Greetings, JBL Friends!

[Doc Mark]

Greetings, JBL Friends!

I found you all whilst searching for some info on an 18" JBL subwoofer that I bought yesterday, at a swap meet! Thought I'd drop in to say, "HI", and to introduce myself, if I may!

I am a former musician, who made his living playing music for almost 30 years. "Back in the day", I fell in love with JBL components, and to a somewhat lesser extent, Altec Lansing, too. I still have quite a few components, just "waiting" for me to do something with them, including the goodies to build myself a nice 4-way monitor system, with 2235's on the bottom. Time is at a premium for my wife and I, as we own our own very tiny business (we're the only employees!), and we have to spend some time on the road, now and then. So, I have yet to cobble up my dream speakers, and am "making do" with a nice pair of JBL 4408's that I bought many years ago, combined with a subwoofer that I built long ago. I love the sound of the 4408's, but have never been satisfied with my subwoofer.

To that end, I found a JBL 2242HPL, 18" subwoofer at a swap meet yesterday, and bought it for all of $30! It appears to have never been mounted in a cabinet, but it's dust cap is mashed in a bit. Now, I've spent a bit of time this morning, seeking info on that transducer, and some good tuning specs for it. I may have just found a subwoofer that will reproduce the bottom end I've been missing in my system!

In any case, I'm very happy to have found you Gentlemen, and look forward to much perusing of this site, as time permits. Downstairs, I've got K120's, 2130's, 2235's, a D130, and lots of other goodies, just waiting for me to come play with them! As I don't play music for a living anymore, those projects have been put on the back burner. Finding you Guys may have just lit the fires again, and I may have to dig into that stuff and do something fun with it! Great to meet you, and I'll see you all later! Work beckons! Take care, and God Bless!

Every Good Wish,
Doc Mark

[Fred Sanford]

Glad to have you here, thanks for the post. Congrats on the sub, hope it works out for you.

je

[boputnam]

To that end, I found a JBL 2242HPL, 18" subwoofer at a swap meet yesterday, and bought it for all of $30!

$30! OMG...

That woofer will really please you, if you stuff it into the properly tuned cabinet. What a price...

[Doc Mark]

Greetings, JE and Bo!

Thanks, very much, for the warm welcome! I hope to stuff that 2242 in an 8-10 cubic foot box, and tune it properly, and we'll see how it goes. I don't have a ton of power on hand, but with an efficient transducer like that, I hope that it will work out very well. I'll check around the site for some enclosure plans, and tuning info, just to see how others have done it. Most of the time, I used to use JBL info, or some of the outstanding tuning info from the old Speakerlab, from Washington State. Thanks, again, and God Bless!

Every Good Wish,
Doc

P.S. Yes, I'm quite thrilled with the price of that JBL! Better to be lucky, than good, anyday, eh? 'Course, all blessings such as that are much appreciated, in all our lives!!

[grumpy]

Here you go, for ideas:

http://www.jbl.com/home/products/pro...at=SUB&ser=SYN

http://www.jblpro.com/pub/obsolete/4645b.pdf
http://www.jblpro.com/pub/cinema/4645c.pdf

$30 ... 10x that would still be a crazy-good price.

[Doc Mark]

Evening, Grumpy, and all,

Thanks, very much, for the information on the 18" subwoofers. Much appreciated!

My quandry is which system to actually build. My original intent, from many years ago, was to reproduce my own version of the JBL 4343B, and I spent quite a few years gathering components that would work for me. Now, I have the following, all ready to go:

2 - 2235H 15" woofers.

2 - LE10A 10" mid-bass drivers.

2 - 2420 drivers, with a pair of 2307 horns, and 2308 lense assemblies.

2 - 2405 slot tweeters.

So, all I really need to do is get off the dime, and actually build the cabinets, and make the proper crossovers. My plan has always been to bi-amp the system, with the 2235's being driven by an Harman Kardon 100 watt amp, and the "satellites" driven by an Harman Kardon receiver of similar wattage, if not a bit larger. I like the HK stuff quite a bit, and feel it's very conservatively rated. Also, the room in which this system will be housed, is not huge, though it has a very high ceiling, and is of fair size. What I am seeking is a combination that will reproduce the dynamic range, and depth of some movie soundtracks (including cannon fire!), good classical music, jazz, Latin jazz with all it's percussion and horns, funk, and the best of the old rock stuff.

But, I found a pair of JBL 4408's at a local garage sale, for (get this!) ONE DOLLAR!! This was for the pair of cabinets, but they were minus their woofers, but with their Titanium tweeters, and crossovers. I then found a pair of proper JBL 10" driver frames on FleaBay, and had them reconed at Orange County Sound, down South of LA. I fell in love with their wonderful Titanium tweeters, and think they are a very smooth, and accurate loudspeaker. I had already built a subwoofer for another system, using a lesser brand driver, and have been using that for many years, though the subwoofer has never been up to the quality of the 4408's, in my opinion.

I then gave thought to building the 4343B's as a sub/sat system, with the 2235's as separate subwoofers, and the upper end as a smaller, matched system, crossed over, electronically, to the subs at 90HZ. I also thought about using the 2235's with the 4408's, again crossed over at 90HZ, and calling it good.

Then, this past weekend, I found that huge 2242HPL, and, well, that really tossed a wrench in the works!! So, what do I do, now? Do I build a 4645B, or 4645C, to function as a single subwoofer for the 4408's? Or, should I go ahead with my two-piece 4343B system, and relegate the 18" woofer to the "I'll get around to doing something with it, once of these days" shelf?

I'd be very interested in your thoughts, suggestions, and opinions, JBL Friends!! One consideration is that, if I use the 2242HPL, I'll be building a single cabinet, and needing to sum the output of my Harman Kardon amp. Again, any thoughts, comments, suggestions, or opinions will be very gratefully received!! Thanks, very much, Friends, and I'll look forward to hearing from you, at your convenience! Take care, and God Bless!

