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[Lee Brenkman]

Hello all,

One of the venues I schedule the techs for replaced the Lake Contour processors that controlled their main speaker system of two JBL 4893-45s over subs in a cardiod setup with a dbx DriveRack 4800.

Now, some months later the general consensus, including the person who decided to make the change, agrees that was a mistake.

The forum is now open for suggestions.

Go...

[Bob Leonard]

Lee,
The 4893 is a dual 15" sub. Probably a typo, but did you mean 4892 over subs?

https://www.jblpro.com/pages/tour/array.htm

[Ivan Beaver]

Hello all,

One of the venues I schedule the techs for replaced the Lake Contour processors that controlled their main speaker system of two JBL 4893-45s over subs in a cardiod setup with a dbx DriveRack 4800.

Now, some months later the general consensus, including the person who decided to make the change, agrees that was a mistake.

The forum is now open for suggestions.

Go...

Why was the change done?

Did they (whoever they are) actually measure the system after the change?

You are taking a gamble on DSP numbers transferring from one DSP platform to another.

I have seen very subtle differences (not enough to be concerned with -to HUGE differences that are VERY audible.

[Matthew Knischewsky]

Why was the change done?

Did they (whoever they are) actually measure the system after the change?

You are taking a gamble on DSP numbers transferring from one DSP platform to another.

I have seen very subtle differences (not enough to be concerned with -to HUGE differences that are VERY audible.

+1

The DR4800 is a fine processor. There's no reason why it shouldn't be able to sound really close. The 4892 (if that's what they are) doesn't need any "special" processing in small arrays.

I've written new DSP files by measuring the new processor vs old processor if it's known to sound good. It often takes a little creativity to get everything to match up, and even within the same manufacturer there can be differences between models. The creative part is making sure the settings in the new processor don't get too wacky in order to copy the old one. There's more than one way to get the traces to match up on the screen, the "right" settings will have the least amount of EQ possible.

Is the Contour still around to be able to compare to?

[Scott Carneval]

Basically echoing what was already said above...the system is more than the sum of it's parts.  The equipment isn't as important as the skill (and the ears) of the person doing the alignment.  The Contour is a fine processor, albeit fairly old at this point.  The 4800 is also a quality piece.  But you can't just copy the settings from one to the other.

[Bob Leonard]

So assuming the cabinets are actually 4892's, I would suggest that the venue download the latest tunings from JBL, which can be found at the link below, reset the 4800, and start over clean. When setting up my own 4800 I found there was a difference between the tunings found on the dbx site and the JBL site.

What I found was a significant improvement in sound when using the JBL posted tunings over the dbx site tunings. The 4800 is a wonderful DSP, still considered top of the dbx line even though not sold anymore, however, the 4820 is the exact same processor but without the fully functional front panel. Anything supported by the 4820 is supported by the 4800, so even though the cabinets are fairly old, the last and latest tunings on the JBL site should work just fine.

Keep in mind that the tunings may be for the DSC280, but the crossover, EQ, and other settings will still apply.

http://www.jblpro.com/www/product-support/downloads

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