How do I upgrade JBL L110

[deepelem]

Hi, I am new to the forum so hello everyone. I am just resurrecting my JBL L110's after 15 years .. the drivers are being refoamed now and I was wondering if anyone had upgraded this speaker at all. Are there better tweeter/mid units out there and is there anything internally or with the crossover components that can be done.

[bluebill]

I'm in the same boat; new to this forum, my 4412's need foam surrounds replaced, and I'm wondering whether to stay factory or start frankensteinizing. May I ask: who is doing your surrounds? I've tried it once(beat up Bose 901's I got free from a friend), but the results were not satisfying. I would also love to hear from anyone about perhaps replacing crossover components with high-end parts, etc. Also, are there any woofers that will improve on the 128H-1's? Thanks in advance.

[servojohn]

Find a pro audio shop in your area that recones loudspeakers if you aren't confident about refoaming your drivers.

If you are thinking about cabinets, go follow the thread I started about reproduction cabinets for the 43XX/L100 range of product.

Best regards,

John

[BMWCCA]

May I ask: who is doing your surrounds? I've tried it once(beat up Bose 901's I got free from a friend), but the results were not satisfying.
I've done several similar pairs with kits from Rick Cobb ([email protected]). Google search this site for his contact information. He won't steer you wrong! Any mistake will have to be yours!

I would also love to hear from anyone about perhaps replacing crossover components with high-end parts, etc.
They already are high-end parts. What's wrong with what you've got?

Also, are there any woofers that will improve on the 128H-1's? There are darn few 12" woofers that work any better. I don't know of any. What's your complaint with the 4412s the way they are? :confused:

[bluebill]

There's nothing wrong with the 128's; I love these speakers. They must have over 10,000 hours on them. When has that stopped anyone from the urge to tinker? :blink: OTOH, your comments have made me think, "if it's not broken, don't fix it!"

I thought I read somewhere the caps and resistors in some of these monitors were cheapys and the sound was improved by replacing them with better ones.

I'll look into the Rick Cobb kits; thanks for the 411, I appreciate your interest!!

[BMWCCA]

I appreciate your interest!!
Just consider me an opinionated JBL dilettante who has owned a pair of L112s since they were new and also has 4412A and L150As. I'm sure there are tweaks even including a charge-coupled solution that could be tried though I think they work pretty darn well as they are for a 12" "bookshelf-size" three-way. But then I've not heard the Century Gold Limited Edition model. ;)

[bluebill]

I send Cobb an e-mail to his e-bay account...fingers crossed! My favorite thing is when a friend hears the 4412's and their face lights up and they stop in their tracks. "These are really good speakers, aren't they?" is what they all say. Nice.

[deepelem]

Getting back to the L110,s :) ,, I am in UK and the drivers are being done by a UK specialist using surrounds I bought off Ebay in America. I had not heard of Rick Cobb until after I bought them .. They have not arrived yet so I have no idea of the quality .. There are several people on US Ebay selling foam kits .. These are supposed to be the real thing.

I guess noone then has found it necessary to do any tweaks to the electronics or upgraded the drivers .. I was playing the speakers with completely foam free surrounds for a while and they still sounded mint haha :applaud:

[SMKSoundPro]

I have L110's in my workshop office and listen to them 5 day a week for 8-10 hours straight. I find them quite enjoyable and would not change or alter them.

I reconed one woofer with a JBL LE111 kit as needed, whereas, the other woof I had was refoamed by someone else and in good shape. I had one tweeter that didn't work but a little time and patience got it fixed.

All this for $50 for the pair of L110 in a Portland Salvation Army store with grills and in their original shipping boxes. I already had a pair of LE111 woofs sitting on the shelf I got off of ebay, one good, and the other scratchy sounding so a full recone was in order ($200+)

For about $300 total, my L110's are whole and sound just great!!!

I do not consider changing them, as I believe they are perfect for their use. If I want different speakers to play with, I have many other options.

Good luck with yours! You'll love them with a good quality solid state amp.

Scotty.

[Fred Sanford]

I guess noone then has found it necessary to do any tweaks to the electronics or upgraded the drivers .. I was playing the speakers with completely foam free surrounds for a while and they still sounded mint haha :applaud:

Hopefully you didn't ruin the woofers' voice coils by doing that, but generally the L110s are well-regarded as they came from the factory. There may be tweeters that folks like better out there, but physically adapting them & then tweaking the already-complex crossover seems to have kept people enjoying them as-is. I know I love mine, they're used every day.

je

[bluebill]

Mr Cobb answered my e-mail promptly; $27 including shipping. Good luck Deep. Fellow deadhead?

[deepelem]

Thanks for all the comments .. and I am getting the drivers reconed as well so should be OK. Nice pics TDK .. I will post one of mine when I get them done .. My cabinets are a bit shabby though ! I used to run them from a NAkamichi 730 receiver but I am gonna try them out with my Radford STA 25 which has just been serviced and see if that makes them any sweeter .. That little Radford has amazing grunt for it's size :

I got my surrounds from > geoaliwil < on Ebay .. they sound good people and have communicated well .. Has anyone here used them .. Am I allowed to post links .. ??

Hi BlueBill ... fellow deadhead indeed .. :D .. Did you catch any of their recent shows .. I was gonna buy one of the live recordings from them off the web site ..

Cheers ........ Brian

[bluebill]

Last time was in 2003, near Boston; with Joan Osborne and Jimmy Herring. I got the show on cd from the dead website; very nice.

