JBL S4700s

Dave,

How is your experience now? I used to have L100t and liked the bass very much. Now I am deciding between 4700 and BW 802Diamonds 2. BW seems to be lacking in bass and also is very bright, that';s why I am leaning towards JBL again. Please share your thoughts.

Very good actually. The mids and highs have opened up and the bass is strong. There's much more meat on the bone as well. Still a bit dry and flat though. It's not hitting hard enough for my tastes. But that's probably due to the Bryston stuff. Yeah, that's a tough decision. Both speakers are the same price and offer great performance. I'd say the JBL wins out on bass and overall dynamics. And the B&W might win out in the upper octaves with that diamond tweeter. Perhaps too extended, which is why you feel they are bright I suppose. Anyway, the JBL is a neutral speaker to me. It can sound bright with bright electronics and recordings, so careful system matching is important here. Also, it will sound thin and flat right out of the box as I said in the initial review. In addition, I recommend setting these up close to the back wall and well away from the side walls. Finally, good luck with the auditioning, and I hope you find the best speaker for you. If you do go with the S4700s, you did well, imo. Again, just remember, you have to be patient with these beasts.

Here's the latest; the speakers have finally opened up more in the mids and highs and sound less restrained than ever before. What this means is they're finally sounding very good depending on the recording. However, little bit bare bones and lean though; not quite meaty enough. Hopefully the new amp will rectify this situation!

Hi Dave, I am a big JBL fan, tho have not heard the S4700s. Those are REALLY nice speakers!! Would you possibly reconsider tube amplification? That would be the way I would absotively-posilutely go:) I am suprised that more members have not given recommendations.

Cool! Thanks! Yeah, again, I'm finally hearing the virtues of these. They just need a long, long time to break in. Anybody who doesn't believe in break in time with these speakers are kidding themselves! There are other reports of long break in time on other high end JBLs as well. So you have to be very, very patient with them. Not really interested in tubes to be honest. I tried them recently from a friend and I didn't like what I heard. Maybe it was the wrong tube amp. I'm going for high Class A biased Class A/B solid state. It's either between Parasound JC1 or Pass Labs X350.5 at the moment. I'm in that price range. I was going to go with Accuphase, but I have put that on hold for now. It's just too expensive really!