Control SB-5 advice needed

[maguire245]

Hello all, a great forum you have here, I hope someone might be able to help me out.

I have recently purchased a JBL Control SB-5 unit second hand, but hardly been used. It sounds fantastic, but the only downside are some scratches on the plastic of the unit. Some are etched slightly bad, this was due to the unit being in storage.

Could anyone please advise me what the best solution to hiding, or to completely get rid of these scratches. I have heard wax black shoe polish thoroughly rubbed into them can get rid of such abrasions, but is this the only solution, or is there something I haven't heard about.

As you know the SB-5 is now obsolete, so I would like to rectify this the best way I can.

Hope someone can help me I'd be very grateful.

Best regards, Harrison.

[G12M]

Depending on how deep the scratches are, you may want to try NOVUS plastic polish, I have had success with the product.

[maguire245]

Depending on how deep the scratches are, you may want to try NOVUS plastic polish, I have had success with the product.
Thankyou that product looks excellent, I take it it's a long established product in the U.S.A. as I just watched a youtube video taken in the 80's showcasing it.
I think it should be able to remove the medium to light marks but there are 1 or 2 heavier marks which might still be left.
Do you know of a website which I can purchase the product?

Regards, Harrison.

[maguire245]

I have completed a test today of powering both my JBL Control 5 speakers and my JBL Control SB-5 subwoofer and the amplifier I am using is not of the correct impedance and most probably not powerful enough either.

The sound which was made sounded underpowered, lots of frequences were being missed, it didn't sound like a full system at all.

I think this is most likely to be the amplifiers impedance issue, it's designed for 8 ohm, but puts out 100 watts per channel.

What I would like to ask, is what amplifier would you reccomend for these speakers and also, what setup is best for using the subwoofer in conjuction to the loudspeakers?
Is it better to plug the satellite speakers (in this case the Control 5) into the subwoofer, or put them into seperate speaker channels?

I was thinking about purchasing a JBL power amp, but is this really nessasry to get the most out of these speakers?

I have purcahsed the official JBL wall mounting ball swivel brackets, as when I get the right sound they will be put onto walls, with the subwoofer placed neatly to the side.

I would very much appreciate your help,

reguards, Harrison.

[maguire245]

Hello all, a great forum you have here, I hope someone might be able to help me out.

I have recently purchased a JBL Control SB-5 unit second hand, but hardly been used. It sounds fantastic, but the only downside are some scratches on the plastic of the unit. Some are etched slightly bad, this was due to the unit being in storage.

Could anyone please advise me what the best solution to hiding, or to completely get rid of these scratches. I have heard wax black shoe polish thoroughly rubbed into them can get rid of such abrasions, but is this the only solution, or is there something I haven't heard about.

As you know the SB-5 is now obsolete, so I would like to rectify this the best way I can.

Hope someone can help me I'd be very grateful.

Best regards, Harrison.

Can someone help me please?

[hjames]

I have completed a test today of powering both my JBL Control 5 speakers and my JBL Control SB-5 subwoofer and the amplifier I am using is not of the correct impedance and most probably not powerful enough either.

The sound which was made sounded underpowered, lots of frequences were being missed, it didn't sound like a full system at all.

I think this is most likely to be the amplifiers impedance issue, it's designed for 8 ohm, but puts out 100 watts per channel.

What I would like to ask, is what amplifier would you reccomend for these speakers and also, what setup is best for using the subwoofer in conjuction to the loudspeakers?
Is it better to plug the satellite speakers (in this case the Control 5) into the subwoofer, or put them into seperate speaker channels?

I was thinking about purchasing a JBL power amp, but is this really nessasry to get the most out of these speakers?

I have purchased the official JBL wall mounting ball swivel brackets, as when I get the right sound they will be put onto walls, with the subwoofer placed neatly to the side.

I would very much appreciate your help,

regards, Harrison.

Are you saying the Control 5 and SB-5 sub don't sound good being fed by an amp and signal source. If there is nothing else in the system, either your amp or your speakers are suspect.

It should not be necessary to use JBL brand amps to get the speakers to work properly.
You say your Amp is 8 ohms - why is that a problem with your speakers, what are their specified impedance?

100 watts is probably fine for many speakers, you are not going to run them wide open, right?

How do you know the speakers have not been damaged in some way and that is why they are not reproducing full range sound properly?

Its always best to start with a simple system first, and once you know everything is right, add extra components as you go along.

Many subwoofers do have loop through capability - depending on settings, the majority of the sound spectrum "loops through" to the mains, and only the very low bass gets pulled off and fed to the plate amp and woofer. Unless your subwoofer has some damage.

Can't be more specific with such generalized information.

I'm in the Washington DC area and don't know where to get the polish online or in Europe, sorry.

