Vintage JBL N2400, D130 and 075 rebuild with massive speaker cabinets!
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- Опубліковано 16 жов 2024
- This video shows a pair of massive vintage 15" JBL speakers that use the legendary D130 woofer, 075 tweeter, and the N2400 crossover. I'm showing you how I rebuilt the crossover and the before and after audio measurement results.
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I have a fully rebuilt pair of these. I also ended up making my own version with slightly different values in order to flatten the frequency response. The stock crossover gave a response that was peaked in the middle with the highs and lows rolling off. I also removed the potentiometers. Next I’m gonna try putting a second order filter on the tweeter.
Yeah, my customer was too "originalist" for me to modify the XO. Tweeter DEFINITELY should have 2nd-order to keep bass out. And most 1960's equipment was too strong in the midrange relative to bass, so I agree on that too.
I built a set of 030 clones in 1974, ran them until last year when I bought components for an L300 clone. Still have the D130s and N2400s, keeping in mind for another system. Crossover really makes a difference!
Yep, crossover does matter. I would have liked to go to air-core inductors, but upsizing them by ~2x made a big difference too, along with higher quality capacitors.
A great amount of information! I recapped a 1950s JBL N1200 out of my JBL C40 Harkness Lowboy with the 130A Woofer and 175DLH horn using polypropylene capacitors. I am picking up a 1960s JBL C34 with the N2400 Crossover, the D130 Woofer, and the 075 tweeter so this information will be very useful. Thanks much! :-)
Yeah, and the original crossover inductors are pretty disappointingly small. Definitely worth changing those to air-core (remember to keep them perpendicular to each other and as far apart as possible so they don't cross couple). If I wasn't trying to keep it fairly original, I would DEFINITELY put the tweeter on a 12-dB per octave slope. The simple capacitor to the tweeter just isn't enough to keep big woofer tones away.
Hi Colin, this is a very helpful video. I have a pair of these speakers and am looking at rebuilding the crossovers. I'm teaching myself how to read wiring diagrams. But I'm far from making/designing my own. I really like the idea of removing the l-pads, I'm surprised other info I've found on N2400 crossover rebuilds are replacing them or keeping them. Could I trouble you for a crossover diagram of your ideal build for these, without the l-pads and with the added capacitor for the tweeter you mention in the comments? I would gladly pay you for the trouble.
Lucas, send me an email at colin.joyemusic@gmail.com and I'll see what I can do.
I have speakers very similar to these, mine don't need much power to play super loud. I moved them in my car (4 door) once, and had to take my car door off to get them in the car. ha ha ha. I put the door back on before I drove off. I also tested them one time with a small hand held radio and they played nice and loud on what must have been a portion of a watt. I had them hooked up to McIntosh 30 watt tube amps. And I will never get rid of my wonderful JBL early 1960's speakers.
Oh yeah, those don't take any power at all to drive! Funny taking the car door off!!
Thanks for posting this video.
i have had my 030's since 1974...still sound great. Paid $800.00 Canadian from Western Sound in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.
I can't say I saw it for myself although I was told last time Supertramp toured Winnipeg they had 64 030's as a PA system. My two would blow the ears out of 500 people in a hall with a SAE 2400L power amp. 200 watts at 8 OHMS. I was told 030's worked efficiently at about 64 WPC @ 8 OHMS. Anyway the JBL's are happy in my basement on our dance floor.
Forgive me, I’m just an electrician. I made myself some “working drawings” of what your electrical schematic shows me ‘I think’
Is there a way I can enclose picture to show you what I drew?
You can email me at colin.joyemusic@gmail.com .
The L-pad adjusts the mix of the tweeter with the D-130. You can't EQ this, EQ is tone not volume. The L-pad adjusts the volume of the 075...
I’d love to pick your brain about where you got your caps and parts. I have this exact set up and would like to copy cat what you’ve done here.
It's your lucky day -- I found the link: theelectronicgoldmine.com/collections/mylar-film-caps/products/g24704 . I try to stock up on awesome finds like this. In fact, they have several mylar film caps for really good prices that I would stock up on: theelectronicgoldmine.com/collections/mylar-film-caps . Not sure where I got the resistors, but they should be easy to find. The inductors were probably from Digikey, but I would go the extra mile and buy air-core inductors. They are larger but worth it.
@@JoyeMusiccom thank you!
Should be a no brainer getting my hands on the caps and resistors.
I’m just curious about the inductor. There are many different 1 MH inductor a with various Ma ratings, what rating would you use or what was the one you used for this project. I’m going to copy cat you.
How do you bypass the l pad? Just cut it out?
Sort of.... i pulled it out and re-wired it so the central lead went to the middle point between the two 5-ohm resistors. Effectively, this sets the tweeter to the max level. The tweeter was way to quiet anyway, so the max setting was just about right.
Smaller cap size vs the bigger org cap size - to me the bigger the cap is always better, love the vintage "looks" and would have stuffed the new cap into the old cap cover, to make them look original if modified - I would sell the vintage caps on eBay, hope you didn't throw them away :(... I can't/couldn't see myself doing that, after being around so long.
Yeah, I've put new caps in older cans before, but these caps are backfilled with epoxy, so it would have been a real mess getting them apart and wasn't worth the time. I did keep them, however. I probably should put them on Ebay for the collector.
@@JoyeMusiccom If you do list them let me know, and I'd bid, I made a klipsch style board using new caps, like you but using a systematic based on the D130 075
like you, the tweeter controller isn't needed.
But using the real JBL caps, would be cool,on a new board to trade in/out like vintage 12ax7 tubes…for maybe a diff sound-is my idea...or if you make these they'd sell for more also, than just the caps, and I'd still bid
But yeah ;:*) Cool, love this stuff
@@beatleme2 Contact me at colin.joyemusic@gmail.com -- I'll send you a photo and test results of the parts (I have the original caps and inductors-- somewhere). I have tons of other antique parts, audio equipment, speakers, 1960's stereo consoles, etc. I'm also a tube collector -- I have a PhD in vacuum tubes (EE actually) from MIT. Just let me know if you're looking for anything in particular. I need to start cataloguing stuff on my website for sale.
If you disagree with the design of a classic JBL crossover, take it out and sell it to someone who likes it. Don't butcher it. Replace the caps? Sure. Rip out the L-pad without replacing it with a good one, like the ones made by Eminence? Nope. Replace a perfectly good inductor (it's not a transformer)? Nope. Just sell the whole thing and let someone else enjoy it.