New To Me JBL 4350 Clones Almost.

[lakebilly]

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.

[BMWCCA]

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?

[macaroonie]

Hi Billy , glad you made it over .

[Robh3606]

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

Rob

[Mr. Widget]

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

[macaroonie]

[QUOTE=Mr. Widget;427764]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.

Since the LE15b is nominal 4 ohm it might be a plan to wire them in series giving nominal 8 ohm
Given that Billy is gong to run active relative level adjustment is easily implemented.

In that same subject Billy with the DBX you may find that the output is a little 'hot' for the input to the Mac power amps. You will probably need to provide some attenuation or your gain structure wiill be all out of whack.
More on this later once you get it all plugged up and running.
I'm assuming that the DBX is switchable to 2 way operation ??

[lakebilly]

Good idea on putting the subs in series. There seems to be some debate on whether series vs. parallel has the same sound quality, but that's easy enough to try. If these things sound promising with the equipment I have on hand, I will find a solid state amp to drive the low end. I love the sound of my MC30's when they drive my Altec 19's and I hope they will work on the HF half at least for now.

Thanks for the link to JBL info. Found something in the 1970 catalog.

[lakebilly]

Now that the weekend is here, I've dove into this a bit. I've found that I've got LE15B's in one cabinet and 2215A's in the other. I've also got one extra each of both the LE15B and 2215A.

So, if I were to purchase one driver so that all four would match, which one do I buy? I'm leaning toward the 2215A so that I could connect them in parallel and have a 4 ohm load. That would give me more amplifier options.

Or I could use them as is and wait for some 2231H's to show up somewhere.

[lakebilly]

Also, currently installed in the 4350's are 075 bullet tweeters. I've got a pair of 077's that would seem to be a pretty close match to the 2405H's that were originially used in the 4350's. Should I swap those out? It looks easy.

[macaroonie]

Also, currently installed in the 4350's are 075 bullet tweeters. I've got a pair of 077's that would seem to be a pretty close match to the 2405H's that were originially used in the 4350's. Should I swap those out? It looks easy.

Yup. 077's are prettier than 2405 what with the 'crystal' phase plug. Thats a bonus.

[Mr. Widget]

Also, currently installed in the 4350's are 075 bullet tweeters. I've got a pair of 077's that would seem to be a pretty close match to the 2405H's that were originially used in the 4350's. Should I swap those out? It looks easy.

Mechanically they are an exact match for the 075s and electrically they are an exact match for the 2405s which are the tweeters that your crossovers were actually designed for anyway. So yes, I absolutely would change those out.

Don't get hung up on the impedance. There are many threads on the topic, but rest assured, the 077 tweeter is identical to the 2405.


Widget

[1audiohack]

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.

[lakebilly]

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.

[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

[lakebilly]

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


Widget

Got it, Thanks.