Watched the whole sequence AgentJZ, you did a great job on those. I have a set of vintage B&W DM2's kicking around at home, now I feel inspired to drag them back into the house and refresh them !! Phil.
I bought a pair of those back in 1980 and had them delivered to my hospital room at the VA hospital in Roxbury, Massachusetts. I was in the spinal cord rehab unit. It was a rather lengthy stay. The nurses would drag them out to the picnic area and we would listen to music. Good memories for being a lousy place. I still have them and bought another pair out of nostalgia.
Back in the stone age - I built my own boxes and used JBL drivers and Altec Lansing crossovers. Watching this brings back memories. I mounted my midrange horn, and woofer/passive radiator forward of the face of the speaker. The only driver mounted from behind was the quartz tweeter.
Thanks for sharing! I don't know much about speakers, but it was a lot of fun to follow you in your adventure; cool toys, I hope they bring you pleasure for many years to come!
dude! great miniseries!! I found your channel a couple of weeks ago I now it seems it replaced the TV, way more fun watching it! Thanks a lot for taking the time and share all this, keep it up! cheers from a hot summer in Chile
Thanks for that interesting ride JayZ. Nice job on redoing the surround on those speakers. I've always avoided doing a re-surround myself in fear that the voice coil may rub because of the cone not being centered perfectly. You make it look easy.
Sweet rebuild. I wish more manufacturers took the time and effort to engineer cabinets with passive radiators. Oddly enough i have a logitech speaker dock that uses passive radiators along side a couple of 2(?) inch drivers and the bass response from that little sound dock blows away some of my speakers of much greater size.
Niice speakers you got there. Fellow JBL owner here, I have the L100 and I did the Jantzen modification to their x-over, best damn speaker I've ever had.
Hello I purchase a set of the JBL L220'S at the PX while stationed in West Germany in 1982. I was in the Army and living in the barracks and what does any good solider who was trained in the latest electronics do?...... Why have stereo wars! So the big guns were bought! I paid six hundred dollars for each speaker for a grand total of twelve hundred dollars. I still have them and yes I had to install new foam surrounds and replace the capacitors about three years ago. I love those speakers it was money well spent. Theses speakers sound the best with a big amplifier driving them. I have SAE and Studer Revox equipment mostly and the five hundred watt per channel amplifier does a great job! I was very surprised that they have held there value so well. Enjoy your speakers it's nice to know folks know about them and love them as much as I do.
They have become something rare, always in the shadow of the L300. But the L220s are house shaking monsters, I look at them every morning and smile. Back then, I did not see the point of a passive radiator. Now I see that it makes a 3 cubic foot enclosure sound like a 10 cubic foot one. The magic of sound engineers!
Nicely done. Thank you for the details and good photography. It took a couple of weeks to discover you were the same person who does the really great turbine engine videos without a studio. 2 things impress me about all your videos. 1) You take care to make sure the picture shows what you want us to see. I recently watched a video to see how something was done only to have the photographer focus on a point an inch away from what I wanted to see. 2) Despite the terrible acoustics you record in, your speech can be understood. I have trouble lately understanding speech in a noisy environment.I have been studying, designing, installing, and operating PA systems in stadiums with up to 12,000 in attendance since the late 1960's. At these events the spoken word is the important part and the sessions can be long. You will appreciate trying to set this up to minimize listener fatigue is quite different than a music program.So, when I say you are doing a great job despite conditions, I am speaking from experience. Your knowledge of audio shows.CJ Hodgson
:) When you dropped in the speaker I thought "ok, a dry fit; still a hassle to get it out again to connect the wires and it really should fit, because the speaker already was in there". Then you aligned it and I thought "thorough dry fit, maybe that is something he's used to from assembling turbine engines". But you started putting the screws in and I was making bets at what point you would realize it.
+superdau See? I always knew you were more situationally aware than I was. I included this in the video because: 1) gotta be honest 2) it adds to the DIY aspect 3) it made me laugh!
