JL Audio f110 Design Overview

I never forget the first really good aftermarket car audio system I heard. I’m not talking about the Godzilla bass machines driven by pimply faced boy racers doing their best to appear cool in hopes of finally losing their virginity to a teen girl bassaholic. I sat in my friend's car and soaked in the crystalline highs, excellent timbre balance and tight, well controlled bass. It wasn’t until he popped the trunk that the JL Audio emblems of the drivers and McIntosh amplifiers were revealed to me. While I am normally not a car audio enthusiast, this experience made me think twice about what could be accomplished in the confines of a car. Years later when I heard JL Audio broke out into the home theater business, it piqued my interest. The Fathom f112 proved to be a top notch performer in its size and price class. But I wanted to see what JL Audio could do in a reasonably small and lightweight package. The Fathom f110 was born. Its size was about what I’d consider compact enough to earn a high WAF factor, but portable for most mere mortals it was not. With a box volume of roughly 2ft^3, and weighing in at nearly 70lbs, it was obvious that the f110 was born of Herculean origins. I was eager to determine if the f110s would evoke a similar emotional response to my first experience with the brand and thus requested a review sample. JL Audio obliged, but insisted upon sending two which I had no problems with accepting.

Design Overview

It was obvious from the moment the f110’s arrived that I had a special product on my hands. Just opening the well-packed boxed revealed this was a serious product. The f110 was of course wrapped in a sock like most audiophile products these days. JL Audio provides explicit instructions on how to properly unpack their subwoofers which I highly recommend following. They basically instruct you to remove the manual and mic calibration kit, loosen the sock and then replace the split foam packing on top of the subwoofer before turning the box upside down to get the subwoofer out. As usual, I was reluctant to read the instructions before unpacking the first sub which resulted in minor chipping of the finish towards the bottom of the cabinet when I flipped the box over on my floor. Since this sub is quite hefty, the split foam is essential for protecting the subwoofer from ground impact while unpacking it.

Once I got both f110s safely unpacked, I sat and stared in awe at their sheer beauty before continuing on.

 
JL Audio W7 Driver (left);  f110 amplifier (right)

W7 Driver

The woofer is based off their W7 platform from their car audio drivers with a peak-to-peak excursion of over 2.5 inches. Doing a quick search online for some specs of the W7 woofer, I discovered the retail price of this behemoth little 10” driver is a whopping $600 which explains the highish product retail price. Peering through the f110s Operators Manual reveals nearly a full page dedicated to all the cool patents bestowed upon this driver. One in particular that stood out to me was their OverRoll™ surround which spans over the driver’s mounting flange. JL Audio actually screws the driver into the cabinet before attaching the removable surround. This allows the use of a wider roll necessary to control high excursions without sacrificing cone area. I can’t tell you how many high excursion drivers I’ve seen touting to be 10” in diameter where they measured less than 7” because of the thick roll surround. The JL driver is one of the few high mass drivers that actually look like the size they claim it to be. In fact, I measured a cone diameter ¼” wider than that of my 10” driver in my RBH T30-LSE speakers that utilize a much thinner surround.

The Enclosure

The f110 is a sealed enclosure mated with a 900 watt switching amplifier utilizing a linear power supply instead of a SMPS for greater headroom. Their amplifier has its own patent on its feedback network which is said to improve damping factor for improved transient response.

JL Audio f110 cabinet is solid, CNC-cut MDF with extensive bracing using what they proclaim to be advanced assembly techniques. I can vouch for the fact that these cabinets are well sealed based on my abusively loud SPL tests where I didn’t detect any leaks or cabinet rattles even at SPL levels exceeding the excursion limits of the driver. The radiused corners of the f110 cabinet put a nice finishing touch on the product that I wish some subwoofer companies still producing rectangular boxes would learn from. The cabinet comes in only two finishes, satin black and gloss black for a meager $100 premium. My review units came in gloss black which I’d highly recommend as they simply looked stunning in this finish.

The black cloth covered grille is formed of heavy thermoplastic mesh with recesses for steel lugs, mounted to the cabinet, for attachment. The subwoofer sits on four large, hemispherical rubber feet but has no option for carpet spikes which was a bit surprising at this price point. I’d suspect there are some customers that would prefer to swap out these stock rubber feet for some shiny silver or gold ones but they will just have to make due with the stock ones. Due to the sheer weight of the cabinet, the stock rubber feet make very good mechanical contact with the ground whether placed on a hard or carpeted surface.

The front baffle of the f110 is very clean and well laid out. The driver is neatly flush mounted with no visible screws, which really enhances its visual impact. The grill covers most of the front baffle and fits snugly enough to keep prying hands from removing it.

Features

The engineers at JL Audio must all have kids and recognize how irritating it can be when you sit down with the wife late at night to enjoy a good flick only to be blown out of your seat because your two year old discovered the volume knob on the back of your sub. Unlike most subwoofers that have all of their controls and adjustments on the back panel, JL Audio recessed most of these on the front baffle which are only accessible when the grill cover is removed. Front panel controls include on/off/auto power switch, selectable 12dB and 24dB / Octave adjustable LPF from 30Hz to 130Hz and a 0/180 degree phase switch as well as 0-270 deg variable phase. Master volume is selectable as variable or fixed and there is a -12dB to +3dB ELF trim for low frequency boost or cut.

JL Audio also incorporates their own auto setup feature called ARO (Automatic Room Optimization) which operates as a multiple band PEQ to flatten bass peaks caused by room modes. Using ARO involves placing the supplied microphone at your primary seated position aimed up at the ceiling (preferably using a mic stand), hitting the calibrate button and running like hell out of the room while it runs a series of noise tests for about three minutes to optimize the subwoofer's in-room response. If you’re not happy with the results, you can hit the defeat button which illuminates red or simultaneously press and hold the “demo” and “defeat” buttons to clear out the calibration. There are 5 front panel LEDs which can be dimmed or defeated. I chose the middle setting which reduced the light output enough to not be noticed unless you really look for it.

The amp plate on the back panel is flanked with heat sinks on both sides. The f110 sports Neutrik unbalanced and balanced connections and can be operated independently or as a slave to another f110. The slave mode can be useful for calibrating multiple f110s using the ARO system. There is a ground lift switch on the back panel that engages optical isolation for the RCA signal path as a countermeasure for those experiencing pesky ground loops in their system. The back panel switches are recessed making it difficult and unattractive for little prying hands to fiddle with. Notice the markings on the back panel “manufactured in the USA with domestic and imported components”. It’s nice to know some things are still being built here, especially in my own home state of Florida.