Originally posted by gotapex
If you decide to go with JBL's, the 312's are a good choice over the 310's, which very few people seem to like.

Originally posted by CaptainMarvel
... not what somebody who is waiting for his 310's to come in wants to hear. Where did you get that from? I searched all over HTF, and I read page after page of customer reviews on a few other sites. Everybody seemed to be glowing about them, and they sounded good in the store.

I'd have mine here already, but somebody in the trucking company apparently stole my speakers. J&R had to re-send them to me.

Originally posted by bfrank
I am not sure but in past Harman practice was used the 10 and the 12 will have the exact same magnet structure and the only difference is the frame and the cone/surround.

Also in general a 10" will have less cone distortion then a 12" cone of the same geometry. Port and cabinet size also will impact the bass but I think the difference is way small in blind testing.

Captain, I expect you will love these speakers.

Greg was working on Project K2 when these were developed (I think).

Tim Prenta was the Head Engineer/Manager of the Best Buy products and he is an excellent engineer.

(article no longer on-line - copied partial excerpts without modifications)...

NEW YORK, NY, August 23,1999 -- From bowling shirts to martinis, retro is in. JBL is hoping to extend the trend with the new Northridge and Studio speaker lines. ...

According to JBL brand manager Paul Benter, "These speakers are based on the newest, critically acclaimed JBL monitors that are reference standards in the film and music industries." One speaker, the S38 from the Studio line, even borrows the horizontal configuration common to studio monitors but which is al but gone from home stereo speakers.

Bente's presentation was packed with explanations of technologies -- most sporting spiffy trademarked names -- used in the new speakers. Most important among these technologies is clearly the Elliptical Oblate Spheroid (EOS) waveguide. It's basically a tweeter waveguide designed for smooth response across a wide listening area, which JBL says reduces the "sweet spot" effect common to stereo speakers. EOS originated in JBL's LSR studio monitor line.

The Northridge line

My faves from the Northridge line were the indoor/outdoor version of the N24 (the $124.99 N24AW), which I felt exhibited greater vocal clarity than any other speaker in the line, and the ND310, which played loud and deep and nearly equaled the clarity of the N24aW. Why did the little guy sound so good? A chat with Northridge series designer Matt Nelson revealed that the N24 and N24AW use a significantly different crossover design -- first-order (6 dB/octave), as compared to second-order(12 dB/octave) in the other Northridge speakers.

The Studio line

I happened to wander into the Studio line demo room before the event began and was stunned by what I saw -- drivers with an attention-grabbing, rust-colored coating mounted on slick-looking bezels inbeefy cabinets that reminded me of dorm-room refrigerators. Unfortunately, the room in which I heard the Studio line was extremely live and strangely shaped, so I couldn't much trust what I heard. (We've already requested a set for a formal review.)

For what it's worth, the S26 two-way ($199.99/each), with its 6-inch woofer and 1-inch tweeter, seemed to produce the best imaging and soundstaging in this room. JBL also demo'd the S38 three-way ($299.99/each) mentioned above, the S310 floorstanding three-way ($379.99/each) and the top-of-the-line S412P ($849.99/each).

The latter features a 1-inch tweeter, a 4-inch midrange, a 6-inch woofer and a 12-inch powered subwoofer driven by an internal 150-watt amplifier. Unlike most powered towers, it has no crossover or subwoofer level controls, only a control that blends in the signal from the line-level LFE (Low Frequency Effects) input. According to chief development engineer Greg Timbers, JBL wanted to keep the setup as simple as possible for the consumer and considered the extra controls unnecessary. (I happen to agree.)

Strangely enough, there is no provision for bywiring in the Studio line. Timbers says JBL decided to put money into better drivers and cosmetics instead of into the extra binding posts needed for biwiring.

The most interesting speaker in the Studio line has to be the S-Center, which, at $299.99/each, is the least expensive three-way center-channel speaker I recall seeing. The S-Center sports a 1-inch tweeter mounted above a 4-inch midrange, both flanked by 5-1/4-inch woofers. The advantage of this design is that its horizontal off-axis response is much smoother than that of the usual two-way, woofer-tweeter-woofer center speaker.

