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Own these too....

Posted by 2chJunkie (A) on February 23, 2012 at 06:34:57

In Reply to: JBL Monitor Amp help posted by paul 4430 on February 20, 2012 at 11:39:11:

I dont profess to know it all about these babies. Ive only had them about 2 years.

But been driving them with their passive Xovers in tact, using 60 watt (I use them in pentode rather than triode) mono blocks. Currently using NOS Valves VRD mono blocks, which are 6550 push pull, with 5AR4 rectifier, 12AU7 into 12AX7 preamp stage. The preamp is a Tubes4hifi tube preamp. Its model SP12 with some souped up tweaks. Its a dual 12AU7 per channel design.

For my tastes and room size (which isnt super large) these go VERY loud! You have to turn the volume up to painful levels to make it sound like the amps are being pushed too hard. And Im somewhat young and like to play loud at times and Im telling you, the 60 watts these amps deliver have more than enough power to make these speakers sing without strain.

I understand over the years many folks say they need 200+ watts of SS power to sound their best. I may never know. Personally Ive never felt Ive been missing anything. And so far Ive always been a tube guy since getting into high end audio. Just been drawn to the sound and havent felt Ive missed anything with the selection process Ive done.

Ive also driven these with a 15 watt EL84 amp. And they sound great at moderate to low levels. When wanting to jam loud it cant drive them. No surprise there. Really short of crazy hard to drive speakers, I think a 6550 PP amp would suit most peoples needs. Granted if your a VERY anal / detailed oriented listener, maybe 60 tube watts wont do it for you. Fine, totally understandable. But for the average person, Id guess it would be satisfying. Ive been so happy with these amps and these speakers.

About the 4430. I can EASILY see how these speakers might not be for everyone. They dont do super tweeter highs AT ALL. What a shock knowing their design :-). Fine by me. They have a "live" sound to me. You can tell your listening to a horn but its not offensive. Ive also owned JBL L300s and the sound didnt do it for me. They did allot well but that old school JBL conical horn just doesnt jive with me. Overall the 4430 do have a flat sound to them. But are far from boring. Yes their bass is very pronounced. However I dont find it bloated or overblown. Also their upper mid is ok considering its only a 15" and a horn. Sure they are not the last word in detail but what they do to most music wins me over. Id classify them as forgiving. Its a sound one either really likes or its just not for them.

Hope you love yours. I dont see them going down in value for a while. Their well deserved cult following will keep em alive for a bit more.

Keep us posted on your experience.

All the best

Dave

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