Hello all!

After lots of lurking on here I've finally decided to make a post,

So I have a little humble diy system I like to use for summer house parties in the garden, it consists of 2x 15" Eminence Fane Scoops loaded with some Sovereign Pro 15" LFs...

Kicks were some 15inch cheapo active boxes I wired straight into bypassing the (burnt, lol) HFs, I am however currently designing some reflex/sealed boxes for them with a recently aqcuired DATS v3 . Doing this mainly for the learning experience/ upcycling attitude...

powered by a Boost PX 1600... outputting about 800w at 4 ohms per channel. I run my two scoops on one channel and my "kicks" on the other channel.

Tops are some low level brand active 10 inches and they're ok for the job...

So now to the topic at hand, I want to expand my system in the HF and Mids because I deem these very important and I am very lucky and fortunate enough to have been gifted a pair of JBL 2420 compression drivers and 2310 acoustic lens horns.

I want my HFs and Mids to be crystal clear, because that always seems to be lackings in all the systems I hear around here. So the plan I have in my head is as follows;

4 Way system;

Scoops for sub to about 100hz

Sealed/Ported 15" Kicks 100 - 800/900 Hz to meet up with the horns

JBL 2420 compression driver w/ 2310 Horns playing from 800 to the highs? No clue what the crossover to the tweeters will be..

Tweeters to take over and get the crisp detail, at which frequency I don't know yet.

My questions are as follows, what amps and setup would be ideal for this Mid/HF Section? Is a upper bass 15" reflex/sealed recommended for 100-800hz or will it sound like poo?

I was looking at a pair of macrotech 600's to upgrade my amp section but I decided to not go through with it because I realize I don't got a clue on how to safely power low power high impedance compression drivers and I only have a EU wall sockets to run off... Plus the main consensus is that these amps are great for low frequencies but I've read mixed opinions about them and also a cat in the bag situation given the age of these amps now and who might have been inside them...

I play a wide range of genres from 90s House, 70s Disco, Soul, 2000s Dubstep, Jazz, Reggae, Dub... I value soundquality over SPL (Or so I think, I will be figuring that out on this journey...) and I'd like to cover about 100-200 people in the future... right now looking at about 50 though hehe...

In the future I'll also look into swapping my scoops for 4x BR 18 inch for the bass section for logistics & deep extension reasons...

Any pointers and advice is greatly appreciated...

As noted by fudge22, if you can't be sure of using them within their limitations, you may be better off selling them. They are highly sought after by hi-fi aficianados, especially in the Far East.

I think you would be better off getting some good 2" drivers to fit the lenses, and adding tweeters for 7kHz and above. And build some horn loaded 10" or 12" mids to go between the kicks and 1500 Hz.

Alright, good to know they aren't really suited for PA use...

I can't bring it over my heart to sell them, they were given to me by someone I consider a mentor... would be a bit of a middle finger selling them - I think I might keep the 2420 on the shelf for a tube based hifi sometime :)

Hey Madboffin, appreciate the input;

It is indeed a complete set, so a JBL 2420, 2327 adapter, 2309 horn and finally the 2310 Lens...

I have indeed checked the diaphragms and they seem to be fine! Also a sidenote on replacements, originals are indeed expensive but aftermarkets run from 20-40 euros or are these to be avoided at all costs?

Thank you very much for a detailed write up on how you would run them! Given their age and expensive it seems a bit of a hassle really for some garden parties 2-3 times a summer... I think I will keep the 2420's for perhaps a bi-amped hifi system with tubes :)

I wasn't expecting my system to become a 5 way anytime soon but it seems I don't have much of a choice with a sub & kick section and the 2310 lens' crossover...

But my future plans of going BR for subs will allow me to have bass & kicks in one cab (thoughts on this?) so I'd be back to a 4 way then :)

What are some good 2" drivers you like and what should I look for?

Eagle wrote: I wasn't expecting my system to become a 5 way anytime soon but it seems I don't have much of a choice with a sub & kick section and the 2310 lens' crossover... But my future plans of going BR for subs will allow me to have bass & kicks in one cab (thoughts on this?) so I'd be back to a 4 way then :)

A bass reflex rig is very good for a wide range of genres, and for that the simplest recipe is double 18 subs, double 15" kick/mids, 2" exit mid/highs, and if you must have the sparkle a supertweeter. I have a rig like that without the super tweeter because I don't feel it is necessary, but if you do simply adding it in with a small passive crossover with the 2" is the way to go.. no need for a separate amp. My rig has 24dB crossovers at 80hz and 1khz, the 15's are proper mid-bass drivers, the CD is B&C DE750's which have a 3" diaphram. These have good response out to 15khz after processing and could potentially be crossed a bit lower but they sound crisp and clean now so I'm reluctant to change the crossover. This system is powered by 6kw of amplification, per stack it's 2kw on subs, 750w on mids, 350w on the CDs, processed by a DCX. It will run flat out at limiting with absolutely no signs of stress. The subs are the only section that routinely uses all available power, the mids only occassional peak at full power, the CDs never get anywhere close.. limiting prevents anything beyond about 75w peak.

Eagle wrote: What are some good 2" drivers you like and what should I look for?

Lots of possibilities from vintage drivers to current models, 4" diaphram vesions will cross lower but fall like a rock beyond 10khz, 3" versions can often go out to 15khz with a little help which simplifies the rig. OEM diaphram availability isn't an issue with modern drivers but the drivers aren't cheap to buy initially, but then all the really good vintage drivers are expensive now too so it's going to cost either way. 

woofers and subs vented.  woofer boxes tuned to 60 hz, sub boxes tuned to 30 hz.  

no scoops or anything like that.  those setups have fallen out of favor with all top manufacturers like JBL etc. so there must be a reason for that.

bullet supertweeters also fell out of favor with JBL.

QSC Cinema Speaker uses something similar ( BMS Coax with 10" Mid ) crossed at 1,700 hz but they just use four extended low range 15" woofers instead of separate PA style woofers and dedicated subs.

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but Cinema obviously has different requirements because speakers go behind the screen ...

the 10" mid QSC uses is not a bucket but has a custom enclosure but equivalent JBL Cinema Speakers use bucket mids.  guess you can go either way.

BMS advertises some crazy specs for their coax but i think those are exaggerated.  i wouldn't want to take it as low as they say it can go or expect the SPL that they say it can put out, that said i think it is still the best compression driver - even better than ones made out of Beryllium or Textreme Carbon Fiber.

for a smaller system like a compact 15" 2-way i would maybe take BMS down to 600 hz or so which is how low RCF takes their 4" drivers to in 15" 2-way systems.

for a large system with dedicated 10" midrange i would probably use closer to 1.5 khz crossover like QSC does.

the system you were trying to build reminds me a little bit of JBL Marquis Dance Club series that were discontinued.  Those had supertweeters and those scoopy looking bass boxes - as i said JBL doesn't use any of that stuff anymore.  

modern designs i think tend to be simpler / cleaner than the overly-creative ones of the past.  the industry is consolidating on the few things that have proven to make the most sense in the widest range of settings - namely bass reflex boxes and compression driver horns.  no scoops or supertweeters.

JBL also used to sell horn subwoofers - those are gone too.

i think we should appreciate the past but let it go.

for the horn and lens, you could make a custom adaptor to use modern drivers. 

scoops like yours or the jbl 4530, which was paired with your horn back then, can be used 60-1000 hertz, but it depends on the music you want to play if that sounds right. since you have them already… try it! might be better than the cheapos

J.

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