You know, participating in a forum such as this is really cool because of all the technical information one can gleen and all the great ideas that are passed around. But what's really neat is how you can meet some really great people who can make your day.
Case in point is Heather (Hjames). As you can see in another post, a group of us met in Tyson's Corner yesterday to check out the Harman traveling demo truck. I had been meaning to email the group over the past few weeks to let them know I'm in the market for a pair of L80T or L100T as a "fixer upper" project for me and my oldest son, Liam. When making the preparations to meet via email, Heather told me about a pair of L100T's she was thinking of getting. I told her that if she decided to not purchase them, or if she wanted to resell them later (at market value), I'd be happy to grab them.
We discussed it a little more when we all met in Tyson's. Later in the afternoon, Heather called me and mulled it over and offered to let me buy them directly from the seller because she thought the father/son fixer upper idea was cool. Of course, I jumped at the chance.
Oh yeah, I didn't tell you the price. Only $100!!!!!!!
Well, the seller was only about 12 miles from my house. I just got back from picking them up and they are really nice and are going to be a great project pair of speakers. Here's the skinny:
Woofers: Both are in fine mechanical shape, but need new foam and a little cleaning. No biggie, a Rick Cobb special will be ordered ASAP.
Mids: Both are in very good shape; just need a little cleaning.
Tweeters: One is working and is in good shape. One is not working, but I haven't had a chance to see if it's blown or if there's some other reason.
Cabinets: They have some small chips on them and a couple scratches and water stains, but hey, these are project speakers!We might build new ones out of MDF with more bracing or we might re-veneer them. Liam would like them to be black ash. If anyone knows how to do a proper black finish to ash, please let me know.
Grills: One grill has a few broken pegs. If we make new cabinets of different dimensions, this will be a moot point. But Liam had a great idea that we'll try if we just we reveneer the cabinets. Since the grills are just lightweight plastic, he suggested we cut off all the grill pegs and glue on magnets. Then we could put the opposite magnets under the new veneer! Cool idea!
JBL Decals: I'll post pictures below, but you'll note that the JBL decals on the backs are different from each other. One is a darker black, is textured, and has the serial number printed on it. The other is smooth, lighter black, and has no serial number. There's a white paper sticker on the input terminal with what I think is the serial number for that speaker. So, they're either a miss-matched pair from different manufacturing runs, or maybe one is a Chinese knock-off?
Crossovers: I'm thinking of upgrading them to T3 status. At a minimum, I'll replace all the caps with better quality ones. And, I'll improve the internal wiring just because it will be easy and inexpensive.
If anybody has any cool ideas, please let them flow!
And a GREAT BIG thanks to Heather from me and Liam.
!
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