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Thread: JBL L-200 upgrade

  1. #1
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    JBL L-200 upgrade




    This was easy even for a guy like me with eleven thumbs.

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    Continued...........

    Because I am low tech, I couldn't figure out how to post anything more about my project above, so I am continuing here.

    The picture above shows AH300 horns with B&C DCX drivers mounted via a steel bracket to the back of my JBL L-200. To accomplish this I bypassed the crossover and the horn inside the JBL and used a dbx Drive Rack PA to actively divide between a Rowland 102 on the horns and a Perreaux PMF 1850 on the LE 15B woofers.

    I am not presently using the tweeters in my DCX, so this is just a 2-way. Response seems to be very even between about 50 HZ and 14 Khz.

    Any comments or suggestions would be appreciated.

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    Moderator hjames's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by macrojack View Post
    Because I am low tech, I couldn't figure out how to post anything more about my project above, so I am continuing here.

    The picture above shows AH300

    Any comments or suggestions would be appreciated.
    Sorry, no such luck, the only picture you got posted is the menubar header from some other Audio website ...
    I went there and tried to search for L-200 but just got a bunch of other stuff - plus that site is S L O W ... no luck ...

    Quote Originally Posted by macrojack View Post
    AH300 horns with B&C DCX drivers mounted via a steel bracket to the back of my JBL L-200. To accomplish this I bypassed the crossover and the horn inside the JBL and used a dbx Drive Rack PA to actively divide between a Rowland 102 on the horns and a Perreaux PMF 1850 on the LE 15B woofers.

    I am not presently using the tweeters in my DCX, so this is just a 2-way. Response seems to be very even between about 50 HZ and 14 Khz.
    Yeah, I did the usual upgrade of adding a JBL 2405 slot tweeter to mine and rebuilding the passive crossover. I also pulled the LE15 and replaced it with a 2234 woofer (newer 15 inch)
    I'm currently preparing to drill out the back of the cabinet and add an external "bump-out" t the back of the cabinet so I can swap out the original 2307 horn for the longer 2312 that came with the 4333 & L-300 speakers.

    Be interested if you could save your pictures to your your desktop then copy them to the site here ... like to see what your project looks like ...
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    2ch: WiiM Pro; Topping E30 II DAC; Oppo, Acurus RL-11, Acurus A200, JBL Dynamics Project - Offline: L212-TwinStack, VonSchweikert VR-4
    7: TIVO, Oppo BDP103D, B&K, 2pr UREI 809A, TF600, JBL B460

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    I bookmarked the thread when I posted it and when I went back there just now, my photo is showing.

    If you go to the link here: http://www.acoustichorn.com/news/ind...00.001-08%3A00

    You can find pictures under "Tom from Denver". I live about 250 miles from Denver so I'm not too sure why it's listed that way.

    My approach wasn't too expensive by high end horn standards and it did not require modifying the cabinet aside from 4 small screw holes in each.

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    Moderator hjames's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by macrojack View Post
    I bookmarked the thread when I posted it and when I went back there just now, my photo is showing.

    If you go to the link here: http://www.acoustichorn.com/news/ind...00.001-08%3A00

    You can find pictures under "Tom from Denver". I live about 250 miles from Denver so I'm not too sure why it's listed that way.

    My approach wasn't too expensive by high end horn standards and it did not require modifying the cabinet aside from 4 small screw holes in each.
    Gorgeous wood horns - thanks for the effort chasing them down for the post!
    I grabbed and resized the room-view picture here - hopefully thats ok? Let me know otherwise!
    And thanks for sharing - they are very cool!
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    7: TIVO, Oppo BDP103D, B&K, 2pr UREI 809A, TF600, JBL B460

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    Administrator Mr. Widget's Avatar
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    Nice work... I doubt it would make it past the wife though.


    Widget

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    Thanks for the comments. I have a wife who doesn't really mind as long as the speakers stay back against the wall.

    They really aren't all that obtrusive. The top edge of the cherry horn is only about 52 inches off the floor.

    I read somewhere on this site that the abiding weakness of the L-200 was the lack of a tweeter and the smallness of the horn. Since I already had the speakers, I looked for ways to take advantage of an excellent cabinet and driver by overcoming the other inadequacies. When I started talking to Bill Woods, everything fell together.

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    Quote Originally Posted by macrojack View Post
    I looked for ways to take advantage of an excellent cabinet

    ???

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    Interesting approach!
    I came to this site for research, and when I read all the positive feedback on the L-300 and similar design big box 3-ways
    I decided to follow the path others here had taken ... building a new passive crossover with more modern design,
    adding the slot tweeter like many of the pro Monitors used, and now preparing to upgrade to a longer horn that
    will cross over better at lower freqs.
    Of course the best upgrade is biamping - but I don't want that much complexity in my living room.
    (My other 4 way system is biamped).

