JBL SRX700 Series
A portable PA line that traded pounds of magnet for a few ounces of neodymium.
Overview
The SRX700 story starts with the magnet. JBL's own documentation says the series is built around the company's patented Differential Drive woofers, which use neodymium instead of conventional magnet material. The pitch is specific: a few ounces of neodymium replacing pounds of traditional magnet. The engineering goes further than a material swap. JBL's design puts the small neodymium magnets inside the voice coil and uses two voice coils per driver, which the company says reduces the massive steel top plates, back plates, and pole pieces that normally complete a magnetic circuit. The claimed payoff is a speaker that handles more power, distorts less, suffers less power compression, and weighs dramatically less than a conventional box of the same output.
That weight story wasn't lost on the trade press. Mix (November 2004, p.109) covered the SRX700 launch with a line that could have come straight from a load-in at 1 a.m. — the observation that bulking up isn't much help when you have to carry your own sound. The magazine described the line as pairing low weight with high power and a wide spread of driver configurations, including subwoofers, two-way and three-way systems, and a stage monitor.
A working band gets a lot of flexibility out of the SRX700. All SRX700 two- and three-way models can run full-range or bi-amplified, with the choice made by a high-current, recessed switch on the input plate. Recessed is handy if you've ever had a switch sheared off in a van. The SRX738 is the odd one out, using internal jumpers instead of that switch. The subwoofer uses the same switch arrangement to select ±1 or ±2 operation. Flying versions are sold as SRX700F models. Depending on which hardware kit you buy, you get either economical forged eyebolts for permanent install or detachable track fittings for portable work.
The line spans seven models, each with its own job. The SRX712M is a 12-inch two-way stage monitor built to a single brief: the lightest, smallest, loudest, clearest monitor JBL could manage while still looking professional. It pairs a 12-inch Differential Drive woofer with a 3-inch-voice-coil compression driver, handles 800 watts continuous, and stands just 12 inches (305 mm) tall in the monitor position. Its 50° x 90° horn is meant to keep coverage even no matter where the performer stands. For utility work it can be tripod mounted or stacked over a subwoofer on JBL's dual-angle pole mount, which offers 0° or 10° of down tilt to aim the sound at the audience. A yoke bracket, the SRX712M-YK, is available for suspension or truss mounting.
The SRX715 is the generalist: a 15-inch two-way with a 2265H Differential Drive woofer and a 2431H 3-inch-diaphragm neodymium compression driver on a 75° by 50° horn. It handles 800 watts continuous and weighs only 48 lb (22 kg), which you will appreciate once you're lifting it onto a pole. JBL positions it for general sound reinforcement, live performance, music playback, and speech, and points owners toward the SRX728S or SRX718S subwoofer when more low-end extension is needed.
Pro-Audio Review (May 2006, p.16) took up the SRX715 specifically. The reviewer's framing was the familiar one about race-track technology trickling down to the local music store, and whether a few hundred thousand dollars' worth of touring transducer design really reaches the working musician.
JBL's own literature places the series in the lineage of its SR and SRX portables, describing more than a decade of those lines as representing the best performance and most advanced driver technology available to portable PA users, with the SRX700 continuing that tradition. The company also draws a straight line from its touring and install work down into the passive SRX700 boxes, saying they use the same cabinet and driver technology developed for tour sound, cinema, and installed sound markets.
The practical appeal today is the same one that sold them new: a light box that doesn't behave like a compromise. The recessed full-range/bi-amp switch and the flying hardware options make the line flexible for its class, and the monitor and subwoofer variants mean a complete small system can be assembled from one family.
eBay Listings
As an eBay Partner, we earn from qualifying purchases. This helps support our independent vintage technology research.