JBL Control One

I love mine, bearing in mind the size and lack of huge bass output, but it seems I'm almost alone in this. All I can say in defence is that if I go into a store or eatery/drinkery and the music sounds clearer than usual, it's often because Control Ones are used rather than the ceiling shite often fitted.. They're designed for close to wall mounting, but I've been surprised how 'tuneful' the small amount of bass actually is. many tiny boxes try to bump up the mid bass a little but that usually means a boxy colouration and deep bass falling off a cliff, where the JBL's gently tail away.

The tweets on mine are/were hot-melted in and the frame of the damaged one warped terminally when I tried to gently heat it out (the fault was a spit in the cone-dome which broke one of the coil wires). I bought a pair of replacements (they're not expensive and the official supplier was great) but only needed to replace the one, which sounded identical to the other which is a few years old.

Bass units have foam surrounds, so maybe a lifetime of fifteen to twenty years?

Mine sounded lovely when testing out amps I'd made and I'd love to be using them again for this purpose. Tell you something - the speakers I've used when checking out decks have been N-Sats and they are the absolute PITS to my ears...

Richer Sounds have them on offer regularly, so if they did interest anyone, worth a look.

OK westie, could I live with them as main speakers? Not on your life, but then the IMF Compacts (or today, ATC 11mk2's) are as 'small' as I'd ever willingly wish to go and even then.....

Maybe you lot would prefer the baby Q Acoustics model at a ton or less - small from the front but deeper front-to-back?