JBL is an American audio equipment manufacturer headquartered in

Los Angeles, California Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

, United States. JBL serves the customer home and professional market. The professional market includes studios, installed/tour/portable sound, cars, music production, DJ, cinema markets, etc. JBL is owned by

Harman International Harman International Industries, commonly known as Harman (stylized in all-uppercase as HARMAN), is an American audio electronics company. Since 2017, the company has been an independent subsidiary of Samsung Electronics. Headquartered in Stam ...

, a subsidiary of

Samsung Electronics Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. (, sometimes shortened to SEC and stylized as SΛMSUNG) is a South Korean multinational corporation, multinational electronics corporation headquartered in Yeongtong-gu, Suwon, South Korea. It is the pinnacle of ...

. JBL was founded by

James Bullough Lansing James Bullough Lansing (born James Martini, January 2, 1902 – September 29, 1949) was a pioneering American audio engineer and loudspeaker designer who was most notable for establishing two audio companies that bear his name, Altec Lansing and ...

(1902–1949), an American audio engineer and loudspeaker designer best known for establishing two audio companies that bear his name,

Altec Lansing Altec Lansing, Inc. is a U.S. audio electronics company founded in 1927. Their primary products are loudspeakers and associated audio electronics for professional, home, automotive and multimedia applications. Engineers at Western Electric, wh ...

and JBL, the latter taken from his initials.

History

Lansing and his business partner Ken Decker started a company in 1927, in Los Angeles, manufacturing six- and eight-inch

speaker driver An electrodynamic speaker driver, often called simply a speaker driver when the type is implicit, is an individual transducer that converts an electrical audio signal to sound waves. While the term is sometimes used interchangeably with the ...

s for radio consoles and radio sets. The firm was named '' Lansing Manufacturing Company'', from March 1, 1927. In 1933, head of the

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc., also known as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures and abbreviated as MGM, is an American film, television production, distribution and media company owned by amazon (company), Amazon through MGM Holdings, founded o ...

(MGM) sound department,

Douglas Shearer Douglas Graham Shearer (November 17, 1899 – January 5, 1971) was a Canadian American pioneering sound designer and recording director who played a key role in the advancement of sound technology for motion pictures. The elder brother of ac ...

, dissatisfied with the loudspeakers of

Western Electric The Western Electric Company was an American electrical engineering and manufacturing company officially founded in 1869. A wholly owned subsidiary of American Telephone & Telegraph for most of its lifespan, it served as the primary equipment ma ...

and

RCA The RCA Corporation was a major American electronics company, which was founded as the Radio Corporation of America in 1919. It was initially a patent trust owned by General Electric (GE), Westinghouse, AT&T Corporation and United Fruit Comp ...

, decided to develop his own. John Hilliard, Robert Stephens, and John F. Blackburn were part of the team that developed the

Shearer Horn A shearer is someone who shears, such as a cloth shearer, or a sheep shearer. Origins of the name include from near Bergen in Norway 1600s weden of that periodas ''Skea'' (pronounced "Skeg" meaning "beard") and Heddle (meaning market place) as mig ...

, with Lansing Manufacturing producing the 285

compression driver A compression driver is a small specialized diaphragm loudspeaker which generates the sound in a horn loudspeaker. It is attached to an acoustic horn, a widening duct which serves to radiate the sound efficiently into the air. It works in a "co ...

and the 15XS bass driver. The Shearer Horn gave the desired improvements and Western Electric and RCA received the contracts to each build 75 units. Western Electric named them ''Diaphonics'', and RCA used them in their

RCA Photophone RCA Photophone was the trade name given to one of four major competing technologies that emerged in the American film industry in the late 1920s for synchronizing electrically recorded audio to a motion picture image. RCA Photophone was an opt ...

s. Lansing Manufacturing was the only firm selling them as Shearer Horns. In 1936, the Shearer Horn received the

Academy Scientific and Technical Award The Scientific and Technical Awards are three different Honorary Awards that are given by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) during the annual Academy Awards season. The Awards have been presented since the 4th Academy Awards ...

from the

Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS, often pronounced ; also known as simply the Academy or the Motion Picture Academy) is a professional honorary organization with the stated goal of advancing the arts and sciences of motio ...

