Just acqired a pair of L212 speakers ...

[hjames]

Should have them a bit after Christmas - they are a-travellin' ...
Not perfect, a ding in the base, some scratches and chips, they need surrounds for the Mid-Bass drivers,
(but I'm told the other drivers are fine) I should redo the grills (I do have some monitor blue left!),
I probably ought to rebuild the old crossovers - and its just the towers, there is no Bass module -
so I'll probably just pair them with a powered Volkswoofer I've had good luck with in the pass ...
More info later this year ...

[BMWCCA]

Oh no! Not a JBL in the house?

Good for you.

No pics? It didn't happen.

[hjames]

Oh no! Not a JBL in the house?

Good for you.

No pics? It didn't happen.

I still have JBLs in the house ...
L19 in the exercise room ...
L20Ts in the office
Dhar's old 4641 sub in the TV room
and - I consider the 2 pairs of UREI 809As in the same room to be JBL heritage due to the drivers, at the very least!
As well as the Bass/base boxes under them with the 2214 drivers ...

Remember, no bass unit, just the pair of towers -
I'll post more pix of the L212s once they arrive ...

[BMWCCA]

They look to be in pretty good shape!

[Mr. Widget]

Congratulations!!!

Those are one of my JBL favs... at least from a design standpoint. I haven't heard a pair since the late '70s. I was Impressed then, but I'm not sure that counts. I imagine you will want to pair them with a quality sub that can do more than HT performance.


After you get them settled in do let us know how they perform.


Widget

[mortron]

Nice Score Heather!

Are these the ones that used to come with a sub? I saw a pair of these for a song, and didn't run... because I thought the sub was needed to complete the set. Doh

They look like they will be a nice project, nothing too crazy as far as what they should need, and will be beauties when done. Congrats!

[grumpy]

Nice. Alnico or ferrite (later production) woofer?
Just curious. Appear well preserved, vs most

[hjames]

I don't have them in hand yet, can't say if they are alnico or ferrite drivers ...but in a couple weeks I'll know.
They are supposed to come with a sub,but from all I have read, the subs were a bit fragile,
the energizer (amp section) had issues and the sub driver didn't have a lot of travel and could be bottomed too easily.
Or so people who have owned working ones have told me.
But a couple years ago Seawolf said some good things about the M&K volkswoofers, so I found and bought one back then.
I fell in love with the curved walnut box and bought one - and its a great sub on its own.
So, I'll probably use that with the L212s, if I don't use the L212s in my home theater system where I have a good sub already.

[JohnInICT]

I have a pair I'm currently going through. Put new surrounds on the mid-bass drivers and the sub. I believe the amp in the sub is a bit weak, so I am getting ready to look into that. I must say..they sound really good without the sub. I think you will be very happy with them. I currently have C-38's, 4410's and Lancer 99's..I think the 212's, when sorted out, could be my favorite. I have been searching for original grill cloth but haven't found any yet. I would like to find some and keep them as close to original appearing as possible.

Great find. I think you'll enjoy them.

[hjames]

Box 1 and 2 of 5 arrived today - the seller pulled the upper tower sections off the bases and sent the bases in huge boxes.
They've arrive today and are in much better shape that I expected. It was twilight when I unpacked them and took pictures -
better pix during the day tomorrow, unless we get snow that cover the skylights and darkens the living room.
The bases do have some scratches, and a few veneer chips - and you can see a bashed in spot on the right one in the curved part - probably near the front.
But I figure they are rare and 40 years old - so I'm real happy so far!
An original L212 factory brochure will arrive soon, and the actual upper speaker parts will arrive after Christmas.
The mid-Bass surround kits are due tomorrow (Rick Cobb, of course)

There are no rubber (?) feet on the bases - not sure what they were supposed to have but I'll figure something out.
Very excited so far!

[Ed Zeppeli]

Congratulations!

Why such disparity in the shipments' arrival times?


Cheers,

Warren

[DavidF]

I have never heard this model from JBL but I feel like I know it well. In the era of enclosures that were just a derivative of a shoe box set up on one end, these L212 enclosures were certainly striking in the visual sense. Even in the brochure they were a stand-out design. I always imagined that, set up in living room of the 70's, they would stand out above any else in the room. Even if you had no interest in audio, in the day.

Good luck and have fun with new-old JBLs, Heather.

[hjames]

Congratulations!

Why such disparity in the shipments' arrival times?


Cheers,

Warren

The bases came in huge boxes Via FedEx, the tower cabinets are coming via UPS.
Not sure otherwise ...
Its hard to be patient - but I'll manage ...
Since I drifted from JBLs a few years back, I have gone through tall skinny slab speakers like the Transmission line designs of DCM TimeFrames
and the planar designs of Magnepans ... both have imaging out the yinyang!

To come back to JBL I wanted something different -
I don't have room (or money) for a Paragon - and most of the JBLs I've owned have been 70-80s era -
but these look like one of the more interesting "statement speakers" JBL ever made - and - they were affordable (always a concern!)

FWIW - and for future reference, as of today, the Service Manual (with bass module schematic) is still available on the Harman site at -
http://manuals.harman.com/JBL/HOM/Se.../L212%20sm.pdf

[hjames]

The other box arrived today - with the upper 2 Towers - 78 lbs ...
I assembled them, pucolumns to check the drivers - rigged a temp jumper for those goofy JBL twist lock connectors up inside the column ...
and gave them a brief listen to be sure all drivers were working.
I knew the mid-bass surrounds were crumbling - I've already got replacements here from Rick Cobb (just need some time).
Sadly, both domes were pushed in on the 066 tweeters - I suspected they probably were, there were no clear pix of them -
but I spun the adjustment pots a few times and they mostly sound great - except for the woofer buzzing, of course!

[bldozier]

Im tickled we finally spoke. Thanks for all the information.