New woofers, and now, new crossovers = awesomeness!
Ok... I bought a set of JBL passive studio monitors off of ebay... I have had them for a while, however when I got them, they needed much more work than I intended.
First, the previous owner "forgot" to tell me that he drove wood screws all the way through the back of the cabinets for wall mounting... which I found odd since these speakers have wall mount fittings built in. That was the first clue that I was going to have a lot of work ahead of me.
I first patched the holes (that went all the way through, I patched them with epoxy and sanded them flush, you can't even tell they were ever there now).
The second thing I did, was upgrade the aging (and weak) foamed woofers to newer, more powerful shielded drop in replacements from JBL. The new woofers have white cones, which I love since I like the look of pro monitors. I had to order them through a 3rd party since I am not a studio or studio supply business. After installing them, the bass was definitely improved by miles, and I also took the time to replace the substandard batting with real stuff, but there was one nagging problem, which is JBL's notoriously bright (yet famous in the industry) titanium dome tweeter. I couldn't use them much because of the fatigue.
I figured, since the speakers were about 20 years old, that the crossover components, esp. the caps, were just past their lifetimes (or the previous owner didn't exactly care for them like he stated... very likely seeing how he PUT 4 HOLES IN EACH CABINET!!!), and I began to look into doing some crossover modding. I posted some questions about this to a more technical forum, and got plenty of cap recommendations and brands to warm up the sound, I also picked up a tubed output buffer.
There was only one cap I could not read the values of, and so I was trying to pick off this hot glue crap that they pour all over some crossovers and it happened, I snapped the PCB right in half. So, speakers out of commission for months, and in the mean time, I managed to find a nice pre, and adjust it to get the best out of my tube buffer. It has a nice sound, really made a mountain of difference, and my NOS digital setup began to finally sound a bit "analog" like I have heard they can.
So back to the JBLs, well I decided on a lark to call the same company I bought the woofers from about new crossovers, even though there was nothing listed on their website for this model of speaker. They were extremely nice, he noted that yes, they did not carry that model, however... he said "I am going to call JBL, we can get parts direct from the factory, call you back in 5-10 minutes" About 6 minutes later the phone rang and he said JBL could ship a new set out immediately. I was worried... because were these NOS, or actual freshly built parts. It cost enough money to be worried that I would be back to square one again. The parts shiped from JBL to Orange County Speaker (where I buy my JBL parts) and then to me... it took about 1 week. That is good service, hell, the guy even let me pay through paypal since I had already purchased from them before...
I get the crossovers and they looked *almost* the same, same components and general layout, but lower profile and they had an extra overcurrent bulb on each... They did not look new, however, they obviously had never been used, and the caps were all the same, but with slight differences that clued me in that they may have been more modern parts.
After installing them and putting the speakers back together I hooked them up expecting to hear that big dome tweeter to eat away at my ears again, but even without a minute of breakin, they sounded WONDERFUL. I couldn't have asked for a better result. Tight bass, treble that was clear, yet smooth, apparently JBL, over the last 20 years, managed to tame that famous tweeter of theirs. I don't even have the urge to mod these, they sound great! The biggest surprise was that they were actually more musical than my PSBs. Paul Barton should get into the studio biz. They passed the Billy Cobham - Anxiety test (long story, but this is my "tweeter performance test track" with groovy flying colors.
I guess I just wanted to write about my little experience with speaker restoration.
If you see this tweeter staring you right in the face, beware!
There is hope though, and even this unforgiving monster of a tweeter can deliver music and not just sound.
First, the previous owner "forgot" to tell me that he drove wood screws all the way through the back of the cabinets for wall mounting... which I found odd since these speakers have wall mount fittings built in. That was the first clue that I was going to have a lot of work ahead of me.
I first patched the holes (that went all the way through, I patched them with epoxy and sanded them flush, you can't even tell they were ever there now).
The second thing I did, was upgrade the aging (and weak) foamed woofers to newer, more powerful shielded drop in replacements from JBL. The new woofers have white cones, which I love since I like the look of pro monitors. I had to order them through a 3rd party since I am not a studio or studio supply business. After installing them, the bass was definitely improved by miles, and I also took the time to replace the substandard batting with real stuff, but there was one nagging problem, which is JBL's notoriously bright (yet famous in the industry) titanium dome tweeter. I couldn't use them much because of the fatigue.
I figured, since the speakers were about 20 years old, that the crossover components, esp. the caps, were just past their lifetimes (or the previous owner didn't exactly care for them like he stated... very likely seeing how he PUT 4 HOLES IN EACH CABINET!!!), and I began to look into doing some crossover modding. I posted some questions about this to a more technical forum, and got plenty of cap recommendations and brands to warm up the sound, I also picked up a tubed output buffer.
There was only one cap I could not read the values of, and so I was trying to pick off this hot glue crap that they pour all over some crossovers and it happened, I snapped the PCB right in half. So, speakers out of commission for months, and in the mean time, I managed to find a nice pre, and adjust it to get the best out of my tube buffer. It has a nice sound, really made a mountain of difference, and my NOS digital setup began to finally sound a bit "analog" like I have heard they can.
So back to the JBLs, well I decided on a lark to call the same company I bought the woofers from about new crossovers, even though there was nothing listed on their website for this model of speaker. They were extremely nice, he noted that yes, they did not carry that model, however... he said "I am going to call JBL, we can get parts direct from the factory, call you back in 5-10 minutes" About 6 minutes later the phone rang and he said JBL could ship a new set out immediately. I was worried... because were these NOS, or actual freshly built parts. It cost enough money to be worried that I would be back to square one again. The parts shiped from JBL to Orange County Speaker (where I buy my JBL parts) and then to me... it took about 1 week. That is good service, hell, the guy even let me pay through paypal since I had already purchased from them before...
I get the crossovers and they looked *almost* the same, same components and general layout, but lower profile and they had an extra overcurrent bulb on each... They did not look new, however, they obviously had never been used, and the caps were all the same, but with slight differences that clued me in that they may have been more modern parts.
After installing them and putting the speakers back together I hooked them up expecting to hear that big dome tweeter to eat away at my ears again, but even without a minute of breakin, they sounded WONDERFUL. I couldn't have asked for a better result. Tight bass, treble that was clear, yet smooth, apparently JBL, over the last 20 years, managed to tame that famous tweeter of theirs. I don't even have the urge to mod these, they sound great! The biggest surprise was that they were actually more musical than my PSBs. Paul Barton should get into the studio biz. They passed the Billy Cobham - Anxiety test (long story, but this is my "tweeter performance test track" with groovy flying colors.
I guess I just wanted to write about my little experience with speaker restoration.
If you see this tweeter staring you right in the face, beware!
There is hope though, and even this unforgiving monster of a tweeter can deliver music and not just sound.