Jbl k 2 s 9800 owners manual

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CHAPTER 2 Legacy-the historical development of the JBL P r o j e c tl o u d s p e a ke r s 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 econom- ic and technological reality just once. At JBL, this has happened six times. In each case, its engineers were told to build the speaker system they had always wanted to build. W h a t e v e r resources were required would be made available. Thus began an ongoing inves- tigation 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 P ro j e c tloudspeakers. Each represents the absolute peak of every technologi- cal, material and engineering innovation available at that time, combined into a single system. They are H a r t s fi e l d , Pa ragon, Everest, K2 S9500/7500 and K2 S5500.The newest is K2 S9800. Although differing in performance details and physical attributes, each of the P ro j e c tloudspeakers has shared a common objective: to elevate sound reproduction to levels defined only by the limitations of existing materials and t e c h n o l o g y. And despite a spread of nearly fifty years, all P ro j e c tl o u d s p e a k- ers have shared many common features-testimony to their foundation on the technology and manufacturing tech- niques upon which JBLwas built. D e fining the P r o j e c tC o n c e p t The H a r t s fi e l dbegan a tradition at JBL that continues today. First, engineer a product as close to perfection as pos- sible. When it reaches that level, that is the time to make it better. In 1954, the H a r t s fi e l dwas significant not in that it represented n ewt e c h n o l - o g y, but rather a new level of the all- technical manufacturing approach pio- neered by James B. Lansing some twenty years before it. Like its P ro j e c t series successors, it was a high eff i c i e n- cy 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. In this respect, P roject K2 S9800is at once the most advanced and sophisticat- ed loudspeaker in the world today a n da speaker whose technology is deeply rooted in over 50 years of tradition. JBL's president in 1954, Wi l l i a m Thomas, described the Hartsfield as "...the speaker system we have always wanted to build ... the finest compo- nents ever made available to serious lis- t e n e r s . " 2Project K2S9800

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He went on to describe the process behind his creation: Most people who own and appreciate fine sound repro- duction equipment look forward to the day when they will be able to assemble a system without limitation in just exactly the way they think it should be done. Periodically a manufacturer gets this same feeling ... The science of acoustics has provided us with basic principles-available to all for achieving precision reproduction. It is only a mat- ter of incorporating these methods into a system design, and then taking every bit of trouble necessary to build a system precisely to the design. "It isn't easy, but that's the way it is d o n e . " The R a n ge r- Pa rag o n ,JBL's second P ro j e c tsystem, was the first serious attempt at a reflecting speaker system, and broke ground in the new concept of stereo imaging. Essentially two inde- pendent full-range speaker systems installed in a handsome curved cabinet nearly 9 feet long, the Pa rag o n ' se n c l o- sure was treated as an extension of its transducers. In essence, the system had its own "built-in acoustics." In many respects the Pa rag o nanticipated loud- speaker developments that would occur years-and even decades-later. For nearly 30 years, the Pa rag o nr e - mained the most acoustically viable sound system for the home. To d a y, along with the H a r t s fi e l d, it is still the most sought-after speaker in the world. In 1986, JBLintroduced a new P ro j e c t system that retained the Pa rag o n ' so v e r-all sense of musicality while upgrading its character by incorporating three decades' worth of continuous develop- ment in every facet of its design. Its name reflected the pinnacle of achieve- ment it represented: P roject Evere s t . For the first time, the rest of the sound reproduction chain-and not the loud- speaker or its transducers-would impose limits on overall system performance. Like the Pa rag o nand H a r t s fi e l d , P roject Evere s twas built around com- pression driver technology and addressed a more refined stereo image than was previously considered techni- cally feasible. Since P roject Evere s twas introduced, sound recording and playback technolo- gy has undergone a revolution of its own. With the advent of CD, extremely demanding recorded signals had become the rule rather than the excep- tion-the average source material used by the typical audioenthusiast had become superior to the best demonstration mate- rial of even just a few years ago. In overall dynamics and transient response, transducers are once again a potential weak link in the high-end audio repro- duction chain. It was in this environment that JBLs e t out to create its fourth and fifth P ro j e c t loudspeakers, K2 S9500and K2 S5500. As with H a r t s fi e l d, the puritan simplici- ty of a two-way system was considered the most promising design track. Advances in transducer design and low frequency alignment would make the construction of a two-way system of 3