    See SubWoof's upgrade guide here -
    http://audioheritage.org/vbulletin/s...t=20349&page=2

    Quote Originally Posted by macrojack View Post
    Thanks for the comments. I have a wife who doesn't really mind as long as the speakers stay back against the wall.

    They really aren't all that obtrusive. The top edge of the cherry horn is only about 52 inches off the floor.

    I read somewhere on this site that the abiding weakness of the L-200 was the lack of a tweeter and the smallness of the horn. Since I already had the speakers, I looked for ways to take advantage of an excellent cabinet and driver by overcoming the other inadequacies. When I started talking to Bill Woods, everything fell together.
    2ch: WiiM Pro; Topping E30 II DAC; Oppo, Acurus RL-11, Acurus A200, JBL Dynamics Project - Offline: L212-TwinStack, VonSchweikert VR-4
    7: TIVO, Oppo BDP103D, B&K, 2pr UREI 809A, TF600, JBL B460

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    I didn't even want to think about cutting so I just left the LE-85/horn where it was and added the big horn to the top. Bill Woods did the cyphering for me using the same woofer and cabinet volume and my very same horns and drivers. Low pass for thr horn is 400 Hz @ 24 db LR and the woofer drops out around 900 Hz and I forget the slope I used there but I can check if you are interested. There is a little additional tailoring and, of course, compensation for a 16 db efficiency differential.

    Before I went to bi-amping, I used the native crossover in the L-200 straight to the AH 300 and it sounded very good. This is the best mid-range I have ever heard anywhere. Crystal clear and undistorted.

    An important consideration in this is the dispersion of the AH 300. It is only 40 degrees wide (20 degrees off axis). For me, this works fine but many people might find it too limited.

    I would suggest that you talk to Bill Woods before you cut. He's really an artist. He reminds me of a Gepetto sort of craftsman tucked away in his workshop in the Canadian woods.

    He recommended the B&C drivers to me because he says they are the best sounding drivers available but he will create adaptors for any driver you want to use as part of the deal.

    Doing business with me was probably not his preferred route as I am basically a plug and play person but you DIY people are why he is in business.

    http://www.acoustichorn.com/products/300/index.html

    I bought into this sight unseen because of who else was using these horns. It seemed obvious that they must be top tier. I like the retro look a lot too.

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    Quote Originally Posted by macrojack View Post
    I didn't even want to think about cutting.
    Ahhh, where's the fun in that? Here's what I did.

    Three 2312s (L,C,R) prepared for install. All horns were treated to 11 oz of a spray-on rubber coating to deaden inherent resonances.



    A template was made to gauge the size and placement of the hole.



    Cabinet is taped up, hole is laid out and cabinet is cut open.



    No turning back now!









    The "wart" was made of 1-1/2" x 1-1/2" with a 5/8" piece of high density shelving board.



    Done:



    Of course the crossovers (home-made) were tweaked to take advantage of the new components.

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    Todd,

    Very impressive - you do nice work.

    I don't like to do craftsman stuff and hesitated to even show up on this site.

    But ......... I figured my speakers were sort of a DIY deal since you can't just order a pair from Audio Advisor. And I surmised that since they have a JBL at their core, they might prove interesting to readers here.

    If Bill Woods is correct, JBL never made a horn or a driver that can run with these. Check them out.

    Tom

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    I have to ask each of you if you notice any issues with respect to time alignment. I risk getting flamed here, but those long horns sitting way back there have to be out of sync with the rest of the system. (If you are using the DriveRack, you should be able to adjust for this.) The reason I ask is that I am working on a Smith horn DIY system and I would like to know if it is an issue.

    The other day, I listened to a $170K Wilson Audio Alexandria speaker system. One of the selling points is the positioning of drivers for optimal time alignment. Needless to say, it sounded amazing. When commenting on this, the salesman claimed that, by fixing the time alignment problem, your brain "doesn't have to work so hard" when processing the music signal. It made some sense, but the topic is not given much treatment here.

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    Quote Originally Posted by jerry_rig View Post
    I have to ask each of you if you notice any issues with respect to time alignment.
    Different types of listeners. Some people just flat out don't care.

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    I have to ask each of you if you notice any issues with respect to time alignment. I risk getting flamed here, but those long horns sitting way back there have to be out of sync with the rest of the system. (If you are using the DriveRack, you should be able to adjust for this.) The reason I ask is that I am working on a Smith horn DIY system and I would like to know if it is an issue.
    since i have a very long horn and a very digital conrol unit i tried my best to time allign all three ways (soon will be four).
    i really took some time to get it all right and when i was done the rig sounded like it had "sat down".
    so i think i can hear it -could be just a rewarding function of my mind, though.
    anyway, if you can easily manage to time allign, nothing speaks against it.

    cheers,
    mikey


    edit:
    oh yeah, and tom (macrojack): your speakers loo very nice! i bet they sound as good, too?
    cheers, have fun!

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