A fine 4645 cabinet came home with me today!
Greetings, Friends,
Well, as mentioned in the thread regarding 4645's birthday, today, I brought home a very nice JBL 4645 enclosure!! Grumpy very kindly made me a great deal on it, and he, Todd, and I got together today to play around with some sub comparisons, listen to some fun music, and share a fine lunch! Bart (Mech 986) tried to make it, too, but ended up with previous commitments that had to be honored. Good man, he!
We three met up at Grumpy's place, and when Todd and I arrived, Grumpy had already installed a 2245H in one 4645 cabinet, and a 2242H in another, and there they sat, side by side, ready for some comparisons, measurements, and listening tests!! WOW! How much better does it get, eh?! Grumpy had already run some measurements, up close, and at 3 meters (if I recall correctly), and I was very, very surprised at how very close the performance of the 2245H and the 2242H are, in that same cabinet, tuned exactly the same!!! The computer graphs were, virtually, identical! The subs also sounded very, very close, playing the same material and at the same settings. It was very kind of Grumpy to have setup that testing and listening experience, and I really appreciated the chance to compare those two subwoofers, side by side. Even at low volume, both sub systems really added in some basement bass to most of the music we enjoyed. And, yes, we did load up the cannons, in the 1812 Overture, and got to see one of Grumpy's amps, a JBL, clip, just a tiny bit!! :blink::eek: Made me remember the first time I played the digital version of that piece on our L300's. Our "little" 100WPC H/K amp went into protection mode, and clamped down on the volume for about 10-15 seconds!!! Scared the heck out of me!!
In any case, we had a fine time with the listening and testing. When finished, we horsed up the single enclosure I'd bought from Grumpy, and loaded it into my Jeep for it's trip up the snowy mountains to it's new home. Then, we headed to Lucille's BBQ, which was a new place for me. There, we shared some fine BBQ, fun stories about myriad topics, and had an outstanding time! We did miss Bart, and hope he can make it next time, for sure. It's wonderful to have some JBL Friends close enough to get together like that, for food, fun, and friendship!! At Lucille's, we sang happy birthday to Todd, too, as tomorrow is his natal day, if I remember correctly. He's still a youngster, though, compared to some of us old geezers!! ;):D
The day was over all too soon, and I took leave of Grumpy and Todd, and headed up the mountain, back home again. Once in the village, I stopped at the hardware store and bought 8 hex-headed bolts with which to install my 2242H woofer in the 4645 enclosure. Then, I headed a little higher up the mountain, and arrived home again, safe and sound. It took me a little while to get up the courage to undertake horsing that huge subwoofer enclosure up the many stairs, and into the house, but I finally managed it!! Whilst preparing for the task, I took some time to stretch out a bit, by hacking through some ice on our long driveway, and shoveling it off to the side. A few more days like today, which was nice, and we can have an ice-free driveway again!! Yahoo!!
Thanks, again, Dave, for the great enclosure and for setting up the tests and listening opportunity. And, thanks to you and Todd for a fun day!! Take care, Friends, and God Bless!
Every Good Wish,
Doc (who's 4645 ship has finally come in!!!);):D:applaud::bouncy:
Latest update on the 4645/2242H sub...
Morning, Friends,
Today, up here in our mountains, it's foggy, slightly rainy, and a nice 41°F. Lovely weather, and a perfect day for a nice hike in the woods. Unfortunately, we don't have time for that, and I'm still getting over the flu. So, we'll stay home and work a bit, then play later this afternoon. I'll get more time to enjoy the sub and sat combinations.
OK, last night, I tried to hook up the Ashly 4-way, once again, and once again, I failed to get a good result. Since I began this journey, Grumpy, and also Baron030, have offered many great tips, to help me setup this Ashly crossover, and I really appreciate their efforts to help make this happen. However, I'm quickly coming to the realization that this 4-way Ashly cannot be made to function as a 2-way crossover, especially in a subwoofer application.
At first, I hooked up the Ashly and got zip. Next, with Grumpy's suggestions, I tried again, and again, got little success. I ended up hooking my old Crown VFX-2A crossover into the system, and it worked very well, albeit much too noisy, with lots of 60HZ hum, for our tastes.
After a few days of enjoying some massive sub bass, combined with the outstanding sound of our 4411's, last night, I tried again to get the Ashly up to speed, using Baron030's suggestions. No luck. I can get the 4411's to sound great, but too much bass getting to them. Or, I can get a really nice subwoofer output, but with no complete range of sound from the 4411's. But, they both will not work together in the manner necessary for good sound. There's always a huge hole in the middle of the sound spectrum.
So, I hooked up my old Audio Control Phase-Coupled Activator, which is setup as a 120HZ crossover. It worked, but I really didn't care for the sound it offered. The bass was tubby and boomy, and the 4411's sounded thin, shrill, and harsh, no matter the settings.
So, I went back to the noisy Crown crossover, and that is once again offering outstanding sound, and a perfectly seamless bonding of subwoofer to satellites. I do hate the loud hum, however, and so would REALLY like to get the Ashly up and running. But, given it's architechture, I am thinking it cannot function as a 2-way subwoofer crossover. Too many differences between the response capabilities of the 4 options for crossover, and the one option for using a subwoofer.
Any more suggestions, please? I'm thinking of shelving the Ashly and getting an XR1001, 2-way version for this project. I'll save the 4-way Ashly for my later experimentation with 4-way systems. I'm bummed that the XR4001 just doesn't seem to want to work as a 2-way, in my application, but guess that's just the way it goes. The seller, George at Full Compass, assured me that it could work as a 2-way, but maybe it will only do that as a regular 2-way crossover, and not at 80HZ. Who knows....
So, that's it for now. I'll keep you updated as to how things progress. Today, I'm planning to hook the L300's into the system, replacing the 4411's, and see how that sounds. When Sweet Bride heard the sub+4411's combination, I asked her which main speakers were playing, the L300's or the 4411's? She picked the L300's, after carefully listening to the sound of the songs I played, even though the 4411's were the ones working with the 4645!! That speaks very highly of the benefit of having added the sub to our system, Friends, as she didn't care for the 4411's before (nor, did I), without the sub added, and dearly loved the L300's, as do I!!! Either way, it's very, very nice that she supports me in this hobby, and that she loves music, and values a fine sound system, just as much as do I!!! Thank you, Lord, for bringing me such a wonderful gift as my Wife!! Take care, and God Bless!
Every Good Wish,
Doc
No such thing as a dumb question; right?
Well, I have a single copy of a 2242 and a pair of 2245s. If I remember correctly, the 2242 has a vented motor structure and is rated to take 600 watts of power and the 2245s are not vented and are not rated as high; right? I thought the frequency responses were a tad different too but I could be wrong. So these two different (??) woofers probably have different voice coils, cones and motors; right?
Anyway, I'm not "hear" (no pun) to beat a dead horse.
I believe, my query about the HT application in question is relavent since, at least to me, there is some confusion about how it is being used.
In a HT system there is a dedicated sound track (channel) that receives only ULF material. If a 2245 or 2242 it is not used in a dedicated ULF channel application, I assume in a home setting it is receiving a signal from an original "full range" source, in which case, I would expect it to require a low pass or other passive crossover network; right?
In the few dedicated subs that I have run in HTs so far, I have used plate amps and they do have controls for low frequencies; I beleive these are passive, but I could be wrong. I assumed these controls are provided to compensate for room accustics.
Anyway, if I built a deductated sub and ran it from a HT ULF channel, I assume I could do this without frequency compensation and without a passive crossover assuming the source material is only ULF and the woofer and box are rated to handle these frequencies; right?