Project Everest DD66000
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CHAPTER 1
Legacy – the Historical Development of 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 eight 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 system. They are Hartsfield, Paragon, Everest DD55000, K2 S9500/7500,
K2 S5500, K2 S9800 and K2 S5800. The newest is Project Everest DD66000.
Although differing in performance details and physical attributes, all of the
Project loudspeakers have shared a common objective – to elevate sound
reproduction to levels defined only by the limitations of existing materials and
technology. The fact that all Project loudspeakers have many common features,
despite a spread of nearly sixty years, is a testimony to the excellence of the
technology and manufacturing techniques upon which JBL was built.
Defining the Project Concept
The Hartsfield 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 Hartsfield was significant 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-efficiency system incorporating compression
driver technology and combining the qualities of high-output, low-distortion,
