JBL Paragon: The loudest hi-fi furniture in the world

As unusual as it is beautiful: The JBL Paragon came onto the market in 1957 and, although its appearance corresponded to the usual ideas of music furniture at the time, it was technically and, above all, in terms of efficiency and maximum sound pressure, galaxies above what else was standing around in the living room.

The JBL Paragon was a full-blown three-way horn with a real bass horn and compression drivers for the mid and treble range. But the really special thing about it was that everything was housed in one cabinet, so it was not possible to expand the stereo base.

The elegant cabinet was divided into three parts - the total weight of 250 kilograms could hardly have been transported otherwise. It was then assembled at the customer's premises.

From time to time it is still possible to hear a JBL Paragon today. These are usually rebuilt models. Functioning originals from this period are absolute rarities.

Back then, contemporaries were overjoyed because they had never heard so much dynamics and freedom from distortion from such a living room loudspeaker.

Today, people would certainly have different ideas about tonal neutrality. But its performance data in terms of efficiency and low distortion are likely to set standards even today.

When it first appeared, the Paragon cost just under 2,500 dollars - a small fortune at the time. Today, good, fully functional models are hardly available for less than 20,000 euros ...

Author: Holger Biermann

Source: www.lowbeats.de