Vintage JBL Speaker

The Hartsfield has to be credited with establishing JBL's reputation as builders of the finest loudspeaker available. This is not hyperbole. In a 1955 article on the hi-fi industry, Life magazine called the Hartsfield "the ultimate dream speaker". High Fidelity magazine stated in another 1955 article, "of all of the Klipsch derived family, one speaker, in my estimation, is noticeably superior - the Lansing...

No other loudspeaker developed by JBL has the mystique or desirability of the D44000 Paragon. It was a landmark product, based on a unique design principle, that remained in production longer than any other speaker system from JBL. It was introduced in 1957 and continued in JBL's line-up until 1983.   Richard Ranger Article Courtesy of George Augspurger The Paragon is a stereo speaker system...

As a result of his work in developing JBL's first bookshelf system, Wolf was asked to take a look at a prototype Paragon. Some time before, Col. Richard Ranger, a pioneering innovator in motion picture sound technology, approached JBL with his unique design for a stereophonic reproducer in which both channels were housed in a single enclosure. The most unusual element of the acoustical...

The initial JBL connection was the result of a chance encounter at an audio trade show. William Thomas, president and owner of JBL, and his marketing vice president Ray Pepe, were in attendance at a show where Sargent-Rayment had an exhibit. They noted the design qualities of the this exhibit and of the equipment itself. They asked Mr. Rayment who was responsible and then...

The 4430 and 4435 Bi-Radial Studio Monitors were amongst the most successful professional loudspeakers ever produced by JBL. They were in production longer than any other JBL main studio monitor, being introduced in 1981 and not discontinued until 1996 for the 4435 and 1999 for the 4430. David Smith was the engineer responsible for the system design of these monitors. The following is his...

The JBL 4344, a professional speaker developed during JBL´s shift from its 4-way to an “augmented 2-way concept” age. The speaker was on the market for a fairly short time (being part of the older 4-way concept), starting in 1982 and ending in 1983. Detailed reviews of this speaker are rare, as they it was typically not sold to consumers, but for professional settings....