Lansing Iconic multicell horn speaker 1937

Based on the experience developed with the Shearer Horn, Lansing produced the Iconic System loudspeaker for cinemas. The Iconic was a

two-way speaker A loudspeaker (commonly referred to as a speaker or speaker driver) is an electroacoustic transducer that converts an electrical audio signal into a corresponding sound. A ''speaker system'', also often simply referred to as a "speaker" or "l ...

using a 15-inch

woofer A woofer or bass speaker is a technical term for a loudspeaker driver designed to produce low frequency sounds, typically from 50 Hz up to 1000 Hz. The name is from the onomatopoeic English word for a dog's bark, " woof" (in contrast to th ...

for the low frequencies and a compression driver for the highs. In 1939, Decker was killed in an airplane crash, the company soon began having financial troubles and, in 1941, Lansing Manufacturing Company was bought by Altec Service Corporation, after which the name changed to "

". After Lansing's contract expired in 1946, he left Altec Lansing and founded Lansing Sound in which later the name changed to "James B. Lansing Sound" and was further shortened to "JBL Sound". In 1946, JBL produced their first products, the model D101 15-inch loudspeaker and the model D175 high-frequency driver. The D175 remained in the JBL catalog through the 1970s. Both of these were near-copies of Altec Lansing products. The first original product was the D130, a 15-inch transducer for which a variant remained in production for the next 55 years. The D130 featured a four-inch flat ribbon wire

voice coil A voice coil (consisting of a former, collar, and winding) is the coil of wire attached to the apex of a loudspeaker cone. It provides the motive force to the cone by the reaction of a magnetic field to the current passing through it. The term ...

and

Alnico Alnico is a family of iron alloys which in addition to iron are composed primarily of aluminium (Al), nickel (Ni), and cobalt (Co), hence the acronym ''al-ni-co''. They also include copper, and sometimes titanium. Alnico alloys are ferromagnetic, ...

V magnet. Two other products were the 12-inch D131 and the 8-inch D208 cone drivers. The

Marquardt Corporation Marquardt Corporation was an aeronautical engineering firm started in 1944 as ‘’’Marquardt Aircraft Company’’’ and initially dedicated almost entirely to the development of the ramjet engine. Marquardt designs were developed from t ...

gave the company early manufacturing space and a modest investment. William H. Thomas, the treasurer of Marquardt Corporation, represented Marquardt on Lansing's board of directors. In 1948, Marquardt took over operation of JBL. In 1949, Marquardt was purchased by General Tire Company. The new company, not interested in the loudspeaker business, severed ties with Lansing. Lansing reincorporated as James B. Lansing and moved the newly formed company to its first private location, on 2439 Fletcher Drive, Los Angeles. A key to JBL's early development was Lansing's close business relationship with its primary supplier of Alnico V magnetic material, Robert Arnold of Arnold Engineering. Arnold saw JBL as an opportunity to sell Alnico V magnetic materials into a new market. Lansing was noted as an innovative engineer, but a poor businessman. Decker, his business partner, had died in 1939 in an airplane crash. In the late 1940s, Lansing struggled to pay invoices and ship product. Possibly as a result of deteriorating business conditions and personal issues, he committed suicide on September 4, 1949. The company then passed into the hands of Bill Thomas, JBL's vice-president. Lansing had taken out a $10,000 life insurance policy, naming the company as the beneficiary, a decision that allowed Thomas to continue the company after Lansing's death. Soon after, Thomas purchased Mrs. Lansing's one-third interest in the company and became the sole owner. Thomas is credited with revitalizing the company and spearheading a period of strong growth for the two decades following the founding of JBL. Early products included the model 375 high-frequency driver and the 075 ultra high frequency (UHF) ring-radiator driver. The ring-radiator drivers are also known as "JBL bullets" because of their distinctive shape. The 375 was a re-invention of the Western Electric 594 driver but with an Alnico V magnet and a four-inch voice coil. The 375 shared the same basic magnet structure as the D-130 woofer. JBL engineers Ed May and

Bart N. Locanthi Bartholomew Nicholas Locanthi II (White Plains, New York, 1919 – Glendale, California, January 9, 1994) was an audio engineer and leading expert in the US pro-audio industry in the 1970s and 1980s. Education Bart Locanthi graduated from Ca ...

created these designs. Two products from that era, the Hartsfield and the

Paragon Paragon may refer to: Places *Paragon, Indiana, a town in the United States * Paragon, Nebraska, former community in the United States *The Paragon, Bath, a Georgian street in the Walcot area of Bath * The Paragon, Blackheath, London, built by Mi ...

