They have arrived…
…and in perfect (or at least advertised) condition. It was obvious they were packed by a pro. The seller knew what he was doing, and a good thing. These suckers are heavy. It took nearly a half hour to unbox the pair and get them set up.
I grabbed Madonna's Confessions on a Dance Floor off the shelf and set it spinning while I gathered up the mess that the unboxing had created.
To be honest, I wasn't overly impressed. Yeah, they sounded okay, but certainly no better or worse than the Infinity 1001As they had replaced, and I thought, "Well at least they're in better condition than the Infinitys." But once I sat down "in the zone" as it were…OMG, it was an entirely different experience and it was amazing. Old School JBL at its finest.
Even with my aging ears, I could immediately hear the difference. Today I pulled out Fleetwood Mac's Rumours, but after a few seconds of surface noise I realized that I'd grabbed the original copy I'd bought new in 1977—not the reissue I'd wanted to hear. So I took it off the turntable and retrieved the 180 gram copy I'd gotten a couple years ago.
It sounded awful. The 1977 pressing sparkled; the reissue was muted and uninspiring. Until today, I'd never heard any real difference between the two copies other than the surface noise, but it was clear as day through these JBLs.
I'm going to have some fun rediscovering all my music!