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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 3 responses by ohlala

ohlala
1,233 posts
 
I do not know Primare.  My experience, though, is that this speaker is sensitive to electronics and cables. They are not shouty in the sense of some other horn models and do not have particular room placement quirks.

They do require a lot power. I have had a VAC phi 160, Hegel h160 and a Classe 70 hooked up to them. None could marry the woofer to horn.The ML 532H was a huge improvement in cohesion making the horn section relatively less prominent, even in comparison to the 150 watt Hegel.  While the (tube) VAC is pretty sounding, it is not appropriate for the 4367.  

It is great to try free or inexpensive experiments first. My guess is that they need new gear to know if they will work for you. May be safer to return to sell them, though. 
ohlala
1,233 posts
 
Going from Cardas Twinlink to Purist Venustas speaker cables resulted a surprisingly large reduction in fatiguing high-frequency distortion. Cable swapping is relatively easy and may give you more insight.  
ohlala
1,233 posts
 
Just based my on experience with a different 4 x KT88 amp, I believe quicksilver monoblocks will likely not help. I wanted to enjoy the VAC but the woofers were badly controlled in comparison to the compression driver, no matter the tap used. The lower midrange and down was disconnected and HF were overbearing. It was an obvious problem even without comparison to another amplifier, which prompted me to a fairly affordable, safe-play Levinson amp. The ML fixed the issue, although I would love to try a high-power tube amp. There may be something I am missing as I never actually heard Quicksilver amps.
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