Stand Loudspeaker Reviews

After break-in, I plugged my studio's monitor controller into the balanced analog inputs on the primary speaker using standard XLR cables. (The Neutrik universal-balanced sockets on the 4329Ps, which are common on pro and prosumer equipment, also allow a ¼" TRS connection.) I switched the input to balanced analog and cranked the volume up all the way to listen for hum or hiss. Hearing none, I turned the volume back down to a civilized level and listened to some music played back from the studio computer.

My downstairs space is about 10' × 20', with an 8' ceiling. I set up the 4329Ps down there as recommended in the user manual, toed-in 30°. They had a "horny" sound—a forward upper midrange—but they didn't scream, and their bass extension was impressive for medium-sized boxes. Set up this way, the soundstage was noticeably concave to the frontal plane of the speaker boxes.

I used my monitor controller to switch between the Amphion Two18 near-field speakers in the studio and the JBLs. These two sets of speakers sounded so different that it's hardly worth discussing. The Amphions are nearfield monitors, and I wouldn't use the JBLs that way: They are too large and voiced too bright. They would work for critical monitoring in the right room: A vigorous upper midrange can be an ally in mixing because it reveals the stereo soundstage vividly and will quickly expose an extraneous guitar buzz or squeaky drum pedal.

It was time to move the JBLs to the large listening room upstairs and do some serious listening.

In the listening room
Once again, I started with the 4329Ps toed in by 30°, as recommended, in front and toward the insides of where my B&W 808s usually stand. In that position, the JBLs' front corners were about 6.5' from the back wall and about a quarter of the way out into the living room.

Again, the center of the large and wide stereo image was concave and recessed, until I reduced the toe-in, ultimately to around 10°—same 3D stereo image but now with the center in line with the sides. Also now, the height of the image extended above the speaker boxes.

In the bigger room, the low end sounded less huge. The upper midrange behaved better with less toe-in, which makes sense because the tweeters were not now firing directly at my ears. But even so, these speakers still were not laid-back or demure. They were loud and proud, a sound quality I associate with JBL. Think 1980s soffit-mount studio monitors, though not as screaming in the top end. Or think 1970s L100s, which had cone tweeters and separate midrange drivers, though the 4329Ps were better behaved throughout the frequency spectrum.

I got the most enjoyable listening experience with the centers of the JBL woofers about 6' apart, sitting about 7' from the loudspeaker plane. With, for instance, the new remaster of Steely Dan's Countdown to Ecstasy (24/192 FLAC, Qobuz/Geffen Records) streaming via Roon, the different sounds placed between the center and sides sat right there in the stereo field, and the center was as well-defined as the sides. This album has plenty of little "Easter egg" surprise sounds, and they registered loud, clear, and where I expected them in the mix.

I invited some friends over to listen to some of their (and my) favorite music through the 4329P system. One member of the group, Dave, is a dedicated Apple gadget-geek. He immediately showed why AirPlay 2 is useful. With his iPhone, he texted a request to join my network, which I allowed with my iPhone. Then he streamed tunes from his Qobuz and Apple Music accounts to the speakers. My other friends were content to use my iPhone to select tunes from the Roon app or request specific songs, which I then streamed from Roon, often sourced from Qobuz.

None of these friends have horn tweeters in their home speakers, and all commented that the upper midrange of the 4329P was more forward and pronounced than they are used to. Other comments were favorable. A common theme was the impressive bass energy these relatively small speakers could generate in this relatively large room. The system's diverse connectivity options impressed. All agreed that a young (or old) streaming-centric person aiming to advance well beyond computer-desk speakers or the HomePod, etc., "smart speaker" thing would do well to audition the 4329P.

Old media
It was time to play records. I connected my Pro-Ject Phono Box RS2 phono preamp to the primary speaker using balanced XLR cables. My Technics SL-1200MK7 Anniversary Edition turntable was fitted with a vintage Shure V-15 Type III moving magnet cartridge. I have adjusted the output level of the Pro-Ject preamp so that the relative listening volume of vinyl is akin to similar music played from digital sources. (Recorded levels for vinyl vary somewhat, but not as much as for un-normalized digital recordings.) I've been enjoying two recent Craft Recordings reissues of 1970s

