Professional stage speaker as a Sub for my HT (1 Viewer)

[Chuck Schilling]

Brad, I suspect that 1200 watts is power consumption, not power output. There is no direct correlation between the two. And 55 lb is just about right for 150 wpc.

 

[Brad-F]

Thanks Chuck

You are most likely right. Like I said, I am new to this..

Dad played bass from about 1957 to about 2001. Mostly in clubs/cabaret shows etc. This amp would have been ample for the volumes he played at on his 1959 L series Fender Jazz bass.

It seems then it would do the job for my new sub in my Home Theater. Yes? Especially as Wayne pointed out, it is a 'home audio' amp after all.

Is this a good amp for the job? And what should I look for in the speakers themselves for this type of amp?

 

[Chuck Schilling]

Brad, I've no direct experience with this amp, but there's no reason to think it won't do a great job for you - it obviously worked well for your dad, and H/K has a great reputation for quality and reliability. Depending upon your desire for overwhelming bass extension and volume levels, it may or may not be powerful enough to drive a sub cabinet to your taste - only you can say for sure. If nothing else, it'd probably be fantastic for driving your mains.

Oh, and regarding that J-Bass - be sure to take good care of it. Any original Fender instrument from that vintage will be worth a *lot* of cash - particularly in a faraway place like Australia where I suspect there just aren't many.

 

[William*E]

I wouldn't worry about the size of the cabinet brother. Since location is not really a factor for LFE, I would keep the whole thing and rock the house when you're watching TLOTR. I myself have 2 boxes, both have 2 15" Pyle Drivers. I use two at a time and rotate them about twice a year. They're both powered by a Peavy 4-C 500 watt amp. I've been told that it's an over-kill. But what do they know....I know that it sounds awsome. But it's your choice in the long run. Good Luck.

 

[Brad-F]

I have put some photos of the amp up for you to have a look at.

The Amp

I was wrong before when I said there is knobs on the front. There are no knobs on it at all. (I wonder how you set the volume of the beast). Anyway, as you can see, it is different to the one in the link sent by Chuck. But it does have some similarities. Like the size of it.

 

[Mark gas]

That thing is built like a brick crap house!


The Manual clames 300 watts at 16 ohms bridged. I think that would work well with a Shriva or Tempest from Adire Audio.

 

[Brad-F]

I've not heard of either Shriva or Tempest or Adire Audio for that matter. I wonder if they are available in Sydney. Are these good sub speakers?

Off to google I go.

 

[Evan Lee]

Dan Hine,

I cannot believe that JBL would make a 15" speaker with only .76mm X-max. Maybe it is a typo on their part. I would be frankly shocked if they did not really mean to say 7.6mm.

 

[Edward J M]

Ditto. Gotta be a typo - 0.76 mm = 0.03"

7.6 mm for a 15" pro grade woofer desiged for 40 Hz (low E on a bass guitar not coincidentally) and above makes sense, especially considering there are two of them.

I'm with the majority here. Not suitable at all for HT application; Dan nailed it - Fs = 40 Hz and getting this driver to play deep will be an exercise in futility.

Keep if sentimental, otherwise sell the entire rig to a bass player in a band and build/buy a sub suitable for HT.

 

[Dan Hine]

Hey, I'm just passing on the info from their site. But the more I looked into it, I'm not too shocked at the .76mm xmax. First, several other large drivers on that list are given the low xmax. Second, remember that this is xmax not xmech. The .76mm figure is just the linear/low distortion limit of the driver. For example, Eminence rates a few of their drivers pretty low on the xmax scale. Their Delta-12 is only listed with 1.6mm xmax. But the xmech is 19.81mm. That's quite a jump! I suspect this is also the case with the JBL drivers. And given that distortion is much more acceptable in rock clubs and such I suppose it's to be expected.

- Dan Hine


Edit...

I looked up JBL's 2226H 15" LF driver. It is given 7.6mm xmax but with a P-P distance of 40mm before damage. Given the different applications that the D130 and 2226H are used in I would believe the .76mm xmax to be accurate which would be just fine for bass quitar duty but not for low distortion/low frequency bass that we want in out HT's.

