Ti K SERIES
M A N U A L BETRIEBSANLEITUNG
INSTRUCTION MANUAL
INTRODUCTION
Excellence is an exclusive quality. It's so easy to recognize, yet so difficult to attain.
JBL craftsmen have been involved in the art of sound for more than a generation – signal and source, wood and fabric, transducers and acoustics – all of it.
Today these craftsmen continue to perform to the most rigid standards any craftsmen can submit to: those imposed upon themselves.
JBL loudspeakers are carefully engineered instruments, painstakingly crafted and assembled to watchmaker standards. JBL enclosures express the excitement of creative design; they are elegant, rigid and flawlessly finished. JBL transducers and electronics offer what has been characterized by devoted music listeners as “the incomparable JBL sound”.
JBL Ti Series loudspeakers are the ultimate expression of over 50 years experience creating loudspeakers that are the first choice of professionals worldwide. This experience, teamed with an extensive development program of comparisons, experiments, testing and listening, has resulted in loudspeaker systems displaying truly exceptional performance.
By following the few simple suggestions contained in this booklet, you can look forward to superb high fidelity reproduction that will retain its clarity and realism year after year.
UNPACKING
The packing material of your Ti speakers has been designed to protect the loudspeakers from any damage due to rough handling during shipment. We strongly suggest that you keep the packing material for future purposes, in case you are moving or your loudspeakers should require service.
PLACEMENT
The listening room and the location of the loudspeakers within the room affects bass level and bass response, imaging, clarity and overall quality of sound. No other single factor has the same level of effect on the final sound quality. The acoustics of the listening room are determined by the dimensions of the room, its construction and the furnishings it contains. Rooms that have different dimensions for ceiling height, length and width will give a more even, balanced sound than rooms where the dimensions are equal to each other, especially at low frequencies. This is important, especially at low frequencies, as the room dimensions determine the pattern of standing waves within the room.
The construction of the room, wooden floors, wood wall panelling, plasterboard or brick will affect the reproduction of low frequencies, with “soft” walls, floors and ceilings resulting in a loss of bass energy in the room, because the low frequencies are “leaked” out. On the other hand solid walls, floors and ceilings like brick and concrete may cause problems by increasing the level of reverberation time at low frequencies giving a boomy, fat sound.
At middle and high frequencies furniture, carpets and curtains all have a damping effect that might be desirable, depending on the actual acoustics and your listening preferences.
Ideally, there should be a reasonable balance between the absorptive material and sound reflecting surfaces. If there are two large reflecting surfaces facing each other, the “bounce” between them will make sounds run together and the music will lack definition. Large flat surfaces should be broken up with bookshelves, drapes, screens or tapestries.
Consult your JBL Ti Series dealer for further information regarding the use of products or materials designed to control certain acoustic problems caused by room size, shape or construction. In many cases, significant improvement in performance can be achieved by careful attention to room acoustics.
Your JBL Ti speakers are able to give a very satisfying sound in a great variety of listening rooms when set up in an even sided triangle with respect to the listener. However, a careful setup procedure will always be rewarding, and for best results we recommend placement well away from the boundaries of the room with preferably minimum 0.75 m (30 in) distance to the wall behind the speakers, and 0.75-1 m (30-40 in) distance to the side walls.
A good guideline is to start by concentrating on the tonal balance of the sound, aiming for the most neutral reproduction. When the desired tonal character is achieved, efforts should be directed towards the recreation of the sound stage – the imaging.
The tonal balance is roughly determined by the distances to the walls of the room in combination witht the specific acoustic properties of the room. Placement close to walls gives a reinforcement of lower frequencies compared to placement well away from room boundaries. Movements of the loudspeaker to give good tonal balance requires relatively large movements, typically 0.20-0.30 m (8-12 in).
When a satisfying balance is found, a proper sound stage and stereo localization is developed by smaller movements of the loudspeaker in combination with angling towards the listening position.
The Ti speakers are supplied in mirror imaged pairs that will help build an impressive sound stage due to their asymmetrical shape. The Ti speakers do not come as specific left or right enclosures. We strongly recommend experimentation in order to find the most satisfying overall sound. Attention to every detail of the setup will be beneficial in terms of improved sound quality.
The JBL Ti 2K should be placed on a rigid and open, preferably heavy stand of approximately 40-60 cm (16-24 in) height. A dedicated stand for the Ti 2K is available from your JBL Ti Series dealer. The JBL Ti 6K and Ti 10K have provisions for the mounting of spikes at the bottom of the speakers. The spikes can be mounted in threaded inserts located beneath the rubber feet at the bottom of the speakers. The benefit of spikes will very often be a more accurate, tight and dynamic bass reproduction, and a more stable and precise stereo image. The reason behind this is that the spikes provide a tighter mechanical coupling between the loudspeaker enclosure and the floor, whether hardwood, concrete or brick.
Your authorized JBL dealer will be happy to help you obtain the best possible performance from your JBL speakers.