, continue to be highly desired on the collectors' market. In 1955, the brand name JBL was introduced to resolve ongoing disputes with Altec Lansing Corporation. The company name "James B. Lansing Sound, Incorporated", was retained, but the logo name was changed to JBL with its distinctive exclamation point. The JBL 4320 series studio monitor was introduced through Capitol Records in Hollywood and became the standard monitor worldwide for its parent company, EMI. JBL's introduction to rock and roll music came via the adoption of the D130 loudspeaker by

Leo Fender Clarence Leonidas Fender (August 10, 1909 – March 21, 1991) was an American inventor known for designing the Fender Stratocaster. He also founded the Fender Musical Instruments Corporation. In January 1965, he sold Fender to CBS, and later foun ...

's Fender Guitar Company as the ideal driver for

electric guitar An electric guitar is a guitar that requires external amplification in order to be heard at typical performance volumes, unlike a standard acoustic guitar (however combinations of the two - a semi-acoustic guitar and an electric acoustic gui ...

s. In 1969, Thomas sold JBL to the Jervis Corporation (later renamed "Harman International"), headed by

Sidney Harman Sidney Harman (August 4, 1918 – April 12, 2011) was a Canadian-born American engineer and businessman active in education, government, industry, and publishing. He was the Chairman Emeritus of Harman International Industries, Inc. A co-fou ...

. The 1970s saw JBL become a household brand, starting with the famous L-100, which was the best-selling loudspeaker model of any company to that time. The 1970s were also a time of major JBL expansion in the professional audio field from their

studio monitor Studio monitors are loudspeakers in speaker enclosures specifically designed for professional audio production applications, such as recording studios, filmmaking, television studios, radio studios and project or home studios, where accurate ...

s. By 1977, more recording studios were using JBL monitors than all other brands combined, according to a ''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertise ...

'' survey. The JBL L-100 and 4310 control monitors were popular home speakers. In the late 1970s, the new L-series designs L15, L26, L46, L56, L86, L96, L112, L150, and later the L150A and flagship L250 were introduced with improved crossovers, ceramic magnet woofers, updated midrange drivers, and aluminum-deposition phenolic resin tweeters. In the mid-1980s the designs were again updated and redesigned with a new titanium-deposition tweeter diaphragm. The new L-series designations being the L20T, L40T, L60T, L80T, L100T, the Ti-series 18Ti, 120Ti, 240Ti, and the flagship 250Ti. To test speaker drivers, JBL in Glendale and Northridge used the roof as an outdoor equivalent to an

anechoic chamber An anechoic chamber (''an-echoic'' meaning "non-reflective") is a room designed to stop reflections of either sound or electromagnetic waves. They are also often isolated from energy entering from their surroundings. This combination means ...

. Over the next two decades, JBL went more mass-market with their consumer (Northridge) line of loudspeakers. At the same time, they made an entry into the high-end market with their project speakers, consisting of the Everest and K2 lines. JBL became a prominent supplier to the tour sound industry, their loudspeakers being employed by touring rock acts and music festivals. JBL products were the basis for the development of

THX THX Ltd. is an American company that develops the eponymous high fidelity audio/visual reproduction standards for movie theaters, screening rooms, home theaters, computer speakers, gaming consoles, car audio systems, and video games. Founded ...

loudspeaker standard, which resulted in JBL becoming a popular cinema loudspeaker manufacturer. JBL was formerly used in

Ford Ford commonly refers to: * Ford Motor Company, an automobile manufacturer founded by Henry Ford * Ford (crossing), a shallow crossing on a river Ford may also refer to: Ford Motor Company * Henry Ford, founder of the Ford Motor Company * Ford F ...

