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Thread: When JBL was JBL...Your first Encounter

  1. #16
    Senior Member vettedrummer's Avatar
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    JBL The First time

    My first encounter with JBL parts came about 1968. My uncle, who was a big JBL fan, had passed away and my aunt offered me a deal. Paint the house and She would give me a set of JBL C-38's with D130's and 075's with the 2400 crossover. These were all in the box new except the cabinets which were unpacked. In those days JBL would let you buy empty cabinets. I noticed that Sonofagun must of grown up in the same area I did. I hung out at Audioland and Pecars in the MtClemens and Detroit areas. I guess that's how I got hung up on the JBL sound. After I finished painting then I got to put together my payment. Quite a kick for a 17 year old kid. Even in latter life when I worked at Almas HiFi selling equipment. I still perfered JBL to their B&W speakers. No one could make me like that sound. I worked there for about 18 months before I got back to a real job. I'm at Childrens Hospital now working the ER. Oh well that's all for now

  2. #17
    Senior Member Tom Brennan's Avatar
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    Around 1970, my first hi-fi. D-130s in big homemade boxes with Radio Shack horn tweeters atop the boxes. PAT-4 preamp, a Fisher amp pulled from a console I bought at Musicraft in Oak Park and a BSR record player with a Shure.

    Listened to lots of Mountain and Wishbone Ash on that thing.

  3. #18
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    Quote Originally Posted by vettedrummer
    I hung out at Audioland and Pecars in the MtClemens and Detroit areas.

    My buddy and I used to drive up to Pecars from the Toledo area when we got tired of the limited gear at Soundmasters. It was always a good road trip, and if we showed 'em our IDs, we didn't have to pay sales tax on purchases.
    Out.

  4. #19
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    Hey,

    Does anyone remember the SoundCraft Ultralinear speakers.

    The reps used to play them and the Bose 501's and other stuff off against the 166's etc in my favourite store. That was a regular thing after work on a Friday night.

    The last good demo was a pair of BGW's strapped to a 4355...... I stopped listen to anything other than JBL at that point....game over man, game over.

    Talk about an Up Sell......but I could not afford them...bummer...so I went and built my own!

    Anyway time for some pics you guys. Here's the recent re incarnation of my 4343's circa 1980...my brother's Wife these days. There's the original rack we did all the sound jobs in the 80's with. The system was so heavy we took the mid/horn/slot out and put them on top of seperate bass bins for a while....and now they a re installed in the original cabinets. Its a beautiful system.
    Attached Images Attached Images  

  5. #20
    Senior Member Steve Schell's Avatar
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    If I can stretch the thread a little to include "Jim Lansing involved"...

    About 17 years ago I visited the home of a former Altec employee, who went on to a long engineering career in pro audio and studio equipment. He and his son set me down for a Laserdisc of Dave Grusin and Friends Live at the Record Plant. The TV was a Zenith front projector and a 10' diagonal screen. The speakers were Altec 820C with double 803A woofers and 802C on 811A horns, driven by gray face Altec 1520A amps. The demo was killer- I had no idea it could be this good! Looking back, this is what started the long adventure into high efficiency speakers. tubes, etc.

    Another great experience was taking a first listen to a Lansing Mfg. Co. 500A Monitor system at a collector's home. With the small W bin the lows were not very extended, but the clarity, dynamics and overall lifelike quality of that system put to shame the Patrician, RCA two way monitor and yes, even an early Hartsfield we compared it to. Not bad for a 1936 speaker.

  6. #21
    RIP 2014 Ken Pachkowsky's Avatar
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    First JBL Encounter

    To the best of my recollection my first taste of JBL’s occurred at Western Sound on Portage Avenue in Winnipeg Canada back in 1975. I walked in off the street to view a Crown 800 Reel to Reel half track. Wow, what a beauty it was (and still is).

    In looking at the Crown I became interested in a beautiful large walnut cabinet against one wall that was producing some pretty awesome sound. Of course this was the infamous Paragon.

    I became friends with several of the guys who worked there and thus began my life long passion for JBL’s.

    Other than the Paragon they only carried the small format bookshelf speakers. A fellow by the name of Terry McCain ordered a complete S8 system and Roger Bedard’s (Western Sounds Tech) father built cabinets for him.

    The S8 system used the LE15A’s, 375’s and 075’s.

    Bob Massey, the store manager arranged for me to hear them at Terry’s home. From that day forward I have been hooked on large format JBL’s. By the way, Terry and I met for the first time that day and have remained friends ever since.

