Not sure about rebuilding L110's...

[cplyons]

First off, let me mention that I am a newbie with this stuff and a danger to myself and others when I get a soldering iron in my hands... Anyway, I bought sight unseen my first JBLs this week... A pair of L110s off Craig's List. The only way I could be the first in line for these was to PayPal the guy payment and hope things worked out. The deal seemed too good to pass up... A nicely working Marantz 2252B vintage receiver and a pair of L110s ("sound great! - in fine shape other than a little cabinet damage..."), all for $175.

The receiever is dirty but as advertised... looks and sounds good after some clean up and contact renewal. But the speakers are another matter.

All foam is gone from the LE111A's. One of the tweeters is pushed all the way in. And there is some real rot on the bottom of one of the cases.

SO, my local reconer/JBL center is quoting $60 per speaker if refoaming is all that's needed. If voice coil or cone is damaged, add an additional $160 per box. One of the members here was kind enough to point me to an eBay sale on a tweeter diaphragm, but that may end up around $50 or so.

On the brighter side, apart from the water damage mentioned above, the speakers sound OK. I've only played them at low volume to confirm the elements aren't burned out. The cases are presentable with some care and feeding. The grilles are actually all there and very nice looking. What I'm trying to decide is how much I really want to spend on a speaker I've never even heard.

I am going to try to use wood putty to shore up the wood damage, but is there an aftermarket refoam kit I should try instead of using the factory one installed by my local guy? Or should I just part these out (not at all my first or even second choice...)

What do you guys think?

thanks

Chris L
Austin, Texas

[speakerdave]

1) If you part them out I would be interested in those woofer frames.

2) There are no factory refoams; JBL does not support refoaming. But . . . a conscientous speaker guy can probably find a good equivalent.

3) You came out all right as-is, but if you are wondering if you will be able to get your money back if you cherry out these, I doubt it.

4) If your goals are long term for your own use, you could make these serviceable in the present cabinets with all good components and then wait for a pair of cabinets to show up on ebay.

David

[cplyons]

I should have mentioned that if these turn out to sound as good as people say I will keep 'em... I am not interested in fixing them up to sell. Your idea about getting them into shape and waiting for better cabinets is a good one. But does it need to be so expensive to get them sounding something like they should?

Chris

[speakerdave]

But does it need to be so expensive to get them sounding something like they should?

Do the refoams. The fact that JBL doesn't support refoams doesn't stop anybody from doing it. The one risk is that a too-stiff new surround takes awhile to break in and may never really settle down to the original design-goal FAR. Doesn't mean don't do it. It usually works.

Many forum members have used a guy named Rick Cobb as a source for foams. He sells on ebay, but you can find his email here if you search his name. There is also a thread here detailing a method for doing the foams.

David

[Zilch]

http://audioheritage.org/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=469

[porschedpm]

The L110 speakers are nice sounding speakers, no doubt about it. But what do you ultimately want to do with these speakers. If you're going to use them in a workshop setting where perfect cosmetics and perfect driver condition is not an issue then just refoam the woofers with an aftermarket kit, make sure the cabinet doesn't have any airleaks other than the port, hook em up and go. This will probably cost you less than $60. If you have an ohm meter you can measure the resistance across the input terminals of the woofer to determine if the voicecoil is still good. The reading should be in about the 5.5 to 6.5 ohm range. If outside this range you'll likely need to replace the cone also. The tweeter with the pushed in dome will not be perfect but probably sound OK for a workshop application. It should have a new diaphragm installed if you want it to perform 100%.

But if you're looking for a pair of speakers that you place in the house and that you want to be pleasing to both your eyes and ears, this may not be the best pair to start with. First the cabinets may need extensive reworking. You'd probably want to use the genuine JBL parts for the refoam and recone. If there's any water damage to the cone you'd probably want to recone even if the voice coils are still good. And the tweeter would definitely need a new diaphragm. It's my opinion, if the cabinets truly do need a lot a lot of work to make them presentable, you're better off parting out the components. Take the $300 to $400 you get from eBaying the components and buy another pair that's in turn-key condition. I know parting out a JBL speaker tears at the heart of some LH Forum members but it's my opinion that if the cabinet damage is too extensive it's time to put the speaker out of it's misery. The L110 is not so rare that anyone should have to go to extraordinary measures to save one.

[cplyons]

Both woofers read in the 7.1 - 7.3 ohm region. Is that still within spec or does it indicate other issues beyond needing refoamed?

thanks for all the insightful comments by the way...

Chris L
Austin, Texas