Making or buying cabinets?

[robertbartsch]

So many sellers these days seem to be parting-out speakers systems, in part, as a result of high shipping charges, I assume.

What do most folks do when they buy components and try to assemble a system from components;

1. make their own boxes in the basement,
2. buy inexpensive commerically available PA boxes and alter them, for example, add wood veneer, new cloth, etc.
3. Have a cabnet shop make boxes from scratch to their own specifications?
4. Mount them in the ceiling and hope the roof does not leak?

[SMKSoundPro]

Strippers and Flippers.

The parts are worth more than the whole!

Its that simple.

Generally frowned on, here, I surmised.

Seems as though one person is stripping the components out of one box then selling to another individual trying to re-assemble the same speaker box somewhere else. Just sell the whole speaker system to the other person.

Vintage parts is another ball of wax. I understand buying pieces and parts to reburbish or replace broken or missing parts, BUT I will not strip and flip a whole pair of perfectly good speakers.

[The above views are solely my own, and are not in any way to be construed as those of the owner of this forum, moderators, or other members of this forum, Or of JBL, or Harmon Inc. ]

Scott M. Koeller.

[Zilch]

What do most folks do when they buy components and try to assemble a system from components?

There is another option which you don't mention, which has become modus operandi for me, as I have neither the skills nor equipment for box building:

For every system parted out, there are empty cabinets suitable for adaptive reuse which can often be had for free. Sometimes you have to be creative to get them, but for every LE14A on eBay, for example, there may be some nice S99 cabs available from a local speaker dismantler. I've illustrated in other threads what can be done with those, KLH6s, AR4, AR2, L200, L220, 4507, etc.

My local commercial vintage audio recycler has a monthly garage sale. There's always a wall of empty cabinets to choose from, some of them very high quality....

[Allanvh5150]

If you have the time and inclination you can build your own cabs. If you dont have the skills or the gear to do it, your local cabinet shop will be able to do the job for you at a reasonable cost. I have recently finished 4 L150's that I built up from parts. I sourced the parts through Ebay and even purchased 2 L150's complete and got the guy to strip them for me and just send the speakers and electronics. Living in New Zealand, the cost to get cabinets here is huge money and just isnt worth the bother. Also, when you build yourself, you can customise the finish or even the shape of the box. And if you want to build them into a wall or ceiling space you can build a basic box with a nice front on it and still get the benefits of the JBL designed cabinet.

[macaroonie]

http://audioheritage.org/vbulletin/s...ad.php?t=17238

[duaneage]

www.partsexpress.com sells boxes in knockdown that are easily assembled. www.madisound.com also sold cabs, other sites do too.

I build my own and enjoy it. I'm currently working on a few ideas and may post some here. Search for 4411 clones and see a pair i made 3 years ago.

[robertbartsch]

Thx.

I've looked for what seems like hours at the different sellers of boxes without finding any furnture grade enclosures that would house a 15 inch LF driver and a moderate sized compression driver and horn lens.

Seems like all the cabinet designes today are for massive woofers of 6 inches or so.

I'm drawing some plans now and will see if I can get a cabinet maker to build them.

[subwoof]

perhaps an empty vintage cabinet to begin the rebuild process??

There is enough room to install the 2452 / 2381 combo in the 4331 cabinet and gee - the cabinet is already tuned for the standard JBL foam 15 2235H....

sub

[robertbartsch]

Blue Blue:

This is exactly what I need. Are you the owner of these boxes?

I suppose it would cost a small fortune to ship them to Westchester NY; right? I base that on recent experience from shipping much smaller L100 cabinets to NY from Calf., which was a near C-note via UPS.

[Zilch]

Well, they're a little wider than your target 18", of course.

Unless it's multiple projects you're talking about in the maddening plethora of threads you've open in various forums here....

[hjames]

Blue Blue:

This is exactly what I need. Are you the owner of these boxes?

I suppose it would cost a small fortune to ship them to Westchester NY; right? I base that on recent experience from shipping much smaller L100 cabinets to NY from Calf., which was a near C-note via UPS.

Its not like you are shipping them coast to coast -
He's in NY and YOU are in NY ...
take a nice drive and GO GET 'EM!

[robertbartsch]

...good idea!

finger lakes for me is just a 7 or 8 hour drive, I guess...

[subwoof]

I just spent 70 bucks to NOT EVEN FILL my minivan...:o(

And it's even worse for the guys who drive the rigs so figure ANYTHING over 20 miles will cost a C note.

Yes, those are all mine - I have a habit of rescuing cabinets / systems that have fallen into disrepair and or are empty. I have a cabinet shop and can recreate grills, bases and veneer where needed and for some reason, these all plopped into my sphere of detection in the last 2 years while I had time to surf.

Now that the wife is doing better, and the oldest will be of to college in the fall, I will need to get some of these FINISHED and sold to pay the looming tuition bills.....

I see that you have multiple threads and without digging through all of them, exactly what are you looking to accomplish??

Remember the laws of physics + acoustics + economics before you decide on a 15" woof in an 18" wide box (1) that goes to 20hz (2) and is only 100 bucks (3)

sub

ps - I can drive to manhatten in less than 4 hours so for you it's a little less.

[robertbartsch]

Sub:

OK, so I assume you have collected these to refurbish them in your cabinet shop, so I suppose I would prefer not to re-finish anything unless I have no other choice. They need not be perfect but I'm married; got the picture?

Ideally, I would like something that is not too wide but the CABs shown below could work. Are they about 22-24 inches wide; right? I need grills that are rebuilt or re-buildable. Are the front baffles removable or are they glued?

[email protected]

Could you make some measurements and provide a few price ranges for two or three CAB pairs that you think might work for me?

For example, this info would be nice:

OEM Cab - (JBL - L-XXX)
Condition - scale 1-10 (X.X)
Size (W X H X D)
Grill ( Y/N)
X-Overs (Y/N)
Price range ($XXX - $XXX)
Replace front baffle (add $XX)
Rebuild grill (add $XX)

Thanks....

[hjames]

Sub:

OK, so I assume you have collected these to refurbish them in your cabinet shop, so I suppose I would prefer not to re-finish anything unless I have no other choice. They need not be perfect but I'm married; got the picture?

Ideally, I would like something that is not too wide but the CABs shown below could work. Are they about 22-24 inches wide; right? I need grills that are rebuilt or re-buildable. Are the front baffles removable or are they glued?


Thanks....

hmmm he's got 4331 cabinets - you might to check out the original 4331 designs and see if it is anything like your needs ...

You can do a little research right here on this site:
Go to the Library -
look under PRO speakers -
http://www.lansingheritage.org/html/...o-speakers.htm

The brochure shows the 4330/31 is a 2 way version in a nice cabinet ...
the dimensions and specs are here ...
http://www.lansingheritage.org/image...4331/page3.jpg

Course you can put a slot tweeter in there and make it a 3 way easy enough ... just get a 3 way crossover, or a 2 way and biamp.