3-4 dB dip at crossover region: what should I listen for to hear it?
I haven’t posted here for about 10 years but thought I’d jump back in to ask about my new JBL 4349s. According to measurements on ASR and even JBLs own graphs, the 4349s have a 3-4 dB dip in the crossover region at about the 1.5 kHz mark. What should I listen for to hear this? I understand that music in this range will be quieter, but I’m not hearing any suckout compared to my Omegas or other speakers Ive had in my system. I’ve played some clarinet and violin concertos, two instruments that spend a lot of time in this frequency range, but I can’t hear an obvious difference. Am I listening for the wrong thing? I’d like to be able to hear this deficiency for leaning purposes if nothing else, so any pointers are appreciated.
Many thanks!
@erik_squires I think you were thinking of Linkeitz-Riley crossovers which are nominally -6dB at the crossover points.
And as far as the ASR crowd, I have a sneaking suspicion the individuals commenting have never heard the JBL 4349 or heard of Linkeitz-Riley filters, let alone the theory behind them. |
@panzrwagn no. Linkwitz Riley sum to zero at the crossover if alihned correctly. This is more obscure. |
@panzrwagn I may have been thinking of the S. Harsch crossover alignment. |
It would be very difficult for me to believe that the crossover dip was an oversight by the JBL crossover design team. While ASR is good at measuring and complaining, I’ve yet to see them do an in depth speaker analysis. They measure a speaker, sure, but an in depth look would be to disassemble it, trace out the crossover, measure the driver impedances and then put together a complete simulation. Or even better, do as Troels Gravesen does with some vintage speakers and demonstrate the value of a crossover re-think by making a new crossover and measuring the finished results. ASR is a misnomor. They are Audio Quality Review... they don’t usually know what the underlying tech is doing, they just measure the results, which is useful but doesn’t go far enough. For instance, the Kef Reference 1 Meta really needs an in depth crossover analysis because there may be great ways to fix the low impedance. ASR noted the impedance without any understanding of what they were looking at. My point is, they measure, they get all huffy and the like to think of themselves as the last word, but they are not even close. It is quite possible the crossover is the best compromise possible with these two drivers. I would be absolutely shocked if this was merely a matter of crossover selection. Not in this century and not from JBL. |
