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View Full Version : New member - My Metregon with SE401E and SG520 project



Aerium
01-21-2013, 01:35 PM
Hi All, just registered my self to this fantastic forum which I've been reading on and off for the past 5 years.

Thought I wanted to share with you my Metregon project since I know there's a few (many?) fans in here that would hopefully appreciate it :)

This speaker has a family history since back in 1973. My father and mother bought their first house together that year paying approximately SEK 75.000 (USD 15.000), why do I mention this!? Well you need to understand how big a fan my father was towards JBL's products, when he 9 months later, without telling my mother bought this piece from the UK incl. the SG520 pre-amp paying around USD 3.500 (including taxes and transport) - which, when comparing to what they paid for their house was a lot of money.

This was driving my mother crazy when they barely had enough money turning their daily life around at that time. Well - the music has always been important to my father, who can blame him! at least he had taste for the finer things in life...do I need to say that my mother until this day still don't appreciate it - every time she sees it in my house she gives me this look and shakes her head, with a little smile on her face though :)

My father past away 10 years ago now (God rest is soul) leaving us with this remarkable heritage - which I now intend to restore/repair it to it's "original" configuration and setting.

So far what I know (think) it's a mid 60's version with the S92 speaker package, fitted with the SE401E amp and the LX7 crossover. Unfortunately the serial# label is gone on the back - only the holder remains. The SG520 gives sound but needs a caring hand, some channels don't work - uneven level output etc. The energizer/transducer don't make a sound, so I guess I really need to dig deep in this making it work. I'm not in a hurry but was thinking that 2013 would be the "fixing" year. So please bear with me thru this....

Hope the attached pics work, otherwise I'll post again :)

Lee in Montreal
01-21-2013, 01:57 PM
That's very nice. Thanks for sharing. And now for some quick calculation. The Metrogon speakers were about 25% the price of the house. By 2010's standards, the average price of a new house in the US is $280,000, then those speakers would have been $70,000... Yup. Your mom must have pulled her hair out... ;-)

Aerium
01-21-2013, 03:12 PM
That's very nice. Thanks for sharing. And now for some quick calculation. The Metrogon speakers were about 25% the price of the house. By 2010's standards, the average price of a new house in the US is $280,000, then those speakers would have been $70,000... Yup. Your mom must have pulled her hair out... ;-)

Yes - when putting it in perspective it was quite an insane stunt to make, which easily could have resulted in a immediate divorce. Luckily my mother have a big heart....hmmm and thinking about it, he was actually also putting my birth in jeopardy since I was born in 77 :confused: now I'm being a little superstitious I know :)