L150A's Back to life! Now what?

[evans224]

I've posted here a couple of times, and I appreciate the help from the folks here. Here are a few before and after photos. I had a hell of a time with the water damage on the one speaker- it has swelled the partical board under the veneer and cracked the wood. I had to replace the veneer, and it came out great! Next is what to drive these beasts with- the instruction manual calls for around 300 watts. Any ideas would be welcome.

[Regis]

You're not gonna need 300 wpc with these speakers. I own a modified pair and I'm driving them with a 160 wpc vintage reciever. These speakers are a sealed cabinet design and are very efficient. They don't need a whole lot of power to get them to really high volume levels. 50-80 wpc on my system thumps the hell out of the room and you have to almost shout to be heard. Nice speakers!

[4313B]

These speakers are a sealed cabinet design and are very efficient.

5th order "vented" The black coned doohicky on the bottom is a passive radiator. If it were a "sealed" system the efficiency would be down a bit. The enclosure does have to be airtight for a port/duct or passive radiator to operate properly.

[Steve Gonzales]

Very nice job indeed!! I love to see vintage JBL's brought back to life!! Maybe you could tell us all how you re-veneered the top piece? I for one am very interested in the how to of it all. thank you for sharing

[gassy]

Yes, so am I, Steve. Very nice job and a very nice pair of speakers!

Very nice job indeed!! I love to see vintage JBL's brought back to life!! Maybe you could tell us all how you re-veneered the top piece? I for one am very interested in the how to of it all. thank you for sharing

[grumpy]

My experience with trying amplifiers of different power levels is brief, but may help some...

75w/ch (high current capable amp) was OK, even in a fairly large room.
200-300w/ch (also high current capable models) was much more impressive
in both the bass region as well as "decongesting" upper ranges when playing
louder. Even non-audio-nut family members noticed the difference.

I'd recommend a quality amp (pick a definition you're happy with) that can easily
produce more than 100w as a minimum. A small room might be happier with less.
If you have access, try a few types out

-grumpy

[majick47]

Evans224 nice job on restoring your L150. Re power amps search Yamaha and you'll find a current thread with info re these fine amps. If your looking for plenty of clean watts the pro models will do the job for short money.