I like this new type of video, please consider recording a videos next time you repair a computer or other household device, especially if involves using any of your job skills :-)
Nice Job Jay. I love my JBL's & i have repaired & built many speakers over the years & Yes i use the same method to glue surrounds to the cone without having to cut the dust cap off & shim the voice coil. 70's monster crossovers are fun, Hot glue gun is handy for securing the Cap's. Potentiometers can be changed for later higher quality ones but sometimes i just spray some electronic cleaner in them & turn them rapidly back & forth, after a few go's they clean up inside a bit, this will stop any crackling whilst adjusting with sound output. Love the Speakers Mate Great score, wish i had them guess i will just make do with my JBL S-312's , S-38's , EC-35, PSW1200 + Jamo concert 7's & Paradigm PSW1200 all being run by my Yamaha RX-A3000. In the world of subwoofers the JBL is like a J79 & the Paradigm is like an after burning J79....lol, I tell people the JBL sub will shake the house & the Paradigm will shake the Neighbourhood :) great choices of music too, Keep up the good work. From a Land Down Under 🔊 J T
great job .i'm doing the same to a pair of jansen (nz) rcf (italy) big bins i found in a rubbish skip they are huge .work in progress may do a vid on it never done one before so that'll be a learning curve in it's self.keep them vids comming and have a great day.cheers from New Zealand.
If your reciever has pre-outs on it, its a simple matter to hook up an external amplifier. Barring that, you could also use a couple of speaker level to line level converters (very common in the car audio industry... but get a pair of good ones) and drive the amps that way. And if you wanted to keep it all around the same vintage... I recommend either a Crown PSA-2 (beast of an amp.. great low end) or a Bryston 4B (but a Rexdale, Ontario-built 4B... those are the ones that have the lifetime warranty. New Brystons are "only" 25 year warranties.. heh... heh). Both weigh a metric assload though.
Great job! All of the 2200 series are hefty sound producers! I bought a couple E series 12 inch guitar speakers that were from a Marshall Amp supposedly used by the Allman Bros and they ARE trust-worthy! I was surprised to see that your 15" lower was a passive transducer. During the video I was under the assumption it was a 3-way system especially after seeing that monster crossover board! You go Jay!
+Fred Carter It is a three way system. There is a 14 inch LF, a 5 inch Mid,and a 0.75 inch HF in each speaker, in addition to the 15 inch passive radiator. The purpose of the passive radiator is to make the total enclosure volume smaller. I must admit, I never thought much of the idea, but now I'm sold.
+AgentJayZ i prefer passive radiator design because the box is sealed, it may have some weird frequency issues, but so does a ported design as well, it is about the best you can do with a monkey coffin :D my main speakers are sealed omni directionals but are not anywhere near as powerful as those, i want open baffle but the W.A.F. is close to zero :-(
Awesome music selection during the videos project!! Is that a Spotify playlist? If yes, please share it!! Congratulations for the project, very interesting!
+Leonardo Rodrigues It's 1.FM Blues Channel, and Classic Rock Replay. Free to download the app, no fees ever, and no commercials. I don't know how they make money, but I've never paid a cent. I am not a spokesperson, and I get nothin. I'm just saying I use it and it's great.
if no one else has suggested this, you should try driving those with a vintage amp from the 70's or 80's. I'm sure it will fulfill your expectations of how they should sound.
+Pete Lorenzo When the amp was made is of no consequence. They make class A tube amps now. I am driving them with a new technology digital amp, and I am amazed that these 1970s dinosaurs sound "ahead" of the source, even when playing movies made this year. The walls were shaking and the earth was quakin'... to use an old reference. They are far exceeding my expectations.
I have those tweeters and two brand new old stock Altec 416-8a woofers,I would like to make a two way,just need to study cross over points,and cabinet internal volume.
Fantastic Jay! Thank you very much! How about giving us a quick look at those Crown power amps when you get a moment? I believe Crown went on to be called Amcron? Great amps! A blast from the past! I always loved EV speakers too. Maybe not the last word today but jeez! All the best and thanks again for this great mini-series, Rich.
+MrWarwick15 Crown is still called Crown... in most places :) The Amcron name was used for products that were for markets they DIDN'T have the Crown trademark in. Canada at one point was one market they were called Amcron, and I believe all product that goes to Japan is still branded that. Their i-Tech touring amps are beasts.. and I use an iTX1000 amp with built in DSP in my bass guitar rig (driven by an Ampeg SVT tube preamp naturally ;) )
+MrWarwick15 Oh yes :) The DSP has a subharmonic synth setting, so it generates a second note one octave below the lowest frequency... absolutely shakes the house :)
I used to have Pioneers version of those speakers, not quite as good but sounded nice no matter the volume, so i know how nice it is to have those gems of yours. You gotta find some way to get AJ taken care of so you do not owe your soul lol.
