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Woofer Replacement for JBL 2242


dbstedt

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I'm looking for ideas and suggestions to replace some old (late 90's) JBL 2242's that are in need of recone and not sure if it's worth it.  These are currently in a three-way and run between 40-300Hz, light to medium duty (home, party, small venue).

 

I might have found a good deal on some Celestion or Yorkville (RCF) 18's that are in good shape.  A few other ideas are using the Sigma, Omega, Impero from Eminence or maybe the 18tbx100 or 18rbx100 (if it ever comes available) from B&C.

 

I've gone over these reviews looking for ideas:

http://audioxpress.com/article/Test-Bench-Celestion-CF1840JD-18-subwoofer.html

http://audioxpress.com/article/Test-Bench-BMS-18S450-18-Pro-Sound-Subwoofer.html

http://audioxpress.com/article/Test-Bench-Eighteen-Sound-18TLW3000-18-Dual-Voice-Coil-Woofer.html

 

... and of course the 2242 review on this site:

http://www.data-bass.com/data?page=driver&id=27

http://www.data-bass.com/data?page=system&id=109

 

Would like to keep it efficient and as hifi as possible while keeping cost low.  I'm in ON, Canada and any ideas or help is appreciated!

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Are you just trying to replace the driver and use the XO that is in the speaker already?

 

If so you will need to at least try and match similar T/S for the replacement. And even then there might be a better option. Also I thought a recone was only about 150 dollars or less?

 

I will be reconing a 2245H later on this year and that was about 100 each.

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The speaker is active-crossover with some passives on the compression driver.

 

Yes, I'm sure for somewhere around $150 I could 'make it go'.  The OE kit is listed in 2012 as:

http://www.jblproservice.com/pdf/Goes%20Into%20List/Goes%20Into%20List.pdf

$214.00 - C8R2242 (2242H, 2242HPL)

 

Orange County lists it as:

http://www.speakerrepair.com/page/RECNEPRC.html

$231 - 18" JBL 2242H, 2242HPL (JBL Parts)

$175 - 18" JBL 2242H, 2242HPL (OCS Parts)

 

Any of those prices will be around 50% higher for Canada assuming I'm not shipping the driver.  I figured it might be worth getting some known-good parts instead of working with unknowns.  

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Understood. I should have added that two boxes (of four) have woofers that have already been replaced by someone.  They're a mis-matched set of old EV drivers.  

 

Was hoping there was a more modern, cost effective option that I could replace all four with.  

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Not sure if this helps but I went looking for a solid midbass offering similar but a little cheaper than the JBL 2226H driver. Ended up just spending an evening modeling a bunch of drivers in WinISD to figure out which ones would meet my needs. I was able to focus my efforts by cost, sensitivity, and excursion capability. Then I was able to see what the rough output was of various drivers for a given enclosure size and amp output. Just a thought. And if you aren't familiar with WinISD, let me know as you need to enter the metrics in a certain way to ensure WinISD "validates" the driver parameters.

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I can certainly run the numbers on a bunch of drivers (and I have in a few applications, not this one yet) but often the OEM numbers are off just enough to skew the results.

 

Unless someone  has some high-output test results (like what's on Data-Bass or AudioExpress) then the numbers have limited value.  

 

If I didn't have the test results from AudioExpress then I might think the Celestion driver is more efficient than the 2242H.  Or, vice-versa for the results from Data-Bass (thanks Ricci!).

 

In the end the best would be to buy/get samples of all the contending drivers and then test them all in a comparable manner.   

 

I'll keep looking, testing and fishing.

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I don't know of any test database for pro audio woofers although it would be nice.  And what you're referring to is exactly what I plan to do.  Identify a few contenders, order a sample, and then test them myself.  But if you find a resource, please let us know.

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The AudioExpress links I posted are really good but there's very few pro drivers tested like that (that are publicly available).

 

I plan on testing the drivers I have and whatever contenders I can get my hands on.  It might take a few weeks / months but hopefully I can provide some useful info.

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And in the end you likely would save time and money by just ordering some 2242s off of eBay. :)  It took some work but I bought quite a few 2226h drivers on eBay.  Contacted each one to make sure it was a genuine JBL cone or recone before I would purchase it.

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That'll cost me around $1400 - $1500.  I can almost get FOUR new 18tbx100 for that price and I have a hard time believing there'd be much difference between them.  I'd bet the B&C would perform as good (efficiency) or better (distortion).

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The Chase woofer tested like the 2242, maybe that can be used?

 

Thanks for the tip MK, that driver looks like it could be from Eminence.  The response isn't the best but it certainly looks serviceable. 

 

This thread seems to confirm that Eminence is the supplier.  Does anyone have a pic of the tag on the driver?  The ones on Data-Bass are too small to read.

https://community.klipsch.com/index.php?/topic/144121-craigsub-ss181-passive-subwoofer/

http://www.htaudioforum.com/subwoofers/57-chase-home-theater-18-subwoofer-driver-t-s-parameters.html

 

Posted specs:

Re: 6.963 Ohms

Fs: 21.53 Hz

Qts: 0.324

Qes: 0.355

Qms: 3.707

Le: 3.461 mH

Mms: 369.4 g

Vas: 19.78 Cu Ft

SPL: 93.86 1W/1m

BL: 31.31 N/A

Cms: 0.15 mm/N

Sd: 0.1642 m^2

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That'll cost me around $1400 - $1500.  I can almost get FOUR new 18tbx100 for that price and I have a hard time believing there'd be much difference between them.  I'd would bet the B&C would perform as good (efficiency) or better (distortion).

 

Gotcha.  Didn't catch the location part of your post.  Dang.

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The issue here is that you are replacing the woofer section of a 3way passive speaker. Not a dedicated subwoofer with separate amp, gain and active EQ+filtering.  (At least I assume so. I didn't dig into the speaker details). I'd have to assume that the woofer is running up to 300-500Hz or so before being rolled off into the mid/horn. It is covering a large frequency bandwidth and I would hope that the passive filter is well designed enough to mate the mid/horn and factory driver well.  If you just change the woofer it will change the response and the handoff between the mid/horn and likely change the voicing of the speaker quite a bit. Just something to be aware of.

 

Where are you located? There are deals on used JBL equipment all the time where theaters or old venues shut down and they fire sale the old equipment.

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I'm in Ontario, Canada.  

 

The woofer is just hard-wired to a terminal strip at the back of the box, the only crossover elements involved are some basic filtering & protection for the tweeter.  I'm using MiniDSP and/or DCX2496 for crossover and filtering.

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