JBL 3677

[Music Lover]

Yes, that I have tried on and off a couple of times but it does not agree with my musician ear.

First: compare all cables one by one. Find the best two cables. Make a pair of them.
Second: compare that pair single wired with multi wired.
Third: please report back :)

[Spannko]

With single wire I also cannot tell when the musicians on a recording (analog) is in or out of tune with each other!

This is contrary to my experience.

Do you mean that it's easier to follow what instrument is playing, or it's easier to follow the tune of each instrument? I've heard many expensive "audiophile hifi" systems which allow one to clearly hear the different instruments being played, even down to finger noises on strings or spit on the reed etc. It's very easy to hear the individual notes being played. However, this is very different to each note being played in tune.

I think that this is a common misconception, not helped by Linn in the past suggesting that a good system allows one to "follow the tune", rather than suggesting that for a system to be considered fit for purpose, "the tune should be in tune".

[beck]

[Do you mean that it's easier to follow what instrument is playing, or it's easier to follow the tune of each instrument? I've heard many expensive "audiophile hifi" systems which allow one to clearly hear the different instruments being played, even down to finger noises on strings or spit on the reed etc. It's very easy to hear the individual notes being played. However, this is very different to each note being played in tune.[/

Neither!

We are now closing in on the one subject that is most important to me and the one subject that will get me
beaten up! :-)

As I have said for some time now. I do not believe modern (digital) hifi and recorded music in general can portray music in a way that satisfies a musician if he applies the same method of listening as when playing live.

In a live situation it is easy for a trained musician to hear if something is out of tune. Put him in front of a hifi system playing a modern recording he will not be able to tell you when things are in tune or not. It has all to do with how different notes can melt together creating "one" sound.

Put him in front of some old hifi system with an analog recording on an LP12 and he will be able to do it if the system has been setup the right way.

Is it worth it chasing this kind of sound being limited to analog recordings and vinyl? Most people will laugh but to me it matters.

I am still open to the fact that I can get that sound with single wire but I am not there yet.

Now this discussion should be moved elsewhere! :-)

[matthias]

Right now I'm evaluating three way mains Speakons, the models that are not silver plated (silver just never seems to work, I will at some later point tell you about some mad experiments I've made).

Fredrik,

in the meantime I checked the specs of the Powercons. All types have a silver plating of the contact surfaces between 2um and 4um. From a pure technical standpoint the TRUE1 seems to be the best, this type has 2um plating only and allows some nice power daisy chaining:

http://www.neutrik.com/en/audio/powerco ... ors/nac3px

Matt

[lejonklou]

Darn, you are right Matthias! It didn't say on the specification for the sockets, but I see now on the description of the plugs that they really are silver plated. Disappointed!

I will try them anyway. I have a specific intended use for these, and need two types which can't be accidentally exchanged. Therefore I'll be testing the blue and the grey PowerCon. They are keyed differently, so they only fit their own colour.

[matthias]

I will try them anyway. I have a specific intended use for these, and need two types which can't be accidentally exchanged. Therefore I'll be testing the blue and the grey PowerCon. They are keyed differently, so they only fit their own colour.

Please report back your experiences.

Matt

[ThomasOK]

My JBLs are now burning in. I did connect them to my system through Tundra Mono 2s briefly just to see how they sounded out of the box. This was a short listen in compromised circumstances (too far away from the back wall, incorrect stands, obviously not broken in) but I learned three things from it.

1) They do sound much more musical than you would expect from their looks and parentage.
2) They are quite sensitive to proper height. I tried them first on the floor and that did them no favors. Then I put them on top of the two most convenient boxed items that I thought (hoped) would handle their weight. The one on the box that was 13.5" high sounded pretty balanced, the one on the 11' high box sounded a bit bright and sibilant. I can see that getting them at the right height and well supported will be very important.
3) A pair of them facing you are even uglier than one of them!

