Filter
Top Products
CHAPTER 2
Legacy - the historical development of the JBL Project loudspeakers
Of those few who seek perfection in sound reproduction, only a handful have
actually achieved it. The price is always high. It is a rare occurrence indeed
when an individual or group is able to triumph over the constraints of economic
and technological reality just once.
At JBL, this has happened eight times. In each case, its engineers were told to
build the speaker system they had always wanted to build. Whatever resources
were required would be made available. Thus began an ongoing investigation
into new frontiers of sound reproduction, beginning mid -century in 1950 and
continuing to the present day.
The products that have resulted from this venture are now known as the JBL
Project loudspeakers. Each represents the absolute peak of every technological,
material and engineering innovation available at that time, combined into a
single system. They are Hartsfield, Pragon, Everest DD55000, K2 S9500/7500,
K2 S5500, K2 S9800, and K2 S5800. The newest is EVEREST DD66000.
Although differing in performance details and physical attributes, each of the
Project loudspeakers has shared a common objective: to elevate sound
reproduction to levels defined only by the limitations of existing materials and
technology. And despite a spread of nearly sixty years, all Project loudspeakers
have shared many common features testimony to their foundation on the
technology and manufacturing techniques upon which JBL was built.
Defining the Project Concept
The Hartsfield began a tradition at JBL that continues today. First, engineer a
product as close to perfection as possible. When it reaches that level, that is the
time to make it better.
In 1954, the Hartsfield was significant not in that it represented new technology,
but rather a new level of the all technical manufacturing approach pioneered by
James B. Lansing some twenty years before it. Like its Project series
successors, it was a high efficiency system incorporating compression driver
technology, one combining the qualities of high output, low distortion,
exceptional stereo imaging and fatigue-free listening. Most important, it was
the first consumer-available listening system to do so.