Classic cars and classy sound

[Titanium Dome]

If this thread takes off, credit 57Belaire for the inspiration.

Just to set up some framework here: a classic car is any car (or truck) that you've paid off or even that you owned in the past that's special to you. I know this flies in the face of the classic car rags, but this first and foremost is a Lansing Heritage site so the car is ancillary to the discussion. You might say it's a vehicle for the discussion. :p

Of course, the sound system has to JBL, stock or (preferably) custom.

I've got a lot of rides from the past and one from the present that'll fit in this sweeping category.

Perhaps the first question should be, Is auto sound a part of the Lansing Heritage? Or is it a shameful diversion?

I know it's a part of the Fosgate Heritage, since Jim Fosgate was one of the first to think about stereo equipment that would run on a 12 volt system.

[Steve]

Here you go.....
For the version in the car...great for drive in's too!

[Steve]

Oooops...the attachment

[Titanium Dome]

Nice!

[Audiobeer]

No offense, but I hate car audio stuff, jBL or not on a website for Home and Studio speakers. Just my 2 cents and I hate to offend anyone. :)

[Titanium Dome]

No offense taken. This is from the LH home page:


The quality of his work resulted in the Lansing name being associated with the finest in sound reproduction technology. His name is carried on in the corporate identity of two companies, JBL and Altec Lansing. The purpose of this site is to pay homage to the accomplishments of the man and his namesake companies.

So while I'll concede that the site so far has focused on home and studio gear, I don't see how it can fulfill its mission without the complete product line represented. After all, the jbl.com Web site is split into three areas: Home Audio, JBL Pro, and Car Audio. In fact car audio is one place where JBL is doing tons of promotional work and reaping many, many awards.

http://www.jbl.com/car/daytona_spl.asp

I'm not suggesting Don needs to get on the ball and start putting in all the tech materials for JBL car audio stuff, but I am opening the discussion about the place of JBL car audio on this site. Perhaps, as you suggest, there is none.

The fact that I routinely take out the audio system in any car or truck that I buy and put in a custom system, including JBL speakers with Ti tweeters, is certainly one motivating factor for me. ;)

Some of JBL's best industry-leading innovations have come about in the car audio market.

[Titanium Dome]

Just to give you some idea, here's Alma Gates getting her trophy in April 2005.

[Zilch]

It's been apparent for some time that many of the latest JBL pro drivers are "borrowing" from JBL car audio technology.

LE14H-3's butyl surrounds, dfferential drive, frame construction, others....

[Titanium Dome]

Yes. Both D.B. Keele Jr. and Richard H. Small (yes, THAT Richard H. Small) have their hands in Harman Becker.

Early on JBL made components from the LCS (Loudspeaker Component Series) available for Car Audio.

First JBL Car Audio system using the available LCS components? Restored 1963 Chevrolet Impala SS 409 with LE10H's/LE21H's in the read deck, LE5H's in the front doors. Crude but effective for the time. The advent of the Ti domes up'd the ante in a 1965 Chevrolet Impala SS with a 327 "L79" mouse slung between the front fenders.

See, this is what an ignoramus like me needs to know.


I might scan the early JBL car audio stuff at some point but I've already got scans in that have been sitting well over a year waiting for Library publication so there is no incentive to rush.

If/when this happens, it will be boss, as the kids used to say.

[Mr. Widget]

No offense, but I hate car audio stuff, jBL or not on a website for Home and Studio speakers. Just my 2 cents and I hate to offend anyone. :)

Hate may be a bit strong, but I must admit I have very little interest in the stuff myself. A pair of A-7s in the back seat... now that is probably a very good application for them. You'd never notice the lack of highs due to the wind noise and I bet that 101dB sensitivity would come in handy.:screwy:

Widget

[Titanium Dome]

Well, I wasn't ready for this. Say it ain't so!

