Studio Quality Sound at Home

JBL 4349 LOUDSPEAKERS

- Mark Henninger

WHEN IT comes to speakers, I've learned not to judge a design by its looks. But when you first meet a JBL 4349, it's impossible not to start thinking about the company's professional studio monitors. The prominent horn, with its curved and bulging shape, takes center stage. The woofer is hidden behind a removable cloth grill, while the horn remains exposed. This speaker takes the tried-and-true hardware combination of a 12" paper cone woofer plus a compression driver horn-loaded tweeter, combining them to deliver near-perfect sonic performance with refined precision.

FEATURES AND SETUP

The JBL 4349 is a passive two-way studio monitor designed and engineered by JBL in its acoustic engineering facility located in Northridge California. High frequencies come from a dual diaphragm 1.5-inch compression driver tweeter mounted to the HDI (High-Definition Imaging) horn.

JBL recommends up to 200 Watts RMS amplification for this 8-ohm speaker featuring 91 dB (2.83V/1m) sensitivity. It rates frequency response at 32 Hertz up to 25 kilohertz (-6 dB anechoic). The crossover point is set around 1.5 kilohertz. This is a very substantial speaker, each one weighs 83 pounds And measures 28x17.5x12.5 inches (HxWxD).

Unlike most speakers you'll encounter, the 4349s offer trim controls for high and ultra-high frequencies. You can tune the tweeter to your taste or to conform to a house curve, it's up to you. The amount of change that is allowed is small: +/-1.0 dB for each affected band, in 0.5 dB increments. I heard no good reason to touch these tweeter-tweaker controls, but they are super simple to use, you just need a penny or a dime (or a flathead screwdriver) to turn the tiny dials and make the adjustment.