A concise guide to the JBL Control Contractor Series install speaker range

HARMAN’s JBL Professional loudspeaker range is one of the most comprehensive on the market. The JBL Control Contractor Series is umbrella branding for many of the company’s install-focused speakers, including wall, ceiling and pendant versions. It's a range any designer, installer or end-user can turn to in order to cover all install eventualities.  Whether you need indoor or outdoor, highs or lows, large or small, the Control Contractor series provides high quality, easy to combine, and simple to install solutions.

The Control Contractor range includes some long-established stalwarts like the Control 24C/T ceiling speakers, known to designers the world over, as well as some lesser-known products that resolve specific issues.

In this concise guide, we’ll break down the range and take a look at some of the most popular speakers.

Small/Large

Regardless of the size of the installation, JBL Control Contractor Series has options to suit any application. Whether the architecture suits in-ceiling, on-wall, or pendant loudspeakers, the JBL range provides an array of options from ultra-compact to large room-filling power.

Ultra-Compact

In the ultra-compact category choose the tiny Control 52 speakers as an on-wall option, a Control  62P pendant or a Control 42 in-ceiling model. These all feature a JBL-designed 2.5" driver, offering high-fidelity sound with a consistent coverage pattern of  140 – 160 degrees conical. They are often combined into sub/sat systems with accompanying subwoofers (see section further below!)

JBL Control 52	JBL Control 42C	JBL Control 62P

In-Ceiling Range

The JBL ceiling speaker ranges will be well-known to any installer. The Control 24C/T in particular has been a mainstay in the industry for many years with different variants and iterations. One reason for the 20 Series popularity is that the drivers are all 16 ohms, meaning for smaller low-impedance installs it’s easier to run more speakers on a single line than it would be with a comparable 8-ohm speaker. They are also voiced to provide real clarity and presence to speech, making them ideal for speech and paging applications. If speech clarity in a ceiling speaker is the particular requirement of a specification, the Control 26 C/T is the most recommended model.

Where the Control 20 series gives clarity of speech and the benefit of higher impedance, the Control 10 series has a more musical sound. For most background music applications, a Control 16 C/T is ideal. For applications requiring more low-end use a Control 18C/T, or a Control 14C/T when budget/size is a concern.

Featuring JBL’s proprietary conical Radiation Boundary Integrator® (RBI™) technology which evens out the frequency spread, the more premium Control 40 series includes models including a ceiling subwoofer and a low-profile version of the Control 47 for difficult roof voids.

Although the Control 40 series are more expensive than the other series, they benefit from an economy of scale when it comes to amplification. For large installations, you pay more per speaker but using half as many. The tap settings on the Control 40 series are generally double that of the Control 10 and 20 series, so actually the amp spec is usually about the same.

Control 45C/T	Control 47C/T	Control 47LP	Control 47HC

Surface-Mount Range

When most people refer to JBL Control Contractor they have the wall mounted 20 series in mind. Control 1 Pros and Control 25s have been a standard for install applications for a long time. . They were updated in 2016 with a new waveguide, greater bass extension and updated styling and the newer models can be recognised by their rounded corners and the -1 suffix.

The range starts with the Control 23-1, suitable for background music and paging applications, going up to the Control 25-1 when audio quality is particularly important, up further to the Control 28-1 when low frequency/SPL levels are required but the addition of a sub isn’t feasible.  

As with the ceiling speakers, these come in variants with or without transformers and are all available in black and white, and are also paintable. They also have the benefit of coming with an included Invisiball mounting bracket. This neat little ball bracket allows for vertical and horizontal positioning using a recessed hex (Allen) bolt, hidden by the JBL badge) to clamp the speaker to the bracket making a secure, unobtrusive connection.

Control 23-1	Control 25-1	Control 28-1

Pendant Speaker Range

 The Control Contractor 60 Series pendant speakers come in a variety of sizes, with a sub-woofer option - and provide the ideal high quality speaker solution in venues with high ceilings or open-architecture.

Alongside the ultra-compact Control 62P, the pendant range includes four further models:  the Control 64P/T with 4" driver, Control 65P/T with 5.25" driver and Control 67P/T with 6.5" driver. A specific narrow-coverage model named the Control 67HC/T is purposefully designed for high ceiling applications. The range is completed by the Control 60 P/S pendant subwoofer.

Highs/Lows

Combining multiple small-format high-frequency speakers with an accompanying low-frequency subwoofer (known as a sub/sat system) is a brilliantly discrete way of providing full-range audio within a space. With the high—frequency speakers distributed around the space, and a sub-woofer providing low end this offers a well round sound suitable to many voice and background music applications.

What makes the sub-sat systems from the JBL Control Contractor range stand out - besides their quality - is their versatility. Thanks to similar sound character, frequency response, sensitivity, directivity, and impedance, it's possible to mix and match any Control 40, 50 or 60 Series speakers and subwoofers.  For instance combine Control 52 wall-mounted satellite speakers with a Control 40S/T ceiling subwoofer, or two Control 42C ceiling speakers and two Control 62P pendant speakers with a Control 50S/T floor-mounted subwoofer (which can often be discretely hidden in a design).

The Control 52 in particular is an extremely versatile and popular speaker for a variety of applications thanks to its ease of installation and small size. Think boardrooms, waiting areas, and even the choir pews of churches.

Likewise the Control 50 subwoofer is a particularly popular model as offers supreme versatility when designing distributed installed systems. It's often paired with on-wall speakers such as the Control 23-1's or 25-1's to great success. 

Indoors/Outdoors

For outdoor environments, you can rely on a variety of versatile, weather-resistant options from the JBL Control Contractor Range. Providing excellent audio performance for indoor and outdoor applications, the Control 80 Series in-ground loudspeakers are fully IP-55 rated and deliver a 360-degree audio coverage. There are two models in the range, the Control 85M and larger Control 88M.

The weather-resistance of Control 23-1, Control 25-1, Control 28-1, and the 10 Series Ceiling Speakers, can all be enhanced with the optional JBL’s WeatherMax™ grille and MTC Weather Resistant Panel Covers. This takes the Control 23/25/28 Series to an official IP rating of IP55.

Download our PDF overview guide

This downloadable PDF guide gives an overview of the JBL Control Contractor range, with live links to individual product pages on the Midwich website.

Further Information

For further information on the full JBL range please contact the Midwich Audio Team on 0161 868 1240 or speak to your Midwich account manager.