Thanks for posting the plots and comparisons.
Rob
Thanks for posting the plots and comparisons.
Rob
Here is a comparison with the 2452H-SL on the same waveguide, that Zilch posted here: http://audioheritage.org/vbulletin/s...3450&page=6#84
(consider the green curve)
It seems to show a similar behavior as the 435Be, and nothing as smooth as the 476Be
Seriously, I keep coming back to this thread just to drool over that 476Be/WG graph!
Sure, and then there is Madisound and Speaker City and E-Speakers, but they are all retailers. I was thinking about the manufacturers. Dynaudio and JBL used to support component sales, TAD still does but on a very limited basis. There are still a handful of European manufacturers who sell individual components, but they are becoming more and more scarce.
Widget
http://www.supravox.fr/kits.htm
http://www.troelsgravesen.dk/AT-R.htm
http://jantzen-audio.com/html/driver...zen-audio.html
In Europe there are a number of manufacturers that support diy.
In this respect there is some end engineering of drivers for specific diy designs as in this driver here made by Seas in Norway:
http://jantzen-audio.com/download/PD...Oct07_v1-f.pdf
http://www.troelsgravesen.dk/JA8008.htm
I think when you talk about manufacturers not supporting diy it needs to be qualified fairly carefully.
If you talking about selling direct, I dont regard wholesale of drivers as supporting diy. As usually those drivers are for Pro End market applications like Eminance and those guys. The average duy person has not got a hope in hell of using one of those wthout support.
This is where serious diy engineers like that above, ZAPH and a few others have leverage and a manufacturer will work with the designer to come up with a working design, the same applies to Peerless who support diy end to end designs.
I think GPA also supports diy which leads me to another idea below.
But if you apply the above to JBL they obviously don't and it's just not viable for them to do so they way they are structured.
I do think however if it was looked at like Harman-Japan as a seperate entity it might work but the retailers in Japan might get pissed off with the same new drivers used on current models were being sold on the streets supported with diy designs.
If they decided to re issue the component series like the LE10A, the 136A and the 375 with some plans under license it would be very interesting .
The way to look at it is the money made on recyling of a LE10A say 10-15 times over its life time with after market players like Ebay and re srrround guys like Orange County who profit from re cyling these types of items..that is the business case the bean counters at JBL need educating on. The profits made after the driver was re sold are probably in the order of 500% on the manufactured profit margin.
By re issueing a classic line like the LE series they would be effectively doing a Reset on the Product Life Cycle.
The baby boomer rules the sales $ in audio and they are the target market.
I find myself going back in time for DIY projects because those are the drivers that are available. If one is willing to swallow pride and try Asian made drivers (read: Chinese) and give it a go there are options available. Purists will shriek at the mention of using these components but where else are raw components going to come from and just how much are you willing to pay for a tweeter or a woofer.
20 years ago I use to tell people I could make a better system than I could buy for the same money. Wood was reasonable, drivers were available from a variety of companies, you could truly make great stuff. Now that has changed as costs and marketing have driven the market in two directions: extreme high end and very low end. When people are content with 299,00 HT sound with 5 satellites and a cheap sub therein lies the problem.
Parts Express has a decent offering of drivers to play with, maybe not up to everyone's standards but someday we won't be able to use what we are used to at any price.
Why buy used when you can build your own?
Update on the 476Be driver as of April 2009:
This material is marked obsolete, and is not for sale.
is the new magnesium alloy driver the replacement
so we are looking to a new dd66000 Mag
or is there a new beryllium alloy coming out
I second that looks like we’ll have to knock off few 7/11 to get the money.
That’s light-years out of my price range. JBL 476Be looks sexy looking in design. Fascinating read on the pdf file on the Everest.
http://manuals.harman.com/JBL/HOM/Product%20Information/Brochure_Everest_Eng.pdf
Maybe we will see Mg diaphragms on some por drivers also?
And maybe even a pro version of the 476Mg?
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