Fania Records salsa classics, Ray Barretto's Que Viva La Música (LP, Fania/Craft CR00553) and La Voz by Héctor Lavoe (LP, Fania/Craft CR00644). Both were recorded in Fania's Good Vibrations Sound Studios, by engineers skilled at capturing the dynamic and powerful sound of Latin percussion, several brass instruments playing full bore, and emotive singing. I could not understand the lyrics, so I looked up some translations online. There is plenty of drama in these songs, especially Lavoe's (footnote 6). Percussion sounded full-range and crisp. Side B of Barretto's album begins with "Cocinando," a Latin-funk classic, the theme music for the gritty and charming documentary Our Latin Thing (footnote 7). "Cocinando" is 10 minutes 10 seconds of intense beats and solos, typical of Barretto's long LP cuts going back to the title cut of his superb Fania debut, Acid (LP, Fania SLP 346). Craft gave these Fania records the full AAA treatment, with Kevin Gray cutting lacquers direct from the master tapes. They turned out well. Here's hoping there are more in the pipeline.

I mentioned earlier that the 4329P does a good job with the center image. This included playback of three LPs. On the Acoustic Sounds/Emarcy reissue of Clifford Brown and Max Roach's Study in Brown (LP, EMarcy AEMA 41201), the mid-'50s mono hi-fi sound was dead center, pleasantly wide but focused in the middle. Those horn tweeters were unforgiving of the overbright recording of Richie Powell's piano, but Brownie's trumpet sounded natural and not overly brassy. Harold Land's tenor sax sounded wonderful; he's an underrated player. George Morrow's bassline was firm and present, and Max Roach's drums snapped and popped in an exciting, not-exaggerated way.

On the vinyl version of All the Good Times (Are Past & Gone) (LP, ACNY-2015), by Gillian Welch and David Rawlings, the narrow, near-mono mix favored the left side, which made me wonder temporarily if there was a balance issue. But then, Summer of Soul (... Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised) Original Motion Picture Soundtrack (LP, Legacy 19439953321), made from the mono sound recorded to the 2" videotape captures of those 1969 concerts in Mount Morris Park, Manhattan, sat right in the middle. The fullrange, surprisingly detailed mixes projected out in the room on a sunny day heralded the arrival of summer.

Finally, I connected my Oppo DV-981HD universal disc player to the 4329P with an optical cable and spun some 5" discs. I had just received copies of the latest Mercury Living Presence box sets I produced and remastered for Eloquence Classics: two boxes of Antal Doráti and the Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra (footnote 8).

I dove in, spinning random parts of random picks from the mono and stereo-era boxes, enjoying in a new context what I had gotten to know well in the studio in 2021 and early '22. These mono recordings sounded full but focused in the center between the speakers. The soundstage was wide, high, and detailed, as it should be. Contained in those boxes are Doráti's famous recordings of Tchaikovsky's "1812" Overture—the mono version was the best-selling classical recording of the 1950s and an early hi-fi system test. The JBL woofers and ports did the job with that real-deal Napoleon-era French cannon. The stereo version, which also went Gold, was also a turntable torture test in its day, challenging systems with an even bigger cannon and the bells of Manhattan's Riverside Church. While the 4329Ps could not fill the living room with that huge sound, I was stunned by the realism of the cannon blasts, quick and chest-pounding percussive of not quite full bore, and by the width and height of the ringing bells—and also by the fact that the speakers survived to play another day.

On music with great dynamics, such as Gunther Schuller's Seven Studies on Themes of Paul Klee, the JBLs dug out subtle textures and details and showed no sign of trouble with fast percussive sweeps from ppp to fff. I pronounce this gadget able and ready to play classical music of any sort, or, for that matter, any other genre.

Summing up
The JBL 4329P is a complete audio system, lacking only music, which could be nothing more than a smartphone, an internet conection, and a streaming account. It can play files from a NAS, or, while it can't extract information from discs either silver or black, it can play that data back once it's extracted. Connectivity options are many and varied.

The 4329P has a retro look but sounds modern—classic big, bold, American JBL sound with better clarity than JBL speakers of yore. If you aren't accustomed to horn tweeters, try to listen first—JBL says that 200+ dealers carry it, or you can find it via an online retailer with a generous returns policy.

During the month it was a part of my life, the 4329P system provided many hours of enjoyable listening. The electronics work well and reliably. When used as a Roon endpoint, a phone app provides easy access to essentially endless musical possibilities. It plays well with vinyl and other disc players. So if your posture leans forward, toward the future, check out this innovative, high-fidelity gadget. I mean "gadget" in a good way.

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Footnote 6: Héctor Lavoe's life was quite dramatic and ultimately tragic. See bit.ly/3CLgh4T.

Footnote 7: See bit.ly/3JwYjXj.

Footnote 8: See bit.ly/43ZVnuN and bit.ly/434Am0B.