JBL SSW-1 Dual 15 Inch Passive Subwoofer Owner’s Manual
- June 5, 2024
- JBL
Table of Contents
JBL-SSW-1-Dual-15-Inch-Passive-Subwoofer-PRODUCT
IMPORTANT SAFETY INSTRUCTIONS
- Read these instructions.
- Keep these instructions.
- Heed all warnings.
- Follow all instructions.
- Clean only with a dry cloth.
- Do not block any ventilation openings. Install this apparatus in accordance with the manufacturer’s instructions.
- Do not install this apparatus near any heat sources such as radiators, heat registers, stoves or other apparatus (including amplifiers) that produce heat.
- Use only attachments/accessories specified by the manufacturer.
- Use only with the cart, stand, tripod, bracket or table specified by the manufacturer or sold with the apparatus. When a cart is used, use caution when moving the cart/apparatus combination to avoid injury from tip-over.
- Refer all servicing to qualified service personnel. Servicing is required when the apparatus has been damaged in any way, such as when the power-supply cord or plug is damaged, liquid has been spilled or objects have fallen into the apparatus, or the apparatus has been exposed to rain or moisture, does not operate normally or has been dropped.
DISPOSAL
Correct disposal of this product (Waste Electrical & Electronic Equipment)
This symbol means the product must not be discarded as household waste, and
should be delivered to an appropriate collection facility for recycling.
Proper disposal and recycling helps protect natural resources, human health
and the environment. For more information on disposal and recycling of this
product, contact your local municipality, disposal service, or the shop where
you bought this product.
RoHS
This product is RoHS compliant. This product is in compliance with Directive
2011/65/EU, and its amendments, on the restriction of the use of certain
hazardous substances in electrical and electronic equipment.
REACH
REACH (Regulation No 1907/2006) addresses the production and use of chemical
substances and their potential impacts on human health and the environment.
Article 33(1) of REACH Regulation requires suppliers to inform the recipients
if an article contains more than 0.1 % (per weight per article) of any
substance(s) on the Substances of Very High Concern (SVHC) Candidate List
(‘REACH candidate list’). This product contains the substance “lead” (CAS-No.
7439-92-1) in a concentration of more than 0.1% per weight. At the time of
release of this product, except for the lead substance, no other substances of
REACH candidate list are contained in a concentration of more than 0.1% per
weight in this product. Note: On June 27, 2018, lead was added to the REACH
candidate list. The inclusion of lead in the REACH candidate list does not
mean that lead-containing materials pose an immediate risk or results in a
restriction of permissibility of its use.
CAUTION:
VERY LONG PERIODS OF HIGH OUTPUT USE NEAR MAXIMUM POWER FOR THE SSW-1 MAY
RESULT IN HIGH TEMPERATURES AROUND THE BAFFLE. DO NOT PUT FLAMMABLE MATERIALS
WITHIN 3” OF THE BAFFLE. DO NOT TOUCH THE BAFFLE AREA UNTIL IT COOLS DOWN
AFTER SUCH USAGE.
THANK YOU FOR CHOOSING JBL®
For more than 70 years, JBL has been involved in every aspect of music and
film recording and reproduction, from live performances to monitoring the
recordings you play in your home, car or office. We are confident that the JBL
Synthesis loudspeaker you have chosen will provide every note of enjoyment
that you expect – and that when you think about purchasing additional audio
equipment for your home, car or office, you will once again choose JBL. Please
take a moment to register your product on our website at www.jblsynthesis.com.
This enables us to keep you posted on our latest advancements, and helps us to
better understand our customers and build products that meet their needs and
expectations. All features and specifications are subject to change without
notice.
PACKAGE CONTENTS
PLACEMENT
When using subwoofers within the limited confines of a typical home theater room, the reflections, standing waves, and resonant absorbers within the room will create peaks and dips in the bass response that can vary greatly depending on where the listeners are located in the room – a listener seated in one location may hear an over abundance of bass created by a response peak at the location, while another listener only a few feet away may hear far less bass due to a response dip at that location. The locations of subwoofers within the room (along with the room’s dimensions) also have a profound effect on the creation of these bass response peaks and dips. Careful subwoofer placement alone cannot compensate for all bass response peaks and dips throughout a room, but careful subwoofer placement can eliminate or significantly reduce the largest response dips. It is important to reduce response dips throughout the room as much as possible via proper subwoofer placement because equalization cannot be used to compensate for large response dips. For example, using equalization in an attempt to restore a 13dB response dip requires that the subwoofer amplifier deliver 20 times the power at that frequency. This can quickly overdrive the subwoofer amplifier into clipping, which will significantly degrade audio quality. In almost any room, placing the subwoofers in corners will produce the fewest large bass response dips and will also produce the largest bass response peaks. We strongly recommend that you install multiple subwoofers regardless of the room size. A single subwoofer will result in the least consistent bass performance throughout the room. Using multiple subwoofers can cancel some room modes at the various listening locations, resulting in much more consistent low-frequency sound quality throughout the listening area. It is often impossible to locate a single subwoofer such that large response dips, which cannot be corrected via equalization, are not present. The use of two or more properly placed subwoofers almost always eliminates such response dips. Since wall construction is almost never perfectly identical on opposite walls, common formulas such as placing the subwoofers at ¼ points rarely work in practice. The best solution is to make high-resolution measurements from the primary listening area while experimenting with speaker placement. Placing a subwoofer at the listening position and measuring it from the potential installation positions around the room – using acoustic reciprocity – can help speed finding the best position(s). Measurement at the best positions in this manner will produce the measurements with the fewest and smallest peaks and dips in the response.
PLACING A SINGLE SUBWOOFER
PLACING TWO SUBWOOFERS
Placement of two subwoofers will be determined by your room’s seating
arrangement.
