JL Audio FATHOM - WHAT'S INSIDE your FATHOM & GOTHAM subwoofer?
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- Опубликовано: 25 июл 2021
- My goal here, is to share the JL Audio Fathom & Gotham internals for other curious audiophiles and enthusiasts like myself. I know many Fathom owners are hesitant to pull apart a nearly $4,000 sub, just to see what's inside, so I've done that for you! I'll also go over a few of the steps to show you how to disassemble the sub, basic functionality and other general information about these subs.
Ok... no Gotham is actually in this video but you get the general idea from seeing the internal components and design of my F112 and F113 Fathom subwoofers.
I have personally owned many different subs over the past 25 years... about 100+ home theater subs... Varying from many conventional commercial subs. Many different size of subwoofers, like 4", 6.5", 8", 10", 13.5", 15", 18" and the higher end subs, like Martin Logan, Infinity HPS-1000, Bowers and Wilkins, Velodyne, Paradigm, AV123 MFW-15, SVS PB13-ULTRA, ENERGY, KEF, Klipsch, M&K, Sunfire, JL Audio and many many more... (not to mention about 100+ car audio subs).
I say this not to brag... but I have a ton of experience with subs. And I have got to tell ya, these JL Audio Fathoms are THE SUBS that make me giggle & laugh, like a kid in a candy store! They are INNN-SANE!!! Sooo much fun with JL Audio home theater subwoofers, and I these subs will take your music listening and movie experience to an entirely new level.
For those interested: The additional speakers in the video are KEF REFERENCE 207, Martin Logan Purity Electrostatic Speakers and ENERGY VERITAS V2.1 bookshelf speakers up front, with KEF IQ9 side surrounds and B&W DM603 S3 rear surrounds.
I hope you all enjoy this video and have fun out there!!!
JL Audio FATHOM F112 F113 V1 V2 sub subwoofer. JL W7 sub 
Видеоклипы
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The most beautiful part of these is the back. Just awesome.
I had fun just watching your enthusiasm about all of your audio great video great review
Ha! Thanks friend! :)
Awesome vid!
Nice video! I love my Jl Fathom f113 v1. I have four in my livingroom. The sound, feeling and deep bass is amazingly good 😃😇 The sound in your Kef is very good too 😁
NICE!!! Thanks for sharing. Yes, these F113's are absolutely CRAZY! 4 of them must be unreal!!
Four? Damn.
7mm to remove the front screws. you can use the same screws to remove the plate amp by screwing them in the top corner hole then pull. I picked up a f113 for $900 and replaced the surround and replaced the auto on capacitor from te amp and now working perfect 👍
Please share what caps you replaced, along with any detail whatsoever that will help myself and many many others out there experiencing the same "power on" issue. I had one of my F113's not powering on and not making a "clicking" sound when I plugged in the main power chord in the back... which is what triggered my suspicion about the power on issues being related to the power on circuitry, not the amplifier caps. I was told it was the main amplifier caps but I instinctively knew, there has to be a separate circuit for the "power on" / "auto on" switching function... You confirmed what I was thinking and I would LOVE to hear more. Do you have any pictures, or schematic cap numbers to help locate the caps? Part numbers... where did you order the caps? I know I will be doing the same repair one day so any help is appreciated!!! :)
Way over priced jl is worth about 40% of what they charge for their stuff
@@joshholden8561 ok thanks. I needed to know that!
I would expect to see a lot of insulation in there.
Agreed. I was really surprised as well.
Getfrog! Thanks for the great video on how to replace the CAP. I got gifted 2 f113 that were not working. After 15 bucks and your video I got them working. Unfortunately one also had a ripped foam. My question is where did you get your replacement foam and how hard was it to replace?
Awesome!!! Glad that video helped! I'll paste the link to that video below for reference in case others need help. About the foam. I have bought from 2 companies and I found that "Simply Speakers" has the best, most accurate replication. They are supposed to get more stock in this week for the Fathoms, as they were out for a few months. It's not hard to re-foam using their glue and foam but definitely watch the videos on RUclips for JL Audio W7 foam repair. They are helpful. I will say that out of the 100 speakers I have re-foamed, you really don't need "shims" in the voice coil like some show in videos... If you simply play music through the sub (connect it to a regular ol' receiver like Pioneer or Onkyo or Yamaha and just play some music through it with the bass turned up to move the sub. It will center itself magnetically as it plays so no need for shims. You'll have to be patient and constantly press on the foam to keep it attached but it will slowly dry and bond after a few minutes. You might need to turn the bass/volume up and down throughout the process as you press on the foam letting it dry while seating the voice coil but I promise it's not difficult. I like to use a little fan to blow on the speaker to help speed up the drying. Once the foam is set and it's drying, you can pretty much walk away and keep the fan on it for a few hours. I'm super impatient and do not wait 24hours for glue to dry... I will wait a few hours and crank up the bass to move the heck out of the sub to confirm functionality, then go ahead and glue on the large center dust cap.