    Ken

  7. #22
    Senior Member Rusnzha's Avatar
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    First encounter

    The first I heard of JBL was in a 1958 Lafayette catalog. I was fascinated, but the prices were hell on my teenage budget. When I went to work at my first full time job, I would hang around Leonard Radio on 6th Avenue during my lunch hour. There, I finally heard the 88 Novas, and I knew they were the speakers that I really needed. When the 70s came around, I was finally making enough money to get what I wanted. I had a Citation 11 and 12 that I was using with some Altec A 7500-8s. I let a salesman convinced me to get them when I came in for a set of L100s, wrong move. I finally took those altecs and traded them and some bucks for a pair of 88 Plus. I hooked them up and they sounded good. I was breaking up with this woman so I traded the Citation stuff for a Fisher A202 receiver so I could listen to FM when I was by myself and they sounded a lot better than they did with the Citation. I moved into a strange, somewhat depressing kind of a situation and had to set them up off the floor in my little room. I hooked up the Fisher, put on some Return to Forever, lit one up and heard those suckers for the first time, damn they sounded good. They got me over all those blues in a hurry. A couple of months later I moved into a better situation. I kept them up off the floor and my whole life got better .

  8. #23
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    Hello
    My first hands on JBL experience was in about 1977 when I bought four new 2402 bullets to add some top end to my sound system, as bad as the rest of the system really was I thought it was great (at that time anyway). I remeber building the high pass filters for them....6000hz if I remember correctly and hand winding the coils for the networks. I later went to JBL one inch drivers and put the 2402's aside for a several years and then built them into a pair of three way speakers each loaded with two JBL 2225's and phenolic mid range driver (non JBL) with a pair of the 2402's. I later sold them to a friend of mine who use them for about 10 years and he just recently sold them to a band that is using them for their PA speakers.

    Mike Caldwell

  9. #24
    Senior Member spkrman57's Avatar
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    My entry is not so glamorous as some of you...

    D130A's with 075's in a small JBL enclosure.

    Actually, one system was D130A only full range, and the other w/crossover and 075 tweeter. I was not into audio like I am today and was totally blown away at the volume I could get with just 12 wpc SS receiver I had.

    Ron

  10. #25
    RIP 2014 Ken Pachkowsky's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by spkrman57
    D130A's with 075's in a small JBL enclosure.

    Actually, one system was D130A only full range, and the other w/crossover and 075 tweeter. I was not into audio like I am today and was totally blown away at the volume I could get with just 12 wpc SS receiver I had.

    Ron
    I think you are refering to the 030 system that crossed over to the 075 at 2.4k

    D130/075

    I had a pair for 1 year before getting my 4350's.

    Ken

  11. #26
    Charley Rummel
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    There ain't nothing like the sound of classic JBL

    We loaded a Dual Showman cab with 2 15 " JBL E130F drivers, when the prior speakers were some knock off crap, and the difference in sound was cleaner, louder and much more dynamic than anyone ever imagined would happen...It's still right here in my basement many years later...

    Regards,
    Charley

  12. #27
    Senior Member Baron030's Avatar
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    It's De ja vu' all over again

    Back in 1973, I was in high school and I spent my entire life's saving on a pair of JBL 030 system kits - D130's and 075 bullets. And after several months in a high school wood shop class building a pair of C-38 enclosures. I felt that I was set for life. And, for the last 32 years I have lived in bliss, with a reverently held belief that the 030 system was all that I would ever need. There is something about D-130s that screams “Rock ‘N’ Roll!”



    But, sadly my old D-130 speaker cones have finally worn out and I have been forced to make a change. But, fortunately, I found this web site and after reading, Drew Daniel's "The ancient audiophile's quest for the ultimate home system". I am now embarking on an all new speaker system building project. So, it looks like I will be spending my entire life's savings all over again.


  13. #28
    Senior Member andresohc's Avatar
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    If I can bring in Altec to this thread also, my first Lansing products were Valencia 846 speakers I bought from my mentor and Jr high football coach. He entrusted them to me in 1982. I had a great time with them. My first decent JBL speakers were a new pair of SR4722As in 1992. Loved them also. I used them for my home speakers (and my home mosh pit parties) and yes I was old enough to know better, but I just had to have a reason to run out those 4722s

  14. #29
    Roddyama
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    Hi Ian,

    Back in the mid-70's I would drive into the Grosse Pointe's (Home of the Fords, Chryslers,...) to Pointe Electronic which was an authorized JBL component dealer. They had a rental sound system set up in the store consisting of dual LE LE15's, 375/LE89 horn and dual 075's per side. These speakers were tri-amped with 3 Crown amps and a Crown X-Over. I was hooked from that day forward.

  15. #30
    Senior Member macaroonie's Avatar
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    Quality Always Rises To the Top

    JBL Rolex Ducati Aston Martin Revox etc The list is not endless because very few companies care to go the extra mile in favour of manufactured quality against commercial expediency.
    1968 Supertramp live at glagow university Bass player had a dual showman Jbl rig wow. A few years later I was working in stereo and L16 26 36 etc were on the menu. Even those little 16's showed most of the competition the door. 26's were as I remember about £350 a pair though that would be about 6-7 weeks gross wages. Tannoy was the only company that had anything to compare........ Cheviot 12" concentric was xlnt Other than that not a lot shone. Then I heard L 300's and the rest is history. I'm building my own now

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