JBL 4344 Speaker Review

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. It is very similar to the 4345 series, except that the grave is a 38cm, not a 46 cm. The speaker is a 4-way bass-reflex speaker with 8 Ohm Impedance. It has a weight of 96 kg (some sources state 104 kg) and a respectable size of 63,5cm x 105,1 cm x 43,5 cm.

The very popular JBL 4344 MKII, introduced in 1996, became the updated version of the 4344. Interest in the original 4344 was highest in Japan and still is. You can find many articles on this speaker in Japanese and if you are not fluent in Japanese, Google translate is luckily able to translate well enough to understand much of the content. Interestingly, the speaker was mostly used in the household market in Japan and failed to achieve a mainstream positioning in the intended professional market. Accurate information on this speaker is difficult to find, but the links below provide a selection of usable information