All three have that classic JBL studio monitor styling but are voiced and designed for home use rather than the recording studio.

First off the JBL rank is the diminutive 4312M II.

Despite being only 300mm tall, this three-way bass-reflex design utilises a 133mm pure pulp white cone bass driver along with a tiny 20mm pure pulp cone midrange, while JBL’s nice 19mm titanium tweeter attends to the high frequencies.

The 4312M II comes complete with Velcro-mounted grilles, and it’s above these where you’ll find attenuators on the front of each cabinet that allow customisation of midrange and high frequencies.

Looking at the back of each cabinet, decent quality non-bi-wire binding posts allow the use of banana plugs/spades or bare cable.

Available in either black or a real walnut veneer, each 4312M II has handy screw inserts for JBL’s optional wall-mounting bracket, ensuring maximum flexibility of placement.

JBL recommends amplifiers of up to 75 watts RMS for the 4312M II, with their 6-Ohm load and sensitivity of 92dB not likely to present any significant problems for use with today's high-current amplification.

Next up and possibly the spunkiest looking of the three, is the horn-loaded 4306.

Using a 200mm version of the smaller 4312M II’s pure pulp white cone bass driver, the dual port bass-reflex 4306 uses a 25mm aluminium/magnesium alloy dome compression driver in place of a conventional tweeter.

This is inset into a fairly deep horn assembly above the main driver and as it crosses over at a much lower frequency than the tweeter on the 4312, also handling any midrange information.

A single attenuator for HF adjustments is located on the front baffle under the easily removable blue grille.

Power rating for the 4306 is an impressive 150 watts RMS and with a sensitivity of 89dB and a nominal 6-Ohm load they should be pretty easy to drive.

The 4306’s are available in a real walnut veneer and a rather fetching blue baffle and grille.

Finally, the big daddy of the trio is JBL’s impressive 4307.

With a 250mm pure pulp white cone bass driver, a 125mm polymer coated pure pulp midrange driver (with double-pleated cloth edge) mated to a high-tech 37mm dual layer laminated tangential ring diaphragm tweeter, the 4306 looks to be a serious piece of loudspeaker hardware.

The tweeter is also mounted into a horn as with the 4306, but in the case of the 4307, it is of diecast aluminium construction rather than heavyweight ABS plastic. A phase plug is also present here, which improves the dispersion of high frequencies while avoiding ‘beaming’ at certain frequencies.

Similar to the other models, the 4307’s are an easy 6-Ohm load with a 150 WRMS power rating and sensitivity of 91dB. Attenuators on the front baffle allow the tailoring of HF and midrange output, and the real walnut veneer contrasts well with the now-familiar blue front baffle. And the removable grille, let’s not forget that!

While all three new JBL’s have that retro chic look to them, the technology contained within each cabinet is anything but - the use of exotic cone materials, compression drivers and horn-loading combined with traditional heavyweight cabinetry should ensure that sound quality is right up to date.

Despite being an upmarket range, prices aren’t hair-raising with the cute 4312M II selling for $2,000 RRP. The spunky 4306 weighs in at a very reasonable $4,000 RRP, while the range-topping 4307 can be yours for $5,000 RRP.

Tom Davidson of Orange Road Audio who distributes JBL in New Zealand informed us that all three models are available immediately and are anxiously awaiting their very lucky new owners.

For further information visit JBL Synthesis.

Further reading: 2-Channel Discussion Forum