year, thanks for the post. Do you still have your JBL M2's?

 

[mhardy6647]

From the Stereophile review

...Above those ports and the woofers—which feature "Aquaplas-treated Pure Pulp cones," dual voice-coils, and neodymium magnets—there's a horn (JBL calls it a waveguide)...

After all of the abstruse and esoteric discussion of horns vs. waveguides that I've pored through (here and elsewhere), now I understand. Per no less of an authority than Stereophile, it's a waveguide because "JBL calls it" one.

I knew it!



In all seriousness, I am enjoying the review so far -- just had to take a snark-break to report the above.
I lived with a pair of "A" series Valencias for quite a while (and for which I paid "real money"... at least by my standards). I did have two quibbles with the Valencia -- a lack of high treble (which, nowadays, I might not even be able to hear) and low bass. The stuff in between they do vividly well. That Altec/VOT "Technicolor" sound (rather literally, actually, if you think about the proliferation of VOTs in movie theaters for decades).


(oh, that 416 woofer is so beautiful)

Still a big fan of the Altec sound... but I get at it in a somewhat apostatic (is that a word? If not, it should be!) way.


More to come on this review, I'm sure...

EDIT: Jeepers, I just read the words pellucid transparency in that Stereophile review. I wonder if the author knows how redundant that phrase is? (EDIT^2 OK, maybe he's playing off the musical definition of pellucid -- but it's still kind of skeevy, if'n you ask me).

 

[DSJR]

Just get the sodding things OFF the floor and sensible distance from walls and enjoy the music coming out of them. Their smaller sibling 4349 set up similarly with ear between the two drivers should also be great for those of us still into separate power amps and smaller rooms too

 

[mhardy6647]

By the way, Art and Alex are hardly the only Altec admirers among Stereophile contributors. Stereophile founder J. Gordon Holt was also a fan; read his short 1966 description of the Altec A7 "Voice of the Theater" speakers, which he placed on the first Recommended Components list in Vol.1 No.12. Many years ago, when they were still sold new and on Stereophile's Recommended Components list, even Kal Rubinson owned a pair.– Jim Austin

I knew I liked that @Kal Rubinson guy!

Just get the sodding things OFF the floor and sensible distance from walls and enjoy the music coming out of them. Their smaller sibling 4349 set up similarly with ear between the two drivers should also be great for those of us still into separate power amps and smaller rooms too

PS Do "we" know quantitativelly how getting these big two ways (the Valencias & the titular JBLs) off the floor cures things like steely treble?
Is this a tweeter axis thingy?

 

[Steve Dallas]

I knew I liked that @Kal Rubinson guy!





PS Do "we" know quantitativelly how getting these big two ways (the Valencias & the titular JBLs) off the floor cures things like steely treble?
Is this a tweeter axis thingy?

"Steely treble" is always caused by metal dome tweeters. Everyone knows that!

 

[blueone]

JBL 4367 Studio Monitor loudspeaker | Stereophile.com

One day in the mid-1990s, my friend J and I sat sprawled on the carpeted floor of a hi-fi shop in lower Manhattan, playing records. J, who was employed there as a salesperson, had dimmed the lights and locked the door of the listening room behind us to make sure we wouldn't be disturbed by...

www.stereophile.com

Since these are my current main speakers since 2016, I have been waiting for this review it seems like forever. I am curios why now, maybe Amir or someone can use their contacts at Harmon to find out.

This is a very curious quote from the review:

Listening
My first three weeks of listening to the JBLs were pretty miserable. They sounded rhythmically disjointed, grayish, soft, bass shy, and so incapable of creating a soundstage that I at first thought I had connected them out of phase. This confused me, because the Harman rep had informed me that these were demo units, presumably with many hours of use. Yet, after about 200 hours of play, the 4367s had improved dramatically, and after 300 they began to sound great. I later learned that the pair I received had only a few hours on them. Mystery solved.

Since most of the spectrum is coming from the compression driver (the crossover frequency is 700Hz), it is odd that a driver would have such an audible and long break-in period. And no mention of this anomalous break-in effect from Erin in his review. I'm smelling bullshit.

 

[pma]

Ear burn-in.

 

[beefkabob]

His cheeks are burning with embarassment? The subjective parts of reviews are...

 

[Vacceo]

"Steely treble" is always caused by metal dome tweeters. Everyone knows that!

Isn't "steely treble" what every Judas Priest record contains on their higher frequencies?

 

[hvbias]

I'm wondering why do you need to read a review for a product you already own? If it's for the measurements Erin put some up a few weeks ago that are far higher resolution/more revealing than anything Stereophile publishes.

 

[Steve Dallas]

Isn't "steely treble" what every Judas Priest record contains on their higher frequencies?

Good point. He could have also been listening to Cousin Dupree on repeat for 300 hours. That would sound pretty Steely.

 

[formula 977]

I'm smelling bullshit.

From the review:

“One day in the mid-1990s, my friend J and I sat sprawled on the carpeted floor of a hi-fi shop in lower Manhattan, playing records. J, who was employed there as a salesperson, had dimmed the lights and locked the door of the listening room behind us to make sure we wouldn't be disturbed by actual customers. Earlier, he had lugged in a pair of homemade speakers that an elderly woman brought to the store, hoping to sell some of her late husband's gear. The cabinets were made of thin, unfinished plywood and resembled floor fans. Mounted at the center of each box was a late-1960s 10" Tannoy dual-concentric driver. We knew these must sound as chintzy as they looked and set them down carelessly on the carpet a few feet in front of us before hunkering down to listen to Dark Side of the Moon.”

'Once upon a time' in the mid-1990s would be a more appropriate beginning to this fiction.
I suspect the author embellished an actual incident from his past, other than a retelling of the tender moment when “J, (no names please) had dimmed the lights and locked the door of the listening room behind us to make sure we wouldn't be disturbed by actual customers.”

Elderly woman, late husband, homemade, unfinished plywood as a trade-in? And Dark Side of the Moon for good measure because PF pushes more buttons than The Beastie Boys which is what they would have been listening to in the mid-1990s if the story were true.

Stereophile tries too hard.

 

[Vacceo]

Those speakers were so bright that made Emperor sound like Twisted Sister.

That'd be a narrative I'd rather read.

 

[sheeple]

I read it because I love language, metaphors, words and formulations. I rarely read novels because I am occupied with philosophy and theory. This sort of reviews is where I can relax, pure fiction. Recreational, in a way.

 

[Cote Dazur]

I'm wondering why do you need to read a review for a product you already own?

My thought exactly as I was reading the OP. Plus a review from stereophile! @TitaniumTroy, you should be writing the review, you are living with those speakers. Not that it would be of any interest to any one, since we would listen to them with a different room, placement, ancillary, etc..., but no less valid than some guy at Stereophile who still believe in speaker, or anything else, break in. Hilarious.

 

[ahofer]

“Compared to the Pass and Levinson, the Ayre subtly shifted my attention from the sound of Ocean's voice to the meaning of his words.”

 

[hardisj]

I thought it was crazy - in the most coincidental way - that I reviewed these speakers and then Stereophile released their review a couple weeks later. What are the odds of that. The speakers came out around 2016, IIRC. You'd almost think that Stereophile and I joined forces or that JBL just released these. Like I said, crazy coincidence.

 

[mhardy6647]

“Compared to the Pass and Levinson, the Ayre subtly shifted my attention from the sound of Ocean's voice to the meaning of his words.”

A James Thurber/New Yorker classic