How odd that you interpret a First Look article I did at CEDIA as a "glowing review". Perhaps next time reading the page title and the actual content instead of making a misinformed post would be a more prudent course of action.
But, in the earlier review, the floorstanding model was being criticised for lack of deep bass, based solely on printed specifications. Incidentally, JBL has justified the move to smaller woofers on many of their floorstanding models, with a desire to create more slender models that have "spouse approval factor", and they say that with greater cabinet depth, that they can achieve deep bass with 8" woofers. They also say, that because many consumers will use these speakers with a subwoofer, that this is "a winning combination".
Hopefully soon, we WILL know if the Studio LS series justifies it's radically higher price tag, versus the mass-market Studio L series. I still maintain that the market for speakers with horn-loaded drivers will always be dominated by Klipsch. Because speakers with horn-loaded drivers are their main business, they can deliver a product similar to JBL's Studio LS series(comparable drivers,though less stylish cabinetry) at a drastically lower price.
To the casual observer, it appears that JBL has been standing still(creatively) in the past 3 years. In reality, they have been developing and manufacturing new products. They just won't sell them in the U.S.A. Believe me: I'd love to own a set of JBL TL 260BQ's(a revised version of their classic L250ti), but JBL won't sell them on this side of the world.
Don't get me wrong: I am a fan of JBL speakers. My home theater system(though it's in a bedroom,not a specially designed space) has been using JBL speakers for the past 6 years. My existing JBL's have all the low frequency power that I could ever want. But the audiophile in me thirsts for clearer, cleaner midrange and high frequencies. More recent JBL's may indeed have clearer, cleaner midrange & high frequency sound, but by sacrificing deep bass in pursuit of that "spouse approval factor". I'm single, so I don't have to be concerned about whether anyone disapproves of my audio, video & CD/DVD collecting obsessions.
