JBL neo taking the L300 plunge

[raffy1218]

Hello all,

After much deliberation, first on the 4425 and L65, I decided to spend quite a bit more and get the elusive L300. This I blame mostly to the sound I heard from a late "local" guru who had passed away a couple of years ago but still remember the best horns to date, at least for me. I thought that I would hunt for them later on, but the more I researched here and in other sites like Audio Karma I decided that if I did come across a mint pair, I would go for it. Seeing that there is such a following for these speakers. i do love the glass tops, could come in handy in a party

I barely missed Dan's mint one at Audiogon for about 3.6k and was gonna settle for a pair of Jubal's but for about 1.6k landed (i live in the far east) I wasn't yet that convinced. Scouring the net (oh yes, hunitng them down is very fun indeed) I finally found one through a contact in Singapore, no I don't live there. The pictures justified it's 3k price, 3.6k landed. All in all I guess a fair deal considering if I got a mint pair in the US for 2.5k the shipping and handling would come close. This way my contact got to see and hear the units and pack it himself.

Reading the many posts on the L300s I have a few questions to the owners here, again kindly excuse these newbie questions:

1. I've read the caps and crossover will benefit from updated ones, wht are the values of these caps and how many so i may procure and see what is out here. What about internal wiring?

2. How can I tell if the woofers need refoaming? Where can I get these for repair?

3. There are True Value shops here, any suggestions and instructions for maintaing the L300 veneer? Am i supposed to keep the speaker away from the window/sunlight?

4. How far apart do you guys reco the speakers should be? Toed in?

5. Speaker cables - silver or copper?

I do appreciate in advance the tips and suggestions, also thanks to those who "influenced" the investment Aslo to MM54 and the other L300 owners who too share the same passion and love for these classics


cheers!
raffy

unit arriving in 3 weeks, will be my first jbl, will send appropriate pics when they rrive if someone can point me how to do it

[Doc Mark]

Hi, Raffy,

Congratulations on scoring a wonderful pair of L300's!! My wife, Sweet Bride, and I dearly love ours, and every time we listen to them, which is almost daily, we are re-amazed at just how good they sound! Though we've only had ours for a year, or so, I will try to offer my thoughts on your questions.

You wrote:
Reading the many posts on the L300s I have a few questions to the owners here, again kindly excuse these newbie questions:

1. I've read the caps and crossover will benefit from updated ones, wht are the values of these caps and how many so i may procure and see what is out here. What about internal wiring?

Answer: Yes, all older JBL crossovers can benefit from a reworking. Ours have had their caps bypassed with better caps, and they sound great. But, I also believe that totally replacing the original caps, with newer and much better caps is the way to go. Look around in the "Library" reference section on this site, and you will find the original schematics for the L300 crossover, which will tell you everything you need to know about the values involved.

2. How can I tell if the woofers need refoaming? Where can I get these for repair?

Answer: Most of the time, but not always, you can see cracks in the foam surround, or a change in color from the way it originally looked. You can also lightly run your finger on your surround, to see if it is soft and pliable, or brittle and flaky. If you do need to have your woofers refoamed, I would strongly suggest you seek out a qualified JBL Service Center in your area, to do this work for you. There are many shops that "say" they know what they are doing in this respect, but I've found that quite a few of them are what I would call "fly by night" places, with no real JBL experience. I found one in Arizona last year. The Tech seemed like a nice fellow, but was NOT using JBL OEM parts in the work he did on JBL speakers. Do yourself a favor and find a REAL JBL Service Center. Your soon to be beloved L300's deserve that kind of consideration, in my opinion, and you'll be glad you sought out the best, after any needed work has been done!

3. There are True Value shops here, any suggestions and instructions for maintaing the L300 veneer? Am i supposed to keep the speaker away from the window/sunlight?

Answer: There are many ways to maintain your lovely JBL veneer. Using the "search" function here on LH, you can find many of them, including the original formula for making JBL's recommended "potion" for keeping their veneers looking great. Pick the one that seems best to you. Some, like the original forumula, take drying time, and have a certain odor until they dry. That leads many to use other products, like Howard's Feed and Wax, and other such things, which also do a very good job. DEFINITELY keep your JBL's out of the sunlight, and away from any source of heat.

