Anyone know vintage JBL speakers? What did I buy?

[LeeH]

Picked these up at an auction. There's no model number on them! Woofers are JBL model 1304. Tweeters are JBL model 175. Crossover is JBL N1200. Really amazing cosmetic condition and they sound great. Definitely some of the best sounding old speakers I've ever had. They're big at about 19x19x28.

Any ideas about the actual model of the speakers?

[HardDrive]

Not sure, but I think the JBL gear might have been shifted into different boxes. Note the particle board front and back, while the sides are solid. My dad has JBL speakers of this era, and they are solid wood all around. Doesn't matter. Looks like the build was done well. I'm sure they sound great if the cones are good. Are they vented?

[aschen]

They look like they used to have rectangular horns for tweeters. The above poster might have got it right. My guess would be a set of jbl pa speakers might have been cannibalized into another enclosure

[LeeH]

The interesting thing is that there are no other holes in the cabinets suggesting that there were ever any other drivers installed.

Zoomed in on my own pic. The woofer is 130A, not 1304.

[stomachmonkey]

Speaker cabinets like that were a fairly common wood shop project back in the day when schools still had shop classes.

Built a set myself and they sounded awesome.

[enzo1]

Quote from article...... "It was during this time that I became an enthusiast of JBL. The systems were very modern looking and the drivers also had a nice appearance. The literature was very convincing as well.

I bought the plans for the C40 Harkness folded horn system and proceeded to construct a system. This had a 175DLH horn and lens assembly. This driver was very impressive to look at. The acoustic lens at the front of the horn was a series of perforated steel plates. The plates had a hole in the center which was progressively larger toward the front. This formed the lens. Sound was delayed more at the edges than at the center, creating a more spherical wave front. I measured response out to 15 kHz for this driver.



The 15" woofer I used was a model D130A driver. This was the one with the paper dust cap over the 4” voice coil. It was different from the D130 shown at the left, which had an aluminum dust cover. The paper cover did not extend the highs as it did with the aluminum cover. The aluminum cover would have otherwise extended output into the 175DLH frequency range and caused interference. The N1200 crossover was used for a crossover frequency of 1200 Hz." My Experience With Sound

[imcarthur]

It looks like a home built speaker. Starting in the 1950s through the mid-90s, there was always a a large contingent of hobbyists who built their own speakers. Numerous driver companies (JBL. KEF, Focal etc) offered kits that included the drivers, x-over & plans to build your own loudspeakers. You did the woodwork & cabinet finishing yourself.

Yours looks like a variation of a Model C34 kit.



See Lansing Heritage

Ian

[Damian in NJ]

I had JBL L100's in college and they were the bomb back in the day.

[mreid]

Harkness or Lancer.

[T77911S]

speakers were put in another box.

as said above, the box had a rectangular horn.

if you want to make the high's really sound good, go to lowes and get some 4 conducter SO cord with 12 gauge wire inside. wire one pair to the + at the amp and one pair to the - at the amp.
then wire one pair of + and - to the highs and one pair of + and - to the low's. make sure you dont get them crossed.
i know this does not sound like it will do anything and as a sound engineer and electronics tech i did not believe it until i did it. i have some Klipsch KLF 20's and it really made the highs clearer.
what it does it only the highs go down one pair, and only the lows go down the other.

the SO cord also makes great speaker wire. that what we used for pro audio. we bi-amped everything and the 2 pair in one cable made it nice, plus it handles a lot of power.

i would also replace the front panel. if there is air escaping where it should not be, you are degrading the sound

[Outback Porsche]

what it does it only the highs go down one pair, and only the lows go down the other.

Huh?

[imcarthur]

The best thing - if you want a project - is to throw the front & the back baffle away. Buy some 1/4 & 3/4 birch ply (the standard for speaker builders) & follow the directions from the kit link I posted. What you will get is a folded labyrinth inside the box which 'quasi horn loads' the rear output of the woofer.



Ian

[Cajundaddy]

Those speakers are keepers. Absolutely top drawer pro audio components in their day and put out a lot of sound with only a modest amplifier, and they are built to last a lifetime. They are not the smoothest, most refined sounding but if the D130A and horn are aligned properly they are very easy on the ears and are probably good for 123db at max output. Back in the day I built a few bi-amped, thiele aligned, pro-audio cabs using mostly Altec components for sound reinforcement.

RE: Connecting your horn drivers directly to your amp without a carefully designed HF crossover for protection as expressed above? This would not be my recommendation. Choose wisely as replacement diaphragms are around $250 ea these days, and the JBL N1200 crossover network is an excellent design and serves it's purpose well.

A good find, enjoy them!

[T77911S]

Originally Posted by Outback Porsche

Huh?

its like putting the crossover at the amp.

with just one pair, the highs ride on top of the the lows. bi-wire the speakers and the highs are on one pair and the lows on the other.

its kinda like the benefits of bi-amping.
with just one amp, when power gets high, because the highs are riding on the lows, they get clipped before the lows.

this is very basic. you have to do it and hear it.
before i bi-wired, i was running the highs EQ at about 1 Oclock. after, it was back to flat.
im sure it can explained on the internet better than i can do.

[dad911]

Originally Posted by T77911S

its like putting the crossover at the amp.

with just one pair, the highs ride on top of the the lows. bi-wire the speakers and the highs are on one pair and the lows on the other.

its kinda like the benefits of bi-amping.
with just one amp, when power gets high, because the highs are riding on the lows, they get clipped before the lows.

this is very basic. you have to do it and hear it.
before i bi-wired, i was running the highs EQ at about 1 Oclock. after, it was back to flat.
im sure it can explained on the internet better than i can do.

Double Huh? Did you put the crossover at the amp?

If not, you are feeding the same signal to both speakers.

[Outback Porsche]

Wow! That sounds incredible.

Does it matter what pair of wires goes where, is one particular pair marked for highs and the other marked for lows, or are they interchangeable?

[yazhound]

Originally Posted by Damian in NJ

I had JBL L100's in college and they were the bomb back in the day.

L100s bought in 1990. Had the woofers reconed once at Orange County Speakers. Did great job.

[aschen]

I'm not going to get into the debate here but many skeptical audiophiles have nicknamed bi-wiring to Buy-wiring

[Ayles]

Originally Posted by aschen

I'm not going to get into the debate here but many skeptical audiophiles have nicknamed bi-wiring to Buy-wiring

I think it gets confused with bi-amping, which is a very different animal.

[imcarthur]

Originally Posted by aschen

I'm not going to get into the debate here but many skeptical audiophiles have nicknamed bi-wiring to Buy-wiring

True bi-wiring - with 2 sets of speaker terminals tapped separately from the x over - does often change the sound. You might note that I didn't say it necessarily improves the sound.

Ian