Forward progress on my L212s

[tarior]

I bought this forlorn L212 set at a yardsale a couple of summers ago. The original tweeters were MIA, replaced with a pair of Herald horn tweeters (looked like heavy duty Cerwin-Vegas) and with the screw holes all wallered out. So far, I have cleaned up the wood, refoamed all of the woofers (with shims and new dustcaps, always), new feet on the cabs, filled with wood putty all of the messed up screw holes, repainted the black parts (some places didn't quite come out as well as I would have liked:() and got the proper tweeters in place.
They are now reassembled and in service in my dedicated, yet not completed, listening room. This is a pretty impressive system. I'm running them with a nice Marantz 2330, and the clarity and dynamics are stunning. The soundstage is spacious and the definition is nearly unparalled, and I've heard/owned alot of speakers. Bass is very deep, and surprisingly powerful considering the conservative rating of the built in amp. I've had the amp out, and it is just about the beefiest 75 watt amp I've seen. These are definitely in my top 3 speakers ever.
I still need to get some new grille pegs, scrub down the grille cloth, get new foam for behind the grilles, and figure out a replacement for the black padding that was under the glass on the sub. But for now, I can enjoy them au natural.

[Vintage Spk]

Nice....what amp (with the rack handles) is that? Don't forget to sheetrock around the A/C! :)

[hjames]

Interesting collection - Don't see many AMT/ESS systems these days!
Can you give us a walk through of the various pieces in your collection? ....

[tarior]

Nice....what amp (with the rack handles) is that? Don't forget to sheetrock around the A/C! :)
That is a Grommes 125 wpc solid state amplifier, and it's a pretty nice sounding piece. I just installed the A/C, and I want to be sure that it is going to be reliable before I rock it in.;)


Interesting collection - Don't see many AMT/ESS systems these days!
Can you give us a walk through of the various pieces in your collection? ....
I'm always happy to talk about the stuff I like!:D Right next to stand on top are some L26s that I restored, I rebuilt crossovers with Jantzen crosscaps bypassed with AudioCap Thetas. They've been refinished, new grill cloth, reconed woofers, all done by me.
The bottom speakers are Heathkit AS-48s, which are, for all points and purposes, S99 Lancers. They use a Heath labelled LE14A and an LE20. They have had a mediocre foam job done on them and the spiders are sunk, so it's hard to make a decision as to how well I like their sound. I'm going to fix the woofers eventually, but for now the L26s run circles around them.
The ESS are AMT1 Monitors. They have that very sweet ESS top end, and don't seem to suffer from the midrange suckout attributed to the design. However, the very lowest bass registers are a little weak.
Just outside the frame on the left is a pair of AR9s.
The room is actually an outbuilding that is next to my house.
I have alot of speakers, JBL (not as many as I'd like) and others.

[opimax]

My 3 speakers I tend to look for are JBL, Dahlquist an the ESS w/Heil. Someday I might even buy a pair of the ESS, I have a few of the others :). I would love to hear some details on those inparticualr but more detailed comparism of all would be intesting to say the least, maybe in a different thread if you have the inclination

Thanks

Mark

[rdgrimes]

I bought this forlorn L212 set at a yardsale a couple of summers ago. ..........
I still need to get some new grille pegs, scrub down the grille cloth, get new foam for behind the grilles, and figure out a replacement for the black padding that was under the glass on the sub. But for now, I can enjoy them au natural.
FWIW, not all L212 had the sheet of foam stuck to the back of the grill cloth. I'm recalling it was only the L212C that had this. I never could hear any difference with it or without it. The stuff under the glass on the Ultrabass is like a painted cardboard, it reminds me of the cardboard covers I used to see for old dining tables that folded up. You'd lay down this cover on the table then use a tablecloth over that.

[Mr. Widget]

You've got a great little vintage audio museum started there... keep it up and thanks for sharing!


Widget

[jblsound]

Nice selection you've got there.
The L212s when properly taken care of/refurbished are very good. I've had at least one set since '79. Built it up to a 7.2 system buying another set for rear surrounds and building the LCRs. With the L/R being mirrored imaged (that improves the soundstage).

As you're into building crossovers, you might think about building Charged-Coupled crossovers. You can find a schematic of C-C XO for the L212 on this web site. I had to build 3 XO cards, one for each driver, and they just barely fit into the top of the box.

Another thing to keep in mind, Orange County Speaker has JBL 052Ti tweeters that are a perfect fit/replacement for the 066 tweeters.
I suspect I may have bought the last pair of brand new 066 tweeters about 5 1/2 years ago from a dealer in MA. who was cleaning out his backroom and put them on ebay.

I'm currently using my mirror imaged, C-C L212s in this room, wall mounted, in a nearfield setup, running full range w/o a sub. Just sweet.

[tarior]

Thanks all for the kind words.

These did have the foam behind the grilles, but it was in about the same shape as the surrounds on the woofers, same with the foam coating on the cardboard under the glass. I think I'll replace that with some black velour or something similar.

I've thought of building some C-C crossovers for some of my speakers, one of these days.
I just recently purchased a NIB 066 diaphragm and a NIB 066 tweeter, so I think I'm covered for now. I've only blown one tweeter in my whole life, that was in one of my AR9s, and I suspect it was on its last legs before I got them.

[jblsound]

Thanks all for the kind words.

These did have the foam behind the grilles, but it was in about the same shape as the surrounds on the woofers, same with the foam coating on the cardboard under the glass. I think I'll replace that with some black velour or something similar.

I've thought of building some C-C crossovers for some of my speakers, one of these days.
I just recently purchased a NIB 066 diaphragm and a NIB 066 tweeter, so I think I'm covered for now. I've only blown one tweeter in my whole life, that was in one of my AR9s, and I suspect it was on its last legs before I got them.


You're lucky as far as the 066 diaphragm goes. JBL stopped making rebuild kits for the 066 about 5 or 6 years ago.