The OFFICIAL JBL Owners Thread - Page 455

I plan to move one pair out this weekend, and it's going to be...

Is he taking them back?

I'm just glad these things are so beyond my budget that they're not tempting.

I hear ya.

Oh no, they're 100% mine. I just phrased that poorly.

I plan to move one pair out to another room this weekend. Sorry about that.

At this point I'd keep the Timbers Arrays there, but Huikyong likes the looks of the K2s and not the Arrays. FWIW, the Arrays are clearly superior in everything but appearance.
Edited by filecat13 - 2/22/13 at 10:08am

Filecat
What are the LF drivers in the arrays?

There are actually four of these units.

The two fronts have the larger H4338 HF horns turned vertically with the UHF horn added to the top edge. The two rears have the standard Array horn with the built in UHF horn at the top.

The fronts sport 045Be, 476Be, and 1200Fe drivers. The rears are 045Be, 435Be, and 1200Fe loaded.

The 12" woofers (1200Fe) are remarkably good down to 35 Hz. However, I've got them crossed over at 50 Hz to JBL Synthesis S2S subs, and the bass integration is out of this world. Nonetheless, I'd like to dig deeper, so I'll need to build or buy subs that can hit 20 Hz and below. That means a better driver than the S2S's 136HS.
Edited by filecat13 - 2/22/13 at 5:14pm

I have a question for you guys, I currently have 2 Northridge E90's for LR and am considering changing them out with 2 L890's. I know I have to audition them but that is becoming more and more difficult these days and am seeking opinions before heading out. Do you think the L890's would be a big improvement over the E90's? I find the E90's to be a bit on the muddy side at low volume and depending on the material way to bright at high volume.

There is most certainly a difference on the HF. The L890 has 1" pure Ti dome, the E90 has 3/4" Ti-laminate.
And according to specs, the L890 go lower. I never found the L890 to be muddy.

How about on the high end because the E90's can down right hurt at high volumes, these are being driven by an Onkyo 818. If I decide on the L890's I will also get the matching LC2.

That is the difference between the Ti-laminate domes and the pure Ti domes. I've never found the Ti domes on the L890 or PT800 to be harsh.
Then there is something to be said about high volume. As is it too high, causing distortion?
Also, anytime I have heard JBLs driven by Onkyo, I never thought it was good.

I am currently running a pair of L890s and a LC2 off of an Onkyo TX-SR608 AVR. You will Not be disappointed. I have never found the low end of the 890s to be muddy. They often make me wonder why I even own a sub .
The LC2 and the L890s are a match made in heaven. I cannot comment on the E90s since I have never heard them. I currently am also anxiously awaiting a pair of L810s I have on back-order at B&H , to complete my speaker set.
The highs and mids on the L890s are crisp and crystal clear. Do yourself a favor, get the L890s and the LC2 and dont look back . You wont regret it.

Serious Drooling! going on over here!

Very nice set up!

Thanks, I'll try to get out this weekend to audition them.

The grill cloth on the L series looks light gray through IR Night Vision goggles but the S38IIs keep their deep black color.

You are right about the bass of the L890...Back when I was veneering and staining my subs, L212s I was using the L890s in a very large room w/o a sub and the Parasound HCA2205A was getting it all from the L890s down to 28 htz. Only missing that last octave.
Give the L890s some real power, like the 2205A was, and the L890s put out bass as if they had a 12" driver.

Feel it on your chest bass!

On sunday, ajl1 drove over to get a gander and a listen to the Timbers Arrays. It was very interesting (and affirming) to hear his reactions initially and after a little extended listening.

We started out with the K2s, then listened to the same song through the same system through the Arrays. We purposely avoided any subjective conversation until after he heard both. His chosen music was a very challenging recording with a lot of grit in the LF and some dense percussion/vocal tracking. It was a brilliant choice, IMO, and showed the distinctions between the two speakers pretty well.

In fact, the difference was enough to put both of us in a kind of wada-wada-wada-boing! mindset, because the song was new to me and the sound from the Arrays was new to him.

Anyway, after some extended listening to more music both familiar and unfamiliar, I think the acclimation process realigned our ears, and we just wanted to keep on listening to the Arrays. I mean, practically a whole Ryan Adams disc nonstop. (I've only heard Ryan Adam a couple of times on the radio, sorta "Ho hum,", but was immediately mesmerized by his music through the Arrays.)

Maybe ajl1 will chime in so I don't put words in his mouth.

Full disclosure, I pretty much forgot about the Arrays when we went for a drive in his uber-cool Corvette. Yowza! It's hard to know how to rank these: A couple of open-top Gs in a black leather seat, some fantastic music on an amazing Array sound system, some English chips and Chicago beer in a British pub, or sex. (Um, we didn't do that last part; that was after he left.)

Are the woofers in the Arrays sealed?

