JBL 4367 = Sleep Denervation
I am having a real problem created by the JBL 4367… I can’t stop listening to them. I have been up late (2:00am-3:00am) every night this week and can’t seem to turn them off. I found an extremely good deal on a new pair and bought these blind. They might not even be broken in yet and honestly I am completely blown away. Had/have what I would consider a very good system but nothing too crazy (Revel/Mcintosh/JL, pictures in my profile) and this is a big step change improvement.
The texture in the bass is much better than my JL E112 subs. Enough so that I have lowered the hi-pass frequency to 40hz. The highs are the most delineated I have heard. Where other good speakers shimmer, on the 4367 you hear the actual ride and subtle move of the high hat. I have never heard anything like it. The mids are clear like the Revels but seem to bring a sense of power. Everything just has a real feel to it with amazing texture and tone. There is texture in the bass I have only ever heard on headphones or large super speakers. The soundstage is big and stable, actually extremely stable. I hear no box or driver resonances of any kind.
Best of all even standard recording music sounds good. Old grunge, metal , 60s classics, 80s pop is good, modern computer-generated music, it all sounds good. Average recordings have dynamics that did not seem to be there before and audiophile music just explodes out of the speaker. While audio memory is short and it is impossible to know I would go as far to say this is the best speaker I have heard for my tastes in sound. I am struggling to come up with anything I dislike in the sound (now we could talk about the looks lol, and why is it so short?!?)
This is best system change I have ever made. If you have been curious about this speaker don’t wait and give it a try. If you are looking at more expensive speakers maybe give the JBL 4367 a try first and “save” some money.
I am still really enjoying the JBL 4367. If anything my opinion over the last month has only improved. I think there are two standout sound qualities that are special. #1 they just play so effortlessly. I listen louder than I should, often volumes in the upper 80s/low 90s (peaks at 100ish). No matter the volume there is a sense of ease, zero compression which I think comes off as sounding hard or grating on other speakers I have owned (minus the Revel 228be which also played silly loud). The other standout sound quality is the dynamics. Hard to explain but instruments just sound more real. More snap, with better leading edge impact. Really impressive. You often here the word “live” thrown out and I think that “live” sound is dynamics. Combine those things with an amazing amount of detail too top to bottom and these are a pretty special speaker. I am struggling to come up with anything I don’t like other than they are physically short and I had to make my own stand. At $16k they should have stands available. |
Roxy,
the interesting thing is I don’t feel like I have given up anything compared to a tradition box speaker to get the added benefits. I have almost no horn experience before this (PA systems and Klispch speakers). I never thought I would end up with a large two way horn but… these are going to be long term speakers for me. As my fun money/finances recover I think I will build out my home theater around them (I am 99% two channel). |
@james633 -- Congrats on your JBL 4367’s. I find them to be an impressive design from a relatively compact size factor, and agree that stands should be included. There’s something about the good old "15 inch woofer/mid and a horn" combo that has a timeless appeal as a very versatile, coherent and powerful sounding system. Perhaps a core element of this is the crossover region of these designs typically placed somewhere between 500-800Hz, and what it offers with a point source above in a large frequency span as well as an untarnished "power region" (say, 150-400Hz) below via a large coned driver where no crossover point is placed. Having a large radiation area here lends a fullness and vitality to this region that smaller woofers and midrange drivers (and often in multi-way designs with a XO point in the power region) simply cannot replicate. I agree with poster @mijostyn’s good advice on high-passing your JBL’s for subs augmentation, though do it right - i.e.: also be mindful of the type of subs chosen, but as an outset you have a pair of JL Audio subs to experiment with, so see what you can harness it all into, and whether it coheres fittingly into a whole. Ultimately I’d go higher efficiency sub designs like the ones meant to be paired with the M2’s, as I suspect they’ll blend more seamlessly with type of woofer used in your 4367’s. This is not trivial, as I have tried out different constellations of higher eff. mains with lower eff. subs, and personally I find they just don’t mesh properly - for a variety of reasons. As it is they’re still very capable used full-range (the only way I’ve heard them), and given their moderately high sensitivity and large air radiation area the doppler phase shift phenomena mayn’t be as pronounced here. Certainly using dual high eff. 15" woofers up to ~600Hz per channel in the main speakers (like I do), full-range, they have to be spanked pretty hard for the cones to move visibly, and when high-passed at ~85Hz to high eff. subs there’s zilch movement even at war volume levels. |