Oh, Ok then. My experiences have always been that the second half of it carried the emphasis. Maybe that's a glass-half-empty way of looking at things, eh?
Beautiful speakers ! I have several sets of jbl’s of the same vintage .. but I don’t have 220’s ... never heard a set, but I’ve heard lots about them . You need a different amp . I don’t know what you have there.. but I can tell it’s newer age stuff by the looks . I’ve been down this road . I had a modern Denon receiver rated at 100 watts per channel . When I bought my first set of vintage speakers.. I used the denon to power them thinking it would be plenty of power . Nope .. no bass . No thickness to the soundness.. pretty flat all around . These speakers sounded absolutely awesome when the guy I bought them off demoed them for me . I knew something wasn’t right . They rated the power of vintage gear differently then they do new stuff . I ended up getting a vintage marantz receiver that put out 50 watts per channel. Wow ! It was like going from AM to FM in sound quality. The speakers came alive .. and the bass was deep and thick . I have since used vintage amplifiers as low as 20 watts per ch with vintage jbl’s .. and even that has gobs more power then that modern Denon did . Try something from the mid to late 70’s in the 50+ watt per channel range and you will love those speakers 10 times as much .
+Michael Hinman ...to misquote Frankie and Tina... Welcome to the thunderdome... Is what I mutter when energizing my battle scarred warriors of the future passed...
And there you go. One set of classic 'wounded' speakers, saved and restored. There should be (hopefully) some audio output ("to processor"?) you can use to drive the Crown amps in your theatre. Then you must make a video of you watching/listening to one of your J79 A.B. videos on that system! Just a thought. Anyway, great project! DD
I wonder what people feel about the sound of these speakers. I used to sell them and although I loved the way they looked at the time, I could never get them to sound decent. We had other speakers in the same room that performed much better. Not only could I not get decent bass out of them the mids and highs really had no details. I used to compare another brand to these using a a violin as one of the tracks to compare. The violin had a visceral sound to it. The bow scratching across the strings was amazing in it's realistic qualities. Just not on the JBLs . I used to ask people which sounded best to them, funny thing was people preferred the sound of the JBLs because they didn't have that visceral sound. After I explained that if you recorded a school teacher scratching her nails across the chalk board and it didn't make you cringe then the sound isn't being reproduced well. Maybe the better caps helped make these sound better. I still like the look of them but I have move on and up in my speakers.
+SomeGuyInSandy They do an amazing job with "Do you feel like we do"... I don't think the neighbors are ready for me to crank them up with "On the radio" or "Bad girls"... yet!
I have the 250Ti’s had the foam surrounds done twice over 20 years, foam is crap, thinking of putting Beyma 15’s in the cabinets. Should have to re foam speakers that should last decades
A very important test and the project is finished. You will need 1 chair, 1 roll of duct tape, 1 hand held thermometer 1000 degree F range, And most important, the guy that ripped the speakers. Oh and one more thing, an after burning jet engine. Test complete !
Nice job, I watched all 4 parts. Wish we knew how the drivers got sliced. My theory is, kid with a box cutter, or jealous wife. Anyways great series, nice detail, I didn't feel like you breezed over too much.
Thanks. As promised, when the LE-14As are no longer able to thump the house, I will recone them. It will cost as much as buying whole new drivers, but then I would still have to recone them, and then I would have four. You can never throw stuff like this out.
Did you straighten out the vanes of the acoustic lens on the second speaker? I noticed the top one got displaced as you put it back in. Also the spacing was uneven further down. Dunno if Anyone could actually hear the difference but ...
Great videos and speakers. 1979 is not that old, I have stereo equipment from the 50s and 60s, all tube!! I wonder what the JBL's cost new in 1979? Also, did they come equipped with cloth grilles when new? Better watch playing them loud with 400 watts, your neighbors will be knocking on your front door, lol...
+avioncamper In my town, they were 2500.00 in 1979. They did come with black cloth grilles. I'm renewing those, but I like the bare look better anyway.
