Chipp4

A question I have always wondered is........why do people think home theater subwoofers should play down to 16Hz when the subs used in large theaters made by JBL, or EV etc are lucky to go down to 25Hz with two 18" drivers? I have never come out of a good theater thinking low bass was lacking?

Trespasser, I have two pairs of CF2's and a pair of CF3's. They are great speakers and I am going to be selling them soon to move to pro speakers. If your interested in them let me know I could make you a good deal on them.

Dave, The cheapest price I have been able to find is at www.cinemadealer.com. When you go to the site click JBL speakers then click surrounds and Control 28's are close to the bottom for about $160 apiece. There is also a place called www.fullcompass.com and they have just the list prices(you have to call them). But when I do my outside system this is the way I will go.

Check out the JBL Professional Series Control 28 or Control 30. Places like Busch Gardens and Seaworld use these all over their parks and are exposed. The Control 28's would blown away most hifi outdoor speakers and Control 30's are even better with 10" woofer and horn driver. Not sure how much 30's cost but you can get a pair of 28's for $350 or less per pair and that's cheap compared to any larger hifi outdoors like Klipsch or Boston Acoustic etc. Check out www.jblpro.com.

Bob, How would you compare the MCM's to Meyer MSL4's w/650p subs

Checking on Ebay, it looks like it could be possible to get a deal on a Krell Theater Standard amp. I wonder how this would compare with Sunfire Signature Series (obviously the Sunfire is rated at twice the power).

I see there is a Denon 5803. Looks like it has a really cool feature of converting all video inputs to output on component video so you don't have to mess around with multiple different video in's on your TV (provided your TV is HDTV ready type) I know this is a big pain with my current Denon 4800. But they don't give away the 5803 at $4000 +

Sounds like the Sunfire road is the way to travel for high power and no Pro Audio amp fan noise.

Has anyone had experence with Carver power amps (like M1.0 or M1.5) and how do regular Carver brand amps compare with Sunfire amps? I know Sunfire seems to get great reviews.

Fabulous, You will have to cut some of that metal (must be European Car)so the bass driver can play through the seat. Plus if you run the sub your rear deck speakers will be acting like passive radiators and will over excurt (found this out the hard way myself) Once you cut the metal you need to make sure the box you build fits up the the hole and use foam to seal around to keep speaker pressure going into car and not trunk. There's my 2 cents.

I am thinking about getting rid of my Denon 4800 and replacing it with a Sunfire Theater Grand (mainly because this unit has balanced XLR outputs)and I see many of the first model selling for around $1,100 which seems pretty reasonible. Has anyone used this unit before and performance wise is there much of a difference between this and the new series II model. After looking into this I found the Sunfire 5 channel amp interesting. The signature model is rated at 800+ watts/ch at 4 ohms. Is this a REAL rating or very exagerated? Seems strange that for the most part to get 800+ watts/ch you have to move to pro equipment and pro amps all have fans to keep them cool but the Sunfire amp puts out 800+ to 5 channels and has no cooling problems????????

Doug, I think if you built the proper size box the SVS woofer would work just fine in a car. Remember there are many people now with 6 or more 15" subs in their vehicles powered by thousands of watts and they don't find it to loud. You have the driver so some wood would'nt cost much to experiment with.

Tblasing, yes the Yamaha P3500 does have 1/4" but once my setup is complete I will be using electronic crossovers with only have XLR. William, I tried the XLR to 1/4" transformer from Radio Shack and it did not help. I was wanted to make sure something wasnt wrong with the amp so I connected a walkman to it and there was no hum or buzz so it must be coming from the Denon 4800. I did find a Rolls MB15 active RCA to XLR convertor that sounds like it for this problem. I will have to buy and try it out. Also discovered pro equipment wants a higher signal level than home equipment can provide too.

Hey dndphishin, So are you getting some hum and buzz with the crown/HK setup? Currently I have 2 JBL 4638's hooked to a Denon 4800/Yamaha P3500 amp and I am getting some hum and buzz. I have another 4638 that has been setup with the 2380/2445 horn and a DOD electronic crossover and experimenting with this my hum and buzz gets much louder since its no longer below 80Hz. I believe I need an RCA unbalanced input to XLR balanced output coverter and maybe it will fix this. Or Lexicons new MC12 processor (but way out of my price range now).