4. How far apart do you guys reco the speakers should be? Toed in?

Answer: This would depend on your own listening room, me thinks. In our listening room, for example, we have our L300's about five feet apart, and toed in. We would love to be able to have them a bit farther apart, but this will not happen in our room, at least they way it is currently configured. When we are sitting in our normal listening position, we are about fourteen feet from the L300's. They sound wonderful in this situation! I would like to raise ours up just a bit, to experiment with any differences that might make in tweeter dispersion. But, even as they are, we love the sound of our L300's!!

5. Speaker cables - silver or copper?

Answer: Ahhh, this one is a can of worms, and can provide some fun, and educational information, if you keep an open mind! Here is my opinion on speaker cables: I think you can do just fine with lamp cord, as long as it is larger than 18 guage!! Yes, heresy, to some, and they are welcome to their opinion. And, in truth, we use Monster Cable on our L300's, but only because that is what I bought, back when I used to work for a stereo store, many years ago, as I got it for a very good price. It sounds outstanding to us, but the only real difference that I could tell between Monster Cable, and our regular old lamp cord, which we used before, is that the high frequencies seem a little more open, with cymbal decay sounding more natural and less compressed to our ears. I heard this right away, back when I swapped out the lamp cord for Monster Cable, and the interesting thing is that Sweet Bride heard it, too! I never even told her what I had done to the system, when I swapped out the wire. But, she told me that our system, which was NOT a JBL-based system back then, sounded more "sweet" and more open. For us, the proof was in the pudding, so we stuck with that speaker cable for all these years. But, I do think that any good 16-12 gauge lamp cord will work very well for you, too, without having to send tons of coin on some of the more exotic offerings of today. Just my opinion, and worth, of course, what you paid to read it!

I hope these thoughts have been of some help to you, Sir, and wish you a long and happy life with your new L300's! Please do post some photos of your new JBL's, once they have safely landed in your home, and you have had some time to enjoy them. Take care, and God Bless!

Every Good Wish,
Doc

P.S. One other things to check out, when your L300's arrive. Do not crank the horns up all the way when you first listen to them! Rather, using a variety of good music, set the horns in the mid-area, and see how things sound. When we bought our L300's, the horns were cranked up way too much for our ears, they listener fatigue quickly set in for both of us. Once I did some experimenting, we cranked the horns down quite a bit, and now they sound normal and natural, and we can listen to them for hours with no ear fatigue at all! Again, have fun, and congratulations!

[hjames]

Original Crossover Schematic can be found here:

L300 Summit - http://manuals.harman.com/JBL/HOM/Te...ummit%20ts.pdf

L300A Summit - http://manuals.harman.com/JBL/HOM/Te...ummit%20ts.pdf

It is recommended to replace old tired caps with new ones -
suggest doing site search for more specifics on what brand to use and from what source -
price may be an issue ...

Woofer refoaming? What does the surround look like?
if it is not crumbling and falling apart, it should be fine.
Do some searches on the site to look at other L300s and see what they look like ...


Opinion varies about using OEM wires or high end custom wires -
just remember - with few exceptions, JBL doesn't use high priced internal wires
within the cabinet to connect crossovers to drivers -
a good quality large gauge stranded copper should be fine.

The same holds true for the actual amp-to-speaker wire
I put banana plugs on the end of my wires to make it easier to connect them up,
and on the few JBLs speakers I bought that came with twist-lock connectors,
I changed them out for 5-way banana jacks - but - that's just what I like ...

Hello all,

Reading the many posts on the L300s I have a few questions to the owners here, again kindly excuse these newbie questions:

1. I've read the caps and crossover will benefit from updated ones, what are the values of these caps and how many so i may procure and see what is out here. What about internal wiring?

2. How can I tell if the woofers need refoaming? Where can I get these for repair?

3. There are True Value shops here, any suggestions and instructions for maintaing the L300 veneer? Am i supposed to keep the speaker away from the window/sunlight?

4. How far apart do you guys reco the speakers should be? Toed in?

5. Speaker cables - silver or copper?

I do appreciate in advance the tips and suggestions, also thanks to those who "influenced" the investment Aslo to MM54 and the other L300 owners who too share the same passion and love for these classics


cheers!
raffy

unit arriving in 3 weeks, will be my first jbl, will send appropriate pics when they rrive if someone can point me how to do it

[BMWCCA]

The pictures justified it's 3k price . . .