 

[Wayne A. Pflughaupt]

Wow Brad, the pictures are great! That thing certainly is an antique! My undeducated guess is that it dates back to the late 60s or early 70s - possible even earlier. Someone who knows about HK's history might give some idea of its age - For instance, note the New York address. HK's been a Japanese brand for at least the last 25-30 years.

I agree with Chuck - the 1200 watt figure on the back refers to power consumption, not output.

I'd say "probable." Can't say as I've ever seen anything like it, though, so I couldn't tell you what it is or what it's for.

By the way, where's the power cord??

Regards,
Wayne A. Pflughaupt

 

[John S]

Hook the whole thing up.. I'll bet it kicks some serious bass butt....


I did this for a a period of time, it was one of the best subs, I ever used.

The asthetics sucked....


But a good pro SUB, and/or good pro Bass rig is up to the tesk for sure.... Excursion goes very low, as many bass players have 5 string basses these days, and tune the extra string very low.

 

[Chuck Schilling]

Brad, I'd imagine that modification to your amp was to change from 120V AC to 220 VDC current. Probably that was a US-spec amp which was modded to run on whatever electrical systems you have in Oz.

 

[Wayne A. Pflughaupt]

You'd be surprised; most bass guitar cabinets can barely get the true fundamental of an open E string (about 40Hz). I don't know of any that can get an open B string (30Hz). The ony cabinet I know of that comes close is the Acme B2 and B4 cabinets. As far as professional subs go, most fall like a brick below 35-40Hz. IMO good home theater extension should get down to at least 25Hz.

 

[Brad-F]

Good point wayne. I'll have a dig through dads gig bag and see what I can find. (Later. I am at work now).

Maybe that silver plug with the red bits in it is for the power. There is also that female plug hole just to the right of it, but I doubt that the power plug would be male at the amp end. I'm not sure then what that one is either. I'll see what leads I have.

On Mark's suggestion I checked the Shriva and the Tempest. There is an distributor here in the Australia.

That Tempest looks like a fine sub driver. Anyone here used one?

Remember I have a friend who has offered to build the sub box for me. He has lots of experience with building boxes, home theaters and more. That is looking like a good option, after I sell the JBLs that is.

 

[Mark gas]

Check the DIY forum. Many there have used one.

 

[Brad-F]

I found it. As I suspected, it was in the bag that dad use to take to shows.

That silver input at the bottom of the amp with the two red terminals is for the power. The cable that plugs into it looks like a canon plug (the sort of plug you put into a microphone) This is not a standard type of plug here in australia. Well, I have never seen on like it before.

Thanks again to all you guys who offered your knowledge and experience to this HT newbie in this matter of the JBL bass bin and its speakers.

I'll be sure to let you all know how I go getting this sub organised and assembled, and the system up and running.

Brad

 

[Roger Q]

I would definitely put it up on Ebay. It's probably worth more to someone else as is as opposed to a HT sub.

Good luck.

 

[cabreau]

Mark,
You asked for it...

One day, a tuba player wanted to torture the drummer behind him, so he hid one of the drummer's sticks.
After looking around for a few minutes, with a frantic, wide-eyed expression, the drummer fell to his knees, flung his arms wide, and screamed to heaven:

"Finally! The miracle, after all these years! I'm a Conductor!"


Two drummers walk into a bar...
which is funny because you would have figured the second one would have seen the first guy do it.


Q: What do you call a Drummer driving a Volkswagon?
A: Farfromthinken



Two girls are walking along when they hear...
"Psst! Down here!"

They both look down and see a frog sitting beside the road. The frog says to them, "Hey, if you kiss me I'll turn into a world famous drummer and make you both rich and famous!" The two girls looked at each other, and one of them reached down and grabbed the frog and stuffed it in her pocket.

The other girl said, "What did you do that for?"

The first replied, "I'm not stupid. I know a talking frog is worth heaps more than a famous drummer any day!!!"



Enjoy.

 

[John S]

Well in the pro environment, you of course throw only those frequnecies at it, and then feed it unbeleivable power and they produce....

I think his amp will cut it... lol