Even though these speakers were bought in 1984, they still sound great. Many a friend has been impressed with their quality sound as they have passed in the halls of the dorm. Though they do not possess the boom of equal-sized Cerwin-Vegas that friends of mine have, they are crisp and clear in high and mid with an adequate amount of bass for me. To supplement I snatched a Bose sub from the parents' house. With a Marantz SR-96 receiver, the sound is simply impeccable

It's no wonder these monitors are used in a majority of recording studios. I picked up a pair of these used for $400 because of their legendary sound and craftsmanship. I was not disappointed. Performance is best described as clean and dynamic. Bass is tight, midrange and treble are precise. The sound is a definite improvement over my B&W's. For an used pair of speakers, this is what they mean when they say the don't make'm like they use to.

This speaker is well overprice for what it does not do. The bass drops off rapidly below 60hz. The tweeter is on the same horizontal plane as the mid, thereby compressing it's already boxy image. The 1" Titanium tweeter gets tinny as often as it reveals. This is an outdated design.Small soundstage, no low bass, tinny tweeter.

The best I can do for the performance and price of $495: 3 stars

Excellent mids/vocals, detail and refined bass, wide and deep soundstage for this price point

Little harsh high, cheap binding posts

My system:
Source: Ah!Tjoeb 99 CD player with all mods
Pre: Threshold FET 10/h
Power: Threshold Stasis 3 (class A, 100wpc)
Speakers: JBL 4312 (1984, NOT the titanium tweeter model)

Although a lot of people have mixed opinions about JBL, I found the JBL 4312 very enjoyable to listen to. You need good system to make them sing. They're very sensitive to the system and quite neutral.

I listen to a wide variety of music (jazz, classical, pop). They perform best on jazz, including vocals, with excellent detail and clarity. Classical performance really depends on the recording. For pop, you need to be very selective because JBL 4312 will reveal all the flaws if any. They aren't forgiving to bad recordings.

I've never heard the later model with the titanium tweeter myself but I do notice that the resale price of the older model on eBay holds very strong compared to the later model.

Based on the performance and the price, I give them 5 stars.