Jun 3, 2008 10:45 AM
7,388
Enter your username and password.
JBL Control Now loudspeakers love donuts. Because since each speaker covers a 90-degree curve, four Control Nows can be assembled to make a donut. Or two can be combined to form a half-donut. (Of course, there's nothing stopping you from fitting together 3, but nobody wants a donut that someone's already taken a bite out of.) It may sound like a gimmick, but we can think of a few uses.
Each speaker by itself can fit perfectly into a corner (wall-to-wall or wall-to-ceiling) for an easy mounting. And two could make for a pretty interesting impromptu sound bar. Since each unit packs a tweeter and two woofers, the possible mixtures of stereo channel output offer some deal of flexibility beyond that whole "they stick together!" form factor. Look for the Control Now this month for $249 a pop. An outdoor version will be available for $30 more.
INTRODUCING JBL CONTROL NOW™ LOUDSPEAKERS:
UNIQUE INSTALLATION OPTIONS FOR MULTIPLE HOME APPLICATIONS— 90 Degrees of Pure Ingenuity —
WOODBURY, NY — JBL, Inc., today announced the introduction of its JBL Control NOW™ indoor and JBL Control NOW AW outdoor high-performance loudspeakers. Both models feature a unique quarter-round shape that provides an unprecedented variety of installation possibilities, and incorporate innovative driver technologies to deliver clear, powerful and evenly distributed sound in any listening environment.
The all-new, uniquely versatile design of the JBL Control NOW loudspeakers enables them to be placed virtually anywhere — including areas where other speakers cannot be installed. The drivers are mounted behind a curved quarter-round front section, and the rear of the enclosure has three angled sections that enable the speakers to be corner-mounted between a ceiling and wall or between two walls. They can also be placed either horizontally or vertically on a shelf. The JBL Control NOW has a black finish, and the JBL Control NOW AW is available in a white finish.
Multiple JBL Control NOW speakers can be joined to create half-round, three-quarter-round, or fully round configurations, and they can be hung from a ceiling using an optional pole-mount bracket and standard ceiling-fan hardware. In addition, the speakers can be mounted with third-party stands, using included adapters.
When used in two-, three- or four-speaker arrays, the JBL Control NOW and JBL Control NOW AW can be configured for either single-channel or single-point stereo use, for maximum flexibility in a wide variety of home, multiroom, architectural and background-music applications, including in media rooms, kitchens, decks or patios — or wherever natural, accurate sound with a wide coverage area is desired.
Exclusive JBL® Technologies for Exceptional Sound, Anywhere
JBL Control NOW and JBL Control NOW AW loudspeakers are designed from the ground up to deliver outstanding sound quality in the most challenging installation applications.
Corner-mounting, and some multiunit speaker configurations, can have an adverse effect on frequency response across the listening area. To ensure accurate audio performance even in less-than-optimal acoustic situations, the loudspeakers feature a tweeter mounted in a patented JBL Bi-Radial® horn, and have a newly developed profile that has been optimized to minimize diffraction effects from room surfaces to deliver exceptionally smooth, wide frequency response. The speakers have constant-directivity dispersion when wall-mounted, and omnidirectional characteristics when corner-mounted or grouped in a four-speaker circular array.
The tweeter incorporates a 3/4-inch titanium-laminate diaphragm and a ferrofluid-cooled voice coil that is driven by a high-Gauss neodymium-boron-iron magnet, for high-power-handling capability, and outstanding resolution and transient response.
The tweeter is complemented by two 4-inch woofers that incorporate dual neodymium-boron-iron magnets, which completely surround the voice coil. The design of the woofer's motor structure and suspension was optimized using Finite Element Analysis (FEA), a computer-analysis technique that is used to model complex systems such as loudspeaker drivers by breaking their intricate multipart elements down into smaller pieces, predicting the behavior of these elements, and then combining the behavior of all the elements to arrive at an accurate analysis of the entire system. The use of FEA enabled JBL engineers to design a unique woofer that delivers increased output capability with minimal distortion, even at high volume levels, and provides additional sonic benefits.
To further refine their performance, the JBL Control NOW and JBL Control NOW AW feature enclosures and baffles made from a thermoplastic-composite material that contains both glass and mineral fill, which provides high rigidity and damping. The enclosure's mechanical design utilizes thick walls, cast-aluminum internal bracing and other refinements to minimize internal resonances and acoustical loss.
The JBL Control NOW loudspeakers are currently available at a suggested retail price of $249 each. The Control NOW AW will be available in late June 2008 at a suggested retail price of $279 each.
Send an email to Mark Wilson, the author of this post, at mark@gizmodo.com.
Original material is licensed under a Creative Commons License permitting non-commercial sharing with attribution.
Start a new discussion