Does anyone know where I can find an RCA to Balanced XLR adapter. Currently I am using a Denon 4800 sending a signal to a pro Yamaha amp (with XLR inputs)and I am getting hum and buzz.

Moon, If you check out Klipsch Pro products you will see many of the theater systems are THX certified. Scooterdog, I have a brand new Regal cinema in my town and they have JBL systems. JBL has the market share in theater systems.

I notice that most of the Klipsch high frequency horns have a dispersion pattern of 90 x 60 (older stuff 90 x 40)do you think using a horn 90 x 40 for center channel and a 60 x 40 for left and right would be good for a room that is about 15 feet wide and 22 feet deep. These would be JBL professional biradial constant coverage horns.

Has anyone ever checked these out before www.servodrive.com Their contrabass unit is rated 114dB @ 16Hz and thats with only 200watts of power. Supposed to be the most powerfull subwoofers in the world? Looks like two of these would be great in a home theater room (bye bye SVS and Velodyne)

Forresthump, Now I know you don't know what your talking about. I used to own cornwalls and I can say the JBL 4638 blow them out of the water for bass and I am only running them with 325w/ch and they are begging for more power where the cornwall's woofers would be popping. After you compare the 4638 woofer to a cornwall's then compare a JBL 2446 horn driver to a cornwall's midrange. The JBL is about the size of an 8" woofer and weighs 30 lbs. Maybe thats why they sell for $500 apiece.

Forresthump, Pull one of the 15" woofers out of the JBL and compare it to a 15" woofer from any klipsch heritage model and you tell me which one is better. And technically speaking the 4638 JBL is not a sub but a low frequency unit. If you want to compare subs to subs then use the JBL 4642A with two massive 18" and power it up with a good 1200 watts and see if any home sub can keep up with it????????

Anyone have first hand knowledge of this sub in home theater setup? Specs look like down to 22Hz with eq, 1200 watt power handling and 131dB max continous output. This sub can be had for around $1100 (of course you need a 1200 watt amp too). It seems like this setup for about $2200 (sub & amp) would pound most high end home theater subs? Perfect addition to JBL4638's???????????

dndphishin, We are thinking the same on this project. I believe I am going to go the pro route (at first I will have to use my Adcom 555II at 325w/ch). I have researched the Crown CE2000 & XLS 602, Crest Audio ST2000, QSC PLX 2402 & RMX 2450 and the Yamaha CP2000. My biggest concern would be the fan noise so I was thinking about renting one of these amps from a sound company and trying it in my room. I personally would stay away from Samson. Just look at how much power they say they put out and the price is so cheap compared to the others mentioned above (and the ones above are their companies less expensive stuff). You can't ever have to much power. As far as eq is concerned I'm not sure if thats really necessary or not.

dndphishin, You need to look at JBL Pro site under the theater products and look up 4000 series and the combo is renamed 4675 with the 4638/2360 or 4638/2380 components. I checked under components too and for some reason the 2360 horn is not there (but the 2380 is)they are pretty expensive, just the driver 2446 is about $500 new. I was checking ebay and a couple of people have 2380's with driver for sale much cheaper than new. I have a pair of Klipsch Epic CF3's and the driver on the horn is tiny compared to the JBL.

T Brennan, Do you think the whole JBL route would be quality sound. You know how some people say pro audio equipment is not hifi sounding? Also, do you or anyone else know why the JBL 8340 surround speakers are relatively small compared to the mains when used in a theater but Dolby 5.1 for home theater says having the same size (for those that don't have a tiny surround system) surround speakers is ultimate?

Ok guys, After discovering the JBL tent sale and all the people here that purchased 4638, I also ordered 2 of them. Have not received them yet but am pretty excited about the deal. My question is, has anyone thought about going all the way and getting the horns (model 2360 or 2380) and setting these speakers up like at a theater? Please no ear damage comments. The model 2360 is a huge horn about 24"x24" and the 2380 is 11"x17". According to JBL the output with the 2446 driver is the same 111dB @ 1w with both horns but the bigger one has better vertical coverage control. Maybe after this everyone will be selling off their Klipsch speakers (including me) LOL