[louped garouv]

tailgating.......

when I was in High School, I had a JL audio (Read:JBL) sub system in my car -- MB Quart for the mids/highs though......

quality stuff in the car audio world...... blows the pants off of pyle/kicker stuff

I knew a guy that had TAD,s in his car-audio competition system!

[JuniorJBL]

I was a car stereo installer for about 12 years (MECP Master). I had many different systems but one did have 2 1800GTI's and they pretty much severed your head right of your neck:D

I have sent cars to the IASCA finals best score was 3rd in 1991. It was a lot of fun but it was hell on my back.
I did not have a digital camera at the time so I do not have pics. Things have come a long way from then. We used to have to make our own fiberglass door panels and other things. One of the biggest amps back then was a Hifonics Collossus @1000w x2 into 4ohms. A very big dual mono amp.
I always had a system that was worth about twice as much as my car/truck at the time:applaud:

That is how it had to be!!

[Don McRitchie]

It's been apparent for some time that many of the latest JBL pro drivers are "borrowing" from JBL car audio technology.

LE14H-3's butyl surrounds, dfferential drive, frame construction, others....

I would suggest that the technology borrowed from the pro side for automotive drivers is greater than the reverse and is a major reason for the success of JBL's car audio endeavours. The most significant technology to find its way into JBL's current car audio drivers is the differential drive motor and this most definitely came from the pro side. Doug Button, JBL Pro's Vice President of Research and Development, invented and patented the technology that first appeared in JBL's HLA series of tour sound speakers. Doug's Super Vented Gap motor designs have also found their way into a number of car drivers. While JBL Pro has rebadged 15" GTI drivers as 2256's for one Vertec subwoofer, this was mainly a matter of expediency in that it eliminated the time to develop a dedicated driver. The heavy ferrite motor of that driver is counter to the direction of light neo magnet motors that Pro is standardizing on.

[Zilch]

O.K., well, "synergism," then. :p

[It's ALL good....]

[yggdrasil]

Some 20 years ago a friend of mine equipped a small BMW with a pair of 075, and a pair of 375's on the 5038 horn. He used a Cerwin Vega 18" car woofer with a 2 channel coil.


With a 300watt amplifier he kept blowing the woofer. Didn't take pictures though. Sorry.

[johnaec]

Here's something I posted last summer about the audio in my T-Bird: http://www.audioheritage.org/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2883

I also have a Lincoln Mark VIII with factory JBL Premium Audio - it's still the best stock system I've ever heard in a car.

John

[57BELAIRE]

Some 20 years ago a friend of mine equipped a small BMW with a pair of 075, and a pair of 375's on the 5038 horn. He used a Cerwin Vega 18" car woofer with a 2 channel coil.


With a 300watt amplifier he kept blowing the woofer. Didn't take pictures though. Sorry.

Hmmmmmm.......so thats what what's goin' on with some of those Bavarian Paragons. :p

Just put some wheels on 'em... slap on a Beemer badge, and you're off an runnin'...but a single CV '18.... not twin 15's?

I have to admit , I do have a fondness for Cerwin Vega 18's and I'm just trying to imagine the spl in that ride. :D

[louped garouv]

most of teh guys I know that had massive auto systems used ear plugs..... :D


that way they could annoy anyone on the highway within a (few) mile(s), maybe; and still have their own hearing intact...

[Michael Smith]

I too have a copy of of the Altec advert,but boys have a look at this and play fair.
Note the head phones ear muffs ( what ever ) and I lost the other photo showing all the bi radials in the doors.
I was offered a sit and listen and declined as they said "Say what"
Only in Texas and I loved it!
So think about that
Regards
Michael

[yggdrasil]

I have to admit , I do have a fondness for Cerwin Vega 18's and I'm just trying to imagine the spl in that ride. :D
Acutally on one occation (I was fortunate not to be there) they were parked outside a disco, playing (a little). After a while one of the employees of the disco came out begging them not to play so loud...:blink:

And, yes the parts came from a home built paragon.