Video link to cap replacement - ruclips.net/video/DMY1xldQP2Q/видео.html
Thanks again! I’ll reach out to simply speakers for the foam. I saw you have Martin Logan and B&W speakers in your video. B&W’s are great. I’m also running Matin Logan speakers with an Anthem D2V 3D and a Lexicon LX- 7 for my amplification. I’m about to upgrade to Classé CT-5300 and CT-2300. I’m excited!
@@FUDR1984 The foam is available now! I ordered one from Ebay as I will be re-foaming one of mine. I'll try to make a video of the process to help others. Here is the link on Ebay for the Fathom F113 foam - www.ebay.com/itm/152203400293?hash=item2370079465:g:A~MAAOSwc3FhN4RA
Awesome! Thanks for the update.
I get gifted a hot dog at Costco and I'm stoked. Nice score dude.
Svs sb1000 vs jl audio d110 which deep bass strong boomy?
Dam baller
Is it a ported one?
❤
I have a pair of the f110. Twice the amps have have gone out or turned on by themselves . Otherwise I love them
Yea these amps are known to go out and I have been researching it heavily. Basically, make sure you plug them into the wall and leave them plugged in. The more you unplug them, the harder it is on the caps... Good luck and enjoy!!!
Mine were left on and left in idle. Guess either way we are screwed. Biggest reason I started to unplug them was, one day I came home from work and one of the subs was going full blast and the whole house smelled of burnt electronics. Funny thing is that sub still works, the other is currently dead.
@@r1verrat1977 the sub was going full blast for no reason? Was your stereo turned on or was everything off and the sub was going crazy? Typically when a sub plays a solid note (some people say it makes a machine gun sound) for no reason whatsoever, it's when the caps are going out. I have seen this alot with other lower priced subs, like Polk, Sony, Pioneer, Boston, etc... people sell them on the resale market mentioning they make a popping noise, or sound like a machine gun, for no reason. All powered subs have caps and over time, they go out, so it does happen. I once had a Boston Acoustics 10" sub in the garage and when I came home from work, it was playing a solid note, like a 60Hz note and it was because the caps went out.
Everything was off except the subs left on standby. Surprisingly that sub is still running. The other one is dead. The lights turn on but no sound. Need to take them in and have them gone over. It will be the 2nd time for 1 and 3rd for another. Luckily the prior services were dine under warranty.
@@r1verrat1977 Every time sub caps go out (in all brands), it's when they are left on (STANDBY) unfortunately, at least from my experience with hundreds of conventional subs. I obtained my Fathoms through the resale market and when I first got them, I turned my Fathoms off completely through a power strip switch to protect the caps from remaining on and drying out.... however, after learning more and experiencing the amp not coming "on" on one of my subs after a hard power on, I started leaving them plugged in permanently as the lesser of the 2 evils. Randy (a great service tech at JL Audio) & I were in conversation about this phenomenon and he suggested to leave them plugged in permanently to utilize the audio sensing switch through STANDBY, sincs it is not as stressful on the caps as a hard power on.
It's interesting your sub (the one that went crazy) is still working, but caps are interesting and it doesn't surprise me. I hope it will last much longer before the caps totally dry out.
The dead sub (with the lights still on) is interesting. From my experience, when the lights are on, the amp should work. I might be wrong but that's just my experience with Fathoms... With this in mind, I am wondering if the sub has a fried voice coil by chance ad it's the woofer itself that is not working in this one? It's possible that this one also went crazy while you were away and holding a bass note for so long, the voice coil got hot and fried... This would be one explanation of why the lights are on, but the sub is not working. I might be wrong about this but it is a possibility... so if you are handy with tools, you might want to pull the woofer out before sending the amp in to JL for repair. This will allow you to at least confirm if the woofer is working so you can consider that for repair as well.
Best of luck to you and I hope this helps with a little brainstorming. :)
So those are basically the car audio W7’s??
Somewhat true…. The engineering and enclosure design accompany the woofer for the best optimal performance in a home theater application but yes I believe it’s the same actual woofer (possibly with a different foam surround for the designed application). The magnet structure was also re designed for the V2 models to handle more power.
This says 1.5 ohm. What happens if I power this thing with 4ohm crown xls amp ?
I take it you are not using the original amplifier inside the box….? You are using an external CROWN amplifier to connect directly to the woofer itself…?
If that is the case, here is a possible solution. This is a “dual voice coil” sub, so it has 2 voice coils. Each coil is 1.5 ohms. So, running the (2) coils in “series” will make it a 3 ohm subwoofer and the CROWN amp will see it as a 3 ohm load. (Research series & parallel speaker connections on Google if you need more understanding). If your CROWN has protection circuitry, and it cannot handle a 3 ohm load at higher volume, the amp will likely go into “protect” mode and turn the amp off to protect its circuitry.
From my experience with many many amps & receivers, it will be ok with a 3 ohm load and will rarely go into protect mode.
