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JBL Speaker Project

Wow!

I had the pleasure of spending an hour or so at Duffs house this weekend. I heard these just after they were put together at ZilchLab about 3 years ago. They were good to very good then, now with the air leaks fixed, the cabinets beefed up and the improved woofers they move into the flat out awesome range. After listening for 30 minutes or so Duff put on a track that had some great kick drums and turned up the volume (up to a whopping 40 watts) to what you would experience in a smaller club where the drums were not amplified. I have never ever heard a more realistic drum reproduction - period. Flat out impressive. If you closed you eyes you would not be able to tell you were in someones house listening to a mere stereo. I can't wait to get mine built (I have all of the parts just need to make the cabinets.)
Steve
 
srbliss said:
I had the pleasure of spending an hour or so at Duffs house this weekend. I heard these just after they were put together at ZilchLab about 3 years ago. They were good to very good then, now with the air leaks fixed, the cabinets beefed up and the improved woofers they move into the flat out awesome range. After listening for 30 minutes or so Duff put on a track that had some great kick drums and turned up the volume (up to a whopping 40 watts) to what you would experience in a smaller club where the drums were not amplified. I have never ever heard a more realistic drum reproduction - period. Flat out impressive. If you closed you eyes you would not be able to tell you were in someones house listening to a mere stereo. I can't wait to get mine built (I have all of the parts just need to make the cabinets.)
Steve
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Steve, thanks for stopping by. The song I played was Hella Good by No Doubt and it has an amazing kick drum piece to start off the song. Most of the listening we did was between 1-3 watts but for this song I cranked up my Yahama MX-1000 amp. I heard that song demoed on a pair of B&W 801D's powered by Krell No. 33 amps. After hearing that combo I wondered how that song would sound on my ZD 007's. I ran home and played the song and was surprised how close my speakers were, even with my "mid-fi" gear.

Recently Zilch stopped by for a listen and commented the bass was too much and suggested another trip to Zilchlab for more measurements. The original measurements and tuning were done with LE14A woofers and the LE14H-3's are in another league when it comes to bass output. I hope to get down to Zilchlab in the next few weeks but in the meantime I plugged one port in each speaker and that provided a nice improvement.

Now if we can get Steve and Bhamm to finish their projects....:D
 
"Now if we can get Steve and Bhamm to finish their projects...."

I know, I know. I am reconfiguring the crossovers and they should be together soon. I am very interested to see how they measure.

BHamm
 
I am starting right now

Just finished 'gutting' one of my Valencia cabinets - now I have a shell. It took about 20 minutes to disassemble the cabinet - they are barely glued together. I will be filling holes/voids and getting it ready for reinforcements. When finished the cabinets will be 1-1/2" thick and well braced. Interior volume is 4.83 cubic feet before bracing.
Game on.
Steve
 
One is 'done'

Duffinator said:
The race is on. Who will finish first: Steve or Bhamm? Place your bets. :D
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It's just a test mule (stock cabinet modified just enough to allow the JBL stuff to mount up -far from ideal.) Just back from the Guru's palace of speakers and I am presently listening to one nice speaker - the other channel is a little NTH super zero. The 'FankenVal' is much easier to drive than the baby NTH! Now for the other one. I may also use Zilch's Z-19 crossover as it seems to work even better Flatter - both Duffs and mine have a little suck-out from 1K to about 4K. Not really complaining about this little flaw as these speakers will crush most any commercial speaker regardless of price. Duffs make the NHT 3.3 sound like a toy (and one my good friends designed it.) I will be comparing the crossovers side be side to see what I prefer.
Steve
 
A winner!

Duffinator said:
And we have a winner. Well sort of... I look forward to see what you come up with comparing both xovers.
Click to expand...

I don't think it's time to declare victory at this time! Only one speaker done and it's not really 'done' as it needs massive amounts of bracing (and a new baffle and grill) and you know how much work that is. Then I need to do all of that on the other one and A/B the 2 different crossovers to see what I like best. Race is still on.
Steve
 
srbliss said:
I don't think it's time to declare victory at this time! Only one speaker done and it's not really 'done' as it needs massive amounts of bracing (and a new baffle and grill) and you know how much work that is. Then I need to do all of that on the other one and A/B the 2 different crossovers to see what I like best. Race is still on.
Steve
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Interesting to see which style crossover you prefer. I went with the Z19. I had one mocked up and noticed it sounded best with both L-pads barely cracked open, otherwise they were to bright.
 
Thank you Duffinator, I enjoyed the thread, and love your build!

I just finished a standard EWG and love it. I need to do some tweaking but I'm very happy with them. So then, why am I looking at your thread? Well, because I am already dreaming up my new build. I am looking at some LE 14a's that are currently in a pair of somewhat-local JBL S-99's on Craigslist...

Is there ever an end to this madness?

Great work!

Steve
 
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