Lucky Me.....

[Heinz]

Hi every one!

New on the forum..... but have lurked around for som time now.

The reason im posting is that i found my dream loudspeaker L300 on a Swedish advertising board and want to share my story.

Everything started 1978 when i boght my L19 speakers. The dream then was the L300. That speaker cost so much money here in Sweden so that was only fore the rich people.

5 years ago the dream started again. Reading magazines and different webbpages searching for the ultimate speaker gave result last Friday.

Reading on the "Blocket" site www.blocket.se i found a guy that have a pair of L300 for 7000:- Sek ( 680 $ ) Quick call to the guy and weryfying questions we came to a deal that he should e-mail me some pictures.

Reacived the picturs late Friday evening an made a quick call to the seller and tell him i want the L300. He told me that the first one that show up in his place get the speakers. He promised mee to hold the speakers until early saturday morning when his girlfrend goes to work. I asked him if he be up 7.00 !!!! il be there then. This was 22.00 friday evening and i told my wife Annki that il shuld travel up to Örebro ( Middle of Sweden ) and thats 500km of traveling in the middle of the night. She saw that my dream was verry close now an told me to drive slow and no speeding!!!!

Started 3.00 in the morning. Everything went smoth until half way to Örebro. Looking in my rear mirror i saw a car closing upp fast.... Ok i vas driving over the limits too an had a 6:th sense tha this could be the police!!!!!

Was i right YEEEESSSS!!! Pulled me over and asking for the drivinglicence. Some questions from the guys and i was siting in the car. They tried to trick me to say how fast i was driving but i was tricky too . Suddenly one of the police guys started asking questions on my car. Lycky me....he was a car entusiast also!!!! My Mercedes C43 AMG was in his taste and he told his friend to get out of here an told me to take it easy. Puuuu that was close for my driving licence.

Later i arived in Örebro and Mattias the guy vith the speakers was a realy nice guy ant telling me the stories on how he bought them and who the guy was that originaly bought them new. A close inspection of the speakers and handed over 7000:- sek to Mattias.

Wow.... im in heaven now!!!

Mattias helped me with the speakers and we realy had problem to get them in the car whitout doing damage on the spakers or the car interior.

9.00 in the morning i went home and arived 6h later in Halmstad. The trip back vas like a dream. 6h feelt like 10 min.

Unlodead the speakers at my office with help from our son Andrée!! First question from him was: have "mum" seen those!!!! they are huge!!!

Later that day Annki saw the speakers and told me we have to se how they looks when you are ready with the restauration. If they fit in with the outher furnitures.

Restauration begins:

Made a call to LN Högtalarservice i Gothenburgh (LN Loudspeakerservice). Olle and Urban at LN have worked with JBL speakers for 30 years an have fixed my L19 for refoaming for 2 years ago and they have the foam in stock for my L300. They told me that not many L300 vas sold her in Sweden an there is 3 Paragon speakers in Sweden.

Ordered new glass with the corect thiknes after some investigation on how they were made and right color. ( Thanks to Olle att LN for info )

Next is the Cabinet. One scratch and two compressions in the wood on the rounded corner need to bee fixed. Taking in a expert on wood to get the right wood color back to New. Need to fix the black surface on the stand. And doing a analyze on the paint to get it absolutly right.

The grills have som stains and need to be fixed. One cross member ned to be duplikated to get them "as new".

My goal is to get they as close to "Mint" as posible.

I have some questions for you Guys here on the forum. Should i replace the cable conectors with some new gold plated???.

The original is so "Tiny" and you cant conect a good cable.

If i replace the conectors, Would you think this ruins the walue as a original speaker???

The same question is about the membrans. Change the Aluminium to Titan ??

Thanx in advance for your input!!!

/Heinz J Söderström


Sorry bad spelling and gramma, English is not my native language!!!!

[spkrman57]

Great pics and your English is good enough for us to understand what you mean. I know you are very happy with your new purchase and we can't wait for the pics when the total restoration is complete.

Ron

[alskinner]

Welcome to the L300 club. In answer to your questions. If you want to keep them original the 2421 aluminum diaphram is the way to go, even though they are an upgrade to the original LE85 diaphram they still retain the original type sound, only better. Although titanium diaphrams are nice on some horns the H92 used in the L300s IMO is not one of them. As far as the connectors, you are right they are small. One solution if you want to keep them original is to use a smaller wire from the connector to a connector strip and then you can use as big a wire as you desire. Bottom line is to decide how original you want to keep them. Of course if you want to modify them there are a lot of options.

