Audio Video News

Venerable loudspeaker manufacturer JBL has added an impressive new series to its home theater offerings. The TiK line embodies an entirely new design, one that JBL is calling the "bending trapezoid," for its gently curving sides and truncated-cone appearance. The company has devoted special attention to chamber construction and resonance suppression, in addition to developing a new set of drivers. TiK speakers are new from the ground up.

JBL has developed an enclosure that eliminates the parallel walls of the traditional box speaker---and the colorations they cause---by exploiting Scandinavian woodworking techniques. The side panels in the TiK series are wrapped around curved internal braces, and have a "bowed" curvature that helps eliminate standing wave resonances within the cabinet. The revolutionary structure has an amazing strength-to-weight ratio, further diminishing coloration while reducing manufacturing costs and shipping weight.

TiK drivers are also something special. The aluminum chassis of each driver is plated with pure Titanium, a metal with an astounding degree of stiffness. Polypropylene cones are matched to aluminum voice coils with a 50% lower mass than typical copper coils. TiK tweeters feature titanium domes which act as heat sinks for the voice coils, eliminating another source of distortion. JBL claims the drivers used in the TiK series exhibit "pure pistonic motion," with almost no cone breakup even at very high levels. The neodymium magnets used provide their own magnetic shielding, meaning that TiK speakers can be used near CRT displays without causing magnetic distortion of the picture. Special threaded "footers" allow maximum stability on concrete, wood, or carpeted floors.

Available in black or birch, TiK speakers include the floorstanding Ti10K, with two 8" woofers, one 4" and one 6.5" midrange driver, and a 1" tweeter. The Ti6K looks like a smaller version of the 10K, with two 6.5" woofers, one 4" midrange, and the dome tweeter. The Ti2K, suitable as a rear/side surround speaker, or as a stand-mounted mini-monitor, has one 6.5" mid-woofer and one 1" tweeter. The TiK Center boasts two 5.25" mid-woofers and one 1" tweeter. The TiK series shares a "family look and sound" that will make for easy incorporation into home theater systems in almost any type of décor. Visit your local JBL dealer for more information on this intriguing new product.