Will Audio speakers?

[Speakerfreak]

Hello everyone,

I am new here and have a question about a set of speakers I got my hands on.
They have a logo with the name Will Audio and all components are JBL.
2x 2205 15 inch 16Ohm for lows alnico
1x 2110 8 inch 8Ohm for mid alnico
1x 2405 8Ohm for high.

i found some info about a man called Willy Peters and his connection with JBL in the
60/70 ties. But i don’t know if je had something to do with these speakers.


They look pro build because of the heavy cabinet and kind of grey/white paint finish.
they are 85KG each and don’t look like the are used for PA applications.
So if someone can help me with this? What kind of power should i feed these cabinets?
there is an x-over inside so no processor is needed.

i hope someone know’s something about this brand or these speakers.

[BMWCCA]

Any chance of photos of the speakers and the badging?

[Speakerfreak]

86014

[Jekyll]

Willy Peters is the founder of Will Audio.
you can contact him here : www.axiomaudio.be

[Speakerfreak]

I have tried to reach him. But i got an e-mail from his wife he passed away about 3 months ago.
So I still can’t find any info.
I hope someone can help me, or can give me some advise about these speakers.
how to use them an power them.

with my best regards.

[JeffW]

I wouldn't try to overthink it too much on power, I imagine these were powered with any number of pro amps of the era (like the Crown DC 300 or PS 400) that didn't make 4000 watts a channel like some pro amps today. I bet 100 watts a side would be plenty. I'd hook them up to whatever I had handy and have a listen.

[RMC]

Hi Speakerfreak,

These are obviously Public Address/Sound Reinforcement loudspeakers.

In The Netherlands there's a PA/SR Company called Stage Accompany (see stageaccompany.com). Since in a particular field people tend to know each other, as well as their competitors, maybe they can refer you to someone who has Will Audio product knowledge. Good luck. Regards,

Richard

[Speakerfreak]

Totday I Worked on the Will Audio speakers.
Inside I found a small different than What they told me there should be inside.
there where no 2110 8inch mid speakers but D208 Signature speaker from JBL.
and the slot tweeters where no 2405 but Model 077 Signature speakertweeters.

I also contact SA in Holland but they don’t know anything about these speakers.
everybody I talked with about these Will Audio speakers is very interested but no one
knows something about these cabinets.

I put an quad 405 amp behind these speakers and they Sound different then we are used these days.
but with the id that these where build more than about 40-50 years ago they Sound pretty good!

I still hope someone out there can tell me more about these speakers.8604886049

[JeffW]

http://www.audioheritage.org/vbulletin/showthread.php?29531-Differences-between-D208-and-2110

Says there that the 2110 and D208 took the same cone kit, so hopefully sound fairly similar.

The 2405 was the "pro" version of the 077. The 077 had a clear acrylic phase plug, yours appears to have the black metal 2405 phase plug and the screw hole knocked in the foilcal is a testament to them being re-done at some point in the past. It's possible the acrylic phase plugs cracked and somebody put 2405 plugs in them - or sold the desirable 077 plugs.

The diaphragms for those tweeters seem to be out of production, so I wouldn't take them apart - it's easy to let the plug assembly spin when removing the screw and twisting the diaphragm (ruining it). But the 2405 and 077 should be functionally the same, if they work then that's about all you can hope for IMHO.

So while not sporting the actual speaker load they originally shipped with, they are maybe pretty close. It's hard to say without knowing what's been re-done and who did it to what standard.

[Mike Caldwell]

What do they have for crossovers...if any, in them?
What type of input connection is on them?

Is the rectangle cut out area a port with some sort of foam covering it
or a blocked off cut out that was for a horn at one time?

