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Cheap and (Pretty) Easy JBL 4430 Upgrade

Yes. I noticed it was up for debate. Much of the conversation seemed sidetracked on whether or not a non-jbl crossover could be used.

I'll let you know how it turns out if things move ahead.
 
Zonker I could use an assist!

I'm not the best with reading electrical schematics. Maybe you could help.

As you know, i've done this mod. I was doing a level check today and noticed that one cab was noticeably quieter than the other. Further investigation revealed that I am only getting signal through the quiet cabinet with positive high freq and negative low freq tied together. I never noticed before because I have paralleled the inputs together thus making that connection.

The other cabinet works as it should but there's something amiss (obviously) in the quiet one. I double checked the switch jumpers and it all appears good.

Perhaps if you get a chance you could take a look at the schematic and help me narrow down the issue?

Thanks much,

Warren
 
Sorry; I got nothin'. I would pull the bad crossover and do a point-by-point comparison of it with my photos at the start of this thread. That should reveal the spot where the misbehaving one is different. Also, check for cold solder joints. But I bet there's a wrong connection in there somewhere.
 
Thanks Zonker. I've been using your initial post as a great reference source. I had to stop yesterday; it's quite a bit of work taking these apart!

I'll get back to tackling it today and post what I find. I have a feeling you may be right about a bad connection.

Cheers,

Warren
 
Zonker92 said:
Good luck, Warren! I know, taking out the crossovers is a chore. :(
Click to expand...

Well, turns out I shouldn't trust my own labelling. :nono:

I was installing new binding posts that require soldering and had mislabelled E1 and E3 (S3). I was hoping it was something simple but was scratching my head for a bit. lol.

Turns out that was the culprit and now I'm back up and running.

Thanks again,

Warren
 
Hello? Anyone in here? lol. I know it's an OLD thread but, today was rainy so I took out the rotary switch in my 4430s in favor of the jumpers. I can now passively bi-amp if I wish by separating the now strapped speaker terminals. (I likely won't be doing that, though I now can.) It appears there WAS a little more bass hiding in that box but I really think the highs might be a bit crisper. No science to back it. It DOES make sense that 35 year old switches might be dirty and add a little impedance to the signal as Greg Timbers has said. I even had the 3/8" hole plugs on hand. All I know is, it didn't hurt a thing, it's reversible and I like it.

Thanks for the tip Zonker.
 
Hi Zonker,
After a long time, I come back this subject, read carefully again and have recently done what you had described in the first page; remove the rotary switch and add jumpers.
I even removed the old input terminal by directly use Van del hul wire connect to the crossover.
After done the left speaker, i connect the system and try to compare the two speakers. Surprisingly, it's difficult to hear any diference. I think bass vibration is more, but have to very focus to find this.
And I have done now for both speaker, and I believe that the sound quality is better, but it's not really a big change.
My case is different yours, maybe because last time, when I first time read this subject, I had opened my 4430 crossover and did cleaning the rotary switches very carefully.
How about your system now, any information update?
Thank you and best wishes!
 

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Great, and thanks for the feedback! In theory, my mod should be sonically very similar to having a perfectly clean switch, so that makes sense. Very cool.
 
Dragon.fly said:
Hi Zonker,
After a long time, I come back this subject, read carefully again and have recently done what you had described in the first page; remove the rotary switch and add jumpers.
I even removed the old input terminal by directly use Van del hul wire connect to the crossover.
After done the left speaker, i connect the system and try to compare the two speakers. Surprisingly, it's difficult to hear any diference. I think bass vibration is more, but have to very focus to find this.
And I have done now for both speaker, and I believe that the sound quality is better, but it's not really a big change.
My case is different yours, maybe because last time, when I first time read this subject, I had opened my 4430 crossover and did cleaning the rotary switches very carefully.
How about your system now, any information update?
Thank you and best wishes!
Click to expand...

This is where you need an A/B/X or at least A/B box and a before and after speaker both playing the same thing. The ear has a bad memory for small changes.

When I put a high frequency extension circuit on the 2405, the difference was easy to hear A/B'ing it. But if you just turn on the system and start to listen, you would be hard pressed to tell if it was engaged or not and this does far more than what your changes would be expected to do.

 
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