JBL Model 2245H 18-Inch Low-Frequency Transducer
A pro-sound monster of a woofer that escaped the road cases and became the beating heart of some of the most ambitious DIY subwoofers of the 1980s.
Overview
Eighteen inches of high-excursion low-frequency transducer, built by JBL Professional for the kind of work where a blown driver means a dark arena and an angry promoter. The Model 2245H was designed from the outset for low-distortion, high-level professional bass reproduction, and Audio (August 1983, p.61) described it in exactly those terms when the magazine chose it as the driver for a build-it-yourself subwoofer project. That is the 2245H in a nutshell: a component serious enough that a major audio publication built an entire construction feature around it.
What makes the 2245H interesting to collectors and DIYers decades later is its dual life. On one hand it was a workhorse of the touring world — the low-frequency engine inside JBL's Concert Series systems. On the other, it was available as a raw component, which meant that anyone with a table saw and a copy of the right magazine could put professional-grade bass in their living room. The driver sat at the intersection of those two worlds, and that is why clean examples still command attention.
The specifications that matter most are the ones that shaped how it was used. The 2245H carries a safe excursion limit of 1 inch peak-to-peak, according to the Audio project article — a figure that speaks to both its robustness and the kind of enclosure and amplifier it demanded. It can be crossed over as high as 500 Hz because its midrange response is smooth, which is unusually flexible for a driver of this size and is a big part of why it worked in so many different system designs. A woofer that only wants to live below 200 Hz is a specialist; the 2245H was drafted into service across a much wider range of roles.
That flexibility is borne out by how it was deployed. In the Concert Series Model 4845, a very-low-frequency companion cabinet to the full-range 4870, a single 2245H sat in an enclosure tuned to 27 Hz. In the 4842, two of them did the work. Westlake Audio, meanwhile, specified a pair of 2245Hs as the bass foundation of its massive SM-1 five-way, quad-amplified monitor for a Los Angeles studio — and Westlake's claim, as reported in the pages of Recording Engineer, was that the 18-inch JBLs delivered roughly 6 dB more low-frequency headroom than dual 15-inch units would have. When a company like Westlake builds its flagship control-room monitor around your driver, that is a verdict.
The DIY angle is where the 2245H earned its cult following. Audio (August 1983, p.61) walked readers through two vented-box alignments for the driver: a 12-cubic-foot cabinet tuned to 20 Hz, and an 8-cubic-foot cabinet tuned to 26 Hz. The magazine chose the smaller box for its project, pairing it with 6 dB of boost at 26 Hz to flatten the response and noting that the resulting system was, in acoustical terms, the equivalent of JBL's own Model B460 low-frequency loudspeaker. The article was candid about the reasoning: extended bass at reasonable efficiency requires either a very large box or a lot of amplifier power, and the 2245H's power capacity let builders trade cabinet size for watts. An unequalized f3 of about 35 Hz meant the extra power demands only kicked in with substantial signal below that point.
That same Audio feature is a useful window into the driver's character. The magazine reported that the 2245H's vented alignment was judged significantly better than a properly designed sealed box using the same driver once both were equalized for similar response — a detail that tells you the 2245H rewards builders who respect its vented-box nature. It also noted the driver's suitability for a single-subwoofer setup, recommending a low crossover point of 63 Hz partly to minimize localization issues when left and right bass channels are summed. None of this is marketing copy; it is the practical voice of people who actually put the driver through its paces.
JBL's own product announcements placed the 2245H squarely in the professional line. As reported in Modern Recording (March 1981, p.25), the company introduced a trio of 18-inch low-frequency loudspeakers, with the 2245H recommended for custom studio monitors and other systems requiring high output — the 2240H in the same announcement being pitched toward broader sound-reinforcement work. That positioning matters: the 2245H was not a hi-fi woofer pressed into pro service, but a pro transducer that happened to be available to anyone who wanted to build with it.
Owners and builders today tend to talk about the 2245H in terms of what it can survive and what it can move. The 1-inch peak-to-peak excursion limit is not a suggestion — it is the margin that lets the driver take real power without folding. The smooth midrange that permits a 500 Hz crossover is the reason it can anchor a two-way or a subwoofer without a hole in the lower mids. And the fact that it was specified in everything from a 27 Hz-tuned touring sub to a custom studio monitor to a magazine project box tells you the driver was never a one-trick pony. Collectors note that the 2245H is one of those components whose reputation rests less on a single famous system and more on the sheer breadth of serious designs that chose it.
The honest caveats are the ones that come with any high-excursion pro woofer of this vintage. It wants a proper enclosure — the alignments Audio published are a starting point, not a suggestion to drop it in whatever box is handy. It wants real amplifier power to take advantage of its capacity. And it was built for professional duty, which means the examples that survived touring use may have led hard lives. A clean, unmodified 2245H is the one to want; a reconed or abused one is a project, not a bargain. There is no published production run or price history in the available documentation, so anyone chasing one should judge condition and provenance rather than a spec sheet.
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