JBL DD67000, DD65000 User Manual
PROJECT EVEREST
DD65000 & DD67000
PRODUCT COMMENTARIES AND USER GUIDE
Thank you for purchasing a
JBL Project Everest loudspeaker system.
Before using the system, please take the time
to read through this user guide to understand
this loudspeaker well and also to use it properly.
TABLE OF
TC
CONTENTS
Preface: ....................................................................... 6
chaPter 1:
LEGACY .............................................................................. 8
chaPter 2:
THE PROJECT EVEREST DD65000 AND DD67000
LOUDSPEAKERS – A TRIUMPH IN ACOUSTICS
AND TECHNOLOGY ....................................................... 14
chaPter 3:
UNPACKING THE PROJECT EVEREST SYSTEM ............ 22
chaPter 4:
SELECTING SPEAKER WIRE ......................................... 26
chaPter 5:
AMPLIFIER RECOMMENDATIONS .................................. 28
chaPter 6:
PLACEMENT AND SETUP CONSIDERATIONS ............... 30
chaPter 7:
PROJECT EVEREST ADJUSTMENTS ............................. 32
chaPter 8:
PROJECT EVEREST CONNECTIONS ............................. 38
chaPter 9:
PROJECT EVEREST CARE AND MAINTENANCE ........... 44
troubleshooting and service guide: .................. 44
Project everest dd67000 system
sPecifications: ............................................................. 46
Project everest dd65000 system
sPecifications: ............................................................. 47
5
PREFACE
Thank you for selecting a Project Everest DD65000 or DD67000
loudspeaker system. These loudspeakers represent the
culmination of our research and developmental efforts in sound
reproduction over the last half century. We have endeavored
to create loudspeaker systems with no acoustical or electrical
limitations whatsoever.
However, it is the level of your listening pleasure that ultimately
determines how successful we are in this endeavor. To ensure
a perfect listening experience, we ask you to carefully follow the
setup and operation procedures outlined in this Project Everest
User Guide.
This guide serves several purposes. It contains all necessary
background information and detailed instructions for setting up
your Project Everest loudspeaker system, including unpacking
the loudspeaker, selecting the correct location, choosing speaker
wire, wiring method and amplication, and connecting the
speakers to their associated electronics. This information is found
in Chapters 3 through 8. In addition, we have included a detailed
description of your Project Everest loudspeakers in Chapter 2,
so that you may become thoroughly acquainted with their unique
design and technical features.
Despite the formidable nature of Project Everest, the setup
procedure for these loudspeaker systems is relatively simple.
Again, we strongly urge you to read this guide thoroughly before
you begin, and then consult it frequently throughout the process.
Certain considerations must be made in placing the speakers;
their physical characteristics make it imperative that you become
familiar with the entire setup process in advance.
Also, we believe that the historical and technical information
included will add immeasurably to your complete enjoyment of
your system. As a loudspeaker, the Project Everest DD65000 and
DD67000 are unparalleled in the eld of sound reproduction. The
story and principles behind them are an interesting, informative
and tting start to a lifetime of musical enjoyment.
7
LEGACY
THE HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT OF
1
THE JBL PROJECT LOUDSPEAKERS
Of those who have sought perfection in sound reproduction, only a
few have actually come close. For one thing, it is a costly process.
It is rare indeed when an individual or group is able to triumph over
the constraints of economic and technological realities even once.
At JBL, this has happened nine times. In each case, our engineers
were told to build the speaker system they had always wanted
to build. Whatever resources were required would be made
available. Thus began an ongoing search for new frontiers in
sound reproduction, beginning in the mid-1950s and continuing
to the present day.
The products that have resulted from this venture are now known
as the JBL Project loudspeakers. Each represents the absolute
peak of every technological, material and engineering innovation
available at the time, combined into a single loudspeaker
system. They are Hartseld, Paragon, Everest DD55000, K2
S9500/7500, K2 S5500, K2 S9800, K2 S5800, Project Everest
DD66000 and K2 S9900.
Although differing in performance details and physical attributes,
all of the Project loudspeakers have shared a common objective
– to elevate sound reproduction to levels dened only by the
limitations of existing materials and technology. The fact that all
Project loudspeakers have many common features, despite
their having been created over a span of nearly sixty years, is a
testimony to the excellence of the technology and manufacturing
techniques upon which JBL was built.
