JBL Project EVEREST DD66000 User Manual page 5

Project EVEREST DD66000
In this respect, Project EVEREST DD66000 is at once the most advanced and
sophisticated loudspeaker in the world today and a speaker whose technology
is deeply rooted in over 60 years of tradition. JBL's president in 1954, Willia m
Thomas, described the Hartsfield as "...the speaker system we have always
wanted to build ... the finest components ever made available to serious
listeners . "
He went on to describe the process behind his creation: "Most people who own
and appreciate fine sound reproduction equipment look forward to the day
when they will be able to assemble a system without limitation in just exactly
the way they think it should be done. Periodically a manufacturer gets this same
feeling ... The science of acoustics has provided us with basic
principles-available to all for achieving precision reproduction. It is only a
matter of incorporating these methods into a system design, and then taking
every bit of trouble necessary to build a system precisely to the design."
"It isn't easy, but that's the way it is done . "
The Ranger-Paragon, JBL's second Project system, was the first serious
attempt at a reflecting speaker system, and broke ground in the new concept of
stereo imaging. Essentially two independent full-range speaker systems
installed in a handsome curved cabinet nearly 9 feet (2.7 metre) long, the
Paragon's enclosure was treated as an extension of its transducers. In essence,
the system had its own "built-in acoustics." In many respects the Paragon
anticipated loudspeaker developments that would occur years-and even
decades -later. This "built-in acoustics" concept is inherited in the latest Project
EVEREST DD66000.
For nearly 30 years, the Paragon remained the most acoustically viable sound
system for the home. Today, along with the Hartsfield, it is still the most
sought-after speaker in the world.
In 1986, JBL introduced a new Project system that retained the Paragon's
overall sense of musicality while upgrading its character by incorporating three
decades' worth of continuous development in every facet of its design. Its name
reflected the pinnacle of achievement it represented: Project Everest. This was
the original Project EVEREST DD55000.
For the first time, the rest of the sound reproduction chain - and not the
loudspeaker or its transducers - would impose limits on overall system
performance. Like the Paragon and Hartsfield, Project Everest was built
around compression driver technology and addressed a more refined stereo
image than was previously considered technically feasible.