JBL

For other uses, see JBL (disambiguation)}}}.

JBL or JBL Professional is an American audio manufacturer founded by James Bullough Lansing in 1946 and is now part of Harman International Industries, who also owns audio manufacturer Harman Kardon and Infinity. JBL specializes in home, car, and professional audio systems. The initials "JBL" are actually short for James B. Lansing Sound Company. Many of their systems are portable. Their products include iPod accesories, home theatre sets, speakers, enclosures, sound processors, and sound reinforcement in general.

James B. Lansing was a young engineer hired by the All Technical Services Company. They were a supplier of transformers and the like to the telephone companies. He was through in his understanding of the huge amount of research data (now called) Altec had developed. His next development was the now world famous model 515 speaker. This was a 15" low frequency speaker that not only set the standard that remains today for quality bass reproduction, but by some opinions, never equaled. Today the 515 brings maximum value when they are found. Being an engineer and not wanting to deal with other business realities, he left Altec and went west. The Altec Company went on to be a great contributor to the commercial audio industry, and are still based in Oklahoma. James went to California and started the most well known audio company in the world, James B. Lansing aka JBL. He first remanufactured all the machine tools he left at Altec. These included the original coil winding machines, using the first 4 inch voice coil and higher tolerances to the design was able to increase performance and increase power handling up from the original 30 watt 515 at Altec. Some of his machines were in use until the 1990’s time period and may still be in service today. He was truly a pioneer in the field of sound and is considered the godfather of the audio industry today. Mr. Lansing, when in his seventies died by his own hand.

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