BeDome
08-19-2015, 03:07 PM
A friend of mine called me on Sunday to tell me about some JBLs he had found in a construction project he is working on. (He is on constant search for anything JBL or Altec for me and has come through twice over the years and now a third time it seems) He is working on a massive office building and he is a part of the renovation crew.Anyway, he wanted to know if I was interested in having some of the JBL ceiling speakers which are being replaced. I said, sight unseen, "SURE!! I'll take them."
These are commercial, permanent installation style speakers, not the high quality Professional Series types that we all love so much. These have stamped baskets, smallish magnets, but then, they are designed to work in basically open air or Infinite Baffle situations.
I had a little over half a sheet of flooring left over from a bathroom re-new last year and I simply cut holes and mounted them on that flat board, about three feet apart, put my garage CD player on through a Crown D-75, sat about six feet away and gave them a listen. WOW! Not bad sound at all; obviously, no bass to speak of, but definition, clarity, smoothness, even imaging far in excess of what I was expecting.He gave me 64 of them he salvaged from the demolition and eight are still new in the box.
I have only put power to twelve of them and they all worked fine. Not sure what to do with them. I am thinking of constructing an impromptu six foot linear array with eight per side and donating them to a small local church that I like, who are now using 2 - ten inch Mackie self powered two ways that really sound like crap.
That still leaves me with over thirty of them, assuming most of them work like the first twelve I tested.
I know these are not our "beloved" JBLs, but I can not face just seeing them destroyed, which was what was going to happen to most of them, after a few other workers took their fair share. My buddy kept eight and he said several other kept a few, but he still had a pick up bed full for me to have. He had them laying face down, then a door resting on the magnets, then another layer. Six layers in all. Now my garage has a corner full of old stuff my wife does not understand the need for. :crying:
Anyone have any further suggestions as to what to do with these little charmers?
Here is the spec sheet. Check out the 97dB sensitivity rating! With that high Qts rating these are not really good candidates for bass reflex loading.
http://www.jblpro.com/pub/obsolete/8140h.pdf
These things were installed with a layer of fiberglass over them, so even after twenty five or so years, a quick spray with a Dustgun followed by a damp cloth wipe down and they are pretty clean. They look almost brand new. YES, this is one that was installed. I still have the eight which are new in box. I split the box with my friend; He took eight and I kept eight. Here are a couple of pics:
These are commercial, permanent installation style speakers, not the high quality Professional Series types that we all love so much. These have stamped baskets, smallish magnets, but then, they are designed to work in basically open air or Infinite Baffle situations.
I had a little over half a sheet of flooring left over from a bathroom re-new last year and I simply cut holes and mounted them on that flat board, about three feet apart, put my garage CD player on through a Crown D-75, sat about six feet away and gave them a listen. WOW! Not bad sound at all; obviously, no bass to speak of, but definition, clarity, smoothness, even imaging far in excess of what I was expecting.He gave me 64 of them he salvaged from the demolition and eight are still new in the box.
I have only put power to twelve of them and they all worked fine. Not sure what to do with them. I am thinking of constructing an impromptu six foot linear array with eight per side and donating them to a small local church that I like, who are now using 2 - ten inch Mackie self powered two ways that really sound like crap.
That still leaves me with over thirty of them, assuming most of them work like the first twelve I tested.
I know these are not our "beloved" JBLs, but I can not face just seeing them destroyed, which was what was going to happen to most of them, after a few other workers took their fair share. My buddy kept eight and he said several other kept a few, but he still had a pick up bed full for me to have. He had them laying face down, then a door resting on the magnets, then another layer. Six layers in all. Now my garage has a corner full of old stuff my wife does not understand the need for. :crying:
Anyone have any further suggestions as to what to do with these little charmers?
Here is the spec sheet. Check out the 97dB sensitivity rating! With that high Qts rating these are not really good candidates for bass reflex loading.
http://www.jblpro.com/pub/obsolete/8140h.pdf
These things were installed with a layer of fiberglass over them, so even after twenty five or so years, a quick spray with a Dustgun followed by a damp cloth wipe down and they are pretty clean. They look almost brand new. YES, this is one that was installed. I still have the eight which are new in box. I split the box with my friend; He took eight and I kept eight. Here are a couple of pics: