JBL 4349 stereo loudspeakers
Listening to the 4349s from JBL’s Studio Monitor range is like a time-machine ticket to the original recording session.
Listening to the 4349s from JBL’s Studio Monitor range is like a time-machine ticket to the original recording session.
It’s the width that seems to make people nervous of JBL Studio Monitors. The last 20 years have, of course, seen loudspeakers getting slimmer and slimmer, evolving into the ‘tower’ aesthetic designed to be less imposing in modern décors. Instead of the one large bass unit, these tower speakers stack up two, three or four on top of each other, saying these ‘add up’ to the larger driver that they’d like to use, really, if only the world permitted wider speakers.
Well you know what? We like wide speakers. We like to look at this fine and functional furniture — we have no desire to hide them away as if they are some guilty secret. We don’t much like the ‘topple’ factor of tall slim speakers, and in fact we find it positively satisfying to sit before the stylish blue baffles of the JBL 4349 loudspeakers, addressed directly
by their 12-inch bass drivers and widebeaming horn-loaded compression drivers. It’s like being in a studio. And hey, isn’t that the ultimate goal of hi-fi?
Equipment
So if JBLs are something of an oddity in the world of high-end standmounters, that’s because they’re born from the recording studio tradition, where installing a pair of tower speakers would raise not so much eyebrows as guffaws. The 4349s measure 74cm high, so that they need stands, and are 45cm wide, leaving plenty of space around that 12-inch, cast-frame Pure-pulp cone woofer for two forward-facing reflex ports, which thereby allow them rather more positional flexibility than rear-ported designs.
Their shortest dimension is their depth, at 34cm, and JBL is more concerned with distance to corners than rear walls, recommending that the 4349s sit at least 50cm from side walls. Indeed JBL is most concerned of all about protecting your furniture: its biggest boldest warning is that the 4349s weighs 36.6kg each — the cabinets of these speakers are an inch thick. “We recommend that shelves, stands, or special construction be robust enough to support to 240 lb (108.9 kg),” it sensibly opines.
JBL offers the JS-120 stands shown above right for $699 the pair, not the usual columns but rather open metal-frame supports which also lean the speakers back, pointing up around seven degrees, so you’ll need to work out if that keeps the tweeter in line vertically with your listening position; they should point approximately at ear level. Otherwise solid sturdy stands as pictured in the main image will fire them straight out.
When we say ‘tweeter’, we actually mean dual-diaphragm compression driver. JBL’s high-frequency unit here is the D2415K, a descendent of the D2 designs first developed for high-SPL high-power PA use. The ‘D’ prefix stands for ‘dual’, indicating that this driver actually contains dual diaphragms, dual voice coils, and dual motors, with a pair of 38mm ring diaphragms made of Teonex polymer at its heart. Look at the crosssection of those diaphragms and you’ll find they are V-shaped, something that’s claimed to reduce break-up modes, lower distortion and minimise time smear.
That distinctive horn, meanwhile, dominates the top half of the front baffle, made of the fibreglass-based composite Sonoglass, to which JBL applies its “revolutionary High-Definition Imaging horn geometry”, aiming to control dispersion without adding much in the way of horninduced distortion. The horn here is notably squarer than the more slot-style horns used in JBL’s recent HDI range of more towerlike speakers, further assisting this goal in the vertical as well as horizontal plane.
The tweeter crosses over to the 30cm pulp-coned bass driver at a lowly 1.5kHz. This bass unit boasts an impressively huge magnet assembly and a cast rigid chassis, the whole construction built to generate high sound pressure levels and, thanks to a 75mm longthrow voice coil and carefully engineered suspension, has no problem doing so. The low-end is claimed to extend down to an impressive 32Hz at -6dB.
JBL recommends having the speakers 1.8 to 2.4 metres apart and facing straight down the room with the angle of the listener between the speakers being from 40 and 60 degrees, and only toeing the speakers in if you have them further apart than recommended. We’d concur with this advice from our long experience with the similar 4429 model; sitting just slightly off the main axis of the compression horns prevents their liveliness becoming exaggerated. They do, however, have a distinct sweet-spot for the moment when that stereo soundstage pops into focus. Book your seat directly in the middle.
The style will be entirely familiar to all who have seen any of the JBL Studio Monitors for decades gone by — the deep blue baffle, and finishes in a choice of walnut or black walnut furniture-grade satin-wood
“There’s much talk in the world of high-res streaming of this or that file offering ‘Studio Master’ quality. But to hear it like it sounded in the studio, it’ll take more than the file. You need the speakers too.”
veneers. Cloth grilles are included and come in blue for the walnut or black for the black walnut. Some describe them as retro… but we reckon they look as thoroughly modern as they always have done; it’s more the shock of their width that makes people think they’re from a different age. But rather than retro, we’d say ‘timeless’!
Performance
As you might imagine, these JBLs are powerful speakers. They have no trouble whatsoever energising a listening room just as their true studio brethren have spent decades energising studios around the world. It’s an upfront and direct listen, delivering high-octane energy, and taking no prisoners with bright or poor recordings. It helps that the 4349s come fitted with two-tone controls to govern treble output. These offer five-step adjustments in 0.5dB steps within -1dB to +1dB limits. The first ‘HF’ tone control operates in the 1.5-6kHz range, and the second ‘UHF’ from 5kHz upwards. JBL has taken a great deal of care to ensure that these controls don’t harm signal purity, being an inherent variable element within a crossover network design that features air-core inductors, cast wire-wound resistors and low-ESR metallised film capacitors in a multi-cap configuration. While our instinct is to keep them at 0dB, we certainly didn’t notice anything negative when they were switched into use. If you’re sitting really close — which is entirely possible with JBL’s Studio Monitors — then the first 0.5dB on the UHF dial can be useful to tame a little forwardness. The full dB seemed to start closing in the sound. We can’t quite imagine why you might want to use the positive settings, unless perhaps listening from the end of a very long room.
The 4349s are sensitive speakers, rated at 91dB/W/m sensitivity and with an 8-ohm nominal impedance, so that even relatively low-power amplifiers can achieve good volume levels. But their studio-like abilities to reveal the quality of the incoming signal mean that highquality sources, and a high-quality amplifier whatever its wattage, is recommended to make the most of their capabilities.
Because feed them a good quality signal and they thrill with explosive dynamics — and a truly wonderful bass performance. Listening to Massive Attack’s Angel, it’s hard to think of another speaker that can render lows with such power and articulation. Low notes stopped and started with ease, and were layered with care; every bass sound was crisp, taut and agile. No matter how highly engineered smaller speakers are, there really is no substitute for large drive units and large cabinets if you want truly excellent deep bass.
As music built to a crescendo, it all seemed so easy, their sound loaded with attack, drive and the kind of punch that hits squarely in the chest. Even playing the music loudly there was no cracking the 4349’s composure, no loss of control; they sounded unstressed even when pushed hard. When reviewing speakers, we’re usually listening for the little things done badly, the moments when the speakers encounter something they can’t quite handle. Listening to the JBLs, all we heard was the music, playing on and on.
Those listeners accustomed to dome tweeters, particularly sweet-sounding tweeters, may initially consider the JBLs to be a bit full-on in their high-frequency delivery (also worth considering is that JBL recommends a long period of breaking in before they are critically auditioned). If they could sometimes be accused of lacking finesse or sweetness, it’s not a lack of purity, more an attitude of telling it like it is. And they soundstage with the very best if you have your positioning sorted, delivering stage depth as well as width. The ability to biwire or biamp to their twin sets of binding posts can also provide still further clarity in the treble.
But it’s true that they like a high-octane challenge. If you’re a classic rock fan, then auditioning the JBL 4349 against a pricecomparable slimline tower is likely to lead to a session back at home with a measuring tape, checking where you might fit your new but somewhat substantial new friends.
Conclusion
The 4349s continue the line of JBL Studio Monitors which are made for sound, not for fitting in your all-white Scandi-décor apartment. They’ll certainly assist your ability to party, but their greatest revelations will come with the moments when their considerable physical presence simply disappears, and you’re left alone with the flow of wondrously real music. There’s much talk in the world of high-res streaming of this or that file offering ‘Studio Master’ quality. But if you want to hear it like it sounded in the studio, it takes more than the file. You need the speakers too.