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Correct Hook ups for JBL's with Black positive inputs on Pro woofers.

Nyjblbob

Nyjblbob

Hooked on Horn's and Tubes. Go big or go home
As al Long time collector of JBL's, I'm still wondering if I'm using them correctly.
As a matter of fact, the JBL 2234's and 2235's, have the black terminals,
When testing with a battery positive end, causes the cone to move out.
And also the 4430's and 4435's have the black striped wires, connected to the
black terminals. when testing the whole speakers with the Battery,
the woofers continue the forward motion.
What is the consensus among you JBL collectors?
Do you hook up your amp, Vintage Tube, SS or New? ground, or common
to the Red speaker terminal, or Black? Are the Horn drivers out of phase or in Phase?
bobhorn.
I bet Greg Timbers would know!
 
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If I read it right?? I knew Black is Pos, so I always Use the Hot Amp Positive output
to the Black terminal to all my big JBL monitors. My Buddy, with his 4435's had his wrong forever!
what say the pro-sound guys?
Thanks grey
 
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JBL polarity issues have been known in pro sound for as long as I can remember, so those in the know, they know and deal with it. In bigger picture, what does ‘wrong’ mean? For absolute phase through the whole system, yes, phase inversion matters some. Yes, if you are mixing and matching JBL add non JBL, it matters if you don’t pay attention and wire it wrong. But, if all the speakers are wired the same, phase inversion is pretty far down the list of things that can impact the sound.

If it’s been wrong forever, it’s probably not a big deal. Should your buddy swap the wires? Sure. Is he going to hear a difference? Prolly not.
 
You are so right Semanon.
and to make matters worse my best buddy
has been in audio sales including being a VP for a major
asian electronics company for over 45 years.
he has no idea what real high end quality is.
only knowledge about cost.
but he is going to change the polarity on his 4435’s,
and maybe his L-300's also.
As they are component wise the same as 4333's.
"All 4300 series monitors are Negative"!, except 4311/L-100's and 4312's
as stated in the JBL tech bulletins!
bobhorn
 
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Absolute phase is probably not as important as the audiophiles make it out to be. Your source and amplification may be inverting or not, who knows. My old JBL 2 way monitors are negative systems. I listen to them strictly as two channel stereo and have hooked them up to amp red to red and red to black, either way sounds good to me as long as the system is in phase with itself, you know HF and LF, and R and L. all in phase.
 
Tozco said:
Absolute phase is probably not as important as the audiophiles make it out to be.
Click to expand...
Yes! But, when you are seeking to remove anything you can from your system that might possibly, maybe, kinda alter the sound, it’s low hanging fruit.
 
Everything one does to an audio system, Makes a difference!
From Room acoustics, size,speaker placement, Cables, Tube Rolling,
Amp, and Preamp changes.
Speaker footers, Stands, Spikes, Speaker Terminals,
Speaker wires! X-over components That's a Whole different Thread!
Speaker phasing.
Weather or not listeners/Audiophiles, Musicians, Pro-sound set up guys, Normies!
can tell the difference is for another thread.
I will listen to the JBL techs that designed the speakers, and Know what is Correct.
It's a start in the right direction.
 
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The techs aren't always right because the speakers aren't always right.

Case in point, I have a 2241J and the magnetic field is reversed from the factory. Putting + on RED causes the cone to move outward, as is typical convention. But the other 2241J is correct and putting + on BLACK causes the cone to move out. It makes me wonder if they sold these to me because they couldn't get any bass because they were never phased properly even though the wiring was correct. I figured that they just had the wires reversed within one of the cabinets.

I discovered this when making the cabinets for the 2251Js. I use magnets to hold the grills on and I was using a compass to make sure that all of the magnets were facing the same way and that they coincided with the magnetic polarity of the woofers. When the compass spun in different directions when placed in front of the two 2241s, the problem was obvious.

Edgewound reports that this happens about 2% of the time (i.e., 1 in 50).

OK Bob, here's a question. If one of the woofers requires me to wire it "backward" from the other woofer to be in phase, does this have an effect on the sound? I mean if one really wants to get technical, wouldn't we need to consider the direction that the electricity flows though the voice coil (right hand screw rule and all)?
 
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There's always the anomaly. Even with Vintage JBL's in their Heyday.
Their quality control was probably the Best. But maybe the assembler that day,
was Hung over, and the Qu control tester had to make an emergency bathroom break.
My EN5's below
 

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I guess I don’t understand exactly. So if you use a 9v battery and touch the + to + and - to - on on your JBLs (back of the speaker itself) the cone moves out? If that’s the case I would hook it up with the amp positive to the speaker positive.

In the speakers I just built (with LE14H woofers) the woofers are wired to where the negative goes to the positive side. So popping it with a 9v the normal way will make the cone move out.
 
elitopus said:
I guess I don’t understand exactly. So if you use a 9v battery and touch the + to + and - to - on on your JBLs (back of the speaker itself) the cone moves out?

In the speakers I just built (with LE14H woofers) the woofers are wired to where the negative goes to the positive side. So popping it with a 9v the normal way will make the cone move out.
Click to expand...
On one, yes, on the other no.

I had always heard/thought that they assembled the components, then magnetized it. So, if that's the case, it could come out of the gausser "backwards."
 
I'm not sure if the Le14's are positive Black or red . I don't recall any Monitors that used them.
Checking those JBL Bulletins,
I don't see any mention of them. It clearly states the 2234's and 2235's and the 4435's
are negative, or Black positive!
 
I’ve always assumed that any JBL speaker built with woofers that are positive black have that taken into consideration when they designed the crossover. So that when you hook up your amp you would connect positive from the amp to the red speaker terminal
 
So now you have to make sure the rest of the components are in Phase in your DIY creations.
 
I was asking about your speakers, when you use a 9v battery on the speaker terminals, which way does the woofer move?
 
On my 4435's, 4430's, En5's-Basically 4333's but with 2" 376 drivers,
and 4343's
the woofers move forward/out with the Battery + to the Black terminal
 
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