The Unboxing - Part 1

I am a little trepidatious as the system has been stored in an outdoor shed, so hopefully several hundred freeze/thaw temperature swings have not done too much damage to the speakers. I assume the electronics are fine, but of course will put them all through their paces. If anything should come up bum, there are usually most of these units or parts on fleabay if I need to swap something in.

Here we go!

 The Fronts...

They are a big reason I'm so excited for this system. At the time, JBL believed that music and movies were different things. One of the uniquely cool features of the system is switchable speaker modes. Not just signal processing presets, I mean the speakers actually change drivers and crossovers via electro-mechanical activation. This front main speakers uniquely are equipped with both a horn-loaded HF compression driver as well as the famous 1 inch titanium “TI” tweeter, in addition to dual 6” butyl-surround mid-bass drivers. In “Movie” mode, the tweeter is disconnected and the horn-loaded compression driver and both midbass drivers operate. In “Music” mode, the lower midbass driver and the horn-loaded compression driver are disconnected, and the tweeter kicks on with its own crossover circuit, forming a marvelous 2-way top cabinet. In conjunction with the 12” woofers that form the base of the let/right stacks, it makes a killer two-channel system that approximates the legendary L7 speaker. But biamped and I get to have fun with the crossover.

I forgot how BIG these are! Pictures do not do it justice. 

The 'Mode Control' input is where a control voltage is applied which actuates the crossover switchover. The processor and amplifiers are all interconnected by these 5-pin DIN cables which control power and mode. Something I get to reverse-engineer as it will probably be handled by my Crestron now.

These speakers are in fantastic condition. Only slight wear on the corners, the grilles are in excellent shape. I'm really getting excited.

The Center...

Configured horizontally (they also made a vertical version)

Pretty similar with the exception of the tweeter and the addtion of an adjustable leg to set the correct angle. Which I believe is very important due to the horns. It does NOT switch modes, I guess JBL assumes that music is a two-channel affair only.

Still have the registration card. Should I send it in? The system was never technically sold to an end-user, so I think JBL would have to honor the warranty!

The Surrounds...

Now HERE is where it gets interesting... these are some of the best Dipole speakers of the day. Even borrowed down from the huger Synthesis 2 system. But 'apparently' Diploes are dead- everyone uses monopoles, or bipoles, or well maybe still dipoles because they have these really great ones already built into their theater, or they are too close to the MLP. Crikey. Do I try and find two more of these? Get rid of these? Reconfigure them somehow? I have thought about this A LOT and will write more about it tomorrow. (hint: I've been studying the crossover diagram) It's late.

same divers on the opposite side - none on the flat side facing the listening area. These fire along the walls towards the screen and rear walls. In case you aren't hip to the lingo, dipoles are set up with opposing speakers facing 90 degrees from the listener, and wired in reverse polarity from front to back creating a diffuse 'null' area towards the listener. This is from back when Pro-Logic surrond content was a lo-fi narrow bandwidth mono signal that sounded best smeared around the sides of the room. No longer what you want with 5.1/7.1/11.4.6???

Next... Electronics unboxing? Or Subs? Probably subs!