JBE on eBay - were they any good?

[break-3]

Saw this JBE Series 3 on eBay http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.d...#ht_500wt_1120
What were JBEs like?

[hifi_dave]

IMO, an average DD in it's day. It had a cult following and for a time we kept one on demonstration but it didn't sell against the Rega Planar-3, Systemdek or LP12. It's an interesting looking machine if you can get it for the right price.

[DSJR]

before the Pink Triangle, the JBE was thought to be a good sounding alternative to the old fruitbox. Because it didn't sound like the LP12, it was soon consigned to history.

The best I heard it was with a Mayware Formula IV and Sonus Blue cartridge and this combination was very good indeed. A modern arm/cartridge alternative could be a Roksan Nima (with light damping) with an AT44MLa.

Many early direct drives suffered badly with over-active servo's. The better Technics drives never suffered from this (reverb/acoustic sapping feedback was their problem), but the second rank could be a problem with higher downforces (I won't even mention the third rank DD's like the godawful Technics SL2000, which hunted all over with "any" cartridge). I'd say the JBE was a good second rank motor in a Rega-like plinth and probably mid period Rega performance too.

[aquapiranha]

My old boss had one. when he was looking at a dem, a Linn dealer he knew point blank refused to dem the JBE against an LP12., make of that what you will. He bought the JBE.

[hifi_dave]

Well, some Linn dealers were (still are) like that. We had all sorts on demo that we didn't actually sell but which were popular with the mags. These were there to give customers a decent demo and put their minds at rest.

At one time we had a JBE as it had some 'rave' reviews in a mag and people wanted to hear it. We never actually found anyone who preferred it to a Rega, Linn or Systemdek and so it sat forlornly on a shelf until we banged it out at trade to move it on - as they say.

I love that smiley !!! Marco - any chance of some more ?