JBL L7's minus 12" woofers

[Ty67]

I have a pair of JBL L7's I've been listening to for several years minus the large 12" drivers. I picked these speakers up for a couple Jackson's but somebody had already removed the 12" woofers. I have been listening to them with my Velodyne CT120 subwoofer filling in the low end. I have the speakers ten feet apart and sit back about ten feet to good effect. The pre is a Sanyo plus C55 and the amp a Sony 55ES and I almost listen to anolog exclusively. Having never heard these speakers in their full glory I was wondering if anyone has ever found the bass to be overwhelming and bypassed the woofers at the binding post in favor of a sub or two to handle to low end notes?
Listening from Arizona

 

[toddalin]

The original crossed the 12" over at 170 Hz, which is pretty low..., almost at the upper end of some subs' crossovers which is probably why you find it acceptable.

 

[Chris Brown]

Well the issue would be the crossover frequency. The 12" woofers in the L7 aren't subwoofers. They are crossed over at 180hz, which is way too high for a subwoofer.

Your Velodyne CT120 has a crossover that is adjustable between 40hz and 120hz. So even if you had the crossover on the sub cranked up to max, you would still have somewhat of a gap in the lower midbass between 120hz and 180hz. Even if you could adjust your sub crossover higher than 120hz, you wouldn't necessarily want to. You can get away with having a single subwoofer in your room because low-frequency bass is difficult to localize, but the higher the frequency, the easier it is to localize that bass. Ideal subwoofer crossover frequency would be 80Hz or lower (This is the THX recommendation). I personally prefer 60hz or lower, paired with speakers that can carry their own weight above that. The only subwoofer with a crossover anywhere near 180hz would be something like a Bose acoustimass module, necessary in order to accommodate the microscopic satellite speakers.

The woofers in the L7 can get away with being crossed over above subwoofer frequencies because there is one in each speaker - so it doesn't matter if you can localize the bass. If you really wanted to replicate that, then you would need two subwoofers, with one sitting right next to each speaker.

IMO, the L7 is an amazing speaker, but if you aren't going to use them the way that they are intended to be used, you would probably be better off selling them and buying speakers that would better fit your needs.

 

[toddalin]

Well the issue would be the crossover frequency. The 12" woofers in the L7 aren't subwoofers. They are crossed over at 180hz, which is way too high for a subwoofer.

I'm thinking perhaps there were a couple renditions because I recall recently seeing a schematic that had an 8 mH choke and ~129 mfd on the woofer and noted it at 170 Hz and the 180 Hz version to which you refer shows 6.9mH/170mfd.

I remember because I use 8 mH/147mfd on the Mermans and was thinking how similar they are.

 

[Ty67]

Well the issue would be the crossover frequency. The 12" woofers in the L7 aren't subwoofers. They are crossed over at 180hz, which is way too high for a subwoofer.

Your Velodyne CT120 has a crossover that is adjustable between 40hz and 120hz. So even if you had the crossover on the sub cranked up to max, you would still have somewhat of a gap in the lower midbass between 120hz and 180hz. Even if you could adjust your sub crossover higher than 120hz, you wouldn't necessarily want to. You can get away with having a single subwoofer in your room because low-frequency bass is difficult to localize, but the higher the frequency, the easier it is to localize that bass. Ideal subwoofer crossover frequency would be 80Hz or lower (This is the THX recommendation). I personally prefer 60hz or lower, paired with speakers that can carry their own weight above that. The only subwoofer with a crossover anywhere near 180hz would be something like a Bose acoustimass module, necessary in order to accommodate the microscopic satellite speakers.

The woofers in the L7 can get away with being crossed over above subwoofer frequencies because there is one in each speaker - so it doesn't matter if you can localize the bass. If you really wanted to replicate that, then you would need two subwoofers, with one sitting right next to each speaker.

IMO, the L7 is an amazing speaker, but if you aren't going to use them the way that they are intended to be used, you would probably be better off selling them and buying speakers that would better fit your needs.

Thanks for the info. I'm on the lookout for the LE120H speakers but they have been a little evasive. I also listen to Klipsch KG 4.2, Boston Acoustics T1000 and KEF C80's but I keep coming back to the L7's in their current state. I look forward to hearing them the way they were meant to be heard.