'Got some JBL's for PA

[johnaec]

I know this isn't JBL home hi-fi use, but for the last several months I've been collecting the parts to put together a pair of speakers for my part-time band to use for PA. I already have a set of MR-922's, (12" w/horn), but they were always being pushed to the edge, (we play Rock n' Roll and Rhythm n' Blues). So I'd gathered a pair of 15" 2226H's, 1.5" 2447J HF drivers, and 2381 horns. My plan was to put them in the smallest physical size cabinet I could, (LF extension not hugely important).

Anyway, it turns out JBL had already done this with these exact components, the SP215-9. I'd never seen a pair, but a set recently turned up on eBay. Since I could literally end up having more invested in building my own, (after adding crossovers, wood, TIME, etc.), I decided to follow these.

I ended up being the high bidder, and price was under $1000 delivered, including tripod stands! 'Just got them today and checked them out - they work great, and are truly in mint condition! (They came from a church!) 'A little heavy at 84 lbs each, ('sorry - I can't afford SRX715's), but they'd probably weigh more if I built them myself.

They have a passive crossover, but are also biampable. For now, I'll probably run them passive with a JBL MPA-600 amp, but I also have the stuff to biamp if I want.

Anyway, here's a pic - you can see they literally couldn't have been made smaller! (What looks like a "creased" grille is just a shadow - the grilles are curved.)

'Anyone need any of the raw drivers I mentioned?

John

[oznob]

Wow, great score John especially with the tri-pods! They will be great mains for any gig. What amp you gonna drive them with?

Mark

[johnaec]

Wow, great score John especially with the tri-pods! They will be great mains for any gig. What amp you gonna drive them with?

MarkJBL MPA-600 for now...

John

[mikebake]

yeah, those are nice units. I'd like to have a pair. Good smallish all-purpose rugged speakers.

[GordonW]

You did good, IMHO.

I'd personally rather have those, than the neo-magnet models, for gigging... if those have problems, you can get them reconed almost anywhere, with minimal wait time... for a working musician, that's a BIG advantage, from what I've seen!

Also, IME, the 2226 handles more power, output level and abuse than the neo-magnet version... I've seen people light up the neo woofers like christmas trees... replace them with 2226s, and no more problems...

So, IMHO, worrying about weight be d***ed... use what WORKS!

Some people also would find it hard to justify the price on those... however, for the quality of materials (real plywood cabinet, T-nut fasteners, serious crossover, built-in supports for the horn driver, etc) and workmanship, it's actually usually CHEAPER just to "pay up" up front for something like that, than try to flog something cheaper and get nickel-and-dimed to death repairing a cheap speaker set, when it blew up over and over. Not to mention, the better set will just plain SOUND better, too...

Regards,
Gordon.

[johnaec]

Some people also would find it hard to justify the price on those...Well, the way I look at it, I can eBay my existing components:

2) 2226H low-time stereo use, in mint condition and original shipping boxes = ~ $250
2) 2447J drivers, one unused, both with new D16R2450 diaphragms = ~ $300
2) 2381 horns - one unused, one new = ~ $100

Total in hand = ~ $650 (hopefully more - I actually have closer to $750 in them - I may swap out the diaphragms)

Add 2) crossover for SP215-9 @ about $100 each = $200

Right there, that's at least $850 total I'm saving, (plus stands, though I already had a pair), and still no birch plywood, hardware, duraflex, and TIME, so under $1000 for a mint pair delivered with stands definitely justifies the purchase for me!

John

[clmrt]

I'd like to spend 20 minutes with those in my room, just to kill my curiosity on how they perform in a hi-fi setting.

[johnaec]

Here's another reason I think these SP215-9's were a great deal.

Here's a pair of SR4731X cabinets that use the same HF driver and horn, but two 12" 2206H drivers instead of a single 15" 2226H: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=200095942585&ssPageName=STRK:MEWA:IT&ih=010

The sold for $1475 without shipping or stands, (though I don't know of a stand that would hold them), and besides being much larger, they also weigh 48 lbs more each! 'Makes the SP215's look like featherweights...

John

[johnaec]

Just wanted to add a comment from another post here...

I went over to Zilch's over the weekend to get some CLIO curves run on the 2447/2381 HF combos from the SP215-9's I recently purchased. Since that cabinet was last produced in 2002, the drivers had to be at least 5 years old, still with the original diaphragms. We compared them with a brand new 2447/2381 combo, and both older drivers measured within 1 to 2 dB of the new driver, (the used ones actually had a little smoother curve), and the really amazing thing - both older drivers measured on average almost within .5 dB of each other! If that's not a testament to JBL quality, I don't know what is!

John

[Zilch]

John's 2447J drivers on 2381 horns:

[johnaec]

Thanks Zilch. In the CLIO graph above, Red = new 2447J/2381, Blue & Green = older ones.

I've also posted JBL's on-axis response graph of the SP215-9 below, showing crossover compensation for the CD horns, which flattens the response significantly. 'Still have to deal with that peak around 16K, but again, this is only for PA, so some judicious EQ should be OK.

John

[johnaec]

...built-in supports for the horn driver, etc.
Actually, when I opened these SP215-9 PA cabinets to attach internal stand mounts, I discovered they didn't have the usual horn supports - I suppose it's because these weren't initially designed by JBL to be portable. So even though the 2381 horns are much stronger than the 2380 2" type, (bigger bracing gussets on the 2381), and they made it across the country without breaking under the ~25 lb. driver weight, I decided to add my own supports. This also added to cabinet stiffness, since these had no internal bracing.

I posted some pics below. The first shows the finished supports themselves, made of 3/4" baltic birch, with closed-cell foam rubber on the edges supporting the drivers.

The second pic shows how they mount internally, and the third pic is of the steel internal cups I mounted for the stands, replacing the external plastic ones that came with the cabinets, ('sorry about the pic - my batteries were dying by then, so no flash...). Not only did everything have to line up inside, but I had to determine the center of gravity before starting.

John

[grumpy]

Prudent updates. Nice work. :) -grumpy