Does JBL get a bad rap?

Mattmiller, That's exactly what hi-end dealas tellin' ya at their stores about it. Their job is to make you believe and most do that A+ if not better. When you go through your OWN research it's quite different.
If you listen JBL models with studio mastering equipment, I'm more than sure that if speaker such as you've mentioned HARBETH wouldn't sound good there, than JBLs are INDEED HARBETH killers and that's exactly the reason why studio mastering engineers would pickup JBL instead of boutique Harbeth.
Try 4312, 4311 or newest of 43 series 4319 and you'll realize why... Try L800 tower speaker as well.

I wanted 4311's ....WHEN I WAS THIRTEEN! Back in 1979. I'm not sold on old vintage JBL's, Save your breath for some one worthy. I think they are on a lower plateau than many speakers out there today including my Dynaudios. They don't compare when it comes to placing people with instruments in my listening room. The midrange alone in one of my speakers would blow away the sound of a classic JBL. Having said all this JBL's were some of my favorite speakers when I first started into HIFI some 35 years ago when I was just thirteen. So I am not a JBL hater. I just think its funny how some people will hang on to a $900 pair of speakers and play $8000 worth of electronics thru them....I guess they WOULD sound pretty dam good. (this is my brother, lol)

Wolf_garcia, don't know which JBL monitors you had in your studio but I remember the shitty 70's solid state electronics well it was all boom & tizz. There's no shortage of crappy recordings from the 70's as a reminder of the period and I've come across so many blown studio speakers poorly re-coned that I've lost count.

Mattmiller, as a long time dealer and distributor of ultra high end audio equipment, speakers and tts my specialty, I can guarantee you that nothing I heard made today at any price can match some of the qualities of vintage JBL! I have and had many JBL models from the Hartsfields to the Paragon to several 43xx models, the first Everest and all the way up to the M9500, they're in a class of their own, imo matched and better only by some very rare WE and Klangfilm horns or early Tannoys and Vitavox corner horns.

david

david

Similiar to planar speakers..."they have no bass!"...once a speaker gets a bad reputation, its hard to shake...and the same applies to JBL...ironically they supply most of movie house sound systems....and nobody has complaints with that!...On the budget side...I feel JBL became noticeablely smoother and refined in the 90s era...possibly Harmons deep pockets, the dawn of computer analysis, or both...but this somewhat forgotten era produced some gems...on par or better than highly touted value driven products from psb, paradigm, or even the current best buy Pioneer speakers...FWIW...jbl continued to make speakers in the Usa well into the end of the decade

mattmiller, I do not know if you are aware of the new JBL Everest DD-67000 speakers, research them please, they are considered one of the BEST speakers in the world for home audio, go and listen to them too, you will have a total new out look on JBL, These speakers retail for $75,000.00!