Modern, sophisticated, spouse friendly...Erk! 🫤

18 minutes ago, Satanica said:

Modern, sophisticated, spouse friendly...Erk! 🫤

You don’t like any of those things?

12 minutes ago, Grizaudio said:

You don’t like any of those things?

Not in any of the examples shown so far except maybe the dark wood veneered sides. But that would be such a relatively subtle change that questions why bother. Just my subjective opinion so go for whatever you like. Anyway, I'm interested on how they turn out. 👍

4 minutes ago, Satanica said:

Not in any of the examples shown so far except maybe the dark wood veneered sides. But that would be such a relatively subtle change that questions why bother. Just my subjective opinion so go for whatever you like. Anyway, I'm interested on how they turn out. 👍

It all depends on what type of design asthetic one perfers.

I feel the first examples would appeal more to a younger, design focused individual, while the older brigade would feel more at home with something a bit more traditional, like the veneer sides example. I personally don't like a dark timber look, its pretty old skool, but I don't mind the light oak look.

Either way, I only need to keep myself and my wife happy.

Its important to consider the size of these speakers. At 508 × 1256 × 355.6 mm they are pretty massive by modern speaker standards.

With that kind of size, even veneering just the sides, top, and rear would massively change how they look and impact my space.

A trendy veneer style option perhaps for your JBL M2 make over.

Like the lighter shades to mate with minimalist modern decors.

Just a thought , won’t be an easy decision , plus entrusting a tradie to pull it off flawlessly.

Just thought I’d share my latest worthwhile build.

I picked up a pair of 4435s from a local studio here in Brisbane about a year ago. They were missing the grilles and the L-pads were blown, but overall the condition was excellent. Because they had been mounted high up in the studio they avoided most of the typical wear you see on floor-standing speakers in that environment. Aside from a couple of holes drilled into the rear panel which were filled and painted - the veneer is basically mint.

I decided pretty quickly these were going to be keepers, so I went a bit further with them. On the cosmetic side they received new grilles, french-polished cabinets, repainted front and rear baffles, and all the visible screws and mounting clamps were replaced. They genuinely look brand new now.

The interesting part though is the driver change. These have been converted to run TAD 2001 compression drivers in place of the original JBL units, with the crossover reworked accordingly so everything integrates properly. The result is easily the best vintage JBL system I’ve assembled. The TAD drivers are exactly what I hoped they would be - incredibly smooth, transparent and completely free of that grain/brashness some of the older JBL compression drivers can have. Another long-time JBL owner came over for a listen and was just as surprised as I was. They’re the sort of speakers that make you want to keep playing record after record across all genres without any listening fatigue.

Going in I expected bass performance somewhat similar to the 4350s, but they don’t quite have that same visceral wallop the 4350 delivers. What they do instead is image far better, throwing a huge, wide and layered soundstage. The bass is still plentiful, just more controlled and never bloated. It’s actually a very different presentation of the 223x woofers compared with most of the 43xx monitors.

Like any speaker though, they’re not perfect and I’m always skeptical when people claim their speakers are. My criticisms are fairly minor and fall into three areas. First, the vertical image isn’t as strong as the horizontal one. The stage spreads incredibly wide but rarely extends more than a foot or two above the cabinet, which could well be a room or placement issue. Second, the lowest octave is a little lighter than I expected. I wasn’t expecting the sort of subterranean extension the 250TIs can produce when set up right, but I did think they might reach slightly deeper below about 35 Hz. Lastly, while the speakers are very dynamic overall, they don’t quite have the same explosive “whip crack” transient attack you get from the big four-way JBL systems - rim shots are a little softer rather than that outright gunshot snap the 4-ways deliver.

Even with those minor points, they’ve turned out to be a fantastic build and easily one of the most enjoyable vintage JBL systems I’ve had in the room.

P.S. The modern JBLs suck and TAD compression drivers are better than you think.

Edited Saturday at 04:52 AM2 days by kelossus

Lucky score 🤟 especially with lovely 🥰 TAD comp drivers to tame the beast.

Lower bass be a touch shy being in a shallower cabinet as opposed to the deeper 4350s.

To my ears , the Imaging deficiencies stems from the Buttcheeks Horn. As you mentioned their strength reside in excess width. I have tried this horn in many setups and just never satisfied , however better with slot horizontal and at ear position. Then The Approx 30 degree horizontal dispersion and 70 degree vertical will aid imaging and avoid early sidewall reflections.

I am about to turn my larger 2360 upside down as high frequencies above 6khz suffer in its standard vertical slot configuration , be easy for you to try out via side placement of 4335 to see if better Imaging come out.

All Good fun V

20 hours ago, La scala said:

Lucky score 🤟 especially with lovely 🥰 TAD comp drivers to tame the beast.

Lower bass be a touch shy being in a shallower cabinet as opposed to the deeper 4350s.

To my ears , the Imaging deficiencies stems from the Buttcheeks Horn. As you mentioned their strength reside in excess width. I have tried this horn in many setups and just never satisfied , however better with slot horizontal and at ear position. Then The Approx 30 degree horizontal dispersion and 70 degree vertical will aid imaging and avoid early sidewall reflections.

I am about to turn my larger 2360 upside down as high frequencies above 6khz suffer in its standard vertical slot configuration , be easy for you to try out via side placement of 4335 to see if better Imaging come out.

All Good fun V

That all makes sense mate. The mini Everest horn in the S3100/S2600 offer the best in-room response I've heard thus far - it nearly throws a vertical soundstage like the Duntech Sovereigns however it drops off slightly to the extreme left and right of the speakers. The Duntechs are like going to the IMAX.

If I had the nouse for it I'd build a pair of Kinoshita style monitors based on the S3100 everest horn with a pair of LE14H-3s.