PLACING FOUR SUBWOOFERS
CONNECTIONS
Speakers and electronics have corresponding (+) and (–) terminals. Most
manufacturers of speakers and electronics, including JBL, use red to denote
the (+) terminal and black for the (–) terminal. It is important to connect
both terminals identically: (+) on the speaker to (+) on the amplifier, and
(–) on the speaker to (–) on the amplifier. Wiring“out of phase” results in
thin sound, weak bass, and a poor stereo image. With the advent of
multichannel surround sound systems, connecting all of the speakers in your
system with the correct polarity remains equally important in order to
preserve the proper ambience and directionality of the program material.
The JBL Synthesis SSW-1 subwoofer has dual inputs, with the input for each
woofer directly behind it on the rear of the enclosure. For driving the SSW-1
from a single amplifier channel, the (+) terminal of the amplifier should
connect to both (+) input terminals of the SSW-1. The (–) terminal of the
amplifier should be connected to both (–) terminals of the SSW-1. In this
wiring configuration, the amplifier will be presented with a 4 Ohm load.
Alternatively, two equal amplifier channels can be used, one for each woofer
input. Each amplifier (+) terminal should connect to one of the woofer input
(+) terminals. Each amplifier (–) terminal should connect to the SSW-1 (–)
terminal of the terminal set that is connected to the same amplifier channel’s
(+) terminal. If the bass response seems low, there may be a phase problem
between the two drivers, with the sound waves from the two woofers canceling
each other out. Double-check your wiring to make sure both woofers in a single
SSW-1 have their (+) terminal connected to the appropriate amplifier (+)
terminal and their (–) terminal connected to the appropriate amplifier (–)
terminal.
If two SSW-1 subwoofers are used, the wires for both speakers should be the
same length. If the bass response seems low, there may be a phase problem
between the subwoofers, with the sound waves from the two subwoofers canceling
each other out. If the bass response seems low, try inverting the polarity on
one subwoofer – i.e., connect the (+) terminal on the amplifier to the (–)
terminal on the speaker, and the (–) terminal on the amplifier to the (+)
terminal on the speaker.
To use the binding-post speaker terminals on the terminal cup located behind
the SSW-1 subwoofer, unscrew the colored knob until the pass-through hole in
the center post is visible under the knob. Insert the bare end of the wire
through this hole, then screw the knob down until the connection is tight.
Spade connectors can be slid around the post before tightening the knob if
those are used. The hole in the center of each knob is intended for use with
banana-type connectors. Making sure to observe the correct polarity. The wire
from the amplifier’s negative (-) terminal is to be connected to the negative
(-) or black terminal on the terminal cup, and the amplifier’s positive (+)
terminal is to be connected the positive (+) or red terminal on the terminal
cup. Since the SSW-1 is a passive loudspeaker, only speaker-level connections
are available. The SSW-1 subwoofer is specifically designed for use in
conjunction with the JBL® Synthesis SDA amplifiers. It is optimized to offer
the best dynamics and frequency response with the use of the JBL Pro DSi MA4-D
amplifier, which is specially designed to use the proprietary SSW-1 tuning
file and drive the signature reactive load impedance of the SSW-1. When using
a different SDA amplifier with the SSW-1, contact your certified Synthesis
installer for correct adjustment and loading of the SSW-1 tuning file. The
SSW-1 is capable of running off of two JBL Pro DSi MA4-D channels in bridged
mode.
Connect your main receiver or processor’s line-level subwoofer output to the
line-level input on your subwoofer amplifier. When using two or more
subwoofers, use the correct number of amplifier channels (these can be mono-
block or multi-channel amplifiers) each connected to the appropriate output on
your processor or receiver. Then connect the positive and negative terminals
for each amplifier channel to a single SSW-1 subwoofer system.
USING ONE SSW-1 SUBWOOFER WITH A SINGLE AMPLIFIER CHANNEL
USING ONE SSW-1 SUBWOOFER WITH TWO AMPLIFIER CHANNELS
CARING FOR YOUR SPEAKERS
- Wipe the cabinet with a clean, dry cloth to remove dust. A damp cloth may dull the cabinet’s finish. Do not use volatile liquids such as benzene, paint thinner or alcohol on the cabinet.
- Do not spray insecticide near the cabinet.
- To remove dust from the grille fabric, use a vacuum cleaner set to low suction.
- Do not wash the grille in water, as water may fade the grille’s color or make it uneven.
- If the surface of the woofer cone becomes dusty, you can carefully sweep it clean with a soft, dry calligraphy brush or paint brush. Do not use a damp cloth.
SPECIFICATIONS
- Enclosure Type Bass reflex with dual front slipstream ports
- Low Frequency Driver Size and Material Dual 15-inch forward-firing, Advanced Aluminum Matrix cones
- Recommended Amp Type External, JBL Cinema MA4-D bridged, dual input
- Recommended Amplifier Power
- 2500 WRMS per woofer (5000 WRMS total) with correct limiting compression
- Amplifier Features DSP EQ
- Impedance 8 Ohms per input
- Loudspeaker Sensitivity 84 dB/W/m woofer, 90 dB/W/m system
- Frequency Response 15 Hz-crossover (-6 dB)
- Frequency Response, -3 dB 16.7 Hz – 400 Hz
- Frequency Response, -6 dB 15 Hz – 400 Hz
- Frequency Response, -10 dB 13.5 Hz – 400 Hz
- Resonance 18 Hz
- Input Type One set of gold-plated binding post input per woofer
- Product Dimension with Grille 53.5″ H x 24″ W x 23″ D (1359.5mm x 610.2mm x 584.5mm)
- Product Weight 350.5 lb. (159 kg.)
- Finishes Black Vinyl
JBL SSW-1 DIMENSIONS
