New owner of OLD JBL Studio Monitors

[armstrong750]

Hello all!

I am the new owner of some old JBL monitors that need to be restored. They belonged to my parents, but haven’t been used in over 20 years. I’ve had dibs on them for the past 30 years, and finally got my hands on them. These are the speakers I grew up listening to (and loving). My plan is to use them in a vintage two channel system with a turntable.

I'm not sure of the exact model number. Based on captions of photos I've found that look like my speakers, they're either C50 Studio Monitors, L100's, 4325's, 4320's or some combination of these labels. My understanding was that they were made around 1968. They have LE15A woofers, LE85 horns, and LX5 crossovers. I've attached a photo. My speakers are one of the two that are stacked at right.

Well, I got them home and started the process of decontaminating them of cat hair and 20+ years of dust, and determining current condition.

Woofers: Sadly, the first thing I noticed was that one of them had been replaced with a JBL K130. The remaining LE15A is need of reconing or a new surround. Any advice on finding a replacement LE15A would be helpful, as would info regarding the reconing (anyone in the Dallas area do this?).

Horns: since I didn't even hook the speakers up, I don't know if they're functional. What can go wrong?

Cabinets: they're structurally sound (no pun intended), and have suffered only minor dings in a few of the sharp edges. My wife hates the white, and I'm not crazy about it either. But I can't see painting them any other color. Suggestions?

Crossovers: One of the main input terminals appears to have been bumped hard enough to break the area around the terminal itself. I would like to upgrade the terminals altogether. Is this feasible and/or practical?

Grills: kindling and black burlap. I'll have to reconstruct them from scratch, which shouldn't be a difficult job.

Baffles/Diffusers: I've seen them in pictures, and once, long ago in my dad's closet. Should I replace them? Can they be found? Whether I like them or not (it appears someone in my family didn't), I'd like to have them to complete the restoration.

Any help or advice (including 'start with another pair of speaks') would be welcome.


Thanks in advance!
David

[hjames]

Hi David - good morning!

I went down a long path with studio monitors, starting with a pair of 4320 2-way speakers I drove to Philly to get, in Feb 2006 ...
I did some checks and they had 2215 woofers and LE85 horn assemblies ... but I grew them into 3 ways swapped parts around, and the end result are in a pair of L200B cabinets in my upstairs ...

Here is a picture from the early days when I was starting to switch parts from the 4320 cabinets on the right into the L200 cabinets in the middle - my 4320 cabinets came in Walnut finish but they were also available in a grey industrial paint finish ... perhaps that what your white ones were? (note the way the top and bottom lip of the 4320 cabinet overhangs ...)

The thing in the middle of the 4320 cabinet is a JBL 2308 lens - helps time-delay the output of the horn to better match the woofer.

Anyway, there is a bunch of information from folks here as that project developed over the years ...
I added a supertweeter, built a better crossover, and grew it into a 3 way design to capture more of the highs
we are used to in contemporary music ...

www.audioheritage.org/vbulletin/showthread.php?9796-4320-Project

Maybe your parents speakers looked like these (but in white?)

Hello all!

I am the new owner of some old JBL monitors that need to be restored. They belonged to my parents, but haven’t been used in over 20 years. I’ve had dibs on them for the past 30 years, and finally got my hands on them. These are the speakers I grew up listening to (and loving). My plan is to use them in a vintage two channel system with a turntable.

I'm not sure of the exact model number. Based on captions of photos I've found that look like my speakers, they're either C50 Studio Monitors, L100's, 4325's, 4320's or some combination of these labels. My understanding was that they were made around 1968. They have LE15A woofers, LE85 horns, and LX5 crossovers.

Thanks in advance!
David

From the Library part of the Lansing site: 1970's JBL Monitor Lineup (clockwise from top left) 4310, 4325, 4320 and 4350