I have enjoyed your 4 part series on restoring the L220 speakers as I am currently restoring a pair of L222 Disco. According to the online schematic they are the same for the most part. I did notice your personal sketch showing what colored wires go to which lug was a little different from what I found in my speakers. #4 & #5 lugs were reversed on mine. White on 4 and green and black on 5. I am wondering which way is correct? I am not skilled in electronics and would like to know if anyone knows the correct wiring? Thank you
After checking two online diagrams of the L220, the white wire and the green/black wire are both connected to ground, so reversing them would make no difference. Same for the black wire. All three are grounds. No worries! This page shows both the L220 and L222 crossover wiring: goodmeowsk.life/product_details/38718639.html
I just watched your videos. Thank you for showing me how to re-cone these.The reason im here is I was just given a pair of these JBL's.Not really knowing what they were, but knowing they were special because of the weight and cabinet. They Reminded me of my Massive Klipsch Corner horns. I would like to give you a tip on wire strippers.Check out the ones that are made by Thomas and Betts.They are so much better that the generic ones that I noticed in your video. If you do a lot of wiring,,these babies will save you so much pain ..im not kidding.I figured you helped me here..so Id do the same for you.Thanks again.
If you do have a pair of L220s, just know they are fantastic. They have always been overshadowed by their big brothers, the L300s, but that does not mean they aren't house shakers. Give them at least 250 watts each, and your smile will make other people smile!
Oh no, she found out about the affair with the speakers!, poor defenseless speakers! I appreciate the vid, I found some for sale and so was looking into these more. Then I came across your vid and had a hard time not watching it.
Rebuilt kits for either replacing just the surrounds or doing a complete recone are available from several sources. Just search for your speaker model and you should see a couple.
AgentJayZ well, that's where my situation gets kinda complicated. In a world of standardization, there were two speakers that used 14" woofers. A JBL and Sansui. I looked relentlessly for Sansui, but hadn't thought about trying a JBL. I don't have anything to lose trying a JBL. The only other alternative I came up with was making a mold, and making several test pieces until I came up with a decent formula. I feel almost as enthusiastic about Sansui SP3500's as you do L220's. Anyway, thanks for posting this and giving an idea. You have a really cool set of speakers....
+Chuffing Ale I see your difficulty. After looking around a bit, nobody seems to list a Sansui 14 kit. Maybe somebody else actually makes that driver. You can probably get the LE14 kit to work. If not, I'll bet you can source some foam and make your own.
The black cone is a passive radiator. It takes the place of a calculated mass of air, and allows the overall cabinet volume to be smaller, while sounding bigger. The white cone is of the active woofer. If you look up the brochure for JBL L220, they do a better job of explaining it.
+AgentJayZ Some people say if you put your ear right up against one of the drivers while they're unplugged you can still hear the echo of "you love these more than ME!"
As stated before, if that was true, I believe the professional engineers who designed these would have done so. These do not need more bass. You have fallen victim to, and are pandering to, marketing bullshit.
Do not think so because it is industrial design and nobody take care about that but only comprise about cost and profit. I remember you that there is a skin effect for lower frequencies. Please do a simple test using a couple of cables not less that 4-6mm², shorter as possible to connect to amplifier. It is not important the quality of cable but only a size (off course do not use a single core). To make this cable very simple, using a cable (i.e 1x6mm² you have a lot in your workshop) and glue (or fix) togheter in flat plane but take care do not twist. After that connect to your amplifier and listen. The effect should coming immediately but not for the power of basses, but for the quality of than frequency.
Apologize for my english, but I thank you a lot for your explanations. I have a mechanical workshop where design, manufacture and repair industrial pumps. I like so much fluidynamic and design , but after 30year experience in this field, I'm "dirty my hand" anytime to understanding better. For this your lessons are so apreciated.
+Light Man No need. No cones were replaced. The 14" white ones on the woofers were repaired and shown in the 3rd video to work fine. The 15" black ones are not woofers, but passive radiators. They also perform well. Only the foam surrounds of all four were replaced with new.
Dear AgentJayZ, please turn down the bass, the 911 call center here in Minnesota is getting calls of rhythmic booming sounds coming from the North by North West.... You have to tell me how Pink Floyd sounds on those monsters !!!!!
Not necessary in this application. Your opinion is valid. The only way to settle the debate would be to test each capacitor installation for a resonant frequency. If that frequency fell within the reproduction range of the drivers, it might be at risk if the drivers held that resonant frequency for extended periods of time. That's not music.
@@francoisdesmeules5785 If you paid attention, you would notice that I said test the installation for resonant frequency... that means the physical properties of the wire supporting the mass of the capacitor, and how it vibrates. What is absurd is your assumption that you understand. Classic Dunning-Kruger. Gwon, now... beat it.