's top-of-the-line vehicle audio systems, as competition for

Chrysler Stellantis North America (officially FCA US and formerly Chrysler ()) is one of the " Big Three" automobile manufacturers in the United States, headquartered in Auburn Hills, Michigan. It is the American subsidiary of the multinational automoti ...

(whose cars used

Infinity Infinity is that which is boundless, endless, or larger than any natural number. It is often denoted by the infinity symbol . Since the time of the ancient Greeks, the philosophical nature of infinity was the subject of many discussions amo ...

) and

Nissan , trade name, trading as Nissan Motor Corporation and often shortened to Nissan, is a Japanese multinational corporation, multinational Automotive industry, automobile manufacturer headquartered in Nishi-ku, Yokohama, Japan. The company sells ...

(who used

Bose Bose may refer to: * Bose (crater), a lunar crater * ''Bose'' (film), a 2004 Indian Tamil film starring Srikanth and Sneha * Bose (surname), a surname (and list of people with the name) * Bose, Italy, a ''frazioni'' in Magnano, Province of Biella ...

Timeline

*1902 – Birth of James B. Lansing in Illinois, U.S. *1927 – Founding of Lansing Manufacturing Company in Los Angeles *1934 –

from MGM designs the first speaker for the cinema. Lansing builds system components. *1941 – Altec Service Company acquires Lansing Manufacturing Company *1944 – Lansing and Hilliard redefine the reference theater speaker with model A-4, renamed ''Voice of the Theatre'' *1946 – Lansing leaves Altec and founds a new company, James B. Lansing Sound Inc. *1947 – JBL has a 15" speaker (38 cm), model D-130, using for the first time a 4" (100 mm) voice coil in a speaker cone *1949 – James. B. Lansing dies of

suicide Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Mental disorders (including depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, personality disorders, anxiety disorders), physical disorders (such as chronic fatigue syndrome), and s ...

; William Thomas became president of the company *1954 – The ''375'' compression engine is the first 4-inch engine sold; its response extends to 9 kHz *1954 – Presentation of acoustic lenses developed by

*1955 –

integrates the D-130 model in their amplifiers, thus starting the entry of JBL into professional music *1958 – Introduction of

JBL Paragon The JBL D44000 Paragon is a one-piece stereo loudspeaker created by JBL that was introduced in 1957 and discontinued in 1983; its production run was the longest of any JBL speaker. At its launch, the Paragon was the most expensive domestic loud ...

stereo speaker system *1962 – JBL creates the first 2-way studio monitor, using a high-frequency motor lens *1968 – JBL launches the 3-way speaker 4310 *1969 –

acquires JBL *1969 – L-100, a consumer version of the 4311 is launched; it would sell over 125,000 pairs in the 70s *1969 – JBL components deliver sound at

Woodstock Woodstock Music and Art Fair, commonly referred to as Woodstock, was a music festival held during August 15–18, 1969, on Max Yasgur's dairy farm in Bethel, New York, United States, southwest of the town of Woodstock, New York, Woodstock. ...

and many other rock festivals *1973 – 4300 Series launched, including the first 4-way speaker *1975 – 4682 Model Line Array ''Strongbox'' *1979 – Technology ''diamond surround'' for control of high frequency resonances in *1979 – Development of Symmetrical Field Geometry (SFG) *1980 – Pavilion Bi-Radial Constant dispersion technology *1981 – The first Bi-Radial monitor, 4400 for the recording studio *1982 – Titanium is used as a material for compression engines *1984 – JBL acquires

UREI United Recording Electronics Industries (UREI) was a manufacturer of recording, mixing and audio signal processing hardware for the professional recording studio, live sound and broadcasting fields. History Bill Putnam Sr. founded Universal ...

