Done deal, JBL L-150's for $150.

[Regis]

Thursday afternoon at 3 pm, I found a 15 minute old ad in an on-line classified for a pair of L-150's for $150! The cabs are in excellent condition, the only fault being the foam surrounds. The rotting surrounds may be a curse to the population, but it's certainly a blessing in disguise for JBL nuts like us. I called my little bro, but no go. My roomie is plenty happy with the L-110's I gave him. So I decided to call my bud at work. You may remember, he picked up the L-100's for $50 at a thrift shop. I told him to buy them now and he called and got in on them. He's picking them up this morning, though it's a three hour drive from his house. I'll replace the surrounds and then we're going to mod them, Regis-style. He came over to the house the other night and he really liked how my L-150's sound, they pretty much blew away the L-100's and it's his first exposure to the full-size side of JBL. I'm going over there tonight to see them. Supposedly the 033's are fine as well as the mids. Just foam thank you. At $150 the pair, you just can't go wrong.

[johnaec]

'Great deal! You can't beat being first on a lot of "estate sale" stuff in classifieds, craigslist, etc., especially when foam is the major issue. People just usually look into reconing costs and decide it's not worth it. I've been lucky on occasion myself! 'Just have to be in the right place at the right time...

John

[Don Mascali]

Nice catch, a JBL rescue mission well done!

[evans224]

Do you have Regis-style mod how-to made up? What are the major differences when finished modifying? I've got a pair of L150A's, and have seen a list by Steve C of mods done by him. I'm curious what others do to make them better.

[Robh3606]

WOW good deal! Those are nice speakers.

Rob:)

[Regis]

I've done side-by-side testing between a stock pair of L-150A's and my modified L-150 and mine clearly sound better. You get more detailed mids and highs, crisper deeper lows and the whole thing just comes off as being rich and powerful. I've modified two pairs so far and I'm going to modify a third pair. To get the full effect, you have to do all the mods, especially with the crossover and woofers. First I replace the 128H woofers with the 2214H (out of the L100T). Then I obtain a pair of L-112 crossovers.

If you've got the L-150A, you're in luck as the modified L-112 crossover will bolt right in. The L-112 x-over has a beefy iron core coil for the low frequency circuit and will not likely saturate as easily as the wimpy looking stock coil on the L-150A. The easiest way to swap out the X-overs is to plug in the wires coming from the L-pads. They're like-for-like, just make sure you pay attention to the colors and where they go. No soldering required, just pull out from one and plug in the other. The next step is to solder in a 3.0 uf Sonicap across T1 (the large 13.5uf Cap on the x-over).

Here's what Giskard told me about the 3113b Crossover family, which is very close to the L-112, L-96 and L-150, but you've got to mod the X-over with the 3.0 uf cap and the Sonicaps are truly the best choice for this application.

Here's the qoute in a private message from Giskard and to him, I owe a great debt for helping me out.

Giskard wrote on 05-20-2004 06:33 PM:
"The L150 used a network similar to the L110, L110A and L212. I couldn't remember off the top of my head what the capacitor value on the LE5 was in the original L150. The L150A used the same network as the L96 and L112.

If I were you I'd use the 3113B network in your L150's. Download the 3113B schematic from JBL Pro and build it. Don't worry about the 033 being there instead of the 044 or 066. Compare the 3113B schematic to the L96, L112, or L150A schematic. You can also use any of them and just add the 3.0 uF capacitor to the 13.5 uF capacitor (The 3113B already has the 16.5 uF capacitor). You might need to put a different conjugate on the 2214H and that's pretty easy. If you use the LE5H, LE5-9, LE5-11, or 2105H (3113B, N96, N112, N150A) instead of the LE5-10, or LE5-12 you should notice an improved midrange. The LE5-10 and LE5-11 both have the black face in case that matters.

I've actually replaced the N212 networks in my L212's and the N96 networks in my L96's with the 3113B's and definitely like the greater presence, especially on DVD playback..."

Also from Sir Giskard:
"The L96, L112, L150A, and L250 networks were probably the fanciest JBL ever got as far as layout goes for Home systems. The L300 in the can was pretty fancy too. The 250Ti is damn fancy as well. It kinda goes downhill from there. http://audioheritage.org/vbulletin/images/smilies/tongue.gif

Anyway... 100V caps are fine but I usually use 200V polypropylene or polystyrene. Try a pair of 3.0 uF from here - www.soniccraft.com (http://www.soniccraft.com/) or better yet from here - http://www.gr-research.com/SoniCap.htm

The stock caps are all metalized mylar (metallized polyester). One of the few JBL networks that never employed any NPE's. I'd run monster cable to all the drivers. ..."

To fit the 2214H, you'll have to get a drill motor and a cylindrical sanding bit nd open up the woofer enclosure just a tiny bit. Move the drill around evenly in circles and test often. Mine are a friction fit. Make sure you get the polarity right

The 2214H Woofer is a very powerful woofer and moves a lot of air. 50 watts with the right CD playing in these cabs shakes the couch. You can almost feel the air vibrate and the bass is very crisp and clean with no muddiness or ugliness whatsover. What they do, they do effortlessly.