... JBL is scaling back its assortment to 20 SKUs from 43, ...

. . . there were two areas in which the JBL S38 performed better than any speaker under $2000/pair I've ever heard:

First was its ability to play at extremely loud volumes without coloration or strain.

Second, the S38 had the widest dynamic contrasts of any budget speaker I've heard. Just in case you were beginning to think that it's only a rock speaker, I found the S38's low- and high-level dynamic performance on dramatic orchestral works to be jaw-dropping. In Taberna, Part II of Carl Orff's Carmina Burana (Robert Shaw, Atlanta Symphony, Telarc CD-80056), is very difficult to reproduce convincingly, with its massed shouting chorus and cacophonous battery of percussion. Small, inexpensive speakers usually compress, congest, or crap out completely. But the sense of ease with which the S38 reproduced this bombastic music reminded me more of the sound of my Alón V Mk.IIs ($5500/pair) and Alón Circes ($12,000/pair) than it did of any other affordable speaker I've heard.

The sound of Stravinsky's The Firebird (Mercury Living Presence/Classic SR 90226) summed up the strengths and weaknesses of this intriguing speaker. The explosive dynamics and ease with which the S38 reproduced the orchestra in full cry was much more reminiscent of the performance of many large floorstanding speakers I've heard-throughout this densely orchestrated work, it was very easy to follow each individual instrument on the S38s' open and airy soundstage.

So, for those perusing these posts, don't let the BestBuy chain B&M store stop you from considering one of the better values in consumer speakers in the market, add JBL N- or S-Series to your audition list.

I cannot ever recommend to any of my family or friends that they purchase audio or video equipment in that environment.

I am not sure why you want to challenge what I said.

I have no agenda here and no reason to mislead you. I am supporting you here.

... why do you have etown stuff saved?

Brent gave us some of out best reviews after we left Harman on etown.

I saw him at CES and he is now working for the Robb reports new mag.

Originally posted by brhow

I have decided that based on living in a medium sized apartment, and the 312's each having a 12" woofer, that I may not need a subwoofer. I could just turn the subwoofer off on my reciever, routing all the LFE into my fronts. Do you people think I will be allright going this route? If not, I can always pick up a new sub.

My second question pertains to my receiver. I am currently using a Yamaha RX-V630 with my Polk RM6600 setup. Will I be ok sticking with this receiver, or should I upgrade to something with more power such as the Yamaha HTR-5590? I want these new speakers "the JBL's" to perform well, and am worried that 75 watts per channel may not cut it. I certainly do not want my receiver to overheat, or to have clipping occur. Would you guys recomend that I upgrade to the HTR-5590, giving me 100 watts per channel? Money is an issue, but if I need to sell my old gear to pick up a new reciever, I would certainly be willing. Otherwise, a bedroom setup would not be bad at all.

Brett

Originally posted by brhow

I have decided that based on living in a medium sized apartment, and the 312's each having a 12" woofer, that I may not need a subwoofer. I could just turn the subwoofer off on my reciever, routing all the LFE into my fronts. Do you people think I will be allright going this route? If not, I can always pick up a new sub.

Originally posted by DVD_O_Rama
The popular misconception is that if you have a larger driver (in this case a 12" woof) you can run your speakers as 'large' (verbage depending on your processor's set-up) and still get the same results as a powered sub. Not so.
Amplification, enclosure size, etc. have so much more to do with it.
Do yourself a favor and get a seperate sub, and you'll hear alot more of the soundtrack that way

Cheers,
Erik the Red

Originally posted by Frank S
As example I have JBL CF-150's (15" three-ways) for all six surround speakers yet I still have two 350 watt 15" powered subs! For a Home Theater it is essential to have a good powered sub to get the full impact of films on DVD.

Originally posted by TAR
- got enough bass?