I came up with a minimally annoying way to burn them in. They are face to face pressed together with a towel folded into four layers between the two horns. On top are my Kremlin, a Sagatun 1.1 and a Tundra 2. I have the Kremlin feeding the right channel to both left and right inputs on the Sagatun and one of the JBLs wired out of phase. So in the bass they mostly cancel each other out. Not as much in the upper mids and highs but the towel damps most of what is left. With it setup this way I was able to nut the Sagatun and it still wasn't loud at all. Set at what would normally be a pretty loud level with those speakers of around 54 it is pretty low close to them and barely audible in the next room. So I should be able to burn them in this way without annoying everybody.

[ThomasOK]

Almost forgot I had two questions when I started that post.

1) Has anybody tried moving the terminal cup to the back. I would think this might be a first step in improving their appearance, along with removing those JBL labels. Then the sides, top and bottom could be refinished in some manner.

2) Has anybody besides jajo hooked up the amazingly svelte matching subwoofer to these beasties? If so how is it going and how do you cross it over?

[lejonklou]

My JBLs are now burning in. ...

I agree with 1 and 2 but not with 3. I am starting to like their brutal looks!

I ran my pair in exactly like yours at level 60 in my lab! Face to face and foam around the horn. It was a bit midrange-noisy while working, but I was fine.

Then after a week I met the one and only family that actually live in the same industrial building where my lab is. And they were going nuts with the weird noises at night which they couldn't figure out the origin of! So there was only one week of breaking in this way...

Regarding your idea about the terminal cup, Erik have suggested putting the banana sockets on the rear when rewiring the 3677 with K400. I think it's a good idea.

Regarding the subwoofer, I only know of Jajo using it. We will soon test driving that sub with one bridged Tundra 2 or two bridged Tundra Mono 2. That'll be interesting. But the filtering is a challenge. He's using it as a .1 channel in a home theatre system with digital processing, so it's a bit different from an ultimate analogue system.

[cortina]

Has anyone tried them with a 345?

[jajo]

Has anyone tried them with a 345?

No, but I owned the 345 for a couple of years and although it is a great subwoofer I am pretty sure it would work very bad with 3677. It just isn't good enough.

/ Jacob

[Music Lover]

A short update.
WOW they are stunning these JBL's, stunning in all aspects.
I love their looks, how they sound and above all the music they make. Absolutely wonderful.

It's really strange how good they sound, despite using a compressor driver, horn and simple cabinet.
Effortless, light and fast.
They also provide details that I never heard before in the recordings. Weird.
High resolution true High End speakers, who had believed anybody stating this about a simple low cost JBL speaker designed for movie theatres?

Designed by JBL, no surprise they could play loud with great dynamics, but good sounding and musical??? No way!

And the X-over seems to be designed by somebody that understand the concept of musical understanding, as all modifications made them less musical.
Impressive!

[John]

A short update.
WOW they are stunning these JBL's, stunning in all aspects.
I love their looks, how they sound and above all the music they make. Absolutely wonderful.

It's really strange how good they sound, despite using a compressor driver, horn and simple cabinet.
Effortless, light and fast.
They also provide details that I never heard before in the recordings. Weird.
High resolution true High End speakers, who had believed anybody stating this about a simple low cost JBL speaker designed for movie theatres?

Designed by JBL, no surprise they could play loud with great dynamics, but good sounding and musical??? No way!

And the X-over seems to be designed by somebody that understand the concept of musical understanding, as all modifications made them less musical.
Impressive!

Love to see a picture how they look in your room.

Nice to see folks liking a loudspeaker with a 15 inch driver. Is there no replacement for displacement?

[fatjulio]

Do you need a Tundra to make the JBL's great, or would a Linn Akurate amp be sufficient?

[Ozzzy189]

Sell your akurate and buy a new tundra stereo 2.0A or get one off the for sale section, it's a relatively cheap upgrade for much greater performance,regardless of the speakers. These speakers have certainly got the majority of forum users interested in something they'd never usually even consider that's for certain.

