JBL PROJECT K2 S9900

When you see the word ‘Project’ preceding a JBL loudspeaker model, it means something special is going on. JBL uses the word only when its engineers have had all restraints removed, instructed to build the speaker system they have always wanted to build. Whatever resources they need, they get.

It’s a brave brief, and at JBL it has only happened eight times since the 1950s, when the first “search for new frontiers in sound reproduction” yielded the 1954 Hartsfield. With its high-efficiency compression-driver technology, the Hartsfield set the tone for the Project speakers that followed — the Ranger-Paragon, the Everest DD55000, four iterations of K2 designs, and the 2006 Project Everest DD66000, now evolved into the D67000. And while this K2 S9900 actually combines the tradition of the 2001 Project K2 S9800 along with design elements of the later Everest, it retains the Project prefix as an indication of its position in the very top ranks of JBL’s range.

SYNTHESIS AND BEYOND

It has also spent some of its existence as part of JBL’s Synthesis range — bespoke theatre systems which combine signal processors, equalisers, amplifiers and loudspeakers to create complete audio systems in rooms of any size. JBL Synthesis is itself part of the Harman Luxury Audio Group, which includes the brands Mark Levinson, Revel, and Lexicon, most recently joined by the UK brand Arcam, with the idea that these brands come together to offer “the most advanced high-performance audio systems available… from the finest stereo listening to state-of-the-art multichannel home theater systems”.

Within this group, JBL Synthesis has a bit of a split personality. In one regard, the Synthesis concept is not really about individual products, nor even about the individual