New To Me JBL 4350 Clones Almost.

Just last Saturday, my wife and I made the trek from Fort Wayne to southern Indiana to get a pickup truck load of vintage JBL speakers. This was from an estate sale and I've been patiently waiting for about 8 weeks to complete the deal. I came back home with a total of seven boxes and quite a few parts and accessories. The pride of the haul are some very large clones that attempted to replicate the 4350 monitors. The cabinets were made at a local cabinet shop in 2005 and need a little TLC but overall are very nice. They even came with lenses that are in excellent shape.

The obvious question is what's inside. The pictures tell half the story, but the following list of items tells the other half.

Low Freq driver	LE15B
Low Freq driver	LE15B
Mid Freq driver*	2202H
Hi Freq Driver*	2440
Ultra Hi Freq Driver	75
Horn
Dividing Network w/pot	3107
HF Attenuator	3182

I do not active have an active crossover as of yet and did not listen to them before purchasing them.

My first question is can anybody recommend a good active crossover? For the short term, if not long term, I will be driving them with a McIntosh C20, two MC30's and an MC240.

Any thoughts, opinions, do's and don'ts and words of advice will be greatly appreciated.

I've been an audiophile for most of my life, but it hasn't been until recent years that I have had the space and a few spare dollars to really enjoy my passion.

Welcome to LH. I've enjoyed watching your saga on AK. You've come to the right place to further enhance your passion.

As the owner of a pair of 4345 clones purchased through a member here, I can heartily recommend an active crossover to get you started that was recommended to me by others on this site. The Ashly XR1001 has been a workhorse for years. It has proven to be quiet and durable. There are many of them available used for around $100, just watch out for those that have been used on the road and handled roughly. You can still buy them new for only $249. The older US-made version is labeled XR1001 and the later versions are labeled XR-1001 after which some were made in Taiwan. Any of these will work fine for your bi-amp setup. I always thought I'd eventually move up to a Marchand crossover but in the eleven-years I've had my 4345s it just never seemed necessary.

Good luck.

BTW, what else was in that load of JBL stuff you acquired?

Hi Billy , glad you made it over . :applaud:

Welcome ! Looks like you are gonna have a bit of fun!

Rob:)

A few random thoughts on your project:

1. The LE15B woofers are 4 ohms each, so make sure your amp can handle a 2 ohm load. I am not sure either of your Macs will be happy with that load. I would seriously consider a solid-state amp for the woofers.

2. Is the damping material white fiberglass or polyester? If it is polyester, I would replace it, especially in the 2202H doghouse.

3. I agree on the Ashly recommendation, but it is very likely that you will have grounding issues that will cause hum. You will need to manage your wiring carefully.

Looks like a lot of fun!


Widget

Pretty cool there Lakebilly.

For the active crossover are you looking for something very basic like an analog Rane AC22 or something with DSP as well?

Barry.

Early this AM, before reading all of your replies, I ordered a DBX 234xs from Sweetwater. Let me know your thoughts on that. Sweetwater is in my backyard, so a return will be quite painless if that is a poor choice.

I hadn't given the impedance of the speakers any thought whatsoever, but I did take a look at the LE15's and they are marked 6 to 8 ohms. So that will be load for an MC240.

Also, was the 3182 Hi Freq attenuator part of the original 4350's?

Thanks for all of the input. Will keep you posted.

Realize JBL wasn’t particularly honest about their impedance labeling. Also realize a pair of woofers in parallel cuts your impedance in half.


Widget

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Mr. Widget

Realize JBL wasn’t particularly honest about their impedance labeling. Also realize a pair of woofers in parallel cuts your impedance in half.


Widget

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Got it, Thanks.

The McIntosh MC2200 and 2205 (and perhaps others of that generation) have taps at 2,4 and 8 ohms. If it meets your taste in solid state amps, I think it would work well for those woofers. I think you'll want more oomph.

Because it has no low pass filter at the treble/UHF handoff, the 3107 is correct for the 2440 as long as it has the original diaphragm, which dies just above 9k. I believe that diaphragm was still available in 2005, though it is now out of production.

Good score! I'm wondering what's in the other boxes. Maybe I'll find out at AK.

You mention both the 3160 and the 3182. The 3160 could conceivable have been used for a woofer/midbass handoff. I don't know what a 3182 would be doing in that speaker other than the same thing. Neither would be an ideal frequency for that handoff. Either frequency would be safe for the drivers involved, but both would be less than ideal because both would deprive the mid bass of frequencies it is designed to handle with aplomb.

After taking a closer look at this, the 3160's input is connected to the LF speaker terminal and the output is connected to the two LE15b's. It does connect to anything else. The 3107 connects to the HF speaker terminals and feeds the 2202H, 2440 and 075.

I'm thinking the 3160 needs to go. I will parallel connect both LE15b's directly to the LF speaker terminals.

My crossover is showing up today. Any input on where to set it at?

Also, appreciate all of the input on this. Especially the recommendations on amplification. Wouldn't you know it, I just sold my MC2205.

My crossover is showing up today. Any input on where to set it at?

Try 250-300Hz

Rob:)

Speaker Dave, sorry but I listed the wrong part number for the HF attenuator. It is a 3160 not a 3182.

Most of what you are looking for you can find in the catalogs on the site Check 1974 Pro and earlier

http://www.lansingheritage.org/html/...s/jbl-catl.htm


http://www.jblproservice.com/pdf/Net...%20Network.pdf


Rob :)