JBL L65 Option Opinions

[georgeV]

Hello,
I am new in this Forum since I just found (really) a pair of JBL L65 speakers abandoned outside a house here in South France. I was a Klipsch fanatic before BTW.
So my first impressions and questions are :
The speakers are all original and in fine shape, they are the one of newer type the Bass-Reflex opening is below the woofer.
I use an Accuphase E-202 and a SONY SCD-777. Is it normal that there is SOOOO much bass. I used Klipsch Cornwall before and some local old Cabasse, but these speakers to my ears are exaggerating I find in the low frequency regime.
Is it normal ??, it is true that due to space limitation there back on the wall a few centimeters away. No spikes or anything, directly on concrete type surface.
Still they are very nice and mellow to hear, but if there was a remedy to requilibrate this bass issue.
Regards
george

[mech986]

Hi, and welcome to the LH Forum. Sounds like you had a bit of good luck there finding the L65. However, first check the condition of the woofer surrounds - they typically have gone bad and cracked or deteriorated. That will not be the cause of your excess bass but can lead to damage to the woofer voice coil if played in that condition.

Also, you need to pull the woofers to be sure they are the correct JBL Drivers - again, many people will install different woofers if they didn't know they could repair or refurbish the original JBL's.

Please take some pictures, resize them down to less than 1024 pixels and let's see what you're dealing with.

Regards,

Bart

[georgeV]

Hello
Thank for the infos, the woofers are original 122 and I have replaced the surrounds with new ones. I tend to believe that there are to many furnitures in my living room so too many reflections. I'll try some photos later in the week
regards
georges

[porschedpm]

Try raising them up off the floor about 30cm or so. Have also heard of some people stuffing socks into the bass ports. However keep in mind a certain amount of bass "punchiness" is to be expected with these speakers. It's a characteristic of JBLs from this era. So you may not be able to damp it out completely.

[3dbdown]

Hi, Rick here...

Absolutely right about getting them off the floor. I used a single standard cinder block, laid on its side , painted black for looks, under each of mine. Although I have the 126's in mine, the problem is pretty much the same I would imagine. The other thing I found with mine is that, in all my past listening environments, the 65's like to be out of the corners....way out. That has helped to smotth out the deep bass, while the cinder blocks help the mid and upper bass. Also helps hide the hole in the midrange. IMHO

Also, I'm not personally a fan of stuffing anything in the port tubes. The porting is designed to allow equal woofer cone travel of the woofer on both the positive and negative sine wave 1/2 cycles. Blocking the ports will limit equal cone excursion. Not exactly good for faithful frequency reproduction.

Rick