past couple months i was looking for a worthy subwoofer to help out sub-bass area with my large altecs. while the 921-8a woofers in my altecs can extend easily down to 30hz no problem i wanted something to argument it from 30hz and below for reinforcing the sub-bass frequencies. i found a local on cl getting rid of a huge jbl 4648a dual 15'' subwoofer on sale. but, i asked the guy if he'll do a trade instead and he agreed. we met at a home dept parking lot,chat for a bit and, both was happy with the trades.
this thing is huge and weighs around good 120-150lbs. it houses two well regarded jbl 2226j drivers wired in parallel. the cabs are beat up but, are strong still and, the drivers are missing the dustcaps and, have some unknown black goo in couple parts of one of the drivers but, are fully functional and the cloth and surrounds are perfect condition. i brought it home and ripped out the drivers. everything looked super duper but, the old ass decaying fiberglass had to go. i ripped it all out and put in fresh r30 9'' thick fiberglass along the walls and floor and filled the rest with whatever left over polyfill/pillow stuffing i had in the box. i also cut pieces of black open cell foam and placed it inside on the ports just to prevent any fiberglass particles from flying out when this sucker is being pushed.
after finishing the cab and replacing the ancient fiberglass inside, i decided to give it a test run. jbl claims 1200w with program material it is capable of handling. i made my own twisted 6ft 14awg speaker cable with speakon connector and wired it +1, +2 to use it for bridge/mono operation. hooked it up to my crown xls 2500 which is rated 1550w@8ohm in mono/bridge operation and put on the lowpass crossover filter to 50hz(lowest point for the active crossover). kicked it on and gave it a test go...holy popper this thing can cause some serious damage. i mean holy crap this thing alone was rattling not only houses next to me but the complexes block away. it was easily knocking things off of walls and shelves 3 floors down. lucky the neighbors weren't home lol.
these can handle some serious power too. i actually was able to hit past the clipping point on my crown and the drivers were not crapping out or showing any signs of it. it just kept going and going and i was easily pushing over 1500w into them. the forced air vent cooling jbl design for these pro drivers seem very effective of keeping these things cooled to the point they keep on going and going and going.
after the one day of causing a neighborhood earthquake and pissing off couple of blocks of people i say these are good to go. i don't push them really anymore since it was just a test run but, i can see why these were used for professional and theater use(they can handle abuse very well). i just use them as normal subs at home with my redone/reworked large altecs and they blend very well. the jbl 2226j drivers are wonderful drivers and i consider them great for home hi-fi use as well. drumkicks and bass guitars comes out very clean on them and sound wonderful. organs come out great on them as well with effortless clean extension. i think these work well and will be keeping these around. can defiantly say my home system is complete finally and very happy with them.
later on in the near future i am gonna pop on new dustcaps and will refinish the cab but, for now since it's perfectly working is all that matters. it might be huge and ugly but, works and sounds great. will post a pic maybe later on from my phone. im now using the library computer writing this and can't do much of course. i just wanted to share this little experience with people here since i know i don't post much on here anymore from being busy and so forth. really like this site since i first joined it and became part of it in the past so, i still enjoy trying to share some things when i can.
