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Questions RE JBL 4367: Ability, Room and Power
Been a while Audiogon!
The stereo is back out of storage as my kids are old enough to understand what not to touch.
Downstream of sources is a Cayin A300P push pull 300b integrated putting out approximately 22w max. There is a pre-out.
Room is 14’ x 16’. Currently the speakers are approximately 7.5’ apart on the shorter wall. I can move to longer wall, however due to some furniture and visual symmetry issues (mine) I will be setting up center so as to have an extra 15” or so on the right side, and the speakers would not be centered in the room as to the side walls. I could comfortably get the JBL 4367 9’ apart, center to center and the fronts as far into the room as necessary. If I were to do this, there is a pocket double door that would be behind my listening position, open, but also not centered on my listening position. It opens to a much larger room, forming an “L”.
I’m currently running Reference 3a DeCapo i speakers. My speaker progression was 3 way floorstander to 2 way bookshelf and that’s where I’ve stayed. The 3 ways that I’ve heard tend to smear something that to me, a good 2 way seems to get right.
I like my speakers to appear to not be the source of the music. While obviously sometimes an instrument is localized at the speaker, I can’t stand unavoidably hearing the music coming from the two boxes in the room and not having a convincing illusion of the music emanating from a stage located other than at those two boxes.
The DeCapo i is a great speaker, and it does all of the following probably nearly as good as a speaker of its size can, however I need:
-more bass
-more immediacy
-more of the illusion that the instrument or artist could actually be standing in your room
What the DeCapo i doesn’t do is give me a convincingly floor to ceiling illusion, it’s pretty much localized at speaker height. I also am not getting basically any visceral bass “snap” or the speed or scale that a horn driver can provide.
A recent review of the Cornwall IV while declaring them one of the beat speakers that the reviewer has ever experienced, did mention something along the lines of (paraphrasing from memory) “while they sounded great, I learned to live with the sensation that the sound was more or less coming from the two speakers which is what you deal with when you have a wide-baffled pair of speakers.”
I mention the Cornwall only because it is “similar” in shape to the JBL 4367, which is the subject of this thread, and because I didn’t see a similar comment regarding the 4367 in the few reviews I have been able to find.
Questions:
1. Can the 4367 provide a convincing soundstage, without the constant impression that the sound is coming from the two boxes?
2. I realize it’s close, but is my room and setup ability sufficient cubical volume and width for these speakers?
3. Am I going to be unhappy with the speaker/amp combo? I don’t play at rock concert levels. The sensitivity, impedance, basically all of the specs indicate that this should be capable of being powered by my amp. You sure don’t see many people (I scoured the Internet and maybe found 4) people saying that they have run these enjoyably with low powered tube amps. While I am open to further upgrades, Im not looking to produce concert level volume. The 300b amp that I have does do bass pretty well. Also, I know that the aforementioned Cornwall IV would do well with the wattage, however I think the JBL is probably a flatter less coloured sound, with better bass.
Thanks for reading, and thanks for your answers and suggestions.
The stereo is back out of storage as my kids are old enough to understand what not to touch.
Downstream of sources is a Cayin A300P push pull 300b integrated putting out approximately 22w max. There is a pre-out.
Room is 14’ x 16’. Currently the speakers are approximately 7.5’ apart on the shorter wall. I can move to longer wall, however due to some furniture and visual symmetry issues (mine) I will be setting up center so as to have an extra 15” or so on the right side, and the speakers would not be centered in the room as to the side walls. I could comfortably get the JBL 4367 9’ apart, center to center and the fronts as far into the room as necessary. If I were to do this, there is a pocket double door that would be behind my listening position, open, but also not centered on my listening position. It opens to a much larger room, forming an “L”.
I’m currently running Reference 3a DeCapo i speakers. My speaker progression was 3 way floorstander to 2 way bookshelf and that’s where I’ve stayed. The 3 ways that I’ve heard tend to smear something that to me, a good 2 way seems to get right.
I like my speakers to appear to not be the source of the music. While obviously sometimes an instrument is localized at the speaker, I can’t stand unavoidably hearing the music coming from the two boxes in the room and not having a convincing illusion of the music emanating from a stage located other than at those two boxes.
The DeCapo i is a great speaker, and it does all of the following probably nearly as good as a speaker of its size can, however I need:
-more bass
-more immediacy
-more of the illusion that the instrument or artist could actually be standing in your room
What the DeCapo i doesn’t do is give me a convincingly floor to ceiling illusion, it’s pretty much localized at speaker height. I also am not getting basically any visceral bass “snap” or the speed or scale that a horn driver can provide.
A recent review of the Cornwall IV while declaring them one of the beat speakers that the reviewer has ever experienced, did mention something along the lines of (paraphrasing from memory) “while they sounded great, I learned to live with the sensation that the sound was more or less coming from the two speakers which is what you deal with when you have a wide-baffled pair of speakers.”
I mention the Cornwall only because it is “similar” in shape to the JBL 4367, which is the subject of this thread, and because I didn’t see a similar comment regarding the 4367 in the few reviews I have been able to find.
Questions:
1. Can the 4367 provide a convincing soundstage, without the constant impression that the sound is coming from the two boxes?
2. I realize it’s close, but is my room and setup ability sufficient cubical volume and width for these speakers?
3. Am I going to be unhappy with the speaker/amp combo? I don’t play at rock concert levels. The sensitivity, impedance, basically all of the specs indicate that this should be capable of being powered by my amp. You sure don’t see many people (I scoured the Internet and maybe found 4) people saying that they have run these enjoyably with low powered tube amps. While I am open to further upgrades, Im not looking to produce concert level volume. The 300b amp that I have does do bass pretty well. Also, I know that the aforementioned Cornwall IV would do well with the wattage, however I think the JBL is probably a flatter less coloured sound, with better bass.
Thanks for reading, and thanks for your answers and suggestions.
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