JBL EON 518s volume issues

[cameltoe]

Hi guys,

Hopefully this is in the right section.

We have just bought a pair of JBL EON 518s subs for the band, These replace our single SWA1501 that we used previously, with SRM450 tops. The subs take care of just kick and bass.

The issue I'm having is the output of the subs doesn't seem to be all that great. With the single Mackie, when setting up I would set the sub output level centrally (halfway) as recommended, (the SRM450's are [b]always[/b] set at halfway), and once I got all the instruments through the PA and had an overall soundcheck, I would sometimes just increase the output level of the sub a [i]tiny[/i] bit, to get a full, punchy sound that was a nice balance between the sub and the tops. I would still have plenty of headroom on the sub's output level, and plenty of headroom on the kick and bass levels on the desk.

The JBL's, however, require their output level to be completely flat out, both sides, to really even be audible. Even with that I'm setting the kick and the bass levels far higher on the desk than I ever had to with the Mackie.

I refuse to believe that one, single Mackie SWA1501 had more SPL and more headroom than [b]TWO[/b] JBL EON 518s, but it does appear to be that way. In fact, it feels like the Mackie had twice the volume of both JBL's. I must be doing something wrong, but I can't figure out what. The JBL's do sound fantastic, and I have a deeper fuller sound than I ever had with the Mackie, but I seem to need to run them absolutely flat out, and really pushing the levels on the desk, and even then they are not quite loud enough.

They are running fine, not getting hot, and haven't had any problems with them, so I don't think there are any repair issues with them, but I may be wrong.

Anyone help?

[bertbass]

Looking at the frequency graphs, it looks like the Mackie is nearly 10DB more efficient than the JBL. Two of them will less than that though, about 6-7DB but still quite a lot. Also, do you split the subs, try them next to each other, might make a lot of difference as well.

[cameltoe]

Yes we split, with the tops coming off the top hats

[bertbass]

This is an interesting read with regard to sub placement. http://www.padrick.net/LiveSound/SubwooferInfo.htm

[MoonBassAlpha]

Phase? Is one of you leads wired reverse?

[Monckyman]

Could try seeing if the phase is out yes, but more importantly how are you running the system?
doesnt sound like you use a crossover so how do you send to the sub? Via an aux or a mono output?
You shouldnt have to push individual chans on the desk to send more to the subs.
Could be an input sensitivity issue on the JBLs,am assuming you are using the XLR input and not the Jack socket for speaker signals?
Try reversing the polarity on one while playing some music,could help though it will be different in every room.
I suspect you need a decent crossover with individual output levels for your tops and your subs, so you can balance the system easily.

[cameltoe]

[quote name='Monckyman' timestamp='1383663428' post='2267260']
Could try seeing if the phase is out yes, but more importantly how are you running the system?
doesnt sound like you use a crossover so how do you send to the sub? Via an aux or a mono output?
You shouldnt have to push individual chans on the desk to send more to the subs.
Could be an input sensitivity issue on the JBLs,am assuming you are using the XLR input and not the Jack socket for speaker signals?
Try reversing the polarity on one while playing some music,could help though it will be different in every room.
I suspect you need a decent crossover with individual output levels for your tops and your subs, so you can balance the system easily.
[/quote]

The subs have a built-in crossover, so both outputs feed the subs, which in turn feed the SRM450's.

A separate crossover might be worth a look though.