Two cents.
Their build quality is fine but they make the ugliest looking speakers year after year.
Aesthetics are a very subjective judgment call.
lol how is Paradigm at the top of this list, they don't even have an equivalent product line to the flagships of some the other brands listed.
They have a physical appearance which fits with current fashion trends in decor. To most, aesthetics are at least as important as sound.
If I ever won a lottery Jackpot, I would be searching high and low to get a half dozen
JBL 4350BWX speakers. That said, I know that given their physical appearance, most people would shun these: They are quite ugly. Their "beauty" is definitely not aesthetic. There's a good chance the lady in my life would not ever allow those anywhere in our home, except for the one room designated as the "man-cave".
Anyways, I gave my vote to JBL. Though recently, there has been a definite decline in JBL's consumer grade speaker quality, like the horrible and thankfully short lived plasticky-looking "ES" line, but there now seem to be a bit of a reprieve. The new large models like the
L890 seem to be on the right track, if they can just ditch the cheap and silly looking plastic feet and give us black anodized or brushed aluminium feet instead... The return of horns is also an interesting development. The new studio line looks like it packs serious bang for the buck, and I wish I could hear them. Currently, JBL does not have have any "snooty" appeal, and the bad aesthetics of there products is just making things worse. I think this makes them an under-rated product. There is also lot of Harman-hate going around, because they made legendary upper-crust brands into large commercial successes, and brought more "consumer-oriented" products under these Famous brands.
I see a nice win for regular joes, but some high-end, high-priced gear purists see a vile sacrilege when prices come down. Never mind whether or not the product quality changed at all... When a brand becomes "common", they just have to ditch and dis it, merit no longer counts.
When I bought my E-60s, the JBLs had a much deeper bass response, and offered a more natural sound for clarinets, saxophones, cymbals and snares, which are the instruments which I listen for when judging speakers' correctness of sound. Then when I played Pink Floyd's "The Great gig in the sky", and Clare Torry's voice just exploded into the air in way that few speakers can achieve. Dave Brubeck's piano and accompanying cymbals for "Take five" got too clear, almost "screechy" on the Paradigms, and the sound of the PSBs and KEfs felt too flat.
For my S38II's in-store audition, I've faced the same results. I don't know what kind of benchmark results either these speaker series have, but both in store, and at home, powered by a Pioneer Elite, a Marantz AVR all of the Harman Kardon receivers I have used these with, both series of speakers have brought me great audio joy. Aside from my grippe about the plasticky facades when the grills are taken off, I can't find anything wrong with them.
Just my two cents.
