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JBL 4367 shoutiness remedies?

Hello all, I am a first time post-er, so pardon me if I am clumsy with this venue. 
I live in a small town on an island in SE Alaska, and do not have immediate access to anywhere locally that sells hifi equipment besides Walmart. So after reading complimentary reviews, I ordered from USA Tube Audio a pair of JBL 4367 speakers, ..a two way design  with a woofer and a horn. I have about 20 hours on the speakers, driving them with a Primare I35 Integrated Amplifier and a perceived higher end Primare CD player., and for an alternate music source, I use Music Choice from my cable box. I also have a 10 band graphic EQ to tailor the  sound to my liking. The issue I bought when I paid for the speakers is a  loudly blaring shoutiness in the range of frequencies of the human voice. It can be loud and overpowering even with EQ attenuating the frequencies between 500 and 4khz. I called the dealer who I bought them from for advice..he told me the amp and cd player are junk, ($6000 junk) and the only way to fix the shoutiness was to buy tube equipment.  On some recordings, the speakers sound wonderful, but on some, it makes me question whether or not they're worth keeping. The room in the apt I have them in is about 15x18 with low ceilings. Does anyone have any practical suggestions or ideas on how to remedy or at least partially correct this issue? Thank you for reading.
deckhand

Showing 1 response by audiokinesis

audiokinesis
2,724 posts
 
Deckhand, you might try listening from fairly far off-axis, like 20-25 degrees. I suggest moving the speakers a bit further apart than normal and toeing them in severely, like 45 degrees and maybe even more, such that their axes criss-cross well in front of the listening position. This will reduce the relative loudness of the horns in the first-arrival sound, increase the sweet spot width, and may increase the sense of immersion in the acoustic space of the recording.

The unusually well-behaved off-axis response of the 4367’s big horn makes this cross-firing configuration feasible. Its pattern width is just right, and I'm pretty sure it’s a constant-directivity horn (or darn close thereto) in which case the off-axis response is very similar to the on-axis response, but not as loud.

Duke
horn speaker designer
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