JBL Paragon Speakers

That speaker is hot, hot, hot, man. I heard them many moons ago with McIntosh 4 chassis MI- 200 Industrial amps. Why can't any of this new zillion dollar gear have a personality like that stuff? Legendary!!!

A legend still alive and kicking. I have heard them recently with a good SET setup. Extremely musical. I liked them better than the Altec's they were being compared with, unfortunately not my own.

This speaker lived up to the meaning of its name. It won a major industrial design award when introduced. They were custom made one at a time with the standard finish being walnut. They used JBL's best drivers and a special designed horn for the midrange (to 7000 HZ). The original base driver was LE15-A, 375 compression driver for midrange and 075 (I think) ring radiator for the high frequencies. Some of the later models may have changed drivers but I am not sure of this. At the time, I was told that JBL would make them with exotic wood veneers for about 20% more on a special order basis. They used the best drivers available at the time and had sonic imaging that was second to none. There only real deficiency was that the short horn loading of the base driver that caused rapid roll off to begin about 35 Hz (as I remember). They are an extremely efficient design and were not particularly critical of room placement provided one had the 9 feet or so to put one in and one did not sit to close to the curved panel in front. I think with today's better amplification they should sound great. If they don't fit with your listening area or tastes someone should want them and I suspect that the price should be $20,000 or more depending on the condition.