I have written about my main system before on here, JBL L200's and Kenwood 700 series. It has been with me since I bought them new in the mid 70's and I have so much sentimental value over it I wouldn't ever sell. But there has been times when I have thought about it..
That started when I bought a pair of little active JBL LSR 305's and was rather amazed at how clean, tight, and low the bass was on those little speakers! Only 5" woofers, it didn't seem possible that they could nearly best my 15's in the L200! Since then I had become increasingly dissatisfied with the bass out of my big JBL's. I have since new always ran them with max loudness on, and even a few clicks on the bass just to compensate I guess..
Anyway about a year ago I started discussing L200's with a AK member and now friend @nedseg specifically about addressing the bass (or lack of) with the L200. He also, like me bought his pair back in the 70's new and has hung onto them throughout the years. Well he did his research, had a plan and we talked about how cool it would be to put a modern JBL LF driver, specifically the one out of the JBL 4367 into the L200.
I thought it would be great in sort of a pie in the sky kind of way, but never seriously thought I would spend that kind of coin on 45 year old speakers. But then one day he just ordered one, just to try to see if his thoughts on it were right or not. When it came, it was like a match made in heaven, even the screw holes matched perfectly!
Well his reports were so glowing I decided to order a pair myself and from Speaker Exchange, a new 2216Nd1 sells for $600, plus 70 shipping to Alaska.. So not being able to sit back and listen to him go on about them I had to do this! That set me off on a bit of a money spending journey...
When they came it was a 10 minute install job with a cordless. Out came the old LE15B's and in with the 2216Nd1's. Immediately, even with a crossover mismatch I KNEW I had a winner there. The sound was more than I could have hoped for.. Deep tight bass was the result for these old "boomboxes" as Zilch used to call them..
But I knew there would be improvements if I were to address the crossover issue. What I did was to just biamp it, with a MiniDSP, and a Yamaha A-S301 (a perfect match tonally for the Kenwood).
Once that was together I started to learn how to correct speakers like mine by taking frequency sweeps of each driver at 1", and at 1', and all together at 1 meter. I averaged them in REW and let "the wizard" perform its magic.. It came out with 10 PEQ's which I entered manually in the Mini DSP and the sound was pretty good, better than before with the LX16 passive, but I wasn't that happy with the frequency sweep at my listening chair. So I have been working on that with room PEQ's and think I have really made strides.. Here is the latest sweep taken this morning..
I am now actually flat to 30db and just a 3db dip at 25db! Compared to what I had before, needless to say this is pretty extraordinary to me! No subs needed at this house! Running now with the loudness switched off, all tone controls flat and I am still getting used to the bass, as well as the clarity I am getting in the lower mid range too. It is like hearing so much more music that was hidden before!
Pictures..
The mighty JBL 2216Nd1
That started when I bought a pair of little active JBL LSR 305's and was rather amazed at how clean, tight, and low the bass was on those little speakers! Only 5" woofers, it didn't seem possible that they could nearly best my 15's in the L200! Since then I had become increasingly dissatisfied with the bass out of my big JBL's. I have since new always ran them with max loudness on, and even a few clicks on the bass just to compensate I guess..
Anyway about a year ago I started discussing L200's with a AK member and now friend @nedseg specifically about addressing the bass (or lack of) with the L200. He also, like me bought his pair back in the 70's new and has hung onto them throughout the years. Well he did his research, had a plan and we talked about how cool it would be to put a modern JBL LF driver, specifically the one out of the JBL 4367 into the L200.
I thought it would be great in sort of a pie in the sky kind of way, but never seriously thought I would spend that kind of coin on 45 year old speakers. But then one day he just ordered one, just to try to see if his thoughts on it were right or not. When it came, it was like a match made in heaven, even the screw holes matched perfectly!
Well his reports were so glowing I decided to order a pair myself and from Speaker Exchange, a new 2216Nd1 sells for $600, plus 70 shipping to Alaska.. So not being able to sit back and listen to him go on about them I had to do this! That set me off on a bit of a money spending journey...
When they came it was a 10 minute install job with a cordless. Out came the old LE15B's and in with the 2216Nd1's. Immediately, even with a crossover mismatch I KNEW I had a winner there. The sound was more than I could have hoped for.. Deep tight bass was the result for these old "boomboxes" as Zilch used to call them..
But I knew there would be improvements if I were to address the crossover issue. What I did was to just biamp it, with a MiniDSP, and a Yamaha A-S301 (a perfect match tonally for the Kenwood).
Once that was together I started to learn how to correct speakers like mine by taking frequency sweeps of each driver at 1", and at 1', and all together at 1 meter. I averaged them in REW and let "the wizard" perform its magic.. It came out with 10 PEQ's which I entered manually in the Mini DSP and the sound was pretty good, better than before with the LX16 passive, but I wasn't that happy with the frequency sweep at my listening chair. So I have been working on that with room PEQ's and think I have really made strides.. Here is the latest sweep taken this morning..
I am now actually flat to 30db and just a 3db dip at 25db! Compared to what I had before, needless to say this is pretty extraordinary to me! No subs needed at this house! Running now with the loudness switched off, all tone controls flat and I am still getting used to the bass, as well as the clarity I am getting in the lower mid range too. It is like hearing so much more music that was hidden before!
Pictures..
The mighty JBL 2216Nd1