Every Good Wish,
Doc

[grumpy]

my $.02:

sell the 2242, LE10A's and buy/refurb the right 10" drivers for your 4343B's.
search here for updated charge coupled crossover designs.
decide on/build cabinet(s).
get blue paint from John W.
get blue grille cloth from Zilch.

Have fun and ask questions along the way

[Russellc]

$30! OMG...

That woofer will really please you, if you stuff it into the properly tuned cabinet. What a price...

Great price and at least it was real...unlike the "new in the box" 2405 jbl drivers I saw listed on KC CL (#666349167) for the exact same price, 30 bucks!
No call back imagine that!
Russellc

[Doc Mark]

Great price and at least it was real...unlike the "new in the box" 2405 jbl drivers I saw listed on KC CL (#666349167) for the exact same price, 30 bucks!
No call back imagine that!
Russellc

Good Morning, Russell,

Thanks, very much! Yes, it's always fun to find the deals, when they pop up. Over the years, I've found some fun ones, but until I stumbled upon that 18" JBL, I'd found nothing like that in many years. One of the sellers was named Russell, too! Fun!

Back in the day, I once found a nice K120 for $5; a 90° JBL horn for $10; and an old corner cabinet, loaded with a JBL D130, crossover, and a Universal horn, complete with a granite top piece, for just $10! But, I've been out of the loop for many years, so it was really fun to find that JBL! With the dust cap mashed in a bit, I'm hoping all will be well with it, when I get a chance to test it. But, it has clean, free movement around the voice coil, and I'm hoping it will be as good as it looks. Again, it has no mounting marks, at all, so I assume it's never been used for anything. The seller told me that he had bought it from another fellow, with the sole intent to resell it at the swap meet. He did hook it up and run some music through it, and said it worked just fine. The proof, however, is in the pudding, and when I can, I'll sweep it with my old HP tone generator, and we'll see how it really looks, then mount it into some sort of cabinet, and go from there. Fun, no matter how it turns out!

Regarding the 2405's, I used to not care much for the "spitty" sound that those tweeters could sometimes offer. Then, over the years, I realized that most of the time, 2405's that sounded that way, were crossed over WAY too low! Once I heard some crossed over around 10KHZ, I liked them better! In any case, it's nice to have a pair of them, to use in this project, no matter how it turns out. Thanks, again, and God Bless!

Every Good Wish,
Doc

P.S. I'll be away for a good bit this Summer, with work, but hope to be able to stop in and chat along the way! Thanks to all for a wonderful site!!

[Rolf]

You are very welcome Doc on the forum. Hope to hear more from you in the future.

[Doc Mark]

You are very welcome Doc on the forum. Hope to hear more from you in the future.

Hey, Rolf,

Thank you, very much, Sir! I can already see, as it is in stove collecting, there seems to be some strong interest in JBL over in Norway, which is outstanding!! I hope to have many questions for you Gentlemen, and to visit whenever I can do so. I stumbled onto the stove collector's site to which I belong, in much the same way I found you Guys, while looking for something specific! I remember, back then, telling the Guys on the stove site that, due to lots of work, I wouldn't be visiting too much. Yeah, right!! Now, after a few years, I'm closing in on 6,000 posts!! Danged blabber-mouth, that's me!! Most of it is pure , I have to admit!! In any case, I'm so very happy to have found this site, and I'm quite impressed by the quality of the membership I've seen so far! Very nice, indeed! Talk to you later, and God Bless!

Every Good Wish,
Doc

[Doc Mark]

Greetings, Gentlemen,

Just a brief update. Today, I hooked the 2242HPL, propped up off it's vents, to one channel of my subwoofer amp, and ran some music through it. I picked a tune called "Africa", by Checkfield, two guys from San Diego, who did a few recordings "back in the day". Lots of good percussion, and some good bottom end. Since the 18" driver was not in a cabinet, I didn't crank the SPL, but I did turn it up a little, just for grins. For satellite speakers, I hooked up a little pair of JBL 2500's that I found at another swap meet, for $30. They sound nice, but are definitely not in the class of the earlier and better made JBL stuff. Still, for a small bookshelf speaker, I rather like them. In any case, the 2242HPL made a difference in the sound, and the depth of the subwoofer signal, and I could detect no rattle, buzz, or other anomoly, which had made me a Happy Camper, indeed, with my $30 18" subwoofer!! Now, how can I get a nice 8 cubic foot cabinet without having to take the time to build one???!! Nah, I'll wait until I have time to build a good solid cabinet for this big guy. But, I'm pretty sure I'll be happy with what he can add to my system, even after this small preliminary test. Take care, and God Bless!

Every Good Wish,
Doc

P.S. Does anyone know when the Model 2500's were made? Any information about them will be appreciated, too. Thanks, very much!

[grumpy]

http://audioheritage.org/vbulletin/s...ead.php?t=4238

http://jbl.com/home/products/product...CheckProduct=Y

[Doc Mark]

http://audioheritage.org/vbulletin/s...ead.php?t=4238

http://jbl.com/home/products/product...CheckProduct=Y

Evening, Grumpy,

You are the man, Sir! Thanks, very much!! Take care, and God Bless!

Every Good Wish,
Doc

[boputnam]

...I remember, back then, telling the Guys on the stove site that, due to lots of work, I wouldn't be visiting too much. Yeah, right!! Now, after a few years, I'm closing in on 6,000 posts!!

Uh, make that 5,821 posts as of today. That is 7.20% of the total posts on that Forum, at a rate of 4.69 posts per day.

Egads...

Dood! You need to find a bunch more hobbies!!