Looking to Develop A Short List of Amplifier Candidates For A Pair Of JBL 4367 Speakers

Thanks for the feedback re: ChatGPT.  I'm curious to know how accurate the response is.  Rather than thumb your nose at it, offer constructive criticism. 

Why not use the Audiogon forum as input to the model and have a chatbot within Audiogon?  

Are you all saying you won't use AI for audio gear suggestions?  

I recommend you check out the Lejonklou HiFi solid state amplifiers from Sweden.  They have an integrated amp, the Boazu 2, under $5000 and exceptional, yet relatively compact, mono block power amps at $6500 each, the Tundra Mono 3.

Check Part Time Audiophile show reports for RMAF 2016 and 2017.   In 2016 Rafe Arnott gave the Lejonklou/Nokturne Audio room Best Sound of Show with the previous Tundra Mono 2.2 driving a pair of JBL 3677 speakers.  The following year he said the room was even better (although a subwoofer, also JBL driven by a third Tundra Mono had been added).  
 

I am the North American distributor for Lejonklou HiFi you might expect some bias.  But I had never heard the JBLs sound that good with other electronics and they were my personal speakers for a number of years.  Now I am running a fully rebuilt pair of Quad ESL speakers with the Tundra Mono 3s and they musically outperform anything I have heard on them.  I brought an older stock pair of Quads to Axpona in 2019 with the Lejonklou electronics and John Atkinson said they were one of the highlights of the show.  A review from Stereophile on the Boazu 2, along with our streamer, the Källa, and our MC phono stage, the Entity 1.2, should be out within a few months from Alex Halberstadt.  I don’t know what speakers he will use but he owns Altec A7s and is a fan of horn loudspeakers.  I believe he reviewed one of the newer JBL monitor speakers a while back and quite liked them, although I don’t remember if they were 4367s.

hi

great choice in the 4367.

i have used my 4367 speakers with Gryphon Diablo and then my Audio Note SET amp (211).  the only reason i bought the 2nd hand diablo was because i had always wanted to own one and i wanted to know if my preferred amp (SET) was driving them well enough.  i figured if not i might bi-amp.

a few points

#1 - imo solid state thru the jbl 4367 isn't default pleasant, even something with a reputation for some sweetness like the diablo.  they are a neutral speaker and they don't lie or roll off much.  they can sound hard.  you can be listening, thinking "wow" but then 2 hours in you realise your ears hurt.  

#2- tonally the SET is wonderful.  never anything hard or shrill etc.  just extremely nice by default imo.  i have around same size room as you 13 foot by 16 foot with 16 feet ceilings.

#3 - in a comparison with diablo for music, i couldn't see that the 211 failed with bass woofer control.  not at all.  i didn't even bother bi-amping.  the SET sound was brilliant and i was happy with it in comparison to diablo.  for movie watching, i did however find the diablo sounded "better".  i think this is because there is so much "atmospheric bass" in movies.  so not an issue with 2 channel music in comparison but for movies etc it was discernible.  but again the hardness would come in.  so it was thrilling watching "the fly" for example with diablo and 4367, but also hurt ears slightly. this is thru a tubed abbas dac.

#4 - the 211 amp i have has huge transformers and i think this helps the 20W of SET power get the job done with these 94 dB efficient speakers.  

#5 - i found good footers helped the 4367 be a gentle giant.  i put CMS LS2.25 footers on it and this helped the whole thing.  the speakers have disappeared now and i get a wide and deep presentation with great dynamics, resolution and tone.  it's thrilling.  having the speaker elevated is also critical.  they were voiced up on cinder blocks as i recall.  

#6 - i do find i need to be at around 12 pm on the dial for them to be their absolute best and "come to life".  having said that, maybe that's the room.  12 pm is not crazy loud at all (like 80 db kind of thing at listening).  so it isn't a problem for me and i don't find that situation to be much different to any other speaker i've heard.

I can highly recommend the Laiv Harmony GaNM monoblock class D amps to you. I’ve been extremely happy with mine thus far. I am sure they would sound wonderful with your speakers.
 

@neonknight wrote:

Out of curiosity: why did you get rid of the JBL 4365’s - i.e.: what did the 4367’s to your ears bring to the table by comparison?

The amplifiers I have been using are a pair of Classe Omega monoblocks. But the reality is they are massive, are way too much power for a pair of 94 db efficient speakers [...]

The first question that pops into my head here, looking past your rationale to let them loose, is how the Classé amps actually mated with the JBL’s from a sound perspective? With regard to power and its speculated excess, practically speaking I don’t believe you can have too much power with more modern JBL’s with larger voice coil woofers - despite their moderately high efficiency; on the contrary more power to such woofers can turn out to be a benefit. Indeed, it’s about how those JBL’s react to more powerful amps/PSU’s, even at lower volumes. 

In the past JBL was known to mate well with tube amplification. But I imagine this is going to have to be push/pull.

I believe Greg Timbers had a notable fondness for Quicksilver amps over the horn-loaded mids/high compression drivers of his JBL designs and pairing them with solid state amps for the woofer section, albeit he seemed to find running them actively, initially with analogue, electronic crossovers was the preferred scenario, and so naturally gain matching between the driver sections had to take place anyway. This can be more tricky with passive bi-amping using different amps with different gain horizontally, a configuration that may otherwise have been a shoe-in in your case and trying to take advantage of different virtues of different amps topologies, while largely avoiding their weaknesses selectively.

From my chair though using different amp topologies when bi-, tri- or quad-amping (or more), while tempting at first with the incentive behind it, invites potential new issues that can impact overall coherency, and so my choice would be to look for a same amp solution covering the entire frequency spectrum of the JBL’s. Leading me to this paragraph of yours:

Finally in terms of solid state, the choices are huge. I know McIntosh was often a favored pairing, but I have never been a fan of the brand. 

A friend of mine who’s a pro audio dealer while being a true nerd (and gear collector) of an audiophile incorporating pro segment speakers and amps into his private, home audio setups with high-end analogue and digital sources, initially used McIntosh MC2300 amps in numbers over his then large and actively configured JBL 5670-series cinema speakers among others, in addition to Crown Studio Reference I amps later on. Eventually though these all had to go (finding buyers wasn’t a problem, and they willingly paid large sums for these older amps), and instead he set his sights on the british MC² Audio amps from the individuals behind Klark Teknik and Turbosound to take over, and which they have done since.

As it so happens, with his influence I’ve been using MC² Audio in own setup for a few years now, and they are downright excellent amps - both professionally, I’m told, and in a home stereo environment, functionally as well and not least sonically. The catch to audiophiles? Mainly non-fancy pro looks and their built-in fans, which can be replaced with quiet versions. Another catch: low price (we should know what that’s about) and going below radar to most, coming from the pro audio segment not least. 

Summing up: using MC² Audio amp myself I have solid experience with them, less so with the JBL 4367 speakers (haven’t owned the 4367’s, although I’ve heard them several times), and not with the combo of those. Still, the MC² Audio T and S-series amps I've heard are smooth, highly resolved and honest sounding with an abundance of power at their disposal, so I can easily imagine them being a very good match with the 4367’s, also from what I know of the characteristics of the latter that I wouldn’t pair with dry sounding amps.

Specifically I’d recommend the T1000 model as an outset, but the more expensive S800 and S1400 are excellent as well though sounding virtually similar to the T1000. The T1000 (depending on the measurement technique) is a 450W/8 ohm amp, class A/B topology, and I use two of them in my own setup actively for my main speakers + the larger T3500 sibling for the subs. The T1000 retails for about €1,700, but please: don’t let the low price scare you off.