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原来jl的吸引材料就普通最不环保玻璃纤维材料包上泡沫
原来jl的箱体加固防震就是靠多层复合
原来jl的倒相管就是比较厚的pvc水管
最后我觉得国内完全可以搞一个专门生产低音炮的厂子,低沉本绝对让这些高成本的厂倒闭
    
JL Audio: Facility Tour PicturesApril 21, 2007 by Lukas Gilkey
Filed under: Home Audio > Subwoofers

We were lucky enough to join some of the AV Science Forum guys on a tour of JL Audio's Miramar, Florida facility. I'm still in awe of JL's operation, and the way they operate was just as impressive as what they produce. One of the biggest things that I walked away with was the knowledge that JL Audio is going to take the home audio market by storm just as they have done with car audio. Right now you may only see the Fathom and Gotham on their home audio page, but trust me when I say that there is much more to come in the near future.
One of the biggest misconceptions about JL Audio that I want to address right off the bat is that their products are overpriced. I see people complaining about this in the forums on a weekly basis, particularly about the Gothams. Honestly, they could charge more and the consumer would still be getting a bargain. I saw firsthand the amount of work that goes into creating one of those monsters, and it is absolutely insane. Their attention to detail, production methods, and quality control are some of the best I have ever seen in any industry. More on that later though, and now onto the tour...

JL made a very nice framed welcome display for all of us there to take the tour.

A pretty cool looking award that JL received for its fight against the trans-shipping of its products.

A shot down the walkway of the distribution part of the facility.

A shot of the Stealth Box fabrication area.

Rolling out the air bubbles in the fiber glass mold.


To streamline the fiber glassing process, they were using a gun that sprays chopped mat and the resin. He literally fiber glassed a whole mold in less than 30 seconds.




The molds are hooked up to a vacuum line and a tube that injects the resin. Once the last of the air escapes the tubes are plugged and the piece is left to cure.



Prepping the unfinished Stealth Boxes.


Racks of Stealth Boxes awaiting carpet, wiring, and terminals.





The Stealth Boxes being finished and carpeted.

Shelves full of subs ready to go in the Stealth Boxes.

A nice little work bench stereo setup, all JL of course.

Ports aplenty.

A quick picture of the tour group walking by.







Above is the foam packing process used for the Stealth Boxes. The foam is sprayed out at roughly 130 degrees and then starts expanding immediately. The worker has just seconds to get the Stealth Box on top of the foam so that it molds properly. Once the foam was finished on both sides it was very solid and looked like it could take quite a beating in shipping and leave the Stealth Box in perfect condition.



One of the employees hand polishing a Gotham enclosure and a group of Gotham enclosures ready to be finished.


All of the guys scoping out a newly finished Gotham enclosure.

Something that many of us were unaware of is that the Gotham enclosure is completely made of fiberglass. You can see the layers in this shot of the amplifier mount on the back. I have never seen a more solid enclosure than this. The process that they use to make these enclosures is top secret and many people even told them it was not possible. The engineers at JL found a way though and made an absolute work of art with the Gotham enclosure. They are not exactly easy to make though and it takes more than a month just to make the enclosure.

The man who was kind enough to organize the tour with JL Audio, Sherv.


More pics of the Gotham enclosure showing the internal bracing.

A Gotham enclosure being sprayed with the very thick and durable polyester finish.

A Gotham enclosure being sanded and prepped for the polyester piano finish.

Another shot of the distribution/storage area.


A Honda Element receiving a special JL Audio touch.












JL's new Ford Mustang dubbed the "JL-350" being prepped for the 2008 CES show. The car's interior was completely stripped and it was in the middle of receiving a full work over. Check out those completely custom door panels and the logo in the rear trim piece.

And I thought Home Depot had a lot of MDF...



A pair of CNC machines cranking out wooden basket mounts for the drivers.


A CNC machine making the cutouts on a Gotham enclosure. One thousand passes are made on each cutout and the $200 drill bit is replaced after each enclosure is finished.

A cross section view of one of the Gotham cutouts. That is a serious amount of fiberglass. The thin almost cloth like piece coming off of the bottom of the cutout is actually a very thick paint imbedded with copper for shielding purposes.


The wood working crew at JL even makes their own office furniture. You won't find any Ikea stuff here.