You'll note that in Giskards message that I used the LE5-9 mids and as he notes there are others. This was to balance out the overall increase in the bass. The stock LE5-10 sounded underpowered and wimpy compared to what the 2214H's were doing, but with the LE5-9's installed, it's very nice and the mids are outputting as well as the woofers are, with some semblance of balance.

The 033's are just fine. These tweeters perform well and I have no problem with them. While you're at it, get some spade connectors and use heavier gauge wire to go to your new woofers from the crossovers and also from the inside speaker input.

Here's my report on these:

Last weekend, I finally got everything together, the L-112 X-overs, the Sonicaps and the LE5-9's (both the X-overs and the speakers were in excellent condition).

I soldered the 3.0 uf Sonicaps directly to the leads of the 13.5 uf C1 caps, then I temporarily mounted the X-over in the bottom of the cabinet, with the L-pads kind of safely laying to the side (I centered the L-pads before sealing the cabs back up, as they wouldn't be adjustable from the outside). The wires were short on the one X-over, so I had to make an "extension" to the 033's out of speaker wire.

First, I did this with one speaker only, as I wanted to "A-B" the combination and see what the un-mod'd L-150 sounded like, versus the L-150 I just mod'd. It was exactly as you said it would be. The difference was incredibly obvious. The 3113b X-over had much more clarity and detail than the other speaker. The presence was fully there, instead of the old "dip" in the mid-range area.

Also the bass was much more unrestrained and seemed to flow much easier out of the speaker than before. The other speaker sounded like someone draped a wet army blanket over the front of the grill. Muddy mids, boomy bass and a sound that sounded like it was working hard just to get there. When I modified the other L-150, it was just incredible.

The pair had an easy power to them that I've never heard out of any L-150. The 2214H's worked effortlessly, the bass shimmering off as if the speaker was shrugging that kind of power with no sweat. The details really came out in the midrange area and the highs were excellent without ever sounding shrill. I've heard the bigger JBL's, having owned a pair of 4628's, but for a non 43xx or 44xx speaker, these have to be the best sounding JBL's I've ever heard. Even better than my old L-65A's.

[4313B]

I am quite glad these worked out for you Regis. :applaud:
The L-112 x-over has a beefy iron core coil for the low frequency circuit and will not likely saturate as easily as the wimpy looking stock coil on the L-150A.JBL actually used several different types of LF coils in the L96, L112 and L150A so any one of them could have a different LF coil. Find the one Regis is referring to.

Here's a pic of one of my older custom 3113B networks. The LF coil is from one of the "good" N96's. All the capacitors are old IMB Electro-Caps, once a supplier to JBL but aquired in the nineties by http://www.rtie.com/imb/imbindex.htm. Oh well, it was good while it lasted. :p

[Regis]

:D Good looking crossover, especially if you built it yourself! I thought you could always hardwire a X-over, I've just never seen it done till now. The big coil off've the N96 looks just about the same as the L-112 (unlike the coil on the L-150A, which looks like an enlarged pack of Juicy Fruit).

Thanks for the lead on the caps too, as I'm going to mod the new speakers my buddy drove up from San Diego yesterday. Is there a price difference? The Sonicaps were something like $10-$12 apeice, costing me $25 with shipping to do both (but no regrets either). If the quality is pretty close, I'd probably go with those. Finally, which caps would do the job well? They have quite a selection, but some of it looks overkill for audio (if there's such a thing...).

[4313B]

I've never tried the RTI caps. The Electro-Caps were pretty good. I wouldn't be surprised that the RTI caps were the same thing.

For non-charge coupled filters I prefer the SoniCaps. For charge coupled filters the Dayton polypropylenes bypassed with AudioCap Theta's seem quite decent.

[Zilch]

Regis: Wasn't it you that acquired the 6230/6260 amps I recommended? Did they work for you?

[Regis]

Sure wasn't me that acquired those amps, though I admit, I have cast a lustful eye at them on Ebay. I can't even turn what I've got (Sansui G-9000/160wpc) halfway up!

[chuckb]

I modified a pair of L150As as per Giskard's recommentations...add a 3uf cap to the crossovers, replace the 128Hs with 2214Hs, and replace the LE5-12s with LE5-2s (he suggested LE5-9s, but I couldn't find any, and the LE5-2s have similar sensitivity). I left the 044s alone. The results sound great. Nice and smooth, effortless bass.

I picked up a pair of L100Ts. The low bass is very nice, but when I A/B them with a pair of 4425s, the mids and highs are lacking. The L100Ts have 2214H woofers, so I assume the cabinets and rear-firing ports are correctly tuned for them. My question is: has anyone tried, or can anyone comment on, replacing the L100T crossovers with N112s, replacing the 104H2s with LE5-2s, and replacing the 035s with 044s? I realize a 'rock and roll speaker' will probably never have the natural sound of the 4425s, but I'm thinking these mods may help the L100T's mids and highs. Any thoughts? I'm a bit hesitant to mess with a nice pair of 'stock' vintage JBLs...the 044s may require some baffle surgery and I'd need to find a place for the level controls...but the combination of the L100T's low frequency response and the modified L150A's mids and highs may be a winner. Any thoughts?