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DJ GEAR
By Greg Bester
JBL PRX600 SERIES ”… THE PRX600 RANGE OFFERS A POWERFUL LOUDSPEAKER SYSTEM FOR EVERYONE’S BUDGET.”
BL, the preeminent loudspeaker systems manufacturer owned by Harman International since 1969, is a veritable behemoth in the live sound reinforcement world and has been for the better part of the last seventy years. Yup, you read that right. Seventy years. Named after the initials of its founder, James Bullough Lansing, JBL was founded in 1946 after his departure from cinema sound specialists Altec Lansing. The first of JBL’s products at that time was the D10115-inch loudspeaker and the D175 high frequency driver, the latter of which remained in the company catalogue throughout
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the 1970’s. The longevity of the D175 is a true testament to a strong design and the strength of JBL as a brand. Today JBL boasts a massive but categorically defined product line in two divisions: JBL Consumer and JBL Professional; their headquarters located in Northridge, California. Their product market in the professional arena includes cinema, installed, portable, and touring loudspeaker systems, along with studio monitors for recording and broadcast. Of course, we’ll leave the consumer audio products to the gamers. The recently released PRX600 series of powered loudspeakers are the next step forward in powered speaker design and the JBL philosophy of power, ruggedness and versatility.
The PRX600 Range Designed straight from the drawing board, the PRX600 series boasts six speakers in the range: four mid-high and two subwoofer variants - all self-powered. The smallest two, the PRX612M (12”) and the PRX615M (15”) can double as floor monitors while the larger two, the PRX625 (dual 15”, two-way) and the PRX635 (15”, 6.5”, 1.5” three-way) are aimed primarily at being the main mid-high reinforcement system. There are two single-18” subwoofer varieties, the PRX618S and the PRX618S-XLF, the XLF suffix alluding to the fact that the latter has an extended low frequency response.