I have a set of badly hacked, painted black Olympus cabs less components and grilles.
Since it would take a lot of money and time to bring them back to their former glory,
any ideas about a "modern" replacement complement to replace the original C-50 load?
(LE-15a; PR-15; Le-85; HL-91)
Something that mounts up to the original soundboard which is in pretty good shape.
I really don't want to send these to the burn pile. Any Ideas?
Last edited by 2turbos; 09-07-2015 at 10:16 AM. Reason: addl info
Post a photo so I can see just how bad they areOriginally Posted by 2turbos
Do you have those original drivers you listed?
C50 is a cabinet designation, nothing to do with the load compliment
I ask all of this as I am having a hard time understanding why the cabs are too bad to rehab for those wonderful vintage drivers but good enough to invest in "modern" drivers just to use the old boxes?
Anyway, please post a photo of the worse one; I may have a suggestion/be able to offer some help if you are so inclined
OK, these originally had the S-7-R complement of drivers. (LE-15a; PR-15; LE-85; HL-91 and LX-5 network)
I have none of these.
BTW the cabinets may have been used as a high school kids truck or car subwoofer box.
They are painted flat black and the front edge of the top has been hand sawed off flush with the speaker board.
Sorry, no pics at this time. I have not discovered how the top can be removed but I think I have enough skills and tools to duplicate one.
Also the bases are missing but that is not a great technical problem to reproduce.
The grilles and frames are gone.
From your description it sounds like all you have left now is two junk boxes
Load then with whatever you have on hand or come across at a thrift store and make a nice set of garage or patio party speakers
I don't understand why you would want to "restore" these if you don't even have any JBL loads to put in them? (even with modern cheap Parts Express junk it would be a poor return on your investment if these were something you wanted to use in a living room and have to look at everyday) Be more specific as to what you have in mind for them if you did load them back up?
All that being said, the veneer's been ruined with black paint, the cabinet mutilated with a saw and the contents robbed/missing..............not worth anymore effort than what I just suggested
Very desirable box in good shape but not rare enough to warrant trying to bring these back from the dead (now if it were a Paragon or the like it would be a different story)
Are they the plywood type or the particle board? Doesn't really make that much difference except if they were real plywood you might be able to salvage enough to use on another project (I never throw away decent lumber)
Put 'em on "craigslist"; maybe a struggling garage band can use them
In some parts of the world, what you describe is junk..in other places (essentially anywhere outside the US...) these are extremely rare and desirable vintage JBL cabinets that would be carefully restored . Paint can be stripped. New veneer applied. who knows... a few pics would really help.
I'd look for JBL 2235s, PR-15s, some 2425Js with H91 horns, a crossover and some reproduction lens. You might be able to fill those boxes up for around $1500 to $2k if you're careful/lucky. Or, use dual 2225s. Or transplant some old SRX or other JBL pro-sound components. Or, if you're on the cheap for new stuff, maybe look at Selenium woofers, drivers and horns. The make an H91 'clone' (of sorts) but not the lens. Basically, lots of possibilities, but IMHO the most expensive is finding vintage correct components.
Go easy with the foolish "advice"
No where (in the world) would those boxes, as the OP describes them, be candidates for a "carefully done" restoration
You can buy a decent pair of restorable Olympus still today WITH A JBL driver compliment for the money you suggest (depends on the compliment); it's not like you can find them everywhere, but the C50 is not a rare box if you take the time to look around. On top of that, Hal Cox (and others) built a shit load of them which were better constructed in many instances than some of the examples turned out by JBL towards the end of the run. I owned two pairs of his C51s and they were as nice or even better than my JBL "factory" builds (in all ways except the fancy grille versions)
Anyone with the skill to repair those boxes (if they are of the particle board variety) in the condition described by the OP is not going to waste their time, skill and money to glue the OP's chopped up examples back together; it would be easier to just build new ones. The plans are readily available.