JBL Hartseld
DEFINING THE PROJECT CONCEPT
The Hartseld began a tradition at JBL that continues today. First,
engineer a product as close to perfection as possible. When it
reaches that level, make it better.
In 1954, the Hartseld was signicant in that it represented not new
technology, but rather a new level of technical manufacturing, in the
spirit of the approach pioneered by James B. Lansing some twenty
years before. Like its Project series successors, it was a high-
efciency system incorporating compression driver technology and
combining the qualities of high-output, low-distortion, exceptional
stereo imaging and fatigue-free listening. Most important, it was
the rst loudspeaker system available to consumers to do all this.
JBL’s president in 1954, William Thomas, described the Hartseld
as the “speaker system we have always wanted to build [with] the
nest components ever made available to serious listeners.”
9
JBL-Ranger Paragon
®
Digital, DTS®, DVD-Audio and Super Audio CD (SACD™).
Dolby
Frequency responses to 50kHz, as well as three-digit dynamic
range and signal-to-noise ratio specications have now become
commonplace. To faithfully reproduce such robust sonic properties,
the loudspeaker needed to undergo drastic improvements to its
transducer, network and enclosure technologies.
The K2 S9800 employed a three-way design, incorporating
an ultrahigh-frequency (UHF) compression driver and horn
to reproduce high frequencies up to 50kHz. With the UHF
driver handling the higher frequencies, the high-frequency (HF)
transducer could then be upgraded to a new design using a
3-inch (75mm) diaphragm, which improved reproduction of
lower frequencies and blended better with the woofer than the
older generations’ 2-inch (50mm) diaphragm did. Both of these
new compression drivers utilized newly developed beryllium
diaphragms to provide the lowest distortion and attest frequency
response possible.
To recreate the extremely high dynamic range provided by
today’s audio sources, a brand-new low-frequency transducer
was developed from the ground up, utilizing an Alnico magnet, a
4-inch (100mm) edge-wound voice coil, and a 15-inch (380mm)
cone. Extensive computer-aided engineering and design effort
was necessary to develop the optimized port tuning employed
in Project K2 S9800, and resulted in a signicant advance in the
concept of state-of-the-art acoustic reproduction. As a result of
these efforts, a loudspeaker system with higher sensitivity and a
wider dynamic range became a reality without power compression
or distortion, even at extremely high drive levels.
He went on to describe the process behind the creation of the
Hartseld: “Most people who own and appreciate ne sound
reproduction equipment look forward to the day when they will
be able to assemble a system without limitation in just exactly
the way they think it should be done. Periodically a manufacturer
gets this same feeling. The science of acoustics has provided
us with the basic principles available to all for achieving precision
reproduction. It is only a matter of incorporating these methods into
a system design, and then taking every bit of trouble necessary to
build a system precisely to the design.”
He added, “It isn’t easy, but that’s the way it is done.”
The Ranger-Paragon, JBL’s second Project system, was the rst
serious attempt at a reecting speaker system, and broke ground
in what was at the time, the new concept of stereo imaging.
Basically two independent full-range speaker systems installed in
a handsome, curved cabinet nearly 9 feet (2.7 meters) wide, the
Paragon’s enclosure was treated as an extension of its transducers.
In essence, the system had its own “built-in acoustics.” In many
respects, the Paragon anticipated loudspeaker developments
that would occur years and even decades later. This “built-in
acoustics” concept was present in the Project Everest DD66000
and has now been further rened in the DD65000 and DD67000.
For nearly 30 years, the Paragon remained one of the world’s
most highly-regarded home loudspeaker systems. Today, along
with the Hartseld, the Paragon is still the most sought-after
speaker in the world.
In 1986, JBL introduced a new Project system that retained the
Paragon’s overall sense of musicality while upgrading its character
by incorporating three decades’ worth of continuous development
in every facet of its design. Its name – Project Everest – reected
the pinnacle of achievement it represented. This was the original
Project Everest DD55000.
