JBL 3677

[Ozzzy189]

I was wondering if the base unit of an atacama evoque rack would be OK for a stand, or even a shelf?

[Ozzzy189]

http://www.digitalhighstreet.com/atacam ... AnYA8P8HAQ

[Music Lover]

Any recommendation for distance from back wall?

Mine are positioned about 14 cm from the back wall.

I have mine around that value as well and think other owners end up with similar distances, so a safe bet is starting close to the wall Thomas.

Going to be very exiting to get your thoughts including the comparison with ATC, Isobarik and what have you...
I think you going to be thrilled :)

Note - before you listen to 3677, how many weeks of 24/7 burn-in have they? And how loud? They need heavy beating for some weeks. Don't get me wrong they are great out of the box but going to be wonderful over time.

[John]

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?

I wonder if a couple Sound Organisation turntable stands would work fairly well for a speaker that size.

[ThomasOK]

John, the Sound Org stands would be a bit high but might not be too bad, however I don't have two of them handy.

Music Lover, my 3677s have been burned in at a fair level (about 55, 56 on Sagatun/Tundra 2) 24/7 for 5 weeks.

The stands I have are bit wobbly side to side but pretty solid front to back and they are just about the right height at 14". I have done a bit of listening Monday night and again last night and I have to say that so far they seem quite good. I can't say at this time whether they are as musical as the passive ATCs but will compare more after these have been up for a week or so. I did listen to the ATCs just before switching to the JBLs but the difference in the sound and the bad original JBL position (about as close to the wall as I could get) plus the time in between made the comparison unreliable. I realized they were too close to the wall and pulled them out to about 2.5" away and that was much better.

Yesterday, after the advice on here, I pulled them out to 5.5" (about 14cm) but I didn't like it as much as where they had been. Then I moved them back to 4.25" and it was better but still lacking a bit so I moved them to 3.25" and was pleased enough to leave them there for now. One problem that I hope to confirm tonight is that my stands have tubular steel uprights that are capped top and bottom with plastic caps. I believe that after moving them it takes a while for the speakers and stands to settle in. I noticed that the 3677s sounded significantly better when I first played them last night than they had at the end of the day before, which I put down to this theoretical settling. When moving the speakers I found that, even though they seemed more tuneful a little farther out from the wall, they still didn't have all the musicality the did when I first played them last night. Tonight I will again play them without moving them and see if I hear the same improvement.

Regardless of how the battle goes between these and the ATCs these are already obviously very good speakers and a steal for the money. They certainly sound nothing like their looks would suggest.

[Music Lover]

Please move them a cm at the time, not as much as over an inch. You may miss a performance peak.

Note, during breakin they can change the performance a lot in just a day. Rather strange.
That is propably the reason, for the performance flukturations between days.

[John]

Thomas,

The old SO stands I have with the welded bottom spikes are 14 inches tall. I'd offer you mine but one is a printer stand in our bedroom and the other one is a side table in our 3 season porch.

[ThomasOK]

I didn't realize that the SoundOrg stands were that low. A pair of them might indeed work well as a temporary stand. I guess I am used to the ArchiDee which are a bit taller.

I do plan on revisiting the positioning as I have more time. I might move the Yggdrasil/LS-NAS out of the way so I can slide the whole system to the left and not have it protrude into the hall.

The stands I have for now are actually really cheap expandable shoe racks. But the uprights are tubular steel capped top and bottom with plastic caps and are 14" high. They are 9.5" deep and 24" wide (expandable to 45") so they support the JBLs near the outside corners. The four steel tubes that run left to right have a smaller steel tube inside that can slide out to extend them and attaches to some flat steel pieces that are welded front to back. It is these steel straps that allow some side to side flex. They seem OK for now. You can see them in the videos I posted on the Playground... thread.

I will be keeping these units stock until I make up my mind about whether they or the ATCs will be my "permanent" living room residents. I know that internal rewiring and moving the crossovers into external boxes will improve the musicality and I have the parts to do it. However, the same likely applies to the ATCs so they have the same handicap and are on equal footing. Whichever I keep will get the external crossover treatment. The other will be easier to sell if kept stock. Plus, if I decide on the 3677s I may want to have the cabinets painted which would require the removal of the crossovers and drivers and I would probably move the connectors to the back and fill the terminal cup hole.