:dont-know



http://audioheritage.org/vbulletin/f...b3_attachments

I truly am happy for you and just want to share in your happiness!

[midlife]

cheers!
raffy

unit arriving in 3 weeks, will be my first jbl, will send appropriate pics when they rrive if someone can point me how to do it[/quote]
Congrats on the L300s, I had a pair for years and always enjoyed them, I think you will too. What kinds of other gear will be supporting them?

[raffy1218]

Wow! Heaps of advice from the wise doc mike and hjames, thank you!!! Will get the schematic of the crossover and prepare for when it arrives. That's when I can properly post some pictures of it when it does come in, hopefully in one piece, fingers crossed. (bmwcca will attempt to post pics that seller sent, if someone can give instructions for dummies )

To answer midlife, the supporting gear for these puppies in my 2nd system:

Amps: jadis ja 30, leak st 20, quad 2, mcintosh mc 60 gold edition, OR musical fidelity x200 monos

preamp : jadis jps2

digital: jadis jd1/js1 combo or ipod

analog : emt 930st with built in phono, denon 103d cart

cables : audience au24

btw room won't be small but terrible acoustics, plan to place them bout 15 feet apart and toe em in listening bout 12-14 feet away

This could be the longest 3 weeks of my life

cheers

raffy

[raffy1218]

bmwcca apologies, i didnt see your link my bad, and thank you!!

[raffy1218]

trying to upload a picture from the seller



cheers

[raffy1218]

BMWCCA,

I love the look of your speakers with that wooden grill that covers the mid driver. Definitely unique and WAF friendly. Is that a DIY project? If not would you be kind enough to share the source of the artisan? Would that work with the Summits?

TIA

raffy

[hjames]

BMWCCA,

I love the look of your speakers with that wooden grill that covers the mid driver. Definitely unique and WAF friendly. Is that a DIY project? If not would you be kind enough to share the source of the artisan? Would that work with the Summits?

TIA

raffy

His were from a Japanese source, mine were US Made ...
got mine a couple weeks ago, from Foam Trends ... $225 (w/free shipping).
(its a new product for them - and looks great!)

http://audioheritage.org/vbulletin/s...ad.php?t=25864

[raffy1218]

Hjames,

Beautiful! I did notice yours are a fuller version, while BMWCCAs has a cut on top. Matches the finish of your speakers perfectly.

Thank you for the lead, hope they can finish to the shade of the L300s which seem a few clicks darker than your bid boys.

Thanks and cheers!

raffy

[BMWCCA]

BMWCCA,

I love the look of your speakers with that wooden grill that covers the mid driver. Definitely unique and WAF friendly. Is that a DIY project? If not would you be kind enough to share the source of the artisan? Would that work with the Summits?

My reproduction 4345 cabinets with the black-ash baffle were the work of a member here, "saeman". His superb craftmanship is shown on the business site of another member here, Kenji: http://jbl43.com/?pid=11689480

If you scroll down on that link you'll see the wood lens in closeup. They are beautifully made, I'm not sure by whom—and relatively expensive. They came to me as part of my 4345 reproduction purchase from another member here: NewZenith. I particularly like the way they look on the black baffle which should give you an idea what they'd look like on your L300s. I'm sure "saeman" would be able to tell you who made them, if it wasn't him, or (given where you live) you could contact Kenrick Sound directly for a pair.

[raffy1218]

BMWCCA,

Great leads! But you are correct they don't come cheap, I have emailed Foam Trends and should do a comparative on pricing with your sources. Nice to know that so many members are also superb manufacturers of JBL and JBL aftermarket products. If you hadn't pointed it out I would've thought that your 4345s were a special edition. Looks awesome. BTW, I always drooled in Kenrick Sound's website but will now attempt to get a quote from their website which is not proving that easy. Arigato gozaimas

Keep you gents posted

Cheers

Raffy

[BMWCCA]

I always drooled in Kenrick Sound's website but will now attempt to get a quote from their website which is not proving that easy.

More eye-candy, and maybe a direct contact, for you here: http://www.audioheritage.org/vbullet...339#post118339

[Hertzz]

You lucky man! Enjoy these classic loudspeakers. My absolute favorite cabinet design along with The Paragon.