JBL 4401 _Haut-Parleurs d’étagère

(HP1035)

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Made in USA, Los-Angeles, California

Monitor studio

Shortform specification

Before we begin this review, who are JBL?

In 1927, one of the original pro-audio companies, Western Electric, pioneered cinema sound with 'The Jazz Singer'. In the Wall Street crash of 1929, Western Electric was split up. From the ashes, came Westrex (who are today still involved in the movie/video side of the business) and Altec, short for 'All technicians', because the new company's bosses and founders were the technical people from Western Electric. Most notable of these was James Buoloh Lansing, and when he became president, Altec took on his surname, thus Altec-Lansing. Like Western Electric, Altec-Lansing's main business was in cinema sound, but along with RCA, this is where high-power, large-scale sound reinforcement was pioneered, horn speakers being their forte.

In 1940, Lansing sold his shares and later set up his own, competing company, with an emphasis on speakers. Lansing was subsequently killed in a plane crash in the late 40s, but the company he founded - James B. Lansing Inc. - or 'JBL' as it's better known, has gone from strength to strength.

The bookshelf-sized 4401 is essentially a development of the 4301 broadcast monitor. Power capacity has been up rated to 60 watts, and the tweeter has been redesigned. A 2-way system, the bass and mid are handled by a 6½" driver, Thiele-loaded, with a laminated and specially treated paper cone. The idea here is to prevent breakup which could otherwise be held responsible for anomalies in the heart of the midrange. The tweeter comes in at 2-5 kHz.

Construction

Like other top American monitor speakers, the 4401 has a tweeter attenuator which can be used to roughly match the top-end sound to your taste or compensate for room acoustics. Adjustable from the front panel (with or without the grille present), the usable range is -12 to +3 dB; going beyond -12 dB, the attentuation increases rapidly to minus infinity so you can shut off the tweeter altogether.