Recone LE14A

[Donald]

Found an old thread about recone kits for the LE14A but no real answer.

Are they available now?

[Donald]

Should I throw away the frames or is there something I can do?

[Steve Gonzales]

DON, I CAN HELP YOU!!!, LET MY GUY FIX YOUR SPEAKERS!,HE CAN WORK MAGIC!! THE VERY LE14'S YOU HEARD AT MY HOUSE WERE REBUILT BY HIM

[Donald]

Steve,

Given the age of these things I will want to get them regaussed. If your guy has correct kits he can get a stab at them, tho. The regausser has a pair of
LE14H-1 kits. Dark cones, not white.

[Zilch]

Should I throw away the frames or is there something I can do?

LE14A's are probably the most readily available and most versatile of JBL "Extended bass" drivers. It's just plain silly if cone kits are NLA.

So, one more time, what ARE the options? H kits? H-1 kits? What are the compromises?

[4313B]

"Harman has little interest in supporting 30 year old product"

That said, the LE14H-1 kit is still available. It has one of the finest high frequency roll-offs of any low frequency transducer ever designed. Furthermore it has perfect pitch and fantastic linearity. It does not have the rising response that the LE14A has so it will not behave like the LE14A in a typical 60's 2-way system.

My recommendation still stands - start contacting service centers and see who has any kits left. Have OCS put an order in anyway and see if Harman kicks it back or decides to run another batch at some point. I have had requests sit in queue for years with the end results being positive. I do know that JBL will not run certain product such as 066 or 044 diaphragms but they may run LE14A kits again someday.

[Zilch]

That said, the LE14H-1 kit is still available. It has one of the finest high frequency roll-offs of any low frequency transducer ever designed. Furthermore it has perfect pitch and fantastic linearity.

It sounds like H-1 may be what we want for "projects," anyway. We know from Citation 7.4 and Fosgate that they make excellent subs, as well.

I recently had an LE14H reconed for an L222 Disco. It came back with a black cone rather than the original white aquaplas. I'm guessing that's an H-1 cone?

[4313B]

Yeah, who did the recone? They should tell you what kit they used. They should also have told you that they should be done in pairs if a different kit is used.

I would think some adjustment would be necessary in the low pass filter of the L220/L222 to accomodate the LE14H-1 but I don't think that should be viewed as a negative.

[Zilch]

JBL T/S sheet says LE14A Xmax 5.08 mm, LE14H 8.38 mm. Gap depth different? JBL data error? Doesn't matter?

My reconer said it was news to him. He DID use an H-1 kit, apparently.

I would think some adjustment would be necessary in the low pass filter of the L220/L222 to accomodate the LE14H-1....

Well, it ain't as if *I* could hear the difference anyway, playin' those things.

[Steve Gonzales]

I heard that ....

[4313B]

JBL T/S sheet says LE14A Xmax 5.08 mm, LE14H 8.38 mm. Gap depth different? JBL data error? Doesn't matter?

The LE14A and LE14H have a mechanical (voice coil overhang) xMax of 4.45 mm, the LE14H-1 has a mechanical xMax of 5.97 mm. That's measured one way. (Voice coil winding depth - top plate thickness) / 2.

JBL often measures xMax as the amount of travel required to reach 10% distortion. Sometimes xMax is published as measured full travel instead of one way.