Well, I DID google it and found the manuals ...
http://www.jblpro.com/catalog/General/Product.aspx?PId=196&MId=5

http://www.jblpro.com/catalog/support/getfile.aspx?doctype=3&docid=785 (Control 5 brochure)


http://www.jblpro.com/pub/obsolete/control_sb-5.pdf (http://www.jblpro.com/pub/obsolete/control_sb-5.pdf) (Control SB-5 Sub flyer)

If you have a deep scratch in the plastic, perhaps you could fill it in with a plastic automotive body putty and buff it smooth, then black plastic paint. Otherwise - perhaps just learn to live with the scratch.
(http://www.jblpro.com/pub/obsolete/control_sb-5.pdf)

[JBL 4645]

Well it wouldn’t surprise me if the foam has had some issues on the SB-5 has I have once owned this passive sub during the early of 1990 till 1994.

It’s an old discontinued model so I’d open it up and remove the each of the 6 ½ bass mid drivers for close inspection. If the foam is intact then next thing is to test each one with a small amount pf pink noise to see if the voice coil hasn’t fired up.

I used to run the SB-5 with one of the Marantz 1050 at loud levels and there is room nodes issues that I noticed though not around the time of using it, but some frequency impacts seemed lacking due to where it was placed or where the sofa area was positioned in the room.

It was neat placed behind the sofa as it gave this in your back jolt of massage feeling. It was experimenting with placement and a few of them would have worked out better. I still regret selling the JBL SB-5 TCB triple chamber band-pass sub.

In case your wondering what it looks like inside here’s a picture of it that someone else took of it. (I’ve coped the image posted by the original owner as its FAR TOO LARGE!)

http://img219.imageshack.us/img219/1374/sbinternals1bi2.jpg

Its smaller partner the SB-1 was designed for the control 1 the SB-5 would work fine with the control 1 and 5 which is what it was primarily deigned for and I think somewhere it even mentioned the JBL control 10?

http://i233.photobucket.com/albums/ee15/Evolution3417/TCB204788.jpg
Its granddaddy the JBL 4688 uses twin 18” subs housed in monster enclosure that would require the home have structural engineer to make sure the home is sound enough to play this!

An old thread on different site, someone had it for sale back around 2008.
http://forum.speakerplans.com/jbl-tcb-bass-cabs_topic15533_page2.html

4688 TCB Monster Subwoofer thread here on this site
http://www.audioheritage.org/vbulletin/showthread.php?6782-4688-TCB-Monster-Subwoofer

[Audiobeer]

Can someone help me please?

What Amplification are you using. I have always felt the Control SB-5 Subwoofer was a poor offering. Love the Conrol 5 monitors, but that Sub was a complete POS.

[JBL 4645]

What Amplification are you using. I have always felt the Control SB-5 Subwoofer was a poor offering. Love the Conrol 5 monitors, but that Sub was a complete POS.


I’ve had times where people was banging on the ceiling! LOL It could do some lows not sure what the peak SPL db was within some of the frequencies within its range or below it that would seep in.

I did have an SPL db meter when I had it but I can’t recall the SPL db peak that I had it up at. I wouldn't know what frequency as the EQ I had at the time didn’t have spectrum analyzer.

In wouldn’t go as far as calling it POS rubbish it had limitations to where it can and can not go.

I’m not defending the SB-5 I had that wired with left and right and even parallel wired it up for sub bass use from a separate Marnatz 1050.

I could recall the lows at some point not hit correctly and that would a few dips in the response down to room location.

If I had a few of them today I think I could get past the issues of yesterday and run a frequency sweep and see how it fairs in the room in several locations.

I like the cosmetic style of the SB-5 it had professional finish; okay I’ve got my flame suit on now. :flamer:

I think the SB-5 was £250.00 new when I brought it, the control 5 was around somewhere £200 for pair.

[[email protected]]

Probably suffers from foam rot. You should have purchased JBL's successor to the SB-5.

http://www.jblpro.com/catalog/general/Product.aspx?PId=192&MId=2

[JBL 4645]

Probably suffers from foam rot. You should have purchased JBL's successor to the SB-5.

http://www.jblpro.com/catalog/general/Product.aspx?PId=192&MId=2

Well that was one of guesses because you’d be hearing at least a few lows on the SB-5 and its easy to wire up in minutes so can’t be the wiring or the internal wiring that is secured inside the enclosure so possible reforming seems likely.

Who ever invented foam needs to be shot! :p Replace with rubber surround for durable strength.

[maguire245]

I did write something long but this forum decided not to post what I wrote despite being logged in.

I made a video a while back showing my old Sanyo JA20 with the JBL control 5 and they sounded fantastic http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QylXFGJwZmA.
Not like the current Sony I am using - http://www.sony.co.uk/product/hcs-home-cinema-receiver/str-dh100#pageType=TechnicalSpecs

I think wrong impedance is the issue here, Sony 8 Ohm, speakers 4 Ohm. Either way it sounds terrible and it sounded much better with the older amp at only 45watt per channel.