And lastly, as you have also mentioned, photos would be a must before any decision was reached; they may not even be JBL "genuine" cabinets to begin with (and the odds are just as good that they aren't as they are that they are):
http://www.audioheritage.org/vbullet...BL-Olympus-S8R
Most "essentially" outside of the U.S.:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tA3xJgGAOBo
This truly is a time when the following applies:
you make many good points, but it was just advice. Foolish would be to restore them to factory-fresh. My point (that I didn't get across very well) was that for many people (er, like me) large boxes are not that easy to make or buy, and even the plywood alone would cost a fair amount just to buy. If 'one' wanted a large JBL system and did not have the means to build boxes, these could be a place to start. Paint can be stripped and new veneer applied - others here have done it to smaller boxes and they look very good when they're done. If that can be done to these boxes, that'll have to wait for pictures.
As you say, pictures would really help. I'm not sure what is meant by the 'bases were removed'.
Picture attached showing what some people do with these... I bet those are loud!!
I used the word "foolish" speaking to the monetary investment you were suggesting (and with little to no actual information as to what the OP actually has)
As for difficulties and the expenses incurred to deal with/acquire larger format cabs (and lumber)? You need to talk to (and befriend) the many Canadian forum members here who are giving KENRICK a run for their money with their home brew projects, more than a few of which are masterpieces.
Canada is probably the best place in the world (that I know of) to have speaker boxes made; they sure as hell own an enormous segment of the mass produced market
I,d like to see the polor pattern on those..
Wagner is pretty spot on. There's good cabinets out there as folks sell the drivers for more money than they can get otherwise due to shipping.
Thanks for the input, guys.
These are genuine JBL cabinets with the badges/plaques on the back.
You are right about the cost of redoing these approaching or exceeding what a set could be bought on the open market.
My thinking was a little bit of cabinet rehab, some modern components like what was suggested, Selenium, 2225's ect. maybe a constant directivity horn, AKA Ewave, a single woofer with no PR, and active crossover to throw a few ideas out there.
What say you?
I'll try to get pictures attached.
Base pieces are what is attached to the bottom, rectangular and maybe 2'' high.
I think it's all already been said, three or four times now.
If you want to stick something in them have at it.
Only you know what it is you're trying to accomplish.
I'm not 100% certain just exactly what that is unless you're just into the thought of "re-purposing"
There's nothing special about those cabinets (now that they've been hacked) that would make me want to use them for anything except maybe garage or patio junkers.
The chip/particle board from that era wasn't even particularly good.
So, you've got me!
And on top of it all, I personally wish that no one would continue to respond to this thread until you at least make the effort to post a damn picture of the junk and possibly we could find some merit in continuing the "well how about, whaddaya think do you think would this would work"conversation about a project that's not ever going to happen. (I'm looking at the mirror while I say that)
Then after these posts are about 5 years old, someone will see it and post to it again; that's the only life I see here.
Let someone see what the hell it is you've got if you're sincere about wanting to solicit some serious input.
The smartest thing to do (since you can't or won't post photos)
Going by your written descriptive?
Remove those badges and any other metal logos you may have if any and sell them on ebay.
You'll probably gross at least a $100 bucks if they're in nice shape.
Then put the rest of the crap on the curb for the garbage man.
As has already been noted, your response to a fellow member is a bit one sided.
Some people have a hard time building from scratch and just as much trouble re-building to original condition. Sometimes having a huge head start is all it takes to come up with something way better than one could afford to buy or construct from Scratch.
I say we should support people who want to even re-purpose decently constructed cabinetry.
I can not imagine what you would say if I revealed what my most recent project involved.
I actually asked for some suggestions and was ignored, fine. BUT I made about 200 local church goers very happy by taking some MDF to my saw and recycling some mid level garbage find into something usable. I added late 80s tech electronics and created something better than they had before.
Not ALL old JBL is garbage!
Some, even compromised by idiots, could still serve a purpose.
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