JBL speakers question

[inuyashafly]

I had N38 II's they are the northridge series, from like 2 years ago. one broke. and my service plan will replace it but I dont know what to get. they will let me get the E80 or the uhhh 8in. E80 is a dual 6in wich is what I want but I have a very good ear, I dont want the two speakers sounding different. any opinions.

I looked at like respons and stuff and they seemed similar but not similar. like the n38 II has 90dB ant E80 has 91 right so no real big deal. n recomended watts is 175 e is 200 not a very big deal frequency response for the n is 45-20 the e is 38-20 I donno. frequency crossover for the n is 1000 - 5000 the e is 300 - 4000. thats a bit of a difference.


I prlly should have don this before but this is the page for the e 60 wich is the current single 8in. it actully looks worse then the n38 II but i dont really know what crossover frequency means in terms of sound and things like that.
http://www.jbl.com/home/products/product_detail.aspx?prod=E60&Language=ENG&Country=US&Region=USA&cat=NRE&ser=NRE

 

[michaelahess]

The northridge series had pretty bad crossovers, if you are really concerned about voice mathing hit up ebay and find a direct replacement.

The freq response companies publish is useless, find a good mag like audiophile and get a freq plot.

I also recall a site that sold individual components for all JBL speakers but can't remember where it is.

I've got a pair of s38's, s312's, and a s-centerII, a buddy of mine has the N310's and mine sound twice as good on my stereo in the same room, see if you can get some of them on ebay instead, you will be MUCH happier.

 

[inuyashafly]

I looked at the studio series and the crosover was like 700 5k 20k thats a hella lot more not to mention another numbe. would you explain it to me best you can?

 

[michaelahess]

Crossover frequencies have no actual barring on the drivers (within it's limits of course) they are to compensate for enclosure restrictions. You can't directly compare crossover levels between two speakers with different volume enclosures. Type of material used will also change it.

There are way too many areas to hit to give you a direct reply. I would sugest looking into car audio speaker enclosure design to get an idea of how it's applied. When I said the NW series are of lower quality, I didn't mean anything about the crossover points, just the electrical quality of the crossover components. The NW series also has a lower rolloff on the crossover points which make for a "musical" sound but are less accurate, I can't remember the actual db rolloff, but it was something like 12db vs 24db on the studio series. Very few people can hear the difference between the NW and Studio series, I used to do pro car audio so I have a "tuned" ear. I wouldn't worry about it too much unless you get two speakers with identical drivers, but different quality crossovers/enclosures and you can hear a difference.

 

[DiscoDuck]

If you bought a pair of speakers originally, they need to replace both. Only a weasel of a store manager would expect you to be happy with a mismatched set.