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New JBL 4430 Stands

Zonker92

Zonker92

All shiny and chrome
There were designed by an architect friend (and JBL enthusiast and AK member), with the intention of making something that looks like what JBL would have designed for the 4430. They raise the speakers five inches to reduce boundary reinforcement from the floor and bring the horns up to ear level. They have rubber, swiveling non-skid casters underneath, and I made them from 3/4" American black walnut veneer plywood with solid walnut corners, stained for an OEM look.

[EDIT: Here is a thread on raising 4430s for improved sound: http://www.audioheritage.org/vbulletin/showthread.php?28779]

The speakers sit on 2" x 1.5" rails (sistered, edge-mounted 3/4" plywood) atop a 3/4" plywood internal platform which rests atop the casters. I left plenty of room inside for external crossovers (although I do not plan to build same, at least not for the foreseeable future).

(In the middle picture below, they're not fully finished.)

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Excellent workmanship. Those look factory made just for that model, in other words PERFECT. :)

Planing on filling them with sand and lead shots?
 
Thanks! I have no plans to weight them, but it sure would be easy to throw a few bags of lead shot back there. :D
 
Suh-weeet!! I really wish I had those kind of woodworking skills, honestly.

Other weighty options include pre-packaged bags of play sand or pea gravel.
 
Looks great!! How did you manage to get them on the stands?

Do you think a Craft Store may be able to supply a transfer kit so you can have JBL in the front center of the stand?
 
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Thanks! I'm generally handy, but mostly I figured out the woodworking on the fly; it was tough but not impossible. The hardest part was getting square cuts and clamping it all properly with corner clamps and strap clamps; got them balls-on square and level. That, and re-figuring out the measurements about 200 times, as I kept rethinking the design and forgetting what I'd already figured out. :rolleyes:

There are 2" swiveling rubber casters hidden underneath.

My teenage son and his buddy lifted each 4430 from the side while I rolled the stand under it from the front. It was kind of scary; one of the speakers tipped forward toward me and I was sure my son was about to drop it on its face. :eek:
 
When I first looked, I thought, "Were are the stands?" :D

Very nicely done! :yes:
 
Did you drill the casters into the cabinet?
I added casters to my 4507s last summer. Cut and glued 3" x 3" 1/2" thick pieces of wood to the 4 corners of the bottom of the cabs. Installed T-Nuts then screwed the casters in. Drilling the cabs would have been a real PITA.
 
Thanks! Yes, the JBL savants around here, and on LH, seem to think that the 4430 was never really meant to be so close to the floor; in fact, the 4430 came with eyehooks underneath and were often soffit-mounted upside down. Several informed posters have suggested that the bass may be smoother with a 4-6" lift off the floor, so I raised them five inches.

I didn't make any physical modifications to the cabinets. The casters are screwed up into 3/4" plywood plates that are integral parts of the stands. The speaker plinths rest atop rails that rest on that plywood plate. (The surrounding skirt is cosmetic and non-structural.)

My alternate plan was to bolt metal strips to the underside of the plinths, using existing holes left over from the shipping palettes. I would have screwed the casters to those metal strips and left the casters visible, using these casters. It would have looked pretty wild:

Mockett-Hollow-Wheel-Caster-CA52A-PC-53-600px.jpg
 
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Nice zonkers! Don't know how I missed this thread, but very nice work! Beautifully integrated design!

Glenn
 
Ah, thanks, Glenn! Too funny; I saw your reply just as I started building another pair; I'd literally just set up some clamps. (I have so much material left over, I'll be busy for months ... :D)
 
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