Just a starting post for this JBL thread. Ages ago, circa 2006, thanks to @BigYank, I won a pair of 4320 2-ways.
https://www.audioheritage.org/vbulle...l=1#post100289
I moved into some L200B cabinets, grew them into 3 ways, switched from the exponential horns to some JohnW smith-horns,
and then moved them on around 2016. Sold them off.
The sale made sense at the time, but I've since decided I liked that sound and want another pair. Well, with some updates.
Folks have been talking about updating older designs with the 2016nd 15" woofer, and - others have said the L200 Cab design is old,
not the best, and it would be better if the woofer was higher from the floor.
Heck, in 2011 Nelson Pass posted a design for a "Nelson Pass styled L300 Summit Crossover" which he thought was a good compromise
to update the famous JBL 3-ways (which many of us tried to update our L200s into in one way or another).
Other folks are saying passive crossover designs are badly dated and active crossover and biamp or triamped design is really the way to go.
Darned if I know which is best, or what I will prefer here.
But to facilitate my 2022 JBL Project, I've been collecting parts. Found a pair of JBL 2216ND Woofer (for JBL M2) via Speaker Exchange in FLA.
While I was throwing out ideas on the project on AK, Jeff PMed me and said he had a pair of horns like mine that he wasn't using - make an offer (!).
We settled on a fair price, he packed them "bomb-proof" for the trip to me in VA, and, a nice pair of mahogany JohnW Smith horns are now here in VA.
Funniest thing is JohnW made them for Dhar here in the DC area, then Dhar sold them to Jeff in Texas! Now from Texas back to DC area. Such a round trip!
While that was going on, I found a pair of 2445j drivers and made a fair offer on eBay for them & also got the 2328 Horn adapters off Reverb.
Subwoof and others said they could sound harsh, and I'd likely prefer a newer pair of coated diaphragms, so I got the JBL D8R2452-SL Diaphragms,
again, via Speaker Exchange.
Did my first time large format diaphragm install, used a tone generator to center them as I reassembled the drivers, then bolted them to the Smith Horns.
I still have a pair of Heathkit branded Altec Valencias (my LAST project) in the living room, for sale, so I tied some LPads across to the 2446 drivers,
did a cheesy quick & dirty hookup in parallel to the Valencias, turned down their horns, and have them running now.
Def not perfect, but I can tell they work, and that the new diaphragms are a great improvement over the original 34 year old TI dias.
I got a pair of the "Nelson Pass style L300 Summit crossovers" online. I'm sure they're not the best caps,
but they are built on a nice etched PC board, which saves me a lot of time - so all I need are the 2 LPads for Mids and Highs,
plus a pair of 5-way jacks for inputs, and 3 pair of jacks for the outputs (Lo, Mid, hi).
So, it makes sense to build the crossovers in external cabinets that I can put on top of the woofer cabinets, just under the horns.
If I decide to go active later, I can sell the 3 ways easier in a nice box than just as wired parts removed from the main cabinet.
So, that was this week's project. I'm the first to admit I am not a cabinetmaker or any kind of woodworker, but I do the best I can.
Got some 1x3 poplar planks from Home Depot - figured a good dimension would be 10 x 16 - so it could be under the horn, LPads on front,
and it could function as a nice support for the smith horn. Cut lumber, mocked it up, and after I glued them up, Checked them under the horn.
I do have a pair of nearly new Great Heil subwoofer, that could easily sit on top of the smith horns and still be at ear level.