JBL 4682

One model number, two completely different speakers — a cinema subwoofer built to be bolted to a wall, and a floor-standing 3-way that dealers sold off the showroom floor in the late 1980s.

Overview

Here's a trap for the unwary collector: the JBL 4682 designation was applied to two entirely different products. The first is a professional subwoofer from JBL's SPL cinema line, documented in an official manual that specs a single 15-inch driver in a tuned port enclosure. The second is a vintage consumer floor-standing speaker — a 3-way with a 15-inch woofer, horn midrange, and slot tweeter — that one audio-forum user recalls selling "in the late 80s." Same number, different speakers, and both are worth knowing about if you're shopping by model name alone.

The pro version is the better-documented of the two. It's a compact, brutally practical enclosure designed for installed sound — theater and dubbing applications where the box gets hung from a wall or ceiling and forgotten. It's rated at 100 watts continuous per cabinet, with a 400-watt peak capacity, and it presents an 8-ohm load. The consumer floorstander, by contrast, is a more conventional living-room proposition: a 3-way design with a 15-inch woofer, a horn-loaded midrange, and a slot tweeter, also 8 ohms and 100 watts. If you're chasing one of these specifically, make sure you know which one you're buying. Period advertising touted the Strongbox version as a fully self-contained system with built-in suspension holes and carrying handles (Sound Arts, October 1978, p.25).

Key Features

Single 15-Inch 2202H Driver

The professional 4682 subwoofer is built around one JBL Model 2202H — a 15-inch (380 mm) driver that handles the entire low-frequency job. It's a no-frills approach: one good woofer, properly boxed, rather than a multi-driver array. The 2202H is a known quantity in JBL's professional lineup, and in this enclosure it delivers a usable frequency response of 50 to 500 Hz. That upper figure matters — this is a subwoofer, and JBL recommends crossing it over at 80 or 125 Hz, depending on the system. You're not getting midrange out of this box; you're getting low-end weight and impact.

Tuned Port Enclosure

The cabinet is a tuned port design, specifically tuned to 73 Hz with a 2.0-inch diameter port that runs 6.6 inches long. That tuning point is right in the meaty region where kick drums and bass guitars live, giving the 4682 a deliberate, punchy character rather than a vague rumble. The port configuration is simple and effective — no passive radiators, no exotic loading. Just a properly sized hole, carefully calculated, doing its job.

Wall and Ceiling Mounting Hardware

This is where the pro heritage shows. The 4682 subwoofer is designed to be installed on a wall or ceiling using 10 mm (3/8 in.) threaded adapters, with Model 4685 or 4686 bracket kits available for the job. It's not a piece of furniture; it's a tool. The cabinet is finished in "Olympic" textured vinyl laminate — a tough, scuff-resistant surface that shrugs off the abuse of loading docks and install trucks. A PB 17 protective insert sits behind the optional GR 10-15 grille kit, which was sold separately.

The Consumer Floorstander

The other 4682 is a different animal entirely. Marketplace listings describe a 3-way floor-standing speaker with a 15-inch woofer, a horn midrange, and a slot tweeter — the classic JBL formula for home hi-fi in the 1980s. It's rated at 100 watts and 8 ohms, and sellers note the woofer uses a foam surround, which is par for the course for JBL drivers of that era. One seller on Canuck Audio Mart described a pair as being in "excellent condition," and a forum user who sold them new in the late 1980s confirms they were a retail product — but beyond that, documentation is thin. No crossover frequency, no dimensions, no weight. If you own a pair, you know more than the archives do.

eBay Listings

JBL 4682 vintage audio equipment - eBay listing photo 1

JBL 4682 Crossover Networks Professional Series Speaker Aud

$150

See all JBL 4682 on eBay

As an eBay Partner, we earn from qualifying purchases. This helps support our independent vintage technology research.