I would recommend experimenting to see how it works out and just start at a low volume and gradually turn it up.
Have fun and enjoy the sub!
P.S. It will sound like crap if you don’t have a good crossover running in line with the sub so make sure to have some sort of crossover to filter out all of the midrange and treble to only allow lower bass frequencies to pass through.
@@getfrog Wow. Thank you for detailed reply. It is great to know serial connection will get it to 3ohm. Crown has protection and 2-4-8 ohm support. It has built in crossover. It just don't have phase control . I have also solution for that . Dayton has filter for sub control with variable phase adjustment. I believe this can be solution. Thank you.
@@lenso010 Sweet!!! You're welcome and glad to have helped! Let me know how it turns out. I'm curious of how good it sounds on an external amp!. Have fun!
@@getfrog xls and xti crown amps have built in DSP including crossover.
So it is just a 13w7 in there?
Basically yes. I have been told the foam surround may be a little thinner for a little quicker / accurate bass response musically, but I have not been able to confirm that. I've had about five 13W7's in various cars over the years and they seem to be the exact same to me.
Anybody have a sub-woofer that produces a low frequency quiet hum?. It is not the sub-woofer itself (I don't think). I can leave it plugged in and powered on and there will be NO HUM if I disconnect the inter-connect cables that are plugged from my sub to my AMP. Can the AMP itself cause a ground loop? I heard a "Isolation Transformer/Ground Loop Hum Eliminator" might help? Any suggestions? I like to listen to Jazz a lot and that music can be dynamic. Even though the hum is not very loud - During quiet passages in Jazz the noise can be very noticeable.
I have changed inter-connects, I have went with balanced vs. unbalanced. I moved the power cord to different outlets on the wall. I even purchased a line conditioner. Nothing. Any suggestions would be much appreciated.
(ps. I have a Fathom f1 12 v.2). It was great when it didn't hum.
I would definitely reach out to your dealer or JL Audio themselves to ask about this. I also have a Fathom that produces a low volume slight hum (version 1) and I believe the common discussion on the web forums relate the hum to a transformer/ground, which I also agree sounds logical. Yours is a V2, so I wouldn't think it should be humming this early in it's lifespan, so see if it can get repaired under warranty. Good luck and let us know what you find!!! - ALSO see my other Fathom video for the capacitor repair as it helps you to understand more of the internal components in that video. ruclips.net/video/DMY1xldQP2Q/видео.html
@@getfrog Thanks GetFrog ... I kept trying things. I found a pair of interconnects that have an RCA plug on 1 side and a XLR plug on the other. My AMP side needs a RCA plug to connect to the sub but, the Fathom has both RCA (Unbalanced) and XLR (Balanced) inputs. So that is what I changed to - NO MORE HUM!. I think it was the Audioquest cables I was using (2M Yukon) which I bought specifically because the review I read said they were good for sub-woofers (I am starting to feel like a sucker when it comes to Audioquest). I also noticed that when I grabbed the audioquest cables together with 1 hand - the humming would get louder and when I tried to separate them - the hum seemed to diminish a bit. Anyway that is where I am for now. I am convinced it might come back but for now I am content. Thanks again.
@@jwblue575 Glad you were able to figure out some of it. Best of luck to you and thanks for sharing!!! :)
@@getfrog Gfrog - I actually came-up with a more permanent solution. I am sharing because it might help someone else down the road. I ended up connecting to the Sub from my pre-amp even though the people who sold me my new amp said to connect it from the AMP (Loop back out ports) and I am so glad I went that way - from the pre-amp instead (it was the way I have always had it before I upgraded my sub-woofer - with the new equipment though I could not see connecting the sub the same way) - the sub-woofer no longer hums at all and behaves and sounds better than it ever did connected to the AMP. Hope that will help anyone in search of a solution to a sub-woofer humming problem?
@@jwblue575 This is GREAT news! Congrats on finding a solution! I also suggest when hearing a hum to unplug the RCA or any input from the back of the sub, and see if the hum still exist with no input cables, which will help identify the source of the hum. Glad you figured it out and thank you so much for sharing with us all!! :)
I’m so fucking jealous
iam audio enthusiast
Dude and i can hear an echo when you say “so” get your room acoustics fixed!
I promise I will fix my room acoustics according to your preference. Never mind the fact that I passionately love our "hall" / "chamber" sound... I will do as you say because your preference is more important than my own.
@@getfrog make sure i get a report when you're done.
These are overpriced in car audio, i guess in home audio is even worse. Many home audio speakers drivers are overpriced af
They made a $500 car audio sub for your living room and people are paying $2000 because it says JL on it. JL means the foam will deteriorate in 1.7 years in a car. 3.5 years in your home
no.
Where you getting new 12 w7s for 500 bones at . I know your being sarcastic but to us JL fans That a good deal . You better share that shit its almost 1200 slammers from crutchfield for one 12
Nope
It’s a $500 subwoofer Phantom home theater that sells for $2000.
@@johnviera3884 nope.