[jbl4ever]

Without seeing a mid horn wonder if the 077/2405 has the 075/2402 diaphragm in it for a lower crossover point. Hope they did not run the D208/2110 bandwidth out to 7 or 8 Khz. Maybe 350/500 hz
on the woofers and 3k/3.5k on the mids

[Speakerfreak]

Hello,
I have some answers to the asked questions.
They do have some kind of x-over inside. It is very simplistic do, only 1air coil is used 3 ceramic resistors
and 2 capasitors. I add an picture of these x-over below. The connection used on these cabinets are gold
plated screw terminals.
The rectangular cut in the right is the bass Port for the two 2205 drivers. There is some kind of fabric gleud from the cabinet inside. The D208 and 077 are constructed in there own seperate chamber.
86059

[Mike Caldwell]

Was/is the crossover just between the mid and the tweeter as in running the cabinet bi-amped?

With screw terminal connections I'm going to say the cabinets were for install use.

[Speakerfreak]

No the cabinet is not bi-amped. The twin woofers the mid and the tweeter are connected to the x-over.
its a very simplistic x-over but it does the job serious well!
i’m gonna see if i can make an schematic of the x-over.

What is the difference in Sound according to the model 077? When used with the plastic or the aluminium center piece?

[Mike Caldwell]

No the cabinet is not bi-amped. The twin woofers the mid and the tweeter are connected to the x-over.
its a very simplistic x-over but it does the job serious well!
i’m gonna see if i can make an schematic of the x-over.

What is the difference in Sound according to the model 077? When used with the plastic or the aluminium center piece?

With that I'm going to guess there using a single pole filter per band pass, the coil is a low pass on the woofers, and a cap with some resistor padding as a high pass for each the mid and tweeter, with the mid just left to run all the way out on the top end.

Provided everything is in good condition your not going to hear a difference between the plastic and aluminum phase plugs. Your wallet will tell a difference if you buy 077's instead of 2405's!

[RMC]

Hi Speakerfreak,

RE "The rectangular cut in the right is the bass Port for the two 2205 drivers. There is some kind of fabric gleud from the cabinet inside."

This type of vent with fabric covering it is typically called a resistive vent. They were popular in the 60's (even prior) and sometime during the 70's before vented box workings were well known following Thiele and Small's monumental speaker design works. I can't recall a "modern era" JBL model that used resistive vents. Simply because generally they're not a good idea, except for very few situations like "correcting" or salvaging a LF alignment.

A free vent tuning has the advantage of reducing cone travel and LF driver distortion on a notable range of frequencies. A resistive vent restricts that bonus markedly. The more opaque the fabric is the more vent restriction. Making the cabinet/driver combo behave as if it was partly vented and partly sealed box at the same time, not getting the best of both worlds as some may think, rather a fraction of each.

Moreover, the 2205 isn't really a "good candidate" for a resistive vent, assuming such driver exists. In fact, reducing cone travel on the older 2205 driver is a very good idea since it doesn't have a lot of cone travel capability (Xmax) for higher level bass output. I know I own a pair of these, but driver has other qualities...

I think you should seriously consider removing the cloth covering the vent in order to get maximum benefit from vent action, more so in view that Will Audio's cabinet is a sound reinforcement box, more likely to be fed with lots of power.

Naturally, this implies first knowing box size (Vb) and vent dimensions to determine what would be the box tuning frequency (Fb), before removing the cloth, and establish the predicted non-cloth LF alignment, and/or modifications to it, as well as to the vent, if any. I might be able to help you with that.

In any case, take a look at the following:

"According to Thiele's analysis, resistive vents (series resistance in the form of fibrous stuffing or a tight cloth placed over the vent), ... result in the following changes in normal vent-box operation: 1. increase in F3, 2. decrease in output (efficiency), 3. increased cone excursion near cutoff, 4. lowered Qts.

Thiele's point is that if a regular alignment with no resistance has a lower cutoff and higher efficiency than the same size box with resistive loading, why bother?" (Vance Dickason, The Loudspeaker Design Cookbook, 5th ed., P.62)

Based on Thiele's items # 2 and 3, I would add a fifth item to his list: increased distortion, since efficiency and distortion are usually inversely related in well designed systems, plus cone excursion and distortion are usually directly related. As for item # 4, well the 2205 already has a pretty low Qts, no real need to shift it even lower. Food for thought... Regards,

Richard