*1986 – The first models of Control series introduced *1990 – Vented Gap Cooling technology (reduces low frequencies transducer temperature) *1991 – The first pro-audio speaker based on

neodymium Neodymium is a chemical element with the symbol Nd and atomic number 60. It is the fourth member of the lanthanide series and is considered to be one of the rare-earth metals. It is a hard, slightly malleable, silvery metal that quickly tarnishes i ...

with Array Series *1995 – Birth of EON system *1995 – First Neodymium Differential Drive speaker *1996 – Creation of the HLA standard with Line Array Space Frame design *1999 – JBL used at

Woodstock 1999 Woodstock '99 (also called Woodstock 1999) was a music festival held from July 22 to July 25, 1999, in Rome, New York. After Woodstock '94, it was the second large-scale music festival that attempted to emulate the original 1969 Woodstock fes ...

*2000 – Creation of VerTec Line Array system *2000 – Birth of EVO, the intelligent loudspeaker controlled by DSP *2002 – VerTec is used for the

Super Bowl The Super Bowl is the annual final playoff game of the National Football League (NFL) to determine the league champion. It has served as the final game of every NFL season since 1966, replacing the NFL Championship Game. Since 2022, the game ...

, the

Grammy Awards The Grammy Awards (stylized as GRAMMY), or simply known as the Grammys, are awards presented by the Recording Academy of the United States to recognize "outstanding" achievements in the music industry. They are regarded by many as the most pres ...

and the ceremony of the

2002 FIFA World Cup The 2002 FIFA World Cup, also branded as Korea Japan 2002, was the 17th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial Association football, football world championship for List of men's national association football teams, men's national teams organized by ...

(Seoul, Korea)

Portable Bluetooth speakers currently being produced (as of 2022)

*JBL JR Pop *JBL Go 2 *JBL Go 3 *JBL Clip 3 *JBL Clip 4 *JBL Flip 4 *JBL Flip 5 *JBL Flip 5 Eco Edition *JBL Flip 6 *JBL Pulse 4 *JBL Pulse 5 *JBL Charge 4 *JBL Charge 5 *JBL Xtreme 3 *JBL Boombox 2

Party speakers currently being produced (as of 2022)

*JBL PartyBox On-The-Go *JBL PartyBox 110 *JBL PartyBox 310 *JBL PartyBox 710 *JBL PartyBox 1000

Product line examples

File:JBL Synchros E50BT.jpg,

Bluetooth Bluetooth is a short-range wireless technology standard that is used for exchanging data between fixed and mobile devices over short distances and building personal area networks (PANs). In the most widely used mode, transmission power is limi ...

headphones "Synchros E50BT" File:JBL 1200GTI DSC9561FP.jpg, Car sub-woofer "1200GTI" File:JBL TI 2000 Hi-Fi loudspeaker box, 1990s.jpg, 3-way loudspeaker system "Ti2000", 1990s File:JBL Flip 3 bluetooth speaker (DSCF2653).jpg, Flip 3 Bluetooth speaker File:JBL Flip 4.jpg, JBL Flip 4 portable Bluetooth speaker File:JBL GO2 Bluetooth speaker 00 10 27 681000 (turned upright).jpeg, GO2, the smallest portable Bluetooth speaker from JBL File:Size comparison of JBL Xtreme Bluetooth speaker (28 cm long) with cigarette box.jpg, JBL Xtreme, 28 cm long with a 10.000 mAh battery

Examples of applications

* Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences - AMPAS (Samuel Goldwyn Theater,

Hollywood Hollywood usually refers to: * Hollywood, Los Angeles, a neighborhood in California * Hollywood, a metonym for the cinema of the United States Hollywood may also refer to: Places United States * Hollywood District (disambiguation) * Hollywood, ...

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

). * Institut de Recherche et de Coordination Acoustique/Musique - IRCAM (

Pierre Boulez Pierre Louis Joseph Boulez (; 26 March 1925 – 5 January 2016) was a French composer, conductor and writer, and the founder of several musical institutions. He was one of the dominant figures of post-war Western classical music. Born in Mont ...

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

, 1974–1991). * Digital Cinema Project - GAUMONT
JBL, ''Three-Way Screen Channel System'', pp. 1-2. (Philippe Binant,

, 2000–2008).

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Jbl 1946 establishments in California Audio amplifier manufacturers Audio equipment manufacturers of the United States Harman International Headphones manufacturers Loudspeaker manufacturers Manufacturers of professional audio equipment In-car entertainment Manufacturing companies established in 1946