Grandma's old speakers...

[Jeff Number 2]

Hi, new old guy here.

Just adopted grandma's old speakers - JBL L26's that I picked out for her 29 years ago when I was a mere lad of 15. She's 89 now and just not into music anymore. She hasn't turned on her system in probably 8 years and wanted to get rid of it to make room in her little apartment.

I have to say, they still sound as good as I remember. Damn good, in fact. About 10 years ago my uncle had the woofers refoamed, they still are in good shape. The cabinets don't have any chips or scratches but grandma had the veneer stained dark mahogany to match her other furniture. I sanded the bottom of one cabinet and I will be able to return them to the original finish easily. The brown grills are a little tattered but I found some fabric on ebay that is a very close match.

I connected the L26's in place of my large ADS L1290's and driven by a full B&O 5000 system I got for $90 at an estate sale. I originally connected the JBL's to my ancient Harman Kardon 330c receiver but they sound a lot better with the B&O stuff.

So anyway, just wanted to say hi and let you all know that another set of JBL's is being restored instead of trashed.

[Rusnzha]

Nice story. The L26 is amazing for a speaker in that size and price range. It's good to hear about a set of them being restored. Welcome to LHS.

[Rolf]

Welcome number Jeff 2. Remember Number Johnny 5? Please post some pictures of the speakers.

[mocheez]

A good friend of mine gave me his pair of L26 Decade a few years ago because they took too much room in his appartment. Back then I didn't know much about JBL speakers, except they were excellent speakers, and I was very proud to suddenly own a pair of JBL's but most of all: I found them sounding awsome. Yet, they didn't have their original 125A boomers. My friend didn't know they could be refoamed so he threw them away and put cheaper boomers of the same diameter. Yet those L26's sounded awsome. It's only a few weeks ago that I was finally able to find a pair of 125A's on eBay that needed new surrounds, and thus bought a refoaming kit for these speakers (also on eBay). I was a bit scared to do that myself, some sound engineers I know had almost convinced me into having it done by specialized speaker repair shops, telling me about the risks if the cone was not centered while glued, etc., but I couldn't wait anymore and wasn't ready to put more money into restoration than these L26's actually cost, so I did it. And now I have these L26's sounding so much greater!
It feels like my former good hi-fi speakers suddenly turned into excellent studio monitors with sound detail I wasn't even aware of (except when putting my Beyerdynamic DT770 Pro headphones on…)
I'm so in love with those speakers that I bought another pair that I should get back home soon, so I can have a pair in my home-studio to make music and another to build my custom music system for regular home use…

Jeff… You were talking about restoring the finish… I wish I could do that as well, though my L26's look pretty fine, overall… but it's said that the veneer is pretty thin so sanding it too much might cause damage. I dunno what the original finish looked like exactly. I suppose it looked slightly different on every pair of L26 since it was originally hand-made oil finish. I don't know if they looked rather clear… or dark honey like mine. Actually the finish on my L26's looks a bit dull, so maybe it just needs some slight sanding and a new coat of oil or varnish? Anyway, if you have any tips or advice, let me know…

I suppose you had a look at that website already :
http://www.wardsweb.org/audio/JBL_L26.html

[speakerdave]

. . . . JBL L26's that I picked out for her 29 years ago when I was a mere lad of 15. . . .

Very GOOD, Jeffie!

[Audiobeer]

L-26s and a sockpuppet......mmmmm!:D

[scott fitlin]

L-26s and a sockpuppet......mmmmm!:DNOOO? HERE? On our forum? Cant be! Never happened before!

:D