[Ian Mackenzie]

Well Bo "Ol Tin Ear" is our own living legend when it comes to car Auto Sub change outs.

I've told the story too many times so let's hear it from Bo...:rotfl:

Dang Yankee

Ian

[Audiobeer]

No offense, but I hate car audio stuff, jBL or not on a website for Home and Studio speakers. Just my 2 cents and I hate to offend anyone. :)


What an arragont ass. If you don't like it move on. It appears you are in the minority bargain basement breath. What's the matter.....not impressed with your Kraco 8 track Beotch? ;)

[Zilch]

8-track is a CULT, actually.

Watch yer back! :p

[Audiobeer]

I have a neighbor that has a bunch of sealed 8 tracks he bought at a garage sail in the early 80s. Cream, Jeff Airplane, all kinds of them. He's saving them for his Baracuda Hemi restoration! :applaud:

[Robh3606]

I had an 8 Track player in my 1970 Mustang Fastback. I miss the ka-chunk as the tracks changed and the tape slowing down as it got tighter and tighter inside the cassette.


Rob:)

[Titanium Dome]

My Dad (80 years old) has an 8 track head unit running off a car battery that he still plays. Gosh, the sh!t that he listens to! :banghead: But he loves it!

[jblnut]

No offense, but I hate car audio stuff, jBL or not on a website for Home and Studio speakers. Just my 2 cents and I hate to offend anyone. :)

Not to be curmudgeony(?), but I'm in that camp too. The car is the last place I want to invest huge $$$ into audio. People steal it, the temperature swings and vibration are hell on electronics and the accoustics and noise levels rule out anything resembling critical listening. Hey I had some Jensen triaxes and a high-power cassete receiver like everyone else back in the day, but I never stepped up with CD, huge amps and a trunk full of subs.

That said I've heard some really killer systems, but it just never appealed to me personally...

jblnut

[JuniorJBL]

8-track is a CULT, actually.

Watch yer back! :p

I have a few members who live on my block:rotfl:

[Titanium Dome]

Not to be curmudgeony(?), but I'm in that camp too. The car is the last place I want to invest huge $$$ into audio. People steal it, the temperature swings and vibration are hell on electronics and the accoustics and noise levels rule out anything resembling critical listening. Hey I had some Jensen triaxes and a high-power cassete receiver like everyone else back in the day, but I never stepped up with CD, huge amps and a trunk full of subs.

That said I've heard some really killer systems, but it just never appealed to me personally...

jblnut

I think I get where you're coming from. If things don't appeal to you, they don't appeal to you.

IME the idea of "critical listening" is not the same in car audio as it is in home audio. I don't have the same expectations or even the same desires in sound reproduction. If critical listening only has one definition in somone's lexicon, then that's what it is. In my personal dictionary, it's got several meanings, all of which are correct in their context. :)

[Titanium Dome]

After Jim Fosgate sorta created real car audio (around '76 or '77 I think), I got really interested in raw speakers. After replacing the 123A-1 in one of my L100s, I got more interested in speaker construction and the details of the backside. What did all that stuff do? Why were there so many ways to do it, even though the basic set up was always the same?

When the Fosgate drivers showed up, they were even more intriguing, because I lived in MI at the time, where the winter temp might dip to -15, and I knew no home speaker would take that kind of stress. The interior of the car might get to 120 or higher in the summer; no home speaker would like that either. (I know, because I hooked up home audio speakers, boxes and all in the back of my Scout II.)

These new automotive speakers were much more sophisitcated than the buzzy crap the car manufactureres were installing, so what was going on?

Enter JBL with some 10" autosound woofers, and before you know it, I've built two ported and sloped boxes with a simple xover to a top mounted tweeter, and I'm thumping away. :rockon2: The Scout is in the house! Or maybe the house is in the Scout. :drive:

I've still got these things in the garage. Maybe I can find them and take a picture.