I'm going to be finishing up my basement theater room this summer, and am looking at starting to buy some good speakers. It will be a slow process, But I already have JBL's all over the house (SPC8's and SPC6's in the ceiling for whole house, with a HTI8 I think, in wall sub) and some old JBL THX surrounds in current use in the basement. I'm looking at about $500 for a pair of speakers (L and R) for mostly movie use. I am planning on putting them in a cut out area in the wall so they can't be too big. They will be getting about 100 watts to begin with, would like to add a amp later, but would probably be onto a better set for fronts by then. Thinking I am looking for something nice for fronts that will work good for surrounds later. So a line that matches others maybe (sound wise). I'm not against used for the right pair.

Have also been considering some of the LSR units, where I don't have to worry about powering the speakers with an amp. Does anyone know how these work for Home theater use?

No, they're rear ported.

Whatever you use, you'll not be able* to put anything in your "cut out area in the wall" that's rear ported. The LSRs have a big rear port, so they're not a likely candidate.


*Okay, you're actually "able" to do this, but it's not a smart idea.

Rear ported or not, unless a speaker has been designed for in-wall use, it never a good idea to place speakers into a wall cut out. Better to buy on-wall speakers and mount out on the main wall. Or buy in-walls and make up a pair of baffles to mount the speakers to with the baffle flush with those openings.

Thanks for the quick replies. I may have been a little too vague in the "wall cut out" area. I'll be making columns at the speaker locations and using a shelf 1/2 way up to support the speaker, then surrounding the speaker on 3 sides by panels with fabric covers that don't interfere with the sound, to finish the column height. And then again, I am early in the design, so if something else is worth doing for the speakers, I can do that. Are the LSR's a good choice, or should I go with a more standard HT speaker? (assuming installed correctly)

Thanks.

(and filecat13, I envy your speakers!)

First, consider myself extremely fortunate to be "serial #2 guest" to hear a one of a kind personal prototype of a true legend in speaker design. Thinking that this is the chief designer of JBL's Project sets over the years that sell for 20-60K per pair, and in his personal time outside of work made these for himself to escape all the "marketing dept constraints", these could literally be the best horn speaker ever made...let the weight of that sink in a little!!!!

I brought what for me where a couple of not only my favorite CDs, but also heavy in the vocal, acoustic guitar, & snare drum implements that make music come to life... for me. This is epitomized by my current favorite disc Ryan "don't call me Brian" Adams' --Ashes and Fire. It's the kind of well recorded instrumentals that let a great speaker show why it's great. I'm the proud owner of Performance Series towers, and L7s, but neither could touch the K2 on music like this. But what I didn't really expect is that the cobbled together set complete with exposed filter networks set atop the speakers could improve upon a 44K retail set in the K2.....but they did exactly that, even to my untrained ears. The downside of an experience like this, similar to my Everest 2 audition, is that you have a reduced enjoyment of your favorite music at home due to focus on "what it could sound like on the Everest" or in my case now, the Timbers Arrays.....dammit

Well, don't want to drag this post out too far but the dynamic realism of all four musical attributes was just too much. I immediately played the disc en route home on the Blose system Chevy unfortunately chose for my automobile....disgusting.....and once home popped it into the PS Stacks. Really good, but I know it's a disc, whereas as the TA's the image is dead center, the soundstage is full room, and the impact of every string pluck, belted vocal, snare drum pop is as close to real as I think a set of electronics can generate.

anyway, add that experience to a sans-targa-top Vette cruise through San Pedro on a 65F sunny day in February, and genuine pub grub along with a beer from my hometown, not too shabby for an impromptu afternoon in SoCal Thank you filecat!!


Edited by ajl1 - 2/26/13 at 8:46pm

Indeed a fine afternoon!
I spent my afternoon enjoying the sounds of an MRI machine, ha ha. Just laid back and tried to imagine being in a Jules Verne SciFi movie.

Filecat, will there be a "kit DIY" version of the TAs? Ha ha, Just kidding and wishing.

I'm still trying to figure out what GT was thinking! Selling off those custom-one of a kind speakers. I would not have.
I know Greg now has a pair (or is two) of Everest II. But as his Arrays are what he always wanted to build (vertical horns)

On a lessor scale, quality wise, I've turned down offers to sell my custom 212. Not going to happen, as I consider them better than my PT800s. So I certainly would not sell those Arrays if I had them.

I checked out the L890's today, I couldn't believe the bass these speakers produce, I was searching the entire area to see if the salesman included a sub for the demo (I asked him not to enable any subs) and couldn't find any on. The mids and highs were nice and crisp without being harsh, I think I'm going to scoop them up this weekend then order the LC2. There is a big difference between the E90 and L890, I guess there is going to be a set of E90's and 1 EC35 for sale soon.

You and I are end users. Sure, we may tinker with stuff, but we're not creators of great loudspeakers. When we buy something really good, we want to keep it, at least until there is something better available because we can't really do more than tweak what we've got.

A creator on the other hand has to move out the old to create the new. Even being very fond of the thing created, it has to make room so a new creation can begin.

It would be a sad day for all of us, including the creator, if one day the thought came, "This is good enough. There's nothing left for me to do."

Good for you. It's a nice step up, one that you will not regret. Be sure to give us a picture or two for our vicarious appreciation.