JBL 4344 Clones

[christo]

To make the grills I used a pine frame with birch corner braces. The grills worked out better than I thought they are light as a feather and ridged.

[christo]

The top frame of the grill.

[christo]

Finished, don’t for get to make finger grips to ease the removal of the grill. I use the large ball and socket type pins they really lock together and you really only need the corners the middle pins can be skipped.

[christo]

Once they were finished I listen to them for a few months and was not very happy with the 2426H driver with a Ti diaphragm. Chas suggested I upgrade to TAD-2002 – WOW best move ever. This upgrade made the whole project worthwhile. The speakers actually do image (to a degree) and when sitting in the sweet spot the sound stage has some depth. I highly recommend this upgrade for JBL four way monitors, you will not regret it.

[christo]

The TAD-2002 driver is tall, so tall I have to cut a 6x6 ½ inch deep recess in the back panel to get them to fit.

[christo]

I’m tri-amping the system with KRELL EVO 600’s for the 2235s and a KRELL EVO 302 handling the Hi-Pass duties with a Marchand XM9 active cross over. The Monster power filter is only used for the Marchand crossover and the Dayton Subwoofer amplifier.

[Odd]

Fantastic job you have done here. And nice pictures.

Thank you for sharing.

[JBLP]

RESPECT!!!!
What a nice job, nice tools, nice finishings, nice......, nice......., nice......
I'm jealous.

Can you show how you trimmed the walnut trim in angle on the front?,
You just started making the X-overs....??, how did you know what to buy (quality)?,

Really nice!

[wpod]

But what I really want to see is some pictures of how you assembled that beautiful stainless steel lense. Did you weld the pieces together, tap and thread them, or use regular old nuts and bolts? You might want to consider making a few pair for some of us 4343/4344 owners , I know that I'd certainly be interested. Great work! regards, Paul from Providence

[cvengr]

Outstanding work. Thanks for sharing. Beautiful veneer work.

[ivica]

Hi christo,

Nice WORK.
Many thanks for the info You have shown us.

Regards
Ivica

[Mr. Widget]

Congratulations on a fine project.

Beautiful work and excellent documentation!

I know what you mean about inserting those TD-2002s... Bo and I heard the same thing when we popped a pair into his 4345s. It was a surprising difference!


Widget

[just4kinks]

Nice work!

I would also like to see more details about your stainless lenses. I daydreamed about it, and my father-in-law even offered to help with the metalwork, but in the end I went with the Kenrick lenses.

[christo]

I got my inspiration from this thread and I had a friend who works in the SS fabrication industry. I described what I wanted done (individual lens plates that attached to the baffle with screws) and gave him an old L91 lens to bring to work his CAD engineers did the rest.

http://www.audioheritage.org/vbulletin/showthread.php?8635-2308-Lens/page2
Post 22



The lens is made up of two pieces a top plate (right) and all the other plates (left) which have a notch cut out to allow the sound through. I kept the design simple.

[christo]

The pieces were laser cut and then bent in to shape it is 14 gauge SS and once bent will not lose its shape. I believe the downward slate is 32 degrees. As the gauge of SS used is quite heavy each lens weighs 200 grams 11 lens used per horn equals 4.8 pounds!