JBL's story begins in Los Angeles in 1946, when audio engineer James Bullough Lansing founded the company that would carry his initials, building on decades of pioneering loudspeaker work that dated back to the 1920s. From the very first products, the D101 loudspeaker and D175 high-frequency driver, JBL set out to bring genuinely cinema-grade sound to both professional and home audiences.

The following decades produced a remarkable run of innovation: the D130 transducer, a design so enduring that variants remained in production for 55 years; a partnership with Fender in the 1950s that put JBL speakers into guitar amplifiers played by legends like Jerry Garcia; the first JBL car speakers in 1978; and home cinema systems in 1992. JBL joined Harman International in 1969, giving the brand the resources to expand its cinema, professional, and consumer audio lines even further.