Jaycar JV60 - Speaker Kit - 2010 Version

[Musiccynic]

Can I ask has anyone finished or listened to the current version of the Jaycar JV60 (JV60 6.5" 3 Way Speaker Kit - Jaycar Electronics)

What are your impressions?

I say the current version even though it is marketed as the same kit from 10 years ago, I doubt it would be indentical.

I have been to Jaycar in Melbourne where they have a pair hooked up to a digital radio, that pumps out very bad top 40 music.

The listening conditions were not ideal, I walked away feeling that while these speakers could pump a nice sound at loud volumes I did not feel any magic, having said that the music was pretty terrible.

I had to get down to a squatting position to be level with the speakers to here some of the detail in the music

I know the obvious thing to do is to go back with my own music (my preference, James Brown - Sunny, Massive Attack - Unfinshed Symphony, Womack & Womack - Teardrops).

I was hoping to get a few opinions, I feel the kit has potential, so I guess i am after a little confirmation from other users.

All I can find on the web are 10 year old discussions or current discussions about a build from 10 years ago.

Any help is appreciated and will be returned if I build this kit.

 

[dabbler]

I owned the original kit over 10 years ago.

IMO they are smooth, flat and don't do anything particularly wrong. However, like many audiophile speakers, its a kinda dull and unexciting listen which may or may not suit your tastes.

 

[Musiccynic]

listening impression #2

I went back to Jaycar this morning and played a few mp3s on my phone.

At first I had to wait while another chap listened to Play by Moby through those speakers. Unfortunately I think that is one of the most overated albums of last decade, it is just souless. So I did not get off to a good start.

I was playing a lot of soul, electronic, R&B (The Bamboos, Trentmoller, Alice Coltrane). I did not get any goosebumps or the hairs standing on the back of my neck, but I did hear a lot of detail and what I would describe as a balanced sound, the lows, mids and highs were all working well together all were clear and up front.

When I played rock (Black Sabbath, Eddy Current) I thought that they lacked a little oomph, but I do not listen to to much rock anymore, so I was not to fussed.

I am not an audophile, I am moving bit by bit to improve my system, my past listening experiences have been my current 70's Radio Shack speakers, Tannoy M Custom F4 (these are boomy) and a KEF iQ50 (mids and highs were to dominant) so please do not interpret my views as that of an expert.

I am tempted to pick these up, just got to get them past the other half, will post again when bought.

 

[robywan]

See my post on these kits, I have finished building revision 2 crossover for them to make them pure 2 way but not 2.5 as the normal kit comes with.

I found they are a bit lacking life like you have found, Overall though i like them (with my crossover ) they are on the other hand a little boomy and coloured and some times you can hear the boxes flexing (i prefer my open baffle speakers)

 

[Francec]

Musiccynic,
If you want to listen to some active 3-ways for comparison, let me know.

Frank

 

[doakwolf]

Hi all,

Reviving an old thread! I have some JV60s built and purchased some years ago and I'm just curious if I'm getting the best bass performance out of mine.

I have the standard pre-built Jaycar cabinets and installed the supplied acrylic damping material and wonder if I installed it correctly.

I kinda of just roughly stuffed it in around all edges of the cabinet and notice it's pressed right up against the end of the ports as pictured here.

[IMGDEAD]https://www.doakwolf.com/uploads/damping.jpg[/IMGDEAD]

Does this look OK?

Thanks!

 

[hollowboy]

You might be slightly reducing the port's output: people usually try to keep the area around the woofer clear, and the area around the port clear.

That said, for some enclosures (if the box is too small and/or bass is too boomy), putting stuffing against the port, or even packing the port with stuffing, can help tame it.

 

[doakwolf]

OK, thanks for the input. That was my concern as I feel the bass is lacking. I was always surprised at the lack of bass from the speakers when compared to some other 6.5" drivers but more-so when I was recently reading a thread about these speakers on another forum with members talking about how impressive the bass performance is. I've always had to run a sub with these speakers.

I'll open them up and see about stapling the material to the rear baffle and see if it helps!

Cheers!

 

[TMM]

That type of acrylic stuffing doesn't do much to reduce reflections so it really only alters the bass alignment. Light to moderate stuffing without hampering air flow around the driver and port has the effect of increasing the 'virtual' internal area of the enclosure. The tuning frequency will drop slightly as will the magnitude of the peak at the tuning frequency - the bass will become leaner but go a bit lower. As you put more and more stuffing in it behaves more and more like a sealed box.
If you favour bass quantity rather than bass quality then just remove the stuffing altogether. If you want your bass lean and tight as possible, put lots of stuffing in. Stuffing only inside the port reduces the output from the port without changing the 'virtual' size of the enclosure - the bass becomes leaner without going lower. You can experiment with the amount of stuffing in different places to find a happy medium.

By the way, in a tower speaker it is most efficient to place the stuffing at the top and/or bottom of the cabinet to dampen the longest standing waves. It's touched on briefly here in the "2-way enclosure" section:
Zaph|Audio - ZRT - Revelator Tower

 

[ewollowe]

Kits coming in at $128 at the moment, seems very good value?

 

[doakwolf]

^ I think they were great value at $899 so yep, I'm half tempted to buy a spare set for the garage at the current price! I sold my secondary set a couple of years ago for $300 I think.

@TMM, thank you for the extra information. I had a read of the link you provided. It's all starting to making more sense.