Bass Amps. JBL 4350


Hi all., Is it possible to tell any difference between bass amps on my  JBL 4350 woofers which crossover at 250 hertz.  If for example below 250 hertz I used Bryston 28bsst2  or, Mac 601, or Pass Labs X-600, or X 350  or just a Crown K2 as I have now. ?  Any opinions appreciated.
rhodes

Showing 3 responses by vahes

I have a DIY JBL-4350, mine are in a 6000 cu. ft music room with acoustical treatment on walls.
I am primarily into classical and some jazz.
Mine are powered with a pair of McIntosh MC2205's, these are 200W amplifiers. I normally listen with fairly loud volume but not loud enough to bleed my ears, generally speaking I have not been able to go above 40W, most of the time 20W from each amp is my safe limit.
The 4350's are 99dB above crossover point and are 96 dB sensitive for the low end, the dual woofers. Personally I see no reason for going with such hi power amps given the system sensitivity.
There is something visually attractive in combining monster speakers with monster power amps, but with 4350 you are wasting a lot of power and $$$ if you go for the looks.
And,
Good luck.
My take is that amp quality makes a difference, an audible difference, for the upper end where the low and high mid range reside (the 2" compression driver and the 12" lower midrange cone driver), again, in my opinion amp quality is not audible at the low end.
One thing that I learned with my DIY 4350 is that for the best balanced sound I would recommend identical amps for both low and high ends, initially I had a 100W amp for the high and 200W for the low, when I change them both to 200W I could hear a marked improvement in the overall sound.
Since 4350's are bi-amplified, just turn off the amp that drives the high end and listen only to the sound of low end, at below 250Hz what is coming out of the speaker will instantly prove my point.
My suggestion was to turn off the amp that powers the upper end and listen to speaker producing frequencies under 250Hz, or the dual 15" woofers, 2235's.