[Music Lover]

14" is 2" high, anything you can find that is lower?
I use books until getting proper stands.

[ThomasOK]

14" is 2" high, anything you can find that is lower?
I use books until getting proper stands.

Now you guys are changing things up on me. Christian said 35cm which is 13.8". So has this changed?

[lejonklou]

14" is 2" high, anything you can find that is lower?
I use books until getting proper stands.

Now you guys are changing things up on me. Christian said 35cm which is 13.8". So has this changed?

No, still 35 cm or 13.8". I think ML has miscalculated.

[tokenbrit]

.. will be easier to sell if kept stock.

If you prefer your ATCs I'd be happy to give the JBLs a listen and quite possibly a new home ;)

[ThomasOK]

An interesting thought crossed my mind the other day. Since I first picked up the Hi-Fi habit in the early 70s there have been only four speakers that have really astounded me with the quality of their midrange:
The Quad ESL
The Linn Isobarik DMS/PMS
The ATC SCM100ASL
The JBL 3677
Interesting that we have an electrostatic Mylar membrane, a 5" doped Bextrene cone, a 3" doped fabric dome and an 15" paper cone. These four could hardly be more different. So much for set ideas of what works and what doesn't.

[anthony]

An interesting thought crossed my mind the other day. Since I first picked up the Hi-Fi habit in the early 70s there have been only four speakers that have really astounded me with the quality of their midrange:
The Quad ESL
The Linn Isobarik DMS/PMS
The ATC SCM100ASL
The JBL 3677
Interesting that we have an electrostatic Mylar membrane, a 5" doped Bextrene cone, a 3" doped fabric dome and an 15" paper cone. These four could hardly be more different. So much for set ideas of what works and what doesn't.

I would add spendor bc1 to my list!

[Music Lover]

14" is 2" high, anything you can find that is lower?
I use books until getting proper stands.

Now you guys are changing things up on me. Christian said 35cm which is 13.8". So has this changed?

No, still 35 cm or 13.8". I think ML has miscalculated.

Yes, I slipped on the Calculator keyboard, really sorry!!

[ThomasOK]

An interesting thought crossed my mind the other day. Since I first picked up the Hi-Fi habit in the early 70s there have been only four speakers that have really astounded me with the quality of their midrange:
The Quad ESL
The Linn Isobarik DMS/PMS
The ATC SCM100ASL
The JBL 3677
Interesting that we have an electrostatic Mylar membrane, a 5" doped Bextrene cone, a 3" doped fabric dome and an 15" paper cone. These four could hardly be more different. So much for set ideas of what works and what doesn't.

I would add spendor bc1 to my list!

That was almost the fifth one on my list! After hearing the Quad ESL and deciding it wouldn't fit in my room I heard the BC1 and felt it was the closest to the ESL I'd heard in a box speaker so I bought a pair. But as I'd heard the Quads first it wasn't quite as impressive. I did end up buying the Quads later.

[cdy2179]

Why are you guys removing the crossover? This speaker takes weeks to break in. Any audible improvements would probably be due to break in and not moving the crossover. The way it's mounted the drivers should have no effect on it. Also every room is different so following someone else setup to the inch really won't give the same results. Besides these are meant to be in a baffle wall. If you want to squeeze everything from them, that's where it's at, they are designed to work best in one and also get rid of the baffle step.

I will say, my first time owning them I upgraded insulation to r13 as the JBL lining is really thin. It made an audible difference, but I waited for break in first.

[Music Lover]

but I waited for break in first.

Interesting! Please tell me more about the break in.
When did you get them? How many hours/day are you playing? On soft or high volume?
How many weeks did it take until they were good? Have they changed after that?

[cdy2179]

but I waited for break in first.

Interesting! Please tell me more about the break in.
When did you get them? How many hours/day are you playing? On soft or high volume?
How many weeks did it take until they were good? Have they changed after that?

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

I ran them non stop at moderate levels for a few weeks. They changed quite a bit. This has been confirmed by a few other guys that own them. You can read about it above.

