JBL LE14A and LE 175 Home made cabinets

[jplatel5000]

i recently aquired (well, maybe a year ago) a pair of home made speakers. These speakers were built by a doctor in the early 70s who didnt want to pay full price for a pair of L-101 cabinets. The port is a square hole. and the cabinet is bulky, not the right size, and fairly ugly. I was curious if anyone had designs for a cabinet to fit just the Le14a as i want to have a horn on top speaker.. I know i read somewhere saying they needed about 3.2-3.4 cubic feet. I dont know much about tuning cabinets, so if anyone had designs for a cabinet that they have used, including port size, it would be greatly appreciated.

The woofers have already been refoamed within the last 6 months

[Earl K]

Well ,,, I suspect those Apollo cabinets might be original . They look to be the variant shipped with the woven cloth grills . They do seem to have different detail in the top molding , from what I can gather .

LHF member "2string" has provided us with some pics of his restored C51 Apollos .

Check out the frontal detail on his C51(s) vs yours .





Here's a shot of one of his in the process of being refurbished .



Now, with the top "finished" .



Here's a look see, with his optional "modernized" grills . Very, very sharp ( IMHO ) with those grills .
- LHF member , "saman" sells authentic JBL grill cloth / I'm unsure what colors he is currently stocking ( send him a pm / though he may be on vacation ) .



Here's his pair using the more commonly seen, classically "fretted" grills ( after he picked up a second grill ) .



Here are 2 pics from LHF member , "JBL-Canuck" , which shows a grill type virtually identical to yours .



Here's yours,



Maybe yours are homemade / & then again / maybe they're original Apollos .

No matter really, if those were mine ( & the veneer was restorable ) , I'd simply modernize the look to something more like this ( & maybe retune them ) ;



Do a site search for threads started by 2string . I think he's pretty happy that he kept his Apollos .

<> cheers

[jplatel5000]

Thanks for the info!
looks like you learn something new every day

he told me he had bought "plans" to build the JBL speakers back sometime during the 70s, i just assumed he made this cabinet design up.

Either way, they look identical to all the photos of the JBL C51 that i have looked at
(ill admit i must not have done enough research in the past year if i havnt at least come across images of it before today)

I still think that they are not JBL built cabinets, and were built based on plans bought from JBL, or just copied from a friends cabinets. The build quality is fantastic, super solid cabinets. But that port does worry me. Is it supposed to be just a rectangular hole like that? or is there supposed to be some depth to the port.

What i will do, if anyone is interested, is get measurements, and more detailed photographs if anyone is interested in finding out if these are actually C51 cabinets, or a clone.


and once again, thanks for the info. Ill definately just refurb these. They basically were used as endtables for the past 30 years ( says the previous owner) and to play some high volume polka here and there( his music of choice)

[miker]

Your ports look exactly like the ports shown in the first 2 pictures Earl posted. Take another look at them. Those cabinets look pretty good. They may only need mild restoration. Post more pictures as you go along. Nice find.

[jplatel5000]

heres some more photos, camera died, they arent great, but it gives you some idea of the bracing inside the cabinets, and it seems to be an LX 10 crossover

[jplatel5000]

Heres a few more photos, the veneer looks to be walnut? and in pretty decent shape.

when refurbishing them, what would you all recommend doing

refinish the veneer? repaint the baffles? any and all help is more than appreciated.

the reason i came across these speakers in the first place was because of a doctor who was cleaning out his living room. he gave them to me along with a bunch of other older audio stuff, although nothing else to write home about.

[SMKSoundPro]

Black wires, I believe and will check, go on pushbuttons 2&3. They are commonly tied internally.

[SMKSoundPro]

Found this on another thread. I don't see the option of the LE14 and potato masher horn.

Scotty.

[SMKSoundPro]

http://www.audioheritage.org/vbullet...Manual&p=37573

http://lansingheritage.org/html/jbl/.../1976-comp.htm

Your combo looks as if it is a LE14a and LE175 on a HL87(potato masher horn) which shows a LX-10 crossover in the charts, at 1500hz.

In the top link, use illustration D for the wiring.

Scotty.

[SMKSoundPro]

I personally don't believe home-made from the pics, but reserve judgement until others with more experience jump in.

Scotty.

Great find!!!!

Please show pics of the insides. That will answer some questions.

[jplatel5000]

one more, what is the deal with the mount for the horn, why does it come out? was it originally meant to fit a different horn?

[keith141]

one more, what is the deal with the mount for the horn, why does it come out? was it originally meant to fit a different horn?

I think you have home made cabinets. They are very well made indeed, following the blue-print provided by JBL.

The baffle cutout is designed to mount any woofers/comp. drivers/horns available then.
The blue print showed woofer mounting cutout size for 15 inches. You make different adapter mounting plates for smaller sizes such as 14, 12 and 8 inches. Your cabinet cutout is for 14 inches. I guess the doctor decided to have 14 inches not 15.

Your horn/driver mounting plates is one of them.
You can mount 075 in place of LE175 by using different adapter plate.

[keith141]

I, too, bought a plan for C51/Apollo from JBL and tried to construct the cabinets in the mid 70s.
I cut various size of plywood following the plan except the solid wood for top panel where it required making round edges. The plan required two different ‘R’ for upper and lower portion and I did not have the tool to do it. – Something like the first picture from EARL K’s posting above.
Also the plan showed the baffle cut out sizes for different drivers and horns.

I was planning to install either D130+075 or LE14A+LE175+1217-1290 horn but they were too expensive for my income then.

I put every thing in the corner of basement without baffle cut out.

My interest has shifted to JBL monitor speakers since. I constructed and completed a few but I still have those panels ready to assemble.

[jplatel5000]

so this is a home made apollo clone?

[jplatel5000]

How would you recommend i go about refurbishing these.

If there is anyone who has done restoration work on these before, or similar cabinets. that would be willing to give me advice, it would be appreciated.