[cortina]

I talked to a movie sound system installer about the 3677 and he was surprised to hear that people used it for hifi, considering the absence of low bass. And particularly so when hearing it was not installed in its typical manner (and thereby how it was designed?), which he said for cinema use is in a tight space on a shelf built into a wall. He thought they would lack even more bass when on a stand without support.

Anyone heard them in a cinema or tried similar installation? Would that remove much of the musical benefits?

[John]

45 - 12k HZ +- 3db might be better bottom end specs than what folks switching to them were getting from their previous loudspeaker. What they get above 45 HZ with the 15 inch might also be quite appealing. I imagine most folks are coming from loudspeakers with 6.5 - 8 inch bass drivers.

[lejonklou]

Anyone heard them in a cinema or tried similar installation? Would that remove much of the musical benefits?

That is how this thread started. Jajo is a movie freak with his own cinema (actually the best I have ever seen and heard!) with 3677 for Left, Center, Right. He has them mounted on a wooden frame, reinforced by steel columns, behind the screen.

The 3677 is also common in smaller sized commercial cinemas in Sweden.

[Music Lover]

Do you need a Tundra to make the JBL's great, or would a Linn Akurate amp be sufficient?

Not sure anyone tried them with Akurate but likely they will be just fine.

Jajo, you tried a few different amps, care to elaborate?

[Music Lover]

I also heard 3677 in a few commercial cinemas, great!
No idea what amps were used.

[cdy2179]

Hey guys... I have been a long time 3677 fan. Here's my review from a few years back. I also had the QSC 2150 cinema speakers as well and just went back to 3677.

http://www.avsforum.com/forum/89-speake ... rived.html

[lejonklou]

Hi cdy2179 and welcome here!

52 pages long that thread?! I certainly agree with your comments regarding detail and dynamics! But not regarding positioning (corners and angled in just doesn't work very well IMO).

What are you driving your 3677's with? On this forum, we are strong advocates of source first. Which in essence means that the source is most important, amplifiers come second and speakers are least important. Hard to believe when reading all this praise about the 3677, but I do feel that they very much deliver exactly what you feed them. No more and no less.

[cdy2179]

Thanks, it's cool to see the JBLs have gone global..:). As for the floor placements, In that Ht the corner option is all I had. They are now in a baffle wall behind the screen



These are the QSC 2150s I just sold and now the 3677 take their place.

No longer in a corner but where they were intended.. in a baffle wall behind a screen.

On AVS (construction and design section) we follow the best in the Home theater design business with a scientific approach to acoustics and performance. Effortless reference levels, multiple subs, phased and with measured responses confirming great bass at all seats, and proper room acoustics. It's based towards no compromise performance of Home theater. Being I'm hitting reference (but listen no louder than -5) I don't use my amp for the mains.. only for extra atmos channels. I found no improvements as power needed is very little with such sensitive speakers.

I use a Marantz SR7009. Subs are fed with an Inuke DSP3000. I also have aurguably the best cinema amp out there a QSC DCA amp (1644).

I demoed and owned many speakers, quality is of top priority. I've returned and lost money on so many. If they don't perform to my standards they're gone. Even my surrounds had to pass as mains to live in my HT.

I do understand this seems to be more of a Audiophile site than Home theater.. so we have similar yet different goals, but still chase after high quality audio. We're kinda room 1rst as it dominates what you hear and can be as much as 80% of sound power in a non treated room, then speakers and gear.

[ThomasOK]

Found some temporary stands (any update Linnofil?). They are more wobbly side to side than I would like but are steel and the right height.

Speakers have five weeks burn in so its about time to give them a spin. Any recommendation for distance from back wall?

[christian]

Any recommendation for distance from back wall?

Mine are positioned about 14 cm from the back wall.