L65 Reconditioning in Houston TX area?

[R.Charleston]

I'm within driving distance to Houston, and have a pair of L65s which were bought new in 1978. These were taken for re-foaming of the woofers in about 1993 to a recommended musical instrument shop in that city whose name I've forgotten. At that time, I was informed that the original woofers needed replacing and new, "better than the originals" woofers of a non-JBL brand were installed. The speakers did sound excellent for a long time but now, after a recent move to a new location, I'm thinking they may be leaning just a tad toward "lifeless". Basically, I'd like to find the "Bob Crites of L65s", locally, to tune these back up to "as new" or "better than new" in terms of sound performance if that's possible. In lieu of that, any lead to a shop/individual competent in this type of reconditioning of older JBLs in Houston/Galveston would be much appreciated.

Thanks.

[hjames]

I'm not nearby so I can't help you find a location near Houston, but if I were to refurb a pair of older JBLs like that,
my first question would be - do you have the original woofers they came with.
Probably best to fix them, rather than go further afield with non-JBL drivers ...

Just a thought ...


I'm within driving distance to Houston, and have a pair of L65s which were bought new in 1978. These were taken for re-foaming of the woofers in about 1993 to a recommended musical instrument shop in that city whose name I've forgotten. At that time, I was informed that the original woofers needed replacing and new, "better than the originals" woofers of a non-JBL brand were installed. The speakers did sound excellent for a long time but now, after a recent move to a new location, I'm thinking they may be leaning just a tad toward "lifeless". Basically, I'd like to find the "Bob Crites of L65s", locally, to tune these back up to "as new" or "better than new" in terms of sound performance if that's possible. In lieu of that, any lead to a shop/individual competent in this type of reconditioning of older JBLs in Houston/Galveston would be much appreciated.

Thanks.

[SEAWOLF97]

The speakers did sound excellent for a long time but now, after a recent move to a new location, I'm thinking they may be leaning just a tad toward "lifeless".Thanks.

they did sound fine, moved ..then NOT

to me it screams ...LOCATION .

try them raised , in corners , any place that you can ...bet that old sound will return when you find the right spot.

that non-JBL woofer certainly does not help.

[kaz]

The speakers did sound excellent for a long time but now, after a recent move to a new location, I'm thinking they may be leaning just a tad toward "lifeless". Basically, I'd like to find the "Bob Crites of L65s", locally, to tune these back up to "as new" or "better than new" in terms of sound performance if that's possible.

Thanks.

I can't disagree with Heather or Seawolf. Without the original JBL woofers, there is no easy baseline for comparison. Sound quality is sooo subjective. I own L65s and they are gloriously bright and open, while at the same time, deliver copious amounts of bass. 'Lifeless' seems to indicate (to me) a lack of sparkle or definition, and that could be midrange or high frequency issues, or perhaps speaker balance, rectified with adjusting the L-Pad settings (if possible), or as previously suggested, repositioning the speakers themselves. What is their new environment like in comparison to their 'long-time home'? What is different? Listen to the individual drivers, make adjustments. Investigate the clues before tearing into the patient. Establishing a baseline would be recommended before subbing out drivers or crossover components. I am not at all close to Houston, so I can't recommend a shop. My local JBL guy would want to start by taking them back to factory. Got any pictures of the former set-up, to compare with the current one? What woofers were substituted for the JBLs in '93?
Just some ideas.
Good luck!

[speakerdave]

I had a nice pair of L65's for awhile some time back, so parts of what I will have to say is conditioned by my experience of that speaker, which was not wholly positive.

I agree with the other posters that your new perception of the speakers is connected to having them in a different room. I assume that substituting an off brand woofer is a factor, and if you want to "blueprint" the speakers you'll need to find the correct woofers and have them serviced. Those woofers run fairly high in that speaker, and it could be that your new more modern woofer is designed more for generous bass and doesn't do well at higher frequencies. There are many possibilities for what's wrong and why it has emerged now.

There are variations in the L65, and different woofers. I don't know if any of them are still being supported by JBL, but they can be refoamed. Since this speaker is sometimes torn down for its tweeters, the parts for all the versions show up on ebay. If the foilcal reads "L65a" the right woofer is a 122. My L65's were a's and I found placement to matter quite a bit, the issue being acceptable or unacceptable bass, frankly.

There is quite a bit of discussion about this speaker in these forums, some from the days when I was trying to figure out what to do with mine, what upgrade path there might be, etc. I found that toeing them in so the tweeter axes crossed in front of the listening position worked best for escaping some of the upper midrange, which chafed my ears when trying to listen to classical music, but for the final months I owned them they were stands for a pair of LSR32's. Then I went to a four-way JBL monitor.