Regards
AL

[Rolf]

Hi and welcome to another scandinavian JBL "nut"!! Greetings with your L300

Hi every one!



Reading on the "Blocket" site www.blocket.se i found a guy that have a pair of L300 for 7000:- Sek ( 680 $ )

Really good deal! In Norway you a lucky to get a pair for about 10-15000, but of cource here we know what "gold" is.

Unlodead the speakers at my office with help from our son Andrée!! First question from him was: have "mum" seen those!!!! they are huge!!!

Later that day Annki saw the speakers and told me we have to se how they looks when you are ready with the restauration. If they fit in with the outher furnitures.

Lucky for me I owned the Paragon when I found my wife.

They told me that not many L300 vas sold her in Sweden an there is 3 Paragon speakers in Sweden.

I do not know how many L300/4333 in Norway, but a lot. About 15 Paragons as far as I know. Yggdrasil may know.

I have some questions for you Guys here on the forum. Should i replace the cable conectors with some new gold plated???.

The original is so "Tiny" and you cant conect a good cable.

If i replace the conectors, Would you think this ruins the walue as a original speaker???

The same question is about the membrans. Change the Aluminium to Titan ??

Thanx in advance for your input!!!

/Heinz J Söderström

Sorry bad spelling and gramma, English is not my native language!!!!

I would change the terminals, and have changed on my speakers. If you can get the aluminiums, so do it. They sounds a little better. (In my opinion)

[Chas]

Welcome Heinz, nice story. Good luck with your project

[Charlie4350]

Congratulations on the 300's

[yggdrasil]

Very nice score, congratulations.

Try the speakers with the original terminals and diaphragms. After a while you can decide if you want to to anything.

Keep us posted.

Very good price, my brother paid NOK 8000 (approximately SEK 9000/$1100) for a pair of 4333 in the same conditon.

I am not sure how many Paragons there are in Norway, last time I heard it was 11, but that was ten years ago. 9 sold new and 2 used from Denmark.

[kevf]

Welcome Heinz,

I have the 4333's and I'm certain your L300 will not disappoint. Enjoyed your story but what I can't figure out is how the heck did you get the speakers IN YOUR CAR!!! I have images in my head of one speaker strapped to your car roof and one sticking out from your trunk

[Heinz]

Hi

Thanx for the welcoming from everyboody and your input on my questions.

Have decided that i keep the original cable conectors. Making a adapter with big surface area to mont on top and clamping around of the originals. Have them gold plated to get maximum conectivity. You guys gave me that idea

Keeping the original aluminum diaphram to keep them in original spec.


kevf !!! The grills and lenses in the trunk and one speaker in the backseat and one in right front seat wit alot of blankets. No prblem vith the one in the backseat but the one in front seat was on the edge That night was my only goal to be ther in Örebro first of all 30 people that had called Mattias!!! Could have used my wifes old Volvo 740

Will post more pictures later with all deatails etc.

And here is one more

[speakerdave]

Great post, Heinz. I do love the adventure story that goes with buying a used pair of speakers sometimes, and yours is a classic nicely told. Thanks for a good read.

David

[Mr. Widget]

That is a great story! It is amazing how similar so many of our stories are even half way around the world. I grew up in Northern California about 8 hours away from the JBL factory, but here too the JBLs of my dreams always seemed out of reach too.

Please keep us posted on your progress. CONGRATULATIONS!!!


Widget

[morbo!]

lucky the cops wasnt an audiophile too
i could see him in your lounge room enjoying your new speakers

lolol

[Regis]

Congratulations on getting your dream speaker system. You will love these speakers. The L-19 is a nice speaker, but the big JBL's will put a big smile on your face! The story was very good and I think many of us can relate. I've left work at the drop of of a JBL ad and I'm gone, 300 miles if necessary. Welcome and when they are done being restored, let us know what you think of them.

[jtgyn]

Very nice catch!!

Regards Scott

[Heinz]

Hi

Time for some update about my L300.

Picked up the new galsses today.

Next is to take out the the elements for refoaming and make a trip up to LN Högtalarservice in Gothenburg.


The best to you all....

Heinz