Large Scale Central

JBL Audiophyle Tweeters for Use With Trains

I’ve said it before and here is a set for sale.

The 2405 tweeter used in the very best JBL monitors of the day were also used in railroad signals. When you’re good, you’re good!

Look at the slot tweeters:

And look at the slot tweeters:

??? 7000 hz or higher! So what do they do with them?

I tried those 30 some years ago. We went with the newer horns that included the higher frequencies. The originals were more for midrange and needed these on top. All they provided was some sizzle.

Would not suprise me if they used the 2402 diaphragms. These were more robust, provided more volume, and went down to ~2,500 Hz in the early 075/2402. It was not uncommon for JBL to intermix/match parts for various applications for aftermarket end-users

I forget the years and all the model numbers that I used to memorize. I’m guessing it was something like 2441 that I switched over to?

2" throats, sweetest sound I ever heard out of a set of horns. I ran many other brands when I became a pro. Some Italian drivers in the mids and lows with Renkus Heinz up high and super high. No matter how much I balanced the sounds out, I always missed my own all JBL system with the 2" drivers up top.

Of course getting introduced to the Martin bins from England with those Italian drivers, set me up with some of the best punch per dollar that I ever felt in a large aud.

Anyways for trains, I would have expected some kind of 1" fuller range diaphrams in these things. JBL made some screamers that we used in floor monitors.

I had 2445s on the 2460A (3+ foot butt-cheeks) for a while. Effortlessly fills a huge room with beautiful sound and you just don’t know where it is coming from.

The large drivers all require a large horn of some sort for proper “loading” but the tweets are loud, attention-getting, and “self-contained.” The slot increases the horizontal dispersion over the bullet, as you would want in that sort of application.

The larger 2" drivers were also used in fog horns.

BTW, the shown pair of green “railway transducers” in that condition went for over $410 at final bid.

I used to carry the big JBL horns back in the day. I was glad when I found the newer Bi-Radials did the same job.