Surprise speakers from classic manufacturer 

Jan 9 - Let me begin with a correction: I am told by no less of an authority than Neil Gader that I was wrong yesterday when I complained about the Venetian Hotel not having a gondola. It does—floating in a little canal that meanders through the hotel’s grounds. Unfortunately the gondola doesn’t travel to the 29th, 30th, 34th, and 35th floors, which is where the Venetian’s high-end exhibits were ensconced. And it certainly doesn’t travel as far as the Hilton Hotel, which is where I went early Tuesday morning to hear JBL’s—yes, you read that right, the venerable firm of James B. Lansing’s—latest statement product, the $58k Everest DD66000 hybrid-horn loudspeaker.

Although JBL is no longer a brand that TAS readers associate with the ultra-high end, this wasn’t always the case. When I was a whippersnapper (which is to say, back when folks actually used words like “whippersnapper�), JBL made some of the sexiest horn loudspeakers money could buy, including the legendary Hartsfield and the very pricey Paragon. Apparently JBL, or Harman International, which now owns the brand, never stopped making the good stuff (its “K2� products); they just stopped aggressively marketing it in the U.S.

 The horn-loaded K2 S9800, which was shown at CES for the first time just a year or two ago (with Ayre electronics), won any number of prestigious awards in the Far East and Europe (and remains one of the flattest-measuring loudspeakers on the market). This year, to celebrate its 60th anniversary, JBL commissioned the Everest DD66000.

A classic “augmented� two-way, the DD66000 uses four superb new drivers designed by Jerry Moro: two massive high-tech fifteen-inch woofer with Alnico magnets, one of which only works to augment the bass from 150Hz down, the other all the way up to the Everest’s crossover point of 700Hz; one horn-loaded 476BE high-frequency compression driver equipped with a beryllium cone and massive neodymium magnet, which works from 700Hz to 20kHz; and one horn-loaded 045BE-1 ultra-high-compression driver, also equipped with a beryllium cone and neodymium magnet, which works from 20kHz to 40kHz. Fitted into a beautiful cabinet that looks rather like an updated Paragon, the Everest DD66000 is as thoroughly engineered as horn speakers get (short of Alon Wolf’s million-dollar monsters).

The best of it is that the Everest doesn’t just look great; it sounds fantastic—gorgeously rich in tone color, surprisingly full, open, extended, and of a piece, with great foundation and solidity from top to bottom and none of the “cupped hands� coloration or driver integration problems of the other high-end horn systems I’ve heard. A legitimate contender for “Best of Show,� the Everest DD66000 shows what is possible when a big company puts its mind to creating great sound.

Return to CES 2007 Report