interesting vintage JBL

[Schu]

http://www.ebay.com/itm/JBL-Ranger-Paragon-D44000-Stereo-Speaker-James-B-Lansing-/160758173290?pt=Vintage_Electronics_R2&hash=item256def0e6a

[jplatel5000]

apparently they sound awesome. there was a beautiful one sitting at audio classics in Vestal NY a couple weeks ago. Never got a chance to listen to it though.

[djk]

Very expensive to ship. The curved board (which comes off) is huge and easily damaged.

[ZAKO]

THE CURVED PANEL SLIDES UP TO REMOVE..ITS BETTER FOR TWO PERSONS DO THIS,,,THE LEFT AND RIGHT HORN CABINETS UnCLAMP..SEPERATING VERY EASILY,, AS FAR AS SOUND,,,NOT TOO BAD,, BASS HORN A BIT SHORT,, ONLY THE MID DRIVERS (375) REFLECT OFF CURVED PANEL,,500hz to 7000hz,,, TWEETER (075) A BIT HOT FROM 7000 to 15000 hz AND DO NOT REFLECT OFF CURVED PANEL,,, OVER ALL SOUND A BIT WASHY,,, ALTHOUGH A BEAUTIFUL CABINET DESIGN...I WOULD NOT LOOK BACK ON THE PARAGON FOR ITS PERFORMANCE...I GOT RID OF MINE AT A GOOD PRICE..

[Panacea Engineering]

Maron,

Did you possibly HIT this by mistake.....?

[ZAKO]

NO I USE CAPS,, CAUSE I CAN READ IT BETTER,,, EYES ARE NOT AS GOOD AS MY EARS,,,I MIGHT ADD THE EARLY PARAGONS USED THE JBL 154-C WOOFERS,,,LATER PRODUCTION THEY USED JBL LE-15 WOOFERS

[djk]

View>Text Size>Largest may help you.

[thebes]

Maron, you lucky dog to have owned one of these. Sound aside, they are without a doubt one of the most beautiful speaker setups ever made.

Did you get yours new? What did they sell for back in the day? Anything else you'd care to share about them?

I would love to see one of these in person. Maybe I'd better plan a road trip to Vestal, New York. Haven't been in that town since Woodstock.

[annt]

I was lucky enough to see a Paragon about a year ago at an estate sale.

It was in beautiful condition and probably a steal at about $12,000.

It sounded wonderful. Very smooth.

There were 4 guys just sitting around who seemed hypnotized by it. They just sat there staring and listening while the estate sale shoppers seemed annoyed that these guys were just plopped in the middle of the living room getting in the way.

[ZAKO]

Thebes,,,,, In 1961 you could get a new one for $1860. Yes mine was new,,, I also bought the factory plans $36. And supervised building three more,,You couldnt tell the clones from my unit,,,although JBL provided the carved front legs and some metal hardware,,,,But from the back,, The factory unit had a embossed serial number in the wood,,,,The fit and finish of all units were exact,,,Even the way the curved panel was made in a special Jig was the built the same way,,,,Walnut was the preferred finish,,But i saw one rosewood,(factory) still being used in St Louis ,,,,,,, A special PRO version was designed with out the fancy ,,,what I call the outer dress skirt,,and carved legs..To be used behind a cinema screen (flat black),,,Ive only seen one of those,,,All though the general soud was like the JBL HARTSFIELD It didnt have the "SLAM" or dynamics i wanted to hear,,,So I moved on...Meeting Ashworth and Klipsch changed my direction of horn design,,,I still do not believe the Jubilee is finished and further development is needed..,,, BUT the PARAGON will still be considered a work of ART ,, JBL still are masters at that,,,Look at there flagship speaker the EVEREST II . JBL has moved away from folded bass horns but still use horns for the top end,, The JBL company is not the same any more ,,HARMON CORP has done its damage.. I hope Klipsch Co. Does not follow that fate..

[T.H.E. Droid]

Looks like the auction ended at a bit over $33,000, which seems a bit absurd to me. The Paragon series comes from a day when consoles were the rage. I certainly consider it to be a work of art from an industrial design standpoint, but the console design makes it a very limited speaker and JBL certainly was able to produce some better components later in its history. Since plans are available, I'd think any good cabinet maker could produce something in much more interesting woods and you could get more performance out of modern drivers. However, esthetics aside, I think there are a number of coherent designs on the market that will substantially outperform the paragons in every way, including snob appeal.

[ZAKO]

I dont think $33,000 is absurd for a piece of art,,, I have a painting worth more than that,,,As time marches on newer speaker designs will allways eclips the speakers of the past,,,, Remember the components inside the paragon were derived from PRO speakers,,, The JBL 375 mid driver was used over 30 years in cinemas and a dirivative also was used as a driver in a fog horn...The JBL 476 is a direct linage and is used in the JBL EVEREST ll ,,,,and is now the best HF driver JBL makes (500hz to 20K) Even the woofers now made by JBL ,,,the 1501AL out strip the old 150-4c at over two thousand each...That woofer (1501 AL) standing by itself is a industrial design work of art,,And to think JBL went back to ALNICO for its magnet.. I dont know anybody buying a speaker for its snob appeal...But more for its perfofmance...In fact i dont know anybody that is a snob,,Do you ??????

[djk]

Anyone want their 375 to sound like the 476?

Just change the diaphragm, they're backwards compatible.

[ZAKO]

NOT QUITE,,,, A TRUEXTANT Be diaphram is available for the JBL 375, 376 , 2440,2441 drivers,, But the 476 Be phram would cost you double,, Plus the phase plug design is different on the 476 and 2450 series..

