jbl 2245h..one great subwoofer.

[Rex Aeterna]

i had the 4645 sub for bout few months when i acquired it with lot of half loaded 4648 bins. only thing i did was restuff the inside the cab since and was surprised cause the theater it came from was very local to me when i took the driver out. it had tape on the frame on theater it was used in. it was in mint shape and from understanding from friend i got the lot from was that the foam was replaced by the theater with official jbl parts bit before shutting down so it's still very good condition. i was actually shocked how mint the 4645 looked cause rest of the 4648s look like they had good bit of deal haha and, needed little cleaning.


i been pounding it since then with a crown xti 4002 in bridge-mono on it's own and with pair of 4648 loaded 2225h's and performed great. this is one impressive woofer and was surprised on how low it can reach and can hit 20hz pretty darn easily with very little eq at 20hz. i use a 6db boost at 20hz in low shelf filter in the input peq setting of the band manager to make it flat down to 20hz with good output. i been using just the 4645 as a sub due to it's performance of itself. i run the 4645 with 8th order low-pass at 30hz for sub duty.

it being one of best sounding woofers i ever used mean it doesn't comes with flaws... when i used it, if you plan on reaching below 20hz with good output you're gonna run in big issues if using big power behind it. it reaches it's excursion limit very fast below 20hz due to it being very light cone and suspension and of course it only having a 1'' peak to peak room for excursion before damage. i can get it to bout 16hz with good output as it's absolute limit including in room gain response which is still very darn good especially for single woofer.

to my surprise on couple times i reached the cones limits and clanked it couple times and it'll scare crap out of you lol of it bottoming out. it's painful. so for it's protection i run a hi-pass 3rd order 18db/slope filter at 20hz to protect it from over excursion from infrasonic content. but from 20hz and above it's one hell of a driver and will put out very high output even at 20hz it can reach thx reference levels fairly well and sound amazing doing it...

there was couple times where i thought of trading it off when i ran into it's limit range for a 2242 but, after everytime of thinking over and giving the sub a listen i always been impressed and canceled my ads or just smacked myself and ask myself ''what are you thinking?!'' lol. while the 2245h has it's flaws if counting the excursion problems below 20hz other then that i find it one of the best performing and best sounding 18'' sub so far and probably one best of jbl efforts in my opinion and earned itself as a permanent keeper in my stable.

well, here is my annoying long write up on my past experience and feelings of this wonderful performing driver and wanted to share my thoughts on it since i haven't had anything new much really happen and haven't shared anything for good time now.

 

[hnash53]

18" sub? Wow... it must really dig deep. Bet it does sound awesome! Nice score.

 

[elitopus]

Yeah the 2245 is a great subwoofer.

I bought a pair of 2240 off of ebay (planning to recone them as 2245) that ended up being 2242's instead. Got those reconed and built a 20cuft box. They sound great! Running a bridged Ashly Ftx-2001 on each.

 

[donprice]

I have a JBL B460 subwoofer. I love it but have wondered about upgrading the 2245 driver to something with more excursion. The relatively new 2269 is a killer driver but more or less unobtainable without buying a new one. Maybe a 2258 with a custom recone to drop the Fs....

In case anyone is curious, maximum output from a 2245 in a home setting is stupid loud....like vision blurring loud. It may not kill a mouse but I did find a dead palmetto bug in the middle of the room the day after my last max SPL adventure.

 

[toddalin]

You'll get more deep bass from a W15GTi, in a much smaller enclosure, but the cost of more power.

Also, I bet that if you put a 100+ watt, non-inductive resistor in series with your 2245, you will extended the deep bass, but loose about 3-4 dB that you can make up by turning up the volume.

 

[Rex Aeterna]

I have a JBL B460 subwoofer. I love it but have wondered about upgrading the 2245 driver to something with more excursion. The relatively new 2269 is a killer driver but more or less unobtainable without buying a new one. Maybe a 2258 with a custom recone to drop the Fs....

In case anyone is curious, maximum output from a 2245 in a home setting is stupid loud....like vision blurring loud. It may not kill a mouse but I did find a dead palmetto bug in the middle of the room the day after my last max SPL adventure.

i was looking in the 2258 and 2269 when i was reading up on the 2242. the 2258 was made to be replacements of the 2241 are used in lot of pro subs and has same limited excursion ability as the 2241 as well so, i think for anything under 20hz it'll reach it limit pretty quick. 2242 still would be better driver compared to the 2258. the 2269 is true replacement of the 2242/2245h but, extremely expensive. can get them off of jbl but, i think i read they're like 1500 per woofer which is crazy expensive and cheapest way get it is the theater sub what i forgot name of but, still sale for over 3k for the dual 18'' 2269's....the revel sub and synthesis sub uses the 2269 but, are like frikin 10k for revel reference sub and 15k for the synthesis.

yea. anything from 30hz and up it can reach extreme levels that is overwhelming and like said above at 20hz it still can put out over 100db easily and reach THX reference levels...takes actually like 4 2225h's to reach the output of one 2245h down real low. i have 2400w behind the 2245h and seems to take power very well as long don't reach it's excursion limits.

 

[Rex Aeterna]

You'll get more deep bass from a W15GTi, in a much smaller enclosure, but the cost of more power.

looks like a car sub. it probably can do well but, it has same powering handle of the 2245h just about and the 2245h fs is much lower and will reach 20hz more easily with more output. the 2245h was rated for 800w max rms continuous output where 2242 was 1200w max continuous. you can probably get the w15gt reach low since it probably has high excursion but, it'll probably reach much higher in harmonic distortion much quicker. i can get to the 2245h down to 16hz with good output but, i consider 16hz is it's absolute limit for max good output. anything under 10hz it reach excursion limit real fast with very little input power....the 2245h is much larger driver with lower fs and will reach down low with much more acceptable harmonic distortion.