I got the surround kit from Cobb. One woofer is done, will do the other tonight. Detailed instructions helped make the first one fairly easy. When the adhesive cures(24 hours), I'll give them a test run. Maybe a Dick's Picks?

[bluebill]

Foam replacement success. after some gentle burn-in, they crank. Bass never sounded better. Thanks BMWCCA for the assist!!

[4343]

I'm loving my L-110's, but I have 4412A's in another room...

I find the tweets to be a bit lacking* now after listening to the 052Ti's for a while. IIRC, the recommended replacement tweeter is the 052Ti, so I'm going to experiment a little. I have available the 104H-2 mids as well, and a set of 4410A crossovers to try.

*The 033's were both pushed in when I got these, popping them out helped considerably, but they still have little dimples around the lower part of the dome that causes a bit of lobing that bothers me when using them near-field.

[SMKSoundPro]

The 033's were both pushed in when I got these, popping them out helped considerably, but they still have little dimples around the lower part of the dome that causes a bit of lobing that bothers me when using them near-field.

The pair I bought had no woofers included, and one tweet was pushed in and DOA. I took them apart and pushed out the dome, replaced the little foam inside, and on the other tweet, found the break in the vc wire and unwound a turn and resoldered it very carefully. Ground down the solder bead, and reset the diaphragm into the magnet/motor. All works just fine!

I never think that they bother me in the near field, and that's where mine are, three feet from my work bench firing in my ears all day. I am just saying that I appreciate these little wonders more and more and for $50, they are a great score!!! (except for the expensive le111 recone kit I had to buy for one of my off of the shelf drivers)

Enjoy them!!!
Scotty.

[Fred Sanford]

The pair I bought had no woofers included, and one tweet was pushed in and DOA. I took them apart and pushed out the dome, replaced the little foam inside, and on the other tweet, found the break in the vc wire and unwound a turn and resoldered it very carefully. Ground down the solder bead, and reset the diaphragm into the magnet/motor. All works just fine!

I never think that they bother me in the near field, and that's where mine are, three feet from my work bench firing in my ears all day. I am just saying that I appreciate these little wonders more and more and for $50, they are a great score!!! (except for the expensive le111 recone kit I had to buy for one of my off of the shelf drivers)

Enjoy them!!!
Scotty.

Same here- mine have been in use near-field for more than 10 years now, and they were garbage-picked so my only expense has been replacing the woofers with fresh re-cones from 4313B...they get a workout every day and have been perfect for my uses.

Actually, after the latest listening party here, I've been subbing modded 4401s and L20T3s just to see how I like them, and as much as I've been able to adapt pretty well I'm really missing the L110s. The 4401s will move to a nearby desk and the L20T3s will go to the video editing desk, the L110s will be back in place soon.

je

[Aaron]

For an easy better-than-stock upgrade, a guy could replace the old caps with poly units, trade the iron core inductors with air cores of a larger gauge and toss the fragile stock binding posts in favor of gold plated brass parts.

I'd like to kick my L110s up a notch as well.
I was thinking of using 035Ti tweets, 104H-2 mids and LE10H woofers... of course this will require a completely new crossover.
Anything already out there made to work with that combination?

[BMWCCA]

I'd like to kick my L110s up a notch as well.
I was thinking of using ... LE10H woofers... of course this will require a completely new crossover. What's in there now? I thought they were LE10H-1s?

[Aaron]

Mine are just the L110s, not the L110As, so they have LE111As in there now.
Actually, I don't really have a problem with the stock woofers, it's just that I have a pair of NOS LE10Hs freshly refoamed on the shelf... it would be a shame not to use them.

[4343]

Mine are just the L110s, not the L110As, so they have LE111As in there now.
Actually, I don't really have a problem with the stock woofers, it's just that I have a pair of NOS LE10Hs freshly refoamed on the shelf... it would be a shame not to use them.

I'm really happy with my (completely reversible) "upgrade". I put in the XO's from a pair of 4410A's, (mounted to a piece of ply made up in the shape and size of the original XO, so it bolts in the same way) and the 104H-2's and 035's you mention earlier.

The sound is closer to my 4412A's in the front room now, so going from one to the other is less of a shock to the system...

I'm sure it's less than ideal with the LE111A's, but I like it. The 4410 XO might be better, it has L-Pads, but I don't miss them at all with this setup.:dont-know:

[Chris Brown]

You might try the 034 as a drop-in replacement for the 033's in the L110.

The 034 is an aluminum dome tweeter as opposed to the soft-dome tweeter of the 033. They are the same shape and use the same screw holes.

I played with these on my L150's and they sounded great although since they were made for smaller speakers they had issues with the plastic frame vibrating (033 has metal frame). Not sure if that would be an issue on the L110; it's mainly an issue with the L150 due to the semi-sealed passive radiator design that keeps the cabinet pressurized.

[Fred Sanford]

You might try the 034 as a drop-in replacement for the 033's in the L110.

The 034 is an aluminum dome tweeter as opposed to the soft-dome tweeter of the 033. They are the same shape and use the same screw holes.

I played with these on my L150's and they sounded great although since they were made for smaller speakers they had issues with the plastic frame vibrating (033 has metal frame). Not sure if that would be an issue on the L110; it's mainly an issue with the L150 due to the semi-sealed passive radiator design that keeps the cabinet pressurized.

The 034 isn't an upgrade from an 033 (unless, I guess, they're damaged 033s). The 034s don't have nearly as much high-frequency extension, plus their overall output is lower.

I'll grant you that it might be easier to find a pair of undamaged 034s these days.

je