The R+D area for designing the Stealth Box enclosures.











The assembly of the wooden enclosures happens here. The box panels are already pre-cut and carpeted so they fit together quickly and perfectly.

Looking down the back of the facility.

A lone Fathom is just a hint as to what is coming.







Inside the JL Audio machine shop. The round piece of aluminum is awaiting its turn to be a custom made basket. We actually got to see a very cool looking prototype basket, but no pictures were allowed.


A group of Fathoms awaiting shipment to their new parents.

A lone Fathom driver waiting to be paired with an amplifier. The Gotham and Fathom drivers are different than the regular W7's that JL makes for car audio, and even the Gotham and Fathom drivers themselves are different from each other. The Gotham and Fathom driver motors are 20% larger for increased power handling and the drivers are optimized to be used in a smaller enclosure.


Baskets and voice coils anyone? All the spare metal at JL gets recycled, even your blown voice coils.

Marine baskets just hanging out.

A new shipment of voice coils being inspected prior to use. Every single group of parts is inspected, measured, and tested before being used in JL's products.

The warranty inspection area.


A couple W7's undergoing warranty service. Check out the alignment laser they use for the process.


Magnets ready to be mated with baskets and the W7 production area.

The assembly and quality control area for the Gothams and Fathom F113, F112, and future F110's. This is a clean room and even the doormat was sticky to prevent dust and dirt from making its way in.







A few Fathoms being checked and then checked again prior to assembly.





All hail the Gotham number 00001. We even got to hear it make a frequency sweep in the demo mode. The room we were in was not small by any means and the whole thing was put through an earthquake simulation by the Gotham on partial power.










The assembly of a Fathom.

The ionizing air gun used in the assembly of Fathoms and Gothams.


The patented mounting system of the W7 that hides the mounting screws under the surround.

The inside of a Fathom enclosure. Note the steel braided wire looms for shielding which are wrapped in polyfill to prevent any internal noises.

Bottom of a Fathom showing off the rubber feet.


The machined aluminum foot of a Gotham. The internal section of the foot can be flipped around to use a spike instead of the rubber pod. Keep in mind that three spikes supporting over 400 pounds is only for the very brave who don't mind some deep holes in their floor.


Fathom frequency sweep demo test after assembly.



Fathom frequency response testing done with a mic and a computer to check for accuracy.

A Fathom in its cloth bag and ready to be boxed.

The manual with the same serial number as its matching Fathom.


The box that the Fathom will be shipped in and a close-up of the plastic feet mounted on the box. These boxes have undergone brutal testing by FedEx with Fathoms inside of them in order for FedEx to fully insure each Fathom shipment.


JL Audio show displays.
At this point in the tour it was requested that the cameras be put away and we got to see the production line more in depth. All of the employees seemed to be very happy being there and the managers were all extremely knowledgeable. As I mentioned before, the quality control process was very impressive along with all of their production methods. After trying my hand at laying down some tinsel leads (I was fired because I didn't make the 60 second time limit), we made our way to Carl Kennedy's office. This is by far the coolest office I have been in and he had nothing short of about $100k worth of audio equipment set-up for testing and listening purposes. The office as a whole was very minimalist and acoustically dampened to sound great, and it did.
Next we were off to the home theater demo area and got to hear five or six Fathoms along with some new JL satellites in a 7.1 (5.1 electrical) configuration. We watched a scene from Aeon Flux and the satellites were pretty impressive, but the Fathoms were just great. I can only imagine what a few Gothams would sound like. We were told a customer had already ordered four Gothams for use in a single room.
After the home theater demo we were off to meet the engineering crew and drool all over their Klippel setup (no pictures allowed). They were in the process of doing environmental testing (heat, salt water, and UV) as well as some just brutal power testing. They had recently killed a W7 with 2300 watts, but it had been ramped up at 10 watts per minute. Doing the math that means that the W7 had seen over 2000 watts for 30 minutes straight in addition to the 3 hours plus that it took to reach the 2000 watts, pretty impressive.
After the engineering tour we got to sit down and meet with the President and CEO of JL Audio as well as many of the JL crew that were involved in the tour. They asked what we thought and the general consensus was that everyone was in awe of their operation. It was definitely a nice end to a great day.

[ 本帖最后由 cctv-1 于 2010-5-12 20:33 编辑 ] |
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