So I have “warm-handed” inherited the family Paragons; dad is (still luckily) on his kick about it being: “better to give with a warm hand… than a cold one”.
I can’t share in that… as luckily no dependents have come knocking on my door, unexpected or otherwise
But something that all of us here JBL-nuts may share … ‘hearing loss’ in our {hopefully much} later years. Dad’s new speakers fit entirely behind his ears, and play to 145 DECIBELS! He also tries to limit climbing stairs, which is where the Paragons were for the last 25 years, slowly becoming the last thing to be disconnected where they sat still for the last 10 years (but they still ‘looked’ like they were speeding!;-).
This pair was built by dad himself from around 1969-1974 (hey - cut him some slack, he doesn’t afford any to himself lol; he was building a house at the same time which he designed these around!).
Dad also had great vision in his hey-hey-hey-days envisioning a day when a big screen tv would be affordable, and in color ... which he wanted to place in the center, with R+L Paragons flanking… ya know .. like normal stereophonics ?! So he gets on his letter-writing campaign with JBL and proceeds to design his own plans, while working with JBL folks and their plans, to be R+L halves. That’s the most striking difference anyway in these Paragons … but hey if you’re open to changing *that* … go bonkers right?? (..or maybe that's another one of my genetic inheritances :-0)
These both use the LE15A… and so after removing a back panel and woofer, we found the surround to be harder than good ole American drywall… not that cheap toxic Chinese stuff… though really... what’s in this magical 'lansoloy' compound, with its type-of-rubber-that-never-wears-out-given-proper-lubrication!??? ... More magical JBL sorcery !!?!!! Hey these JBL speakers go SOOOOO fast … you need to apply brake fluid to them… and regularly !!! lolz. That Is Awesome!
So a couple starter questions as I’m trying to revive these obese babies:
- is the brake fluid still the ‘solution’?? I scoured and finally found this post, which it seems to be the penultimate guide to the application of braking fluid to lansaloy surrounds:??
(is this in fact ‘the one’, and still ‘applicable’ to the LE15A?) somebody mentioned to only DOT 3 and that Ford was best??
http://www.audioheritage.org/vbullet...14A-and-others
- what’s the good word on using “other” woofers in Paragon(s) or something the size and brea(d)th of the Paragon woofer enclosure with big horns on the other side? I tried an old & sorta tired 2231A in one enclosure, unfort the other 2231A has beaten its last non-metallic-sounding breath. I can’t make any real ‘loud’ comparisons … because the right half is still stuck, between a magnet and hard place (Until I get in there and brake it!) So go bonkers here… I know every time I see a 15” opening … I think of stuffing a W15GTi MkII in it and plugging it straight to the wall! So .. What’s in your Paragons??? Or ya know, what else could be fitting for in there??
Thx.
Any feedback / hyperlinks very much appreciated! (pics, yes, I know .. I need to search for stuff)