NOTE: New loudspeakers require a certain amount of “exercise” before they perform their best. A steady level of performance is achieved after 8-12 hours of operation, depending on the nature of the music and the level. Should you want to speed up this process you can use inter-station FM noise as a signal during periods, where you would normally not be listening to the speaker. Alternatively a CD player on "Repeat" would be an appropriate signal source.
CONNECTIONS
IMPORTANT: When connecting or disconnecting loudspeakers from an amplifier, the amplifier must be turned off. Making connections while the amplifier is operating could seriously damage the loudspeaker system and void the warranty. The amplifier must also be turned off before connecting or disconnecting cables at the amplifier or pre-amplifier inputs.
1 mm2 (18 AWG) insulated wire is the minimum size recommended for loudspeaker connections up to 5 meters (16 ft). Beyond this distance, heavier gauge wire is recommended: 1.5 mm2 (16 AWG) up to 10 meter (30 ft) and 2 mm2 (14 AWG) up to 20 meters (60 ft). These recommendation are given as MINIMUM requirements, and generally speaking, the speaker leads should be as short as possible.
Speaker wire and interconnect cables are important components in an audio system. With all other factors at an appropriate level of quality the speaker cable and the interconnect cable can make significant contributions to the perceived sound quality. Careful selection of cable and interconnect can add or subtract marked shadings in tonal character. Likewise, different cables can have quite a dramatic impact on the dynamic contrasts experienced by listeners.
The same care that was given to the internal system wiring in the JBL TI speakers should be afforded to the selection and application of the cable that will connect the various components in your system. Your JBL Ti Series dealer has the experience and knowledge to recommend suitable interconnects and speaker wire to best complement your system.
The length of the speaker wire will depend on the location of the loudspeakers and the amplifier. Since the final positioning of the loudspeaker will be determined by careful listening, you may want to arrange a temporary wiring layout that will allow the moving of the loudspeaker to experiment with placement. When the best loudspeaker position is determined, permanent connections may be made using the shortest cable runs possible. Both left and right speaker wires should be the same length. In some systems, the amplifier may be located near the loudspeaker system and may be connected using a short length of speaker wire. Although a relatively long cable between the preamplifier and main amplifier is required by such a hook-up, the benefit of a short amplifier-to-loudspeaker connection will often outweigh the drawbacks.
Connections to the loudspeaker system are made at the terminals located at the bottom of the enclosure. These terminals permit a variety of connection methods.
The most straightforward connection is made by directly connecting clean bare wire. This way the connection is made by stripping
8-10 mm of insulation off the loudspeaker wire and passing the bare wire through the hole in the binding post. If the wire is too thick to pass through the hole in the terminal in one single bundle, separate the copper wire into three equal bundles, then pass the center bundle
through the hole in the terminal. Wrap the remaining bundles around the binding post and twist the center stands. The knob can now be tightened securely, and any excess wire that is not in contact with the binding post surfaces should be trimmed to avoid short circuits.
A very convenient way of connection is the use of 4 mm bananatype connectors, which are then, in turn, connected to the binding posts. Bear in mind, however, that the number of contact points should be kept to a minimum, and at the same time each contact should be as tight as possible.
For the same reason, we recommend the use of the highest quality spade connectors, expertly connected to the selected cables. Spade lugs will together with the custom made binding posts made for the JBL TI speakers, make the best possible connection between the speaker wire and the loudspeaker system, minimizing
any contact resistance that might degrade the sound ever so slightly.
Any connection in an audio system should not be considered “good forever”. All connections should be inspected and cleaned or remade periodically. Frequency of maintenance depends on the materials involved in the connection, atmospheric conditions and other factors. Consult your dealer for specific recommendations.
It is essential that both loudspeakers in a stereo system have the same polarity with respect to the input signal (are in “phase”). JBL Ti speakers are designed to produce a positive pulse when a positive signal is applied to the red input terminal.
If the driver cones of the two loudspeakers do not move in the same direction for a given voltage at the input terminals, there will be a lack of stereo definition and a loss of deep bass.
We recommend experimenting with the polarity of the speakers, since recordings, program sources or power amplifiers can invert the polarity of the signal. The “correct” connection is the one that yields the best audible results. Be sure to reverse both left and right connections to keep the systems in polarity.
MULTI-WIRING
JBL Ti loudspeakers may also be connected to the power amplifier using several lengths of wire. The multi-wire connection method offers a number of options and advantages.
Each section of the Ti-loudspeaker system’s internal frequency dividing network is electrically separated and equipped with its own pair of input terminals
This way each individual loudspeaker drive unit (and its associated network) can be connected independently to the power amplifier. The loudspeaker system is shipped from the factory with all the network sections interconnected by strapping bars, so that the loudspeaker can be hooked up to the amplifier by a single run of cables.
Be removing the bars, connections can be made to the individual network sections using two or more pair of wires (four or more conductors) as shown in figure 1. The wires used may be of the same type for both low, middle or high frequency sections. The advantages are that wire effects (resistance, inductance, etc.) are reduced, and intermodulation of low and high frequencies in the cable is avoided. Specialized wires for low, middle and high frequencies may yield excellent results in some systems.
In either case, the cable for the low frequencies should be as short as possible, and the left and right cable for each section must be the
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