[kaiser SET say]

THX Maron, every time I read you it's like a great book of knowledge and I'm fascinated! Good stuff Maynard[] Loved all the JBL's I've owned over the years which were my first starting with the L-36's, moved on to L-100's, then thought I'd get crazy and bought 4311B Control Monitors but ended with L-65 Jubals and still to this day one of my favs. I too think a pristine Paragon is a work of art and worth what that buyer paid, as a collector these will only go up in value to the right person[H]

[thebes]

Maron you are such a hoot.Given the age of our membership, most will recognize the word "hoot". I too will add, I've always looked forward to what you contribute here, and forget about the caps police. They should spend their energies on those c-phone typists who either don't know, or could care less about punctuation etc.

My god you must have been besides yourself on the day you took that console home. Was it a quiet neighborhood or did everybody crowd around like the first time a color tv showed up on my block?

Yes time marches on and sonics are probably better these days, and surely the console is not about to make a serious comeback. Although didn't I see something about Klipsch making a console?

Are these art? Oh yeah they are art! I suspect though these were snapped up for storage and future resale, or maybe by our old jazz aficionado for use in his hollywood set rental business. Either way I applaud you on your purchase that long ago day, and thank you for sharing.

[djk]

"NOT QUITE,,,, A TRUEXTANT Be diaphram is available for the JBL 375, 376 , 2440,2441 drivers,, But the 476 Be phram would cost you double,, Plus the phase plug design is different on the 476 and 2450 series.."

Close enough though.

I understand TRUEXTANT built the diaphragms for JBL, and yes, there is a minute difference in the phase plugs. There are three different generations of phase plugs in the 2441 alone, but all the diaphragms always fit (by design).

Now the Radian 950 has an extra slit in the phase plug (like the TAD), and will accept JBL diaphragms. I wonder how that sounds?

[ZAKO]

THEBES,,,, I dont know why its referred as a console...JBL referred the PARAGON as a MASTER MONITOR in perfecting stereophonic recordings and to give full field stereo reproductionfrom an enclosure of moderate size,,,BUT I felt the METRAGON did a better job at that,,,I HAD THAT ONE TOO,,, You could get the PARAGON OR METRAGON with a built in Amplifier called the ENERGIZER.. That unit (with plug in cards) could adjust the damping to match the speakers.... DENNIS,,Yes TRUEXTENT makes the phrams for the JBL 476,,,But it had to have the JBL diamond surround,,(exclusive to JBL) The other TRUEXTENT Be phrams have the MYLAR outer surround Like Radian,,and do not extend out as far in bandwidth,, The RADIAN 950-PB Is quite a driver,,,Their REP said its a TAD KILLER,,, NOT so,, BUT for us poor audio souls it is very good,,,and reasonable in price,,,,,,,THEBES,, I had the neighborhood jumping as long as they brought the beer,,,some times till two in the morning,, BUT GEORGE ASHWORTH a MONO man had a great Klipsch speaker with wing nuts on the side door,,,and did woofer switching as he developed chemical applications on his woofers ,,PWK then used that application to change the compliance on his woofers,,, THATS when I got the KHORN BUG,,, GEORGE used to cuss me out when i didnt comply to his scientific approach,,He was very strict,,and a great FOIL for PAUL KLIPSCH...They were good friends,, I guess i developed my cussing habits through Georg and can rant with the best of them,,,

[sheltie dave]

Carl and I can verify that Maron is more than adequate in his ranting ability![6]

We have had fun in midMissouri trying to implement some of the big M's kindly ranting modifications, with Carl taking a pronounced lead, and me being dragged kicking and screaming to make changes. Strange thing is, our systems both now sound better!

[JBryan]

A few years back, I was referred to a gent who could fix my Janis sub. The fella that sent me to him also mentioned that he had a collection of JBL speaks so when I went to his shop i mentioned that I had listened to a few prs of vintage JBL's in my system. He sparked right up and invited me to his house to see his collection...and what a collection. He didn't have a large house but every room had at least 3 prs of JBL speaks - Everests, Studiomasters and such in one bedroom; a Minigon in his BR; and of course, 2 Paragons, 3 pr of Hartsfields and a couple of huge studio monitors in the living room. There were many other speaks that I've forgotten but needless to say, it was quite an impressive grouping of classic JBL.

Several speakers were hooked up to vintage tube gear (Marantz, Scott, Fisher - he didn't like McIntosh gear for whatever reason) and we listened to classical selections through the Hartsfields, Paragons and the monster studio speaks. I preferred the studio monitors by a wide margin though the Hartsfields sounded wonderful if a bit laid back and lacking anywhere near the powerful bottom end of the monitors (dual 15" woofers will do that). The Paragons, while beautiful speakers, didn't sound at all impressive - very thin and veiled with a not so surprisingly small soundstage. I'm sure the room and gear had something to do with it but this guy restored every speaker in that house to spec or better and he obviously knew what he was doing (he owns a pro sound company, setting up and running systems for concerts). He even fired up the Minigon in his bedroom but he was using a Lafayette receiver and could only play the radio - it sounded half as good as the Paragon which is to say, not very good at all - but it was pretty.

After a couple of hours, we went back to his shop and before I left, he showed me a room full of future restoration projects - all JBL except a couple of ancient Jensens and a Patrician with a 30" woofer. I told him to call me when he had those up and running. He's repaired a few vintage speakers for me since but I have yet to be invited back to see his collection. He did say that he's bought and sold a few Hartsfields and a Paragon and sent all of them to Japan. The way he talked, we soon wont have any of these classic speakers left in the USA.