JBL 4305H (circa 2003)

The 4305H is a modern replica of one of the junior models in JBL’s 4300 series. That line debuted in 1973 and included the first four-way loudspeakers ever made. The 4305H came almost forty years after the original family and was aimed at the Japanese market, where these models were sold almost exclusively. It's a two-way, two-speaker, bass-reflex bookshelf design with a horn-loaded tweeter. It retailed for ¥49,000 per unit around 2003.

The low end comes from a 20 cm (8-inch) white-cone woofer with a rubber surround, on a high-rigidity aluminum die-cast frame. The cone is natural cellulose fiber, intentionally uncolored and unbleached, which gives it that familiar JBL look. The highs come from a newly developed 25 mm compression driver with a pure titanium diaphragm, mounted in a wide plastic horn that runs across the front baffle. This HF driver was designed fresh for the replica and not inherited from the original 1970s model. Two small bass-reflex ports sit in the lower part of the front panel.

The cabinet is simple but solid - 19 mm MDF. The base "H" model has a black ash wood-grain finish. The "WX" variant (the one reviewed by the Russian press) wears a dark-brown natural wood veneer with no visible seams. A gold-plated binding post terminal accepts thick cable, and a continuously variable HF attenuator adjusts from +1 to - 7 dB. Drivers are magnetically shielded. Rated specs: 50 Hz to 35 kHz frequency characteristic, 6 Ω impedance, 89 dB/2.83V/m sensitivity, 4.5 kHz crossover, and 75W (music) allowable input. Dimensions are 273 × 460 × 284 mm (W×H×D), weight 11.5 kg.

Hi-Fi.ru (2007) reviewed the 4305H WX and found it very much a near-field monitor: the large, deep soundstage only opens up when you sit about 1.5 meters away. The reviewers praised its delicate, transparent, chamber-music character — Baroque material came across as elegant and coherent, with refined bass — and noted the horn’s directivity helps reduce the influence of the listening room. They were less impressed with full-orchestra tutti passages, where violins tended to flatten and squeak; an extreme –5 dB setting on the HF control helped tame the harshness. Late Billie Holiday recordings, they said, were simply impossible to stop playing.

The 4305H WX still turns up on the secondary market. A pair sold on eBay in June 2026 for CA$1,688, and a Russian listing asked 99,999 ₽. The record is thin beyond that. No exact production years, no detailed crossover data, and no maintenance history are documented.

Type: 2-way, 2-speaker, bass-reflex bookshelf
Woofer: 20 cm cone (white cellulose pulp, rubber surround)
Tweeter: 25 mm titanium-diaphragm compression driver in plastic horn
Frequency characteristic: 50 Hz – 35 kHz
Impedance: 6 Ω
Sensitivity: 89 dB/2.83V/m
Crossover: 4.5 kHz
Allowable input: 75W (music)
Dimensions: 273 × 460 × 284 mm (W×H×D)
Weight: 11.5 kg
Original price: ¥49,000 (one unit, circa 2003)