The consensus was that the L65 was a grand party speaker perfectly at home on campus and could hold forth in a filled room, playing folk music, rock or even Telemann among a gaggle of puffy and tweeded up assistant literature professors sipping something out of plastic cups, for example.

Perhaps in your new environment your ears have discovered some of the things other ears have noticed about this speaker, and it might be a good idea to consider moving on.

[R.Charleston]

Thanks to all for the responses!

I hadn't given due consideration to the placement issue, probably due to the fact that we downsized radically with this move to the new house and the speakers are pretty much "locked into" their present location (unfortunately, nowhere near equidistant from side walls). Will definitely look into raising them as they're on the floor presently and I had them raised approx. 20" off the floor at the old place. My experience of this current "lifelessness" has to do with the flat screen TV's onboard speakers sounding competitive enough in the new acoustic environment that I've found myself "too lazy" to pipe the sound thru the JBLs lately. They still sound good and the surround foam on the woofers looks day-one-new but they just seem a little anemic compared with what I've gotten used to over the years. I was sort of concerned, after reading a bit in a variety of forums, about the possible need to have things like crossovers and capacitors, etc., tuned up after 37 years. I'm probably the least electronically savvy person there is so I don't know what the deal is with this but I read about a lot of folks having these type concerns with older speakers. I'm loathe to remove the back of these '65s to see if there's a brand name/model I can see on the woofers (there isn't anything visible from the front with the grilles off) but I did see something which intrigued me......The serial numbers of these are "68629" and "68631". They just say "L 65", not "Jubal". Wouldn't they supposed to have been consecutive #s (68629 and 68630)? They were bought new at a Pacific Stereo store way back in the 'day...

[honkytonkwillie]

The near consecutive-ness in serial numbers of your pair is rather cool. More often than not it seems pairs are hundreds or thousands apart. Mine are.

My pair are in semi-frequent rotation in our new home. I haven't found the right setup for them yet. On the floor the bass easily gets a bit tubby, so the last thing I tried was raising them about 36". Bass changed quite a bit and the sparkly tweeters really came into play. They may not ever be that great for critical listening, but they fill a large-ish room really nicely and are quite pleasant for 24x7 background music.

You don't have to remove the rear of the cabinet to inspect the woofer. It's held in my 4 Allen head bolts around the frame that are secured to T-nuts on the inside, which facilitates easy removal. Let us know what the updated woofers are. With any luck they'll be the JBL 128-H which was the recommended factory replacement. Anything's got to be better than the 12" car stereo Advents my L-65s arrived with. ('nother story)

[markd51]

I assume that these speakers you have are L-65's of either A or B model, since the original JBL L65 Jubal did only say just "Jubal" on the Front Baffle Foilcals.

The A or B Designation should be right after the serial # on the Foilcal.

Thus, if not an original first version "Jubal", the 126A Woofer would not be the correct choice as a Driver. Crossover changes were made with later versions (Inductor I believe for the Bass Driver, and Porting was also different, at other locations on the front Baffle) Would it then be the 122H, or 128H? I forget which goes to which Speaker, but sure if someone cannot help you in this thread, the info is here located in the searchable archives.

Provided all other drivers are correct, work, I'd then perhaps assume both Crossovers work, and are OK, if L-Pads work, one should start with both L-Pad Controls set to flat (0). Then go from there in small increments.

As for locating the correct drivers, not sure about JBL carrying such anymore, but other members here should know of sources for such.

[BMWCCA]

Thus, if not an original first version "Jubal", the 126A Woofer would not be the correct choice as a Driver. Crossover changes were made with later versions (Inductor I believe for the Bass Driver, and Porting was also different, at other locations on the front Baffle) Would it then be the 122H, or 128H? I forget which goes to which Speaker, but sure if someone cannot help you in this thread, the info is here located in the searchable archives.

http://manuals.harman.com/JBL/HOM/Technical%20Sheet/L65A%20Jubal%20ts.pdf
http://manuals.harman.com/JBL/HOM/Technical%20Sheet/L65B%20ts.pdf

The 128H-1 is the suggested replacement "as a last resort".

The A came with 122A, the B with 129H. The original Jubal came with 126A. See the Consumer Tech Sheet links listed in the forum here.
I would think the 128H-1 would prove to be an improvement for any of this series.

[markd51]

http://manuals.harman.com/JBL/HOM/Technical%20Sheet/L65A%20Jubal%20ts.pdf
http://manuals.harman.com/JBL/HOM/Technical%20Sheet/L65B%20ts.pdf

The 128H-1 is the suggested replacement "as a last resort".

