lovin' my new/old 4315's

[original jblguy]

I've owned and still have tons of jbl speakers in my 45 years of using.4430's, 4355's, 4343's, l250's, 250ti's, l300's, l200's l212's and more s8's and theater gear and dozens of other systems than you can shake a chapman stick at. but i just picked these old 4315's (alnico if that matters) and "wow" I don't know if it's my old ears or what? But these speakers sound so very smooth and alive. i'm in a small living room about 10 feet from the speakers and they'e about 7 feet apart from each other. i'm using mac c33 and mac 2255. at low and high levels they sound spectacular. solid controlled lows, mids and highs are well balanced. i can lsten for hours on end and not get listeners fatigue that i got from my horn systems. and even my 250ti's didn't sound as open and clear.
I can almost tell what brand strings the guitar players using. I cut my teeth on jbl horn systems, but sometimes especially with the conical horns 91,92,93 they can sound abrupt and when you attenuate them it seems to put the instrument in the background. But boy! not with the 4315. maybe it's because of the components arranged in such a tight cluster and being all on the same plane and i'm so close? I can listen to music at very low volume and still hear every detail. sorry for the rant, but i'm very excited.

by the way i listen to music like, fourplay, yellowjackets, fourfreshman, take 6, al dimeola, al jarrau, larry carlton lee ritenour. sorry for the spelling and punctuation errors

[Mannermusic]

In a word . . . MUSICAL! Great review, I've always admired those from a design and size standpoint but never found a pair. From the old JBL pro catalog (4315B): "Exhibiting exceptionally smooth, wide-band reproduction, clarity, superior transient response and controlled dispersion." You nailed it. Mike (also old ears)

[mech986]

Yep, the 4315 is one studio monitor that seem better than just the sum of its parts. The relatively unique 2203 and 2108 drivers are very good in this application, needing only a 15" or 18" sub for those really low bass notes. But in its range, the 4315 does a lot of things well.

[4313B]

The 4315 has the same exact bandwidth as any of the larger Studio Monitors. A 4331, 4333, or 4343 doesn't go any deeper, they just play louder. The 124/2203 is a 136/2231 in a twelve-inch format, very possibly the lowest Q transducer JBL ever created. Mark Gander designed both transducers and we had a chat about them back in the late seventies. I was able to hear a pair set up properly in a Studio in L.A. and they lacked NOTHING. Thoroughly impressive system.

I also heard a pair at JBL, numerous times, along with the rest of their then current line up, wherein they weren't optimized and they weren't quite as impressive.

I was so impressed with them though that Mark assisted me in building a bi-ampable, mirror-imaged pair for my personal use. Fun stuff! I also built a pair using the 2231 in place of the 2203, you know, just for fun.

These days, with media being what it is, the 4315 would probably benefit from that 30 Hz filter JBL talked about even back then to help prevent the 124/2203 from unloading below enclosure resonance and smacking the mass ring on the pole piece, or worse.

[mech986]

4313B,

I remember seeing some pics of your 4315's in the Old pictures' thread. How did you find the 2231 substitution?


I've got 2 sets of 4315's to rebuild, but have 1 woofer with a pretty good VC scraping. Since recones kits for the 2203 are kaput, would replacing the VC or VC/spider with good 2231/2235 VC parts (which I think its close to) be the best way to go? I'm thinking of engaging Edgewound to do this.

Any other tuning or modifications short of a charge coupled crossover recommended? IIRC, isn't the mid run pretty much full on, while the 2405 run padded down? Was always wondering whether to consider subbing the 104H series (like in the 250Ti) mid.