JBL 2205B speaker

[Doug Pratt]

Y'all,
Has anybody ever tried using The JBL 2205B speaker/s in a bass cab?  If so, with what results.  I've been trying to research it some.  The drift I'm getting, is that they were designed for home stereo systems.  If these speakers were not intended for use with a Bass guitar amplifier, did JBL come out with a speaker for Bass amps after they discontinued the E140?  If so, what model/s. Thanks.
Pratt

[Isaac]

Yes, they did. They came out with the M series, the M121-8 and the M151-8. Those have since been discontinued as well. JBL no longer makes musical instrument speakers, according to email correspondence I had with them a few years ago.

However, while they did design drivers for specific uses, remember that the D series was not originally designed for musical instruments. The 2205 was designed as a professional driver, not a home stereo driver. I see no reason it would not work well with a bass guitar.

http://www.jblpro.com/pub/obsolete/2205hj.pdf

http://www.jblpro.com/pub/obsolete/M121-8_And_M151-8.pdf

[Doug Pratt]

I'm going to investigate this angle a little further.  Not necessarily just the 2205B, but any and all bass drivers JBL is producing.  It would be kind of nice to go to the local recone guy after smoking a voice coil, or shedding a cone and being able to fix it with genuine OEM parts, instead of WHATEVER the reconer can make function (for awhile).

[basiklybass]

One thing to be aware of is the sensitivity. The 2205 is 97db, the M series is 103. The M series is twice as loud with the same input. That's one of the reasons the D series is so revered, the sensitivity is high. The 200s with 60 watts sounds twice as loud with a 103db speaker as with a speaker with less than 100db.

I just bought a 215B SPL. The speakers are Sunn SPL's. They look like Altecs, 3 inch VC, cast frame, magnet structure the same.  But they are no where near as loud as my JBL D140's. They handle a bunch of power though....but my 200S is still only 60 watts.

I may be wrong..but generally it appears that the higher the power handling, the lower the efficiency. Keep an eye on that when looking.

[Isaac]

That's pretty much correct. The engineering tradeoffs that result in higher power handling tend to work against high efficiency, and vice versa.