Building My Own L100 Cabinets?

[duaneage]

I built my 4411 clones from furniture grade plywood on the sides, bottom and top, MDF for the baffle and the rear. I used a 5 inch PVC coupler from and electrical supply house for the midrange chamber, at 85 cu inches it was ideal. I routed the drivers into the baffle board and rather than set the baffle board into rabbit joints cut into the sides, I had the baffle cover the ends of the sides. THis looked a lot better than painting the ends of the sides like the originals.

[Ralphh]

Well, I'm pleased to report that my L100 project is complete. And they sound wonderful.

First, I have some pictures of the cabinets after they were stained and painted. After sanding with 200 grit paper, I first applied General Finishes "Salem" stain to the walnut veneer and trim. This is available at Rockler and Woodcraft stores. This was followed with 3 coats of General Finish’s oil & urethane satin top coat. This produced the look of an oiled cabinet like the originals, but with a lot more protection.

[Ralphh]

There's another improvement that I made to these. In the above pictures, you can see that I installed a T-nut for that one crossover mounting screw that is located under the foilcal. In the future, I can now remove the crossover without having to remove the foilcal again.



For the grill frames, I installed black window screen to help support the foam grill inserts.

[Ralphh]

Below are pictures of the completed speakers with all the componets installed.

[Ralphh]

And finally, with the grill frames on with "sonofagun's" wonderful foam grills.

[John]

Cool

[rockin'rushmore]

EXCELLENT!

[JBLRaiser]

I'm new to this site and must say as a JBL Ebayniac, my time will now be split with this site. If this thread is any indication of the quality of the posting of this site, my JBL nirvana is assured. Thanks to all who posted and especially Ralphh for a fantastic job of bringing this project to fruition. Now, if only my L100's looked so good.

[Fangio]

What a great job, really beautiful veneer. I'd raise my hat off to you (if i had one), and wish i had your talent.

[chad]

Bravo!!

Timeless beauty, timeless fidelity, and the satisfaction of doing it yourself.

You are the man.

[Ralphh]

I had a request to post a few more pictures. These were taked without a flash, so the color of the wood appears a little different. If it ever stops raining around here, I'll take them outside for a few nature light shots.

Thank you all for your help in the past and your positive comments.

[Ralphh]

For this project, I used a pair of original L100 crossovers. I tested the L-pads and found them both to be in good working condition. I then installed .01 by-pass caps. as others here have done.

My question, has anyone here replaced the original capacitors in their L100's with new main capacitors? If so, what type and brand did you use? What were the results of this change?

Also, has anyone modified their L100 crossovers to something a bit more complex, and with what result?

[Ralphh]

After listening to these speakers for several months, I have some comments and a question to the experts out there.

My previous speakers were a pair of L-26's, which I still enjoy. My L-100 creations have more low end and a fuller mid range, which was expected, and is very enjoyable. However, with some music, they have too much bass to the point of sounding "muddy". For this music, I have turned down the bass in my recivers equilizer. Is this the nature of the L100's, or is it my creation? Would adding additional fiberglass insulation help? (I have 2" on the sides and back inside the cabinet)

Thanks to everyone for your constructive imput.

[Zilch]

I don't see any information regarding the duct and port. I'm tempted to say "Lengthen the duct," but should really model it before advising anything.

Can you provide the net internal volume (after deducting the LE-5 chamber) and the diameter and length of the port tube? Effective length would be through the center of the elbow, if used.

Rationale: JBL tuned L100's bass to sell the product to a specific market in the '70's. That may not be optimum for your contemporary listening....

[Ralphh]

I used the plastic duct tubes from a dismanteled pair of L100's, that I purchased on that major auction site. The cabinets are the same heigth and width as the factory L100s, but are 1/2" greated in depth. The mid-range enclosure is the same diameter and depth as the factory L100's. The cabinets are constructed from 3/4" MDF for the sides, top, bottom and back, and 1" baltic birch for the front baffle.