The A came with 122A, the B with 129H. The original Jubal came with 126A. See the Consumer Tech Sheet links listed in the forum here.
I would think the 128H-1 would prove to be an improvement for any of this series.

Thank you for this information. I do know that the recone kit for the 126A is no longer available from JBL. What about for the 122A, 128H and 129H Drivers? Are any of these 3 last Bass Drivers I just mention still available as new from JBL? Thanks

[BMWCCA]

Are any of these 3 last Bass Drivers I just mention still available as new from JBL? Thanks
The system tech sheets imply the only possible replacement available is the 128H-1. Since this driver was used in the 4412A which was only "recently" discontinued, that's the one I'd go for. Why don't you call JBL Pro (http://www.jblproservice.com/parts.html) and ask? They'll sell you drivers, just not cone kits. They also pop up all the time on Ebay for well under $100 each in need or re-surround up to $400 a pair in working condition.

Has the original poster come back with what drivers his system now has? He did say the originals were replaced with non-JBL "better-than-original" drivers. I don't think there's much point in going further until the system is put back in a JBL configuration.

[SEAWOLF97]

The near consecutive-ness in serial numbers of your pair is rather cool. More often than not it seems pairs are hundreds or thousands apart. Mine are.

I read somewhere on this forum that serials/foilcals are put on the cabs before xover/drivers are installed and even at a different location, So really consecutive or not makes little difference.

what does make difference, but hard to verify is how they are internally wired.

worked on some AR3's last century. had a case of bad pots. Ordered up some replacements so I could perform a "radical lopotomy" ... cabs were sealed backs. pulled the woofers and the pots were not accessible from the outside and not removable, so ....got a solder iron, light and worked with them and my 2 hands through the 12 inch opening (felt like a brain surgeon). To my surprise, the xover wiring was completely different between the two. ...they had close serials too.
I didn't know which one was "righter", (this was before net access) so I stopped and grabbed paper/pen and drew each out on paper so as to recreate. It all came out fine , but left me scratching me head ..:dont-know:

[R.Charleston]

Had a look at the situation with regard to removing the woofers to see what brand, etc.. I've got a couple of questions about removal (hope images will post). In the first picture, will the "felt" like material which is outlined in red have to be pulled up on its own or will this remain attached to the woofer? In the first possibility, it appears affixed down with some sort of adhesive that I'd rather not get into removing as re-install would more than likely be beyond my mechanical abilities (and shaky hands). In the second pic, will the woofer lift out including the surround structure, part of which is outlined in red, or will it lift out from inside the surround structure (like the point of separation being in the area partially outlined in yellow? Thanks.

6491864919

[speakerdave]

That big roll and shallow cone might be a 122 or 128. The screws that need to be removed are exposed. What you've marked in red in the second photo is the woofer rim. The separation would be where that lies on the baffle board.

Those woofers look OK. They look like JBL to me.

Going back to your original request, why don't you use the internet to find speaker service in Houston? I've Googled up a place called Allen Speaker Reconing. Read up on them and see what you think.

[BMWCCA]

Just undo four screws and lift the thing out already! Don't worry about those gaskets on the front. The basket/frame will come out with all of that intact.

Looks a lot like a 128H to me, too, but the owner says the woofers were replaced with non-JBLs. Four simple screws and we could end all speculation. Is there anyone nearby who could offer you some assistance?

[bluffdad]

Had a look at the situation with regard to removing the woofers to see what brand, etc.. I've got a couple of questions about removal (hope images will post). In the first picture, will the "felt" like material which is outlined in red have to be pulled up on its own or will this remain attached to the woofer? In the first possibility, it appears affixed down with some sort of adhesive that I'd rather not get into removing as re-install would more than likely be beyond my mechanical abilities (and shaky hands). In the second pic, will the woofer lift out including the surround structure, part of which is outlined in red, or will it lift out from inside the surround structure (like the point of separation being in the area partially outlined in yellow? Thanks.

6491864919

Being my first post to the Forum, I hope I don't screw this up. A few weeks back I replaced the foam suspensions on a pair of 122a's from my Jubals. It was a tedious time consuming process, but cost me less than $30.00 to buy a surround kit from a retailer. Of course they aren't JBL foam suspensions. To my ears, they sound great and frankly surprised me with how good they look. After removing the driver I found the JBL label attached to the rear of the speaker. A piece of advice, when you remove the screws, don't apply downward pressure. You don't want the anchor nut falling free from behind the cabinet. Those felt gaskets are just decorative and are glued to the basket. When re-foamed they are carefully cut away and reused.

[NickH]

Avoid Allen's speaker reconing like the pleague.

Not many good options here I'm afraid.