Legacy - JBL Project K2 S9900 Product Commentaries And User Manual

Project K2 S9900
CHAPTER 1
Legacy – the Historical Development of the JBL Project Loudspeakers
Of those who have sought perfection in sound reproduction, only a few have
actually come close. For one thing, it is a costly process. It is rare indeed when
an individual or group is able to triumph over the constraints of economic and
technological realities even once.
At JBL, Inc., this has happened eight times. In each case, JBL engineers were
told to build the speaker system they had always wanted to build. Whatever
resources were required would be made available. Thus began an ongoing search
for new frontiers in sound reproduction, beginning in the mid-1950s and
continuing to the present day.
The results of this venture are now known as the JBL Project loudspeakers.
Each model represents the absolute peak of every technological, material and
engineering innovation available at the time, combined into a single system.
They are the Hartsfield, Paragon, Project Everest DD55000, K2 S9500/7500,
K2 S5500, K2 S9800, K2 S5800 and, most recently, Project Everest DD66000.
Although differing in performance details and physical attributes, all of the
Project loudspeakers have shared a common objective – to elevate sound
reproduction to levels defined only by the limitations of existing materials and
technology. The fact that all Project speakers have many common features –
despite a spread of nearly 60 years – is a testimony to the excellence of the
technology and manufacturing techniques upon which the JBL brand was built.
The K2 S9900 continues this trend.
Defining the Project Concept
The Hartsfield began a JBL tradition that continues today. First, engineer a product
as close to perfection as possible. When it reaches that level, make it better.
In 1954, the Hartsfield was significant in representing not new technology,
but rather a new level of technical manufacturing, in the spirit of the approach
pioneered by James B. Lansing some 20 years before. Like its Project series
successors, it was a high-efficiency system incorporating compression driver
technology and combining the qualities of high-output, low-distortion,
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