[lejonklou]

Some enthusiasts are wondering what's happening, so here is a very brief update:

I have my pair of 3677 at home now, on the stands made by Linnofil. Speakers are not fully burned in yet, which is apparent by their performance still varying (both in sound and musicality) from day to day.

Currently I am comparing variations of the stand. Linnofil has shipped me a new bottom frame, which has some new parts and is welded in a different way. I've made recordings with the old versus the new frame, they sound quite different. But I will go back and forth yet another time between these two, as there are multiple other factors that could potentially skew the outcome of the comparison (exact position and height, stability, pressure on each of the Skeets, torques etc).

Passive filter is still original and inside the cabinet. I will experiment with these later and be careful to evaluate each step along the way.

How do they sound? Well, it's difficult to explain - or even understand - how good they are. Every piece of music I play is flowing so effortlessly. It's so much fun. As Christian and Erik have mentioned, especially classical music becomes so much more rewarding and easy to understand. It's like an open window against the orchestra.

They are also extremely revealing of the incoming signal, the exact position, the stability etc.

[ThomasOK]

I thought it was time I put an update on this thread. I have to say that I find the JBLs to be more musical, giving better insight into the music and just being more fun than my ATCs. This is despite the fact that I don't have the proper stands yet nor have I done the crossover repositioning mod. This difference many have heard from the clips I posted here:

http://www.lejonklou.com/forum/viewtopi ... &start=250

I found this to be true with a number of tracks I did the comparisons with. Indeed one track my friends brought with them was a female vocalist that on the ATCs I found a bit annoying. On the JBLs I still wasn't in love with the cut but did find it listenable. When I mentioned it to the person who brought the album he admitted that this tendency to be annoying with all but the best of setups was one of the reasons he had brought that album with him.

Anyway, after the listening session with the ATCs I had Debbie listen to the ATCs and then switched the JBLs back in. She found that midrange better but, being a bass freak, said that she liked the ATCs better. I mentioned that there was a subwoofer for the JBLs and her comment was "Get one in and then we'll talk." ;-) I have not bothered hooking the ATCs back up since then.

I do plan on getting the matching JBL subwoofer and there are a couple of us bothering Fredrik to come up with a crossover for stereo systems with the sub in it. In the meantime I am on the lookout for a crossover I think might be suitable as an interim unit.

Anyway, I think the best indication of my feelings on these speakers is the fact that I just put my ATCs up for sale. Their sale will more than easily fund the subwoofer (which I already have the space mapped out for), the stands and the crossover.

[Charlie1]

Glad to hear they have been worth the effort.

Do you listen to much classical music Tom? My system has made great steps forward over the years but classical music has never replicated these gains. It's got better but not to the same extent. Fredrik's recent report that he finds classical much more enjoyable on the 3677s would be a major draw for me. Just wondered if you've had a similar experience.

[ThomasOK]

Glad to hear they have been worth the effort.

Do you listen to much classical music Tom? My system has made great steps forward over the years but classical music has never replicated these gains. It's got better but not to the same extent. Fredrik's recent report that he finds classical much more enjoyable on the 3677s would be a major draw for me. Just wondered if you've had a similar experience.

I don't listen to classical music anywhere near as much as I do prog, jazz, rock, etc. despite the fact that I probably have some 300 classical records in my collection. But I do listen to it from time to time as the mood strikes. I noticed that comment from Fredrik as well and it intrigued me. So the weekend before last I sat down and listened to Holst: The Planets on my favorite rendition, William Steinberg and the Boston Symphony Orchestra on a mid-70s DG recording. I certainly can't give you any kind of A/B comparison but I did find it very enjoyable on the JBLs and listened to the entire album.

[fatjulio]

This makes me wonder if any of the JBL surround speakers have the same magic as the 3677. Could they be used in a small system as bookshelf speakers?

[cdy2179]

This makes me wonder if any of the JBL surround speakers have the same magic as the 3677. Could they be used in a small system as bookshelf speakers?

I've owned the JBL 8330a and 8340a. I tested in two channel and both were worthy of being a boat anchor IMO. I couldn't sell them fast enough!