L65 Sound impressions - help

[Fjonkalicious]

Hi Everyone,

I am new at this forum, I recently bought me a pair of JBL L65 Jubal (the first one). The speakers in is fair/ok visual condition but with refoamed woofers, this was done for about 2 years ago. This is my first pair of JBLs so everything is very "new" to me. I´ve had a few pair of speakers before, but never anything in this size/caliber. I am currently testing them out in my livingroom and I find some things a little bit different from my other speakers, probably some of my problems can be tuned, please hear me out.

As reference I use a pair of Yamaha HS-80M. Of course, this is a much smaller speaker with only a 8" woofer. And it is active too.

Amplifier: Tested both Akai AA-1200 and Luxman R-1050
Signal: Macbook Pro C2D.
Room: approx 24 squaremeter. Blank walls.
Speaker position: 65cm out from backwall. 180 cm apart from each other.
Listening position: Approx 260 cm from speakers.

I am used to listen to the Yamahas, I use them as my computerspeakers and I am quite pleased with them, they got nice dry,accurate,punchy bass and lots of detail. Sometimes i find the highs a little bit sharp.

I have listened to my JBLs for two days now, trying to get the most out of them. Initially I am pleased, they are good performers, better than my other speakers in the livingroom. The first thing that hit was the amount of bass and this is actually my only problem. I find it sometimes muddy and unaccurate, is it supposed to be like this? I have adjusted the bass slightly less than zero on both amplifiers (you can forget loudness). On the adjustable filters on the speakers I have set both mids and highs to +3. I also put the speakers on 3 cm thick rubberfoam pieces, trying to get rid of some floor vibrations. I am quite confident that the foaming is correct and it is the right woofers.

It is difficult to me to put it in to words but sometimes I feel that the bass is more suited for movies than music. I have quite a lot of "rumble" and "standing waves" in the room. I have tried the "dirty sock trick" but in my case the socks where clean Didn´t experience much improvement...I took them out.

As I live in a apartment I can´t play too loud, but I find them more suitable for higher volume, when you play louder you get more "punchyness". But I can´t play like that, my neighbours would kill me.

I am using Itunes and if I use the Eq. there and drops 125 Hz totally I get rid of a lot of the "rumble" but I also lose some information in the music.

I have read all(all I could find anyway) threads about L65s in the forum and some say that you should put them on a stand and that is not a solution for me.

Does anyone know if the bass is better in the L65A with the 122A bass? I also bought a pair of these, but the woofers need refoaming.

Very thankful for answers and help!

/Filip

[timc]

I have a pair of the old Jubals, and i can't say i think the bass is muddy. However it needs a really good amplifier to controll the woofer. I have tried several expensive amplifiers that fail in this task.

The speakers also need alot of attention when set up. They hate standing next to a sidwall in my room. Backwall is not very critcal though.

The 122A woofers are supposed to be better. I have never heard them.


Good luck with your L65's



-Tim

[Fjonkalicious]

I have a pair of the old Jubals, and i can't say i think the bass is muddy. However it needs a really good amplifier to controll the woofer. I have tried several expensive amplifiers that fail in this task.

The speakers also need alot of attention when set up. They hate standing next to a sidwall in my room. Backwall is not very critcal though.

The 122A woofers are supposed to be better. I have never heard them.


Good luck with your L65's



-Tim

Thanks a lot Tim!

Maybe you are right. I like vintage electronics and speakers, the most powerful of my amplifiers is a Akai AA-1200 with 130W per channel. I guess that much of the "muddy" bass could be corrected with different positions in the room. My biggest problem is that I have to, for interior decoration purposes, put them even closer to the sidewall than now.

Do you have any amplifiers to recommend or specs of what is needed to make the perform even better. I would love vintage suggestions!

Thanks a lot for your help!

[Don C]

Can you put something under them to lift them up? I'd try something ugly first, (cardboard box, another speaker) then if it has helped, make or buy something nice.

[timc]

Can you put something under them to lift them up? I'd try something ugly first, (cardboard box, another speaker) then if it has helped, make or buy something nice.

Oh. Forgot to mention that. Standing on the floor they sounded awfull at my apartment. I have lifted them about 40cm of the ground with some boxes. That did the trick. Also they sound best with alot of toe in. I just barely see the inside of the enclosure. That gave me the best transition between the drivers.

I run mine on a Crown XTi-1000 atm. Tremendous lows, but a not very god HF on that one. I would look for some vintage ARC i think. LS2 + VT100 MK2 maybe. Perhaps not Vintage enough.......


-Tim

[4313B]

They're supposed to be end tables that you put lamps and stuff on so it's no real wonder that they don't sound all that great as mains. They're for background music I guess. Placing something like an L112 flat on the floor achieves pretty much the same poor performance.

Just rebuild the boxes so they look more like bookshelf loudspeakers and get them up off the floor. That should do the trick.

I always did like the way they looked with the grilles on and used them exactly for what they were, end tables that could produce decent enough background music. One doesn't sit down and "critically listen" to an L65.

[timc]

One doesn't sit down and "critically listen" to an L65.

Hey! Don't mock me because i used to do that!..... Just kidding

For their price though i just can't agree with you. I have tried and failed searching for a new speaker in its price range, (about NOK 6-8k here in Norway) that comes even remotly close to its performance.

That it is lesser design the 43xx/44xx i have no doubts about.


-Tim

[4313B]

For their price though i just can't agree with you.

Yeah, they were pretty expensive when they came out.

I think we all agree that they are a classic from their era. I sure had alot of fun with them.

[3dbdown]

I Bought my L65's brand new in 1975, while working at JBL. I knew full well, eyes open, that they were not the best sounding system we made. I bought them for the furniture, as living in a furnished apartment, one had to get a lot of utility out of everything. Withot a doubt, they are one of the most beautiful cabinets ever to come out of JBL.

The first thing I did was uncouple them from the carpeted floor by placing them on cinder blocks, one each, laying on their sides. That really tightened up the mid and upper bass. That helped to get my ears past the fact that the Jubal has no midrange. Very unusual situation for a JBL product. About 1981, I visited my buddies at JBL, and we swapped the midrange cones for LE5-9's, which helped only slightly. But, I learned to live with, as one notable transducer engineer pointed out, the "Boom and Tizz".

I love them though, and am stunned by the prices they get on E-bay. Just unbelievable. I keep them now because they were the first system I bought while at JBL, and they've been with me for 33 years.

I really don't believe you can do much to correct the sound if you keep all the stock components. You either love 'em or hate 'em. I love 'em, and am also helped out by my 4311B's, my 4430's, and my Alpha's.

I run a completely restored Fisher 400 tube receiver and turntable only on the Alpha's exclusively for my vinyls, a Marantz 2325 on the 4311B's, mostly for period correctness. I am currently running a pair of QSC RMX850's, briged-mono, into the 4430's, with the temptation to bi-amp them at a later date. I don't really thing that will improve them much, but I'll try it anyway. But it's all studio gear that I have on hand, and it's getting the job done. I guess the point is that they all sounded good in their day, and it's nice to have a choice finally....

Rick