For the rst time, the rest of the sound reproduction chain – and
not the loudspeaker or its transducers – would impose limits on
overall system performance. Like the Paragon and Hartseld,
Project Everest was built around compression driver technology
and addressed a more rened stereo image than was previously
considered technically feasible.
Since the original Project Everest was introduced, sound recording
and playback technology has undergone a revolution of its own.
With the advent of the CD, extremely demanding recorded signals
became the rule rather than the exception – the typical source
material used by the average audio enthusiast became superior
to the best demonstration material of even just a few years
prior. In overall dynamics and transient response, transducers
became once again a potentially weak link in the high-end audio
reproduction chain.
It was in this environment that JBL set out to create its fourth and
fth Project loudspeakers, K2 S9500 and K2 S5500. As with
Hartseld, the simplicity of a two-way system was considered the
most promising design track. Advances in transducer design and
low-frequency alignment would make possible the construction of
a two-way system of unprecedented physical and acoustical scale.
Our engineers took the core components – the low-frequency and
high-frequency transducers – and optimized them by redesigning
their magnetic structures, diaphragms and framework for greater
linearity, dynamic capability and transient response.
In the years following the introduction of the K2 S9500 and K2
S5500, sound reproduction technology underwent another series
of revolutionary changes, with the introduction of DVD-Video,
JBL Everest DD55000
1110
JBL K2 S9500 JBL K2 S9800
The development of the Project Everest DD66000 loudspeaker
system was undertaken as a celebration of JBL’s 60th
anniversary and as a realization of the potential engendered by
the breakthroughs discussed above. The stately character of the
Hartseld, exceptional wood craftsmanship of the Paragon, the
“built-in acoustics” which treat the enclosure as an extension of the
transducers, and the state-of-the-art transducer technologies that
were built up from two generations of the Project K2 developments
were all poured into this new challenge to extend the acoustic and
electrical possibilities in this Project Everest model.
Despite its 21st century power and sophistication, Project Everest
DD66000 was a synthesis of tradition and technology. It reected
the design, material, engineering and manufacturing expertise
developed and rened through nearly six decades of experience
that are the exclusive legacy of one loudspeaker builder – JBL.
And now, with the introduction of the Project Everest DD65000
and DD67000 JBL presents additional renements that enable
these loudspeakers to outshine even the stellar performance
standard set by the DD66000 system.
JBL Project Everest DD66000
1312
PROJECT EVEREST
A TRIUMPH IN ACOUSTICS
2
AND TECHNOLOGY
This chapter describes the primary features and components of the Project Everest
DD65000 and DD67000 loudspeaker systems.
The basic system conguration is what JBL historically has referred to as an “augmented
two-way”. In the 1950s and 1960s, JBL primarily built two-way systems with a 12-inch or
15-inch (305mm or 380mm) woofer crossed over to a large-format compression driver/
horn combination. Some of the systems would be “augmented” by a UHF device, usually
the 075 ring radiator which would operate above 8kHz. These systems would have only a
single crossover point in the middle of the audio range, to minimize any sonic degradation
caused by the dividing network.
The DD65000 and DD67000 both have a single midrange crossover point – the
DD65000 at 750Hz and the DD67000 at 850Hz – blending one 1501 woofer to the 476
compression driver and horn combination. The 045 UHF driver is brought in at 20kHz to
cover an octave and a half of ultrasonic frequencies. A second 1501 woofer operates in
the bass frequency range from below 30Hz to around 150Hz, where it is rolled off at a
gradual 6dB/octave. This rst-order slope ensures proper amplitude and phase summing
between the two woofers over their entire operating range. Both woofers operate below
150Hz, but only one of them extends up to the midrange crossover point. This is done
to achieve proper directivity control throughout the entire woofer operating range, while
delivering powerful and extended low-frequency performance. Above the midrange
crossover point, the HF compression driver and horn combination operates unassisted,
all the way to 20kHz (see graph, below).
dBSPL
110
105
100
95
90
85
80
75
70
65
60
20Hz 50 100 200 500 1k 2k 5k 10k 20k 40k
DD67000 LF1
DD67000 LF2
DD67000 LF Combined
DD67000 HF
DD67000 UHF
DD67000
SPL vs Freq
On-axis response of the DD67000 system and of each
transducer through its crossover network (2.83V @ 1m)
15
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