JBL XPL200 (1989–c.1993)
The XPL200 was the top model in JBL's short-lived XPL series. It was introduced in 1989 and designed by Greg Timbers. The series was JBL's attempt at a more "European" styling and sound voicing, a deliberate departure from the studio-monitor-forward character of their traditional designs. Per Lansing Heritage, the XPL series was not a commercial success, and the models were discontinued by 1993.
It's a 3-way, ported (bass-reflex) design with a 12-inch woofer, a 6.5-inch midrange, and a 1-inch titanium dome tweeter. The mid and tweeter are arranged in a D'Appolito (MTM) array. The cabinet has a 1-inch thick baffle and is finished in black ash laminate with a black cloth grille. Audio magazine covered the design in its loudspeaker pages around the turn of the decade (October 1990, p.367; October 1991, p.288). The surviving OCR of those reviews is too degraded to extract specific commentary.
Known specs are reasonably well documented, though sources conflict on a few figures. The most commonly cited: an 8-ohm nominal impedance, crossover points at 800 Hz and 3.2 kHz, and dimensions of 36.5" × 15.25" × 14.5" at 82 lbs each. Frequency response is given as either 42 Hz–22 kHz or 40 Hz–21 kHz (±3 dB) depending on source; sensitivity as 90 or 91 dB (2.83V/1m); and power handling as 200W continuous / 400W peak (Wikipedia) versus 150W continuous / 300W peak (Lansing Heritage). I've listed the Wikipedia figures above since they're the more commonly repeated, but treat the exact numbers with some caution.
Audio (October 1990, p.367) included the XPL200 in its loudspeaker review section, though the text is too garbled in the archive copy to paraphrase meaningfully.
Owner reports fill in some practical detail. The woofer is a 12-inch unit, and owners report running them happily with 200WPC amplifiers. Imaging is described as superb, and the bass as surprisingly deep and tight for the enclosure size. The titanium tweeter can come across as bright with poorly recorded CDs, and the midrange is slightly recessed compared to the older 4411 studio monitors. There are two known failure points. The woofer foam surrounds will rot, and most surviving examples need replacement by now. The crossover capacitors are known to drift out of spec, and recapping is considered worthwhile. One owner paid $850 for a pair in 2005, and notes that clean examples are hard to find now.
- Type: 3-way, ported (bass reflex), MTM mid/tweeter array
- Drivers: 12" woofer, 6.5" midrange, 1" titanium dome tweeter
- Impedance: 8 ohms
- Crossover: 800 Hz, 3.2 kHz
- Dimensions: 36.5" H × 15.25" W × 14.5" D
- Weight: 82 lbs each
- Finish: Black ash laminate, black cloth grille
No original retail price, Thiele-Small parameters, or detailed crossover schematic have surfaced in the available documentation.
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