An audiophile dilemma

To Rfleff: hi, in my opinion the JBL's do nothing seriously wrong. Of course the Soundlab give a sense of height with regard to soundstage because they are quite tall.
In my case, I have tried to mimic some of the characteristics of PA speaker systems, like the JBL's by adding two open baffle woofer towers fitted with three 15 inch woofers/channel.
I use a Marchand crossover to be able to drive the Soundlabs and the woofer towers in full active mode.
And yes, I can now get some of the dynamics of a real PA system, which is obvious when listening to Michael Jackson's Liberian Girl or Smooth Criminal on the Bad CD.
One last remark: nowadays high quality PA systems don't sound aggressive any longer, unlike many of yesteryear's PA systems being used in disco clubs.

Chris

Dayglo, I've noticed the same thing. Some of that has to do with how they're mounted in the studio, and with the very dry acoustics up front. Some I think has to do with the limited dispersion of the typical pro monitor. JBL's may be an exception that last, the Harman research favors good power response, which they found correlates very well with subjective quality.

I may be a little late to contribute my 2c. My main system is a pair of Harbeth SHL5 driven by naim xs2 and various digital sources. In my basement I have the 4 pis: a 2 way pro system based on the JBL 2226H and horn loaded B&C DE250 powered by 38W tube integrated primaluna PL2. The 4Pis are Wayne Parham's design. I tell you the JBL 2226H midrange comes so close the mighty Harbeth's midrange. Listenable at high volumes for so many hours. Not a hint of hardness. The only issue is that the 4pis need subwoofers to give good bass and integrating them is quite difficult (at least in my basement). This is where the Harbeth's have the upper hand. They don't need subs for music. But then I put together this set of JBL based 4pis with quality stereo Eminence subs powered by a Crown XLS amp for half the price of the Harbeth SHL5. I am a big fan of JBL components if chosen and used in properly designed playback system. That being said I haven't heard the LSR or PRX systems and would be definitely interested in someone's experience with these JBL ranges.