JBL Products

The history of JBL goes back to 1927 when James B. Lansing moved his fledgling Lansing Manufacturing Company to Los Angeles. In the mid 1930s, after the movie The Jazz Singer inaugurated the sound era for motion pictures, Lansing became involved in the design of the Shearer-MGM loudspeaker system, which represented a major advancement in theater sound reproduction. A few years later, Lansing developed the Iconic, a two-way system that went on to enjoy wide acceptance as the world's first studio monitor.

In 1941, the Lansing Manufacturing Company was purchased by Altec Service Corporation (an offshoot of Western Electric, the manufacturing arm of AT&T). The new company was called Altec Lansing, and Mr. Lansing assumed the position of Vice President of Engineering. In the mid 1940s, Lansing did the engineering groundwork for the Altec Lansing 604 coaxial monitor - a loudspeaker design that remained the industry standard in U.S. recording studios through the 1950s and '60s. Around the same time, the company introduced their Voice of the Theater systems, which remained a staple of motion picture sound for decades.

In 1946, Lansing left Altec Lansing and launched JBL, which went on to revolutionize the loudspeaker industry with groundbreaking professional products like the D130, a 15" speaker that found its way into Fender guitar amplifiers and helped make the 1969 Woodstock Festival PA system a sonic reality. The 1950s saw the birth of high-fidelity consumer audio, and JBL was on the scene with its high-end Hartsfield and Paragon home speaker systems.

In the late '60s, JBL came out with the 4320 - a studio monitor developed in collaboration with Capitol Records in Hollywood. The 4320 and 4310 (the first "nearfield" monitor) put JBL on the cutting edge of studio monitoring technology. The company proceeded to score another hi-fi hit with their Century L100, a consumer version of the 4310. And for many world-class recording studios in the 1970s, massive, soffit-mounted, 4-way JBL 4350 monitors were the absolute reference.

Today as ever, JBL ranks as a leader in its field. JBL's EON loudspeakers provide power and portability for gigging musicians who need great PA sound in a compact package. For modern studios, JBL's LSR Series monitors offer Room Mode Correction technology that tunes the system to the acoustic characteristics of the monitoring space. The compact-footprint JBL M2 Reference Monitor System delivers "big main monitor" SPL and accuracy for top mastering houses and smaller studios. It's this kind of innovation that has kept JBL at the forefront of the audio industry for well over half a century.