JBL Hartsfild match

V

Vitor Hollanda

Freshman
May 19, 2017
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Hello guys, I have a story to tell you and maybe after that you can help me. Around 10 years ago My uncle borrow me a pair of JBL Hartsfield Lansing but now he decided to sell it !!! So I decide to do some speakers by myself. I'm thinking about to use 2 of Jbl2245 or 2 of 2242 woofer. Do you think that I can put one JBL 2450J horn drive with it ? By the way, I have great skills in woodworking
Thank you very much
 
An 18" woofer paired with a 2" throat HF driver would be a bad match without a mid driver along the lines of an 8" cone for hifi use. JBL Hartsfields are pretty terrible speakers in a day when kilowatt amps are the norm. The Hartsfields were built to make the most of the 25 watt amps of the 1950s.
 
If you want a Hartsfiled I would build a clone, you can find the plans on the net. The original gold folded plate 537 horn lens are worth their weight in gold among hi fi collectors and will sell for it. The pro black version 2390 horn lens still sells for decent money. If you want to use authentic JBL 375 drivers those are serious money for a pair of clean working drivers with the original diaphragm, the 2440 pro version are not cheap either for clean drivers with original diaphragms. Your 2450 drivers would work though.

Back to your question, the 18 inch woofer idea would not be a good idea for a Hartsfield type of speaker project.

If you want to build a classic JBL speaker using 18 inch speakers look at a 4345 studio monitor or maybe
super size a 4350 design using 18's.

I hope your uncle got some good money when he sold his Hartsfileds, a pair of them in good condition with original drivers could easily sell for $15,000 or more on a good day.


 
Ben Lawrence said:
15,000$ daaang going to be keeping that in mind when Im out at estate sales.
Click to expand...

I'm sure there are still few out there gathering dust in the corner of someones house. I did some dealing in vintage JBl and Altec parts a while back but I never scored any complete Hartsfield, I did have the components at different times. Some of the JBL 43 series monitors sell for big money as well, if you find an original JBL Paragon you just won the lottery!! Considering they were listed as a current product for about 25 years there were only about 1000 or so of them built. Powered speakers are nothing new the Paragon and a few other JBL models in the 60's were offered as a self powered option.
 
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