JBL Aquarius 1 or S105

I own a pair of JBL Aquarius 1 speakers (AKA S-105) originally bought by me in 1972 in Okinawa Japan while serving in the Air Force. They always had a wonderful large soundstage and very smooth sound.

I would like to have these restored. They have LE-10A woofers, LE 5-10 midrange and LE-20-1 tweeter. The midrange and crossover is very similar to early Century L-100 with only the LE-10A woofer different from the 12" transducer in the Century L-100.


Does anyone have suggestions as to where I could find high quality service?


sincerely,
Byron Stutz

Not to be rude - but - where is ooltewah?
What are you close to?

Ooltewah (Indian name meaning Owls nest) is located about 16 miles east of Chattanooga along I-75.

Roughly, equal 110 mile distances from Chattanooga to Atlanta & Knoxville with Birmingham and Nashville about 20-30 miles further.

Any suggestions for refurbishment? These speakers still play well, however they will no doubt need replacement surrounds and maybe better newer capacitors in the crossovers. One speaker has just a tad less life sounding which I think is a slowly stiffening of the rubber surrounds.

sincerely,
Byron

Attachment 65553

Foam Surround Kit for JBL,
Rick Cobb
[email protected]

Link

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by byronstutz

Any suggestions for refurbishment? These speakers still play well, however they will no doubt need replacement surrounds and maybe better newer capacitors in the crossovers. One speaker has just a tad less life sounding which I think is a slowly stiffening of the rubber surrounds.

---

I bet you're right about the surrounds.

If you aren't much of a DIYer, you should pull the woofers and send them to a quality repair shop.

I doubt that the networks need help.


Widget

Attachment 87865
Attachment 87866
Attachment 87867
Attachment 87868
Attachment 87869

I acuired these at a Goodwill recently. The one with the lighter woofer baffle worked fine. I've removed mid baffles out of preference. Interesting to note the major differences in these units. Tells me they were probably early production runs. Crossovers clearly wired by different people as well. Both woofers needed refoaming. The second speaker didn't put out much sound. Upon opening, the cross over was thoroughly mangled. Someone had soldered in all kinds of resistors in the wrong positions and incorrect values. Appears they were chasing a bad high cap and messing with the resistors instead. I have replaced with new film resistors. I've replaced mid caps with Jantzens. They are more detailed than the originals and more balanced but perhaps a touch less musical. Used Auricap xo's on the highend, they however seem lacking compared to the original, which I left as is to compare performance. Will the sound change or break in? I've never messed with crossovers before. Using original inductor, btw. Starting thought is to pay up for jantzens on the highs too.

Wow, what a great find. You're lucky that I didn't see them first. Mismatched JBL speakers are common, because they changed the spec frequently, but didn't mark anything on the outside of the box. And they didn't sell them in pairs, only individually. In the early days of stereo, it was encouraged to buy one speaker for mono, then upgrade to stereo later. I don't think that capacitors need any break in. Just the drivers, and these are well broken in by now.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Don C

Wow, what a great find. You're lucky that I didn't see them first. Mismatched JBL speakers are common, because they changed the spec frequently, but didn't mark anything on the outside of the box. And they didn't sell them in pairs, only individually. In the early days of stereo, it was encouraged to buy one speaker for mono, then upgrade to stereo later. I don't think that capacitors need any break in. Just the drivers, and these are well broken in by now.

---

OH hey! I see you are in Santa Rosa as well. To put your mind at ease, I found them in an Oregon GW when I was on a road trip, not in SoCo. Thanks for the background knowledge as well. These are older than me (33).

So, after messing with these for a month or so, I have found there was no issue with any of the caps in either loudspeaker, and I prefer the sound of the oem caps, which are god knows what construction, but look fancy (Im just telling myself they are copper foil in wax or oil and expensive) and have a musicality that cant be matched by the mid to hi end caps I've purchased online (Jantzen and Auricaps). What threw me off at first is it appears JBL changed the values of the caps they list in the x-over schematic that is published on this website and others. That is another reason I may not have liked the sound of my store purchased caps; because I bought them to match the x-over schematic values not the tested values. Diagram calls for a 13uf cap and the one in the unit tested at 14.6 I believe. Another called out a 3uf cap that tested at ~4.5uf. These were certainly a design in progress... In the end, the only thing that was wrong with the single loudspeakers x-over was many incorrect resistors. The caps were fine. I removed 3 that were either the wrong value or in the wrong position. Really not sure what happened there, Id assume it had to be a tech in years past... So, both woofers were refoamed, and the resistors were replaced with new film resistors in both loudspeakers in order to match eachother. They sound very good! Ive removed the woofer baffles now and remade the grills (Have all OEM equipment [baffles and spacers] saved in bag). I love the look and sound with everything removed. Better sound stage. May sell soon as that's the hobby, if any one is interested. Will try to link a video i took last night of some Led Zep 2 on vinyl I was playing through them.Attachment 87978

NVM I knew that would get blocked but you are welcome to message me if youd like to hear.