LE15 repair/restoration

[budney]

A while back I acquired a pair of 4320 in need of restoration. With it I got 3 15 inch woofers, all a little bit different.

I got 1 LE15A that works, 1 LE15B that measures open, and one empty basket. With it I also got 3 aftermarket Sound Speaker Repair LE15A recone kits.
I'm trying to figure out my best option is here. The LE15B doesn't crunch or scratch, cone moves freely, so I'm wondering if perhaps a wire has come loose, and it could be repaired, as I would like to keep it all JBL OEM stock parts if possible. Then theres the issue of the A vs B, as far as I can tell, the different between the A and B is the foam vs cloth surround. Would it be possible to remove the cloth and replace it with foam, so I will then have another LE15A? Assuming the coil can be repaired of course.

The other option to me is to remove the LE15B cone and replace it with an aftermarket kit, then recone the empty basket also with an aftermarket kit. I want to avoid this, as I know that the aftermarket parts are substandard. But since the genuine JBL LE15A kit is no longer available, I don't see any other option to me. I would then be left with a single original LE15A. I have found elsewhere in the UK a single 2215B that has been reconed with a genuine 2215H kit, so I could potentially have a pair of working original LE15, but its not cheap and I've ran out of money for this project.

I had planned on getting the drivers regaussed if I were reconing them. I'm in the UK so its not easy to get things regaussed, I've found one guy who wants to charge £40 per driver. I found someone else who said they could do it much cheaper but they're still in the process of setting up their machine so I would have to wait on that. I've just opened a music studio and would like to get these monitors up and running in the next month, so I'm unsure on what approach would be best.

The working LE15A looks decent, someone replaced the foam at one point it seems. LE15B also looks good, so it would pain me to scrap what seems to be a good condition LE15 cone. Also the working LE15A is labelled as 8 ohms, but measure more like 16, so not quite sure whats going on there.

attached are some pics

[budney]

here are the recone kits

[ompdiburi]

For the open LE15B it could be the lead wires from cone to binding posts, check direct on the cone at coil exit.
If you are lucky is possible to repair, had the same issue years ago on a beyma.
At that point you can decide, you have one working LE15A and one working LE15B, so you need to recone the basket according to your decision.
Good luck!
Giuliano

[Mr. Widget]

I’d put the aftermarket kit in the empty basket and compare the performance with your working LE15A. Ideally you would have both the LE15A and reconed woofers remagnetized so that variable is out of the mix. By comparing the two woofers you can decide how to proceed. I wouldn’t spend heroic efforts on the LE15B. In my opinion they are not as good a driver as the A version.


Widget

[budney]

I’d put the aftermarket kit in the empty basket and compare the performance with your working LE15A. Ideally you would have both the LE15A and reconed woofers remagnetized so that variable is out of the mix. By comparing the two woofers you can decide how to proceed. I wouldn’t spend heroic efforts on the LE15B. In my opinion they are not as good a driver as the A version.

I was under the impression that you needed to get things remagged before reconing, some more reading on this site and I see thats not the case, so i'll try the aftermarket kits and compare to the original. It may be that they sound fine, then I could sell the original one for a collectors amount of money...

The LE15B is a bit of a mystery to me, as far as I can see the only difference is the cloth surround. How would that impact its performance?

There is every possibility that a quality aftermarket cone kit could out perform a 40+ year old “proper” cone kit anyway.

I had thought that myself when I got these parts, but then talking to a few old school JBL certified guys, they said the LE15 coil is pretty much impossible to find and wouldn't trust aftermarket parts...but I'm 20 years too late to find a genuine kit now. I'll have to let my ears be the judge!

[Mr. Widget]

The LE15B is a bit of a mystery to me, as far as I can see the only difference is the cloth surround. How would that impact its performance?

The two woofers have substantially different TS parameters and even very different impedances. There are many differences beyond the visually obvious surround type.


Widget

[speakerdave]

. . . . I had thought that myself when I got these parts, but then talking to a few old school JBL certified guys, they said the LE15 coil is pretty much impossible to find and wouldn't trust aftermarket parts...but I'm 20 years too late to find a genuine kit now. I'll have to let my ears be the judge!

I don't know exactly when the real kits were discontinued, but I'm pretty sure it hasn't been twenty years-- more like five. Point being NOS kits do show up once in awhile, and it might be worthwhile keeping an eye to the various markets for such things. At the same time you could be looking for a single LE15A or 2215B.

[1audiohack]

Mr Widget captured my thoughts exactly.

There is every possibility that a quality aftermarket cone kit could out perform a 40+ year old “proper” cone kit anyway.

Barry.