 

[toddalin]

Actually, for really deep bass, the W15GTi kicks the crap out of the 2235.

The 2245 has 85% more cone area than the 2235. Assuming volume is commensurate with area, the 2245 should play about 2.7 dB louder than the 2235. The W15GTi easily plays more than 3 dB louder in the 20 Hz range in a 4 cu ft cabinet vs ~6 cu feet for the 2235.

Also recognize that the W15GTi uses much of the same frame as the 1500 series. Also, the W15GTi is just as smooth in frequency response, and maybe smoother, as the 2235 out past 1kHz.

I've never bottomed out the W15GTi and I use a Crown PSA-2XH bridged in mono for ~1,200 RMS watts into the 12 ohm load.

 

[Rex Aeterna]

in certain environments,yea, maybe. they're measured different. the w15 uses advantage of the car/trunk gain to flatten out it's response but it drops off like a rock after 80hz in a free-field environment so it is meant to use the gain of the enclosure and small space to compensate. in free air/space the 2235h drops off with smoother response and more extension. only advantage the wg15 has is more then twice the power handling so of course it can reach good amount louder but, with how much harmonic distortion though is the question. in home application depends on user itself.

thought the psa2 was rated 900w at 8ohms? i know the modded xh is extended headroom but, don't think it was rated for 1200w continuous from 8ohms or up. i would think maybe around 6ohms, yea it'll put that out but, around 12ohms nominal i'm thinking 800-1000w at most before major distortion kicks in. my xti 4002 probably can do bout 1300w into a 16ohm bridge-mono mode but, never tried but, i have ran dead shorts on it before and ran 2ohm bridge loads on it no issues before out of boredom and for a test run. always wanted to try a psa2 amp though. always heard wonderful things bout them.

 

[bazz_77]

the w15 uses advantage of the car/trunk gain to flatten out it's response but it drops off like a rock after 80hz in a free-field environment

I have no idea where you have gotten that conception.. Simulated W15GTi in a 5cu. ft. box tuned to 20Hz has -3dB point at 25Hz and -6dB point at 19Hz in free field.

 

[Rex Aeterna]

I have no idea where you have gotten that conception.. Simulated W15GTi in a 5cu. ft. box tuned to 20Hz has -3dB point at 25Hz and -6dB point at 19Hz in free field.

It was in jbl data they measured themselves. When mentioned free-air. Driver has no box and simply in anechoic environment. That's how jbl measures there stuff. Your probably using like winisd or something for box tuning calculations. only thing jbl does not measure for their car audio gear is the typical 2nd and 3rd harmonics vs. Frequency vs. Spl that they do with their pro gear. Not refusing the doubt that the wg15 ability to extend down to 16hz but, with how much harmonic distortion is the question I mentioned before. The driver could oscillate at 16hz but, can have so much distortion that it's really producing a stronger 30hz signal. Thing is I dont see any single 15" driver reaching 16hz by itself without help of room gain. Could get 4 good 15" to reach 16hz with acceptable performance but, not one. Even hard for really good design 18" to do that without good mount of distortion.

That's why above I pointed out 16hz performance with the 2245hz is actually exceptional including in room gain but, reaching xmax very quick and excursion limits under 20hz..20hz is its strong suit and does it so far better than any driver I got hold of so far. One day I will grab a wg15 to test run. All this talk got me interested.

 

[toddalin]

in certain environments,yea, maybe. they're measured different. the w15 uses advantage of the car/trunk gain to flatten out it's response but it drops off like a rock after 80hz in a free-field environment so it is meant to use the gain of the enclosure and small space to compensate. in free air/space the 2235h drops off with smoother response and more extension. only advantage the wg15 has is more then twice the power handling so of course it can reach good amount louder but, with how much harmonic distortion though is the question. in home application depends on user itself.

thought the psa2 was rated 900w at 8ohms? i know the modded xh is extended headroom but, don't think it was rated for 1200w continuous from 8ohms or up. i would think maybe around 6ohms, yea it'll put that out but, around 12ohms nominal i'm thinking 800-1000w at most before major distortion kicks in. my xti 4002 probably can do bout 1300w into a 16ohm bridge-mono mode but, never tried but, i have ran dead shorts on it before and ran 2ohm bridge loads on it no issues before out of boredom and for a test run. always wanted to try a psa2 amp though. always heard wonderful things bout them.

The 2XH has 2 more dBA of headroom so long as you don't exceed the current capacity, which you can't at 12 ohms.

900 watts + 2 dBA = ~1,430 watts into 8 ohms = ~950 Watts into 12 ohms so maybe a little optimistic (1 dB).

I physically measured both the 2235 and W15GTi, including the port contributions, using a 61 band RTA and mine is in my center channel cabinet, not some trunk.

 

[Rex Aeterna]

Room gain acoustics. Why people ignore that? In any room it will have significant gain around 20hz unless have suitable super chunk bass traps from floor to ceiling. I simply mentioned trunk gain cause that's what it was measured in. Trunk is like very tiny room. Same concept applies.

 

[vinyldavid]

I have a pair of JBL 4645B's, which are very similar, but loaded with the 2242HPL drivers. I like them better than the EV30W's I have, except in terms of true infrasonic performance. Oh well, most rooms can't support that anyway. The 4645B's are definitely the best subwoofers I've heard that aren't JL Audio Fathom F212's, and it's been so long since I heard those that I couldn't tell you which was better.

I'm currently running my 4645B off a bridged Adcom GFA-2535 (two 535's in one box), and it does just fine with 200w in my 10x12 bedroom. I'm thinking about picking up a couple more once I move my EV double 18's down the road, as I have a source that I can get them for $250 a box, guaranteed, if he has any in stock.