OMG, you are going to have to replace your windows if you ever put 400 watts through those. They have to reach down to 30hrz usable. I hate modern specs -- "these speakers are rated at 50 - 20,000" except the 50Hrz is so weak that you can not feel it. Not with those beastie boys. Make sure all your pictures are really attached good to the wall, or they WILL be on the floor.
+Todd Dembsky Yeah, I hooked up my phone with a frequency generator app to the receiver, and the speakers seemed to resonate at 40Hz, which seemed disappointing. My 18 inch sub resonated at 31Hz. But then, using only the L220s, I watched Terminator Genisys last nite, and the floor moved; these things made it sound like I was using the sub. Built in 1979, these are THX-ready for the today's action movies.
But the L220 have an Xmax of 10mm. Your sub probably has an Xmax of 20mm. Also -- if you move the speakers about 12cm off the back wall, the wall will help re-enforce the bass. Also, it looks like you listening room may be rectangular in size and you may have standing waves that cancel out at lower frequencies. Try to angle the speakers slightly towards your listening position. That may help break up and room refraction that you may have. Just did some quick calcs, a 40hrz wave length is 8.6 meters. That would put a dead spot almost right in the center of your room.
+Todd Dembsky I did move the towers around a bit for the camera, but maybe I should rearrange the room. The 2245H has an Xmax of 10mm, and it can easily move dishes in the next room at 5mm. I would have said that nothing sounds like that, but these things are dang close. Fixing up old hi-end stuff you can get on Ebay is the way to awesomeness!
AgentJayZ Amen to that!!!! I finished a refurb on a Dynaco ST70 Tube Amp last year. And i have re-coned a couple of speakers for friends of mine that pick them up at garage sales. I design and build my own speakers put would love to find a pair of Cornwalls for the amp. Jets and speakers have one thing in common -- it is all about moving air baby!!! The more air you move, the bigger the thump.
+AgentJayZ it makes you wonder why the "ye olde crap" from the 70's is schooling these modern 482million channel setups with dinky speakers. in 40 years the stuff has become progressively worse from my perspective.
Of course sound is important, but good looks have been an important aspect of JBL speakers for a long time. Huge scratches and such may not bother you, but I consider them unacceptable. I've seen a lot of good videos on how to recone. That should have been done here.
As c;ear;y demonstrated here, a re-cone would be unnecessary for the speakers to function as ...speakers, and therefore, a waste of money. I have re-coned several speakers, and I would be happy to re-cone these LE-14As to make them acceptable to you. Please send the 600.00 CAD that I need to purchase the unnecessary kits, and I'll get started. I'll make a video about the process. Otherwise, I will make use of my perfectly functioning speakers they way I should... by listening to them and not worrying what they look like.
Watched the whole sequence AgentJZ, you did a great job on those.
I have a set of vintage B&W DM2's kicking around at home, now I feel inspired to drag them back into the house and refresh them !!
Phil.
I bought a pair of those back in 1980 and had them delivered to my hospital room at the VA hospital in Roxbury, Massachusetts. I was in the spinal cord rehab unit. It was a rather lengthy stay. The nurses would drag them out to the picnic area and we would listen to music. Good memories for being a lousy place. I still have them and bought another pair out of nostalgia.
Back in the stone age - I built my own boxes and used JBL drivers and Altec Lansing crossovers. Watching this brings back memories. I mounted my midrange horn, and woofer/passive radiator forward of the face of the speaker. The only driver mounted from behind was the quartz tweeter.
Thanks for sharing! I don't know much about speakers, but it was a lot of fun to follow you in your adventure; cool toys, I hope they bring you pleasure for many years to come!
dude! great miniseries!! I found your channel a couple of weeks ago I now it seems it replaced the TV, way more fun watching it! Thanks a lot for taking the time and share all this, keep it up! cheers from a hot summer in Chile
great series of vids on your refurb project Jay, and an excellent engineer's soundtrack to boot.
Thanks AJ ..
Great fun, thanks for letting us watch.
Thanks for that interesting ride JayZ. Nice job on redoing the surround on those speakers. I've always avoided doing a re-surround myself in fear that the voice coil may rub because of the cone not being centered perfectly. You make it look easy.
Sweet rebuild. I wish more manufacturers took the time and effort to engineer cabinets with passive radiators. Oddly enough i have a logitech speaker dock that uses passive radiators along side a couple of 2(?) inch drivers and the bass response from that little sound dock blows away some of my speakers of much greater size.
Niice speakers you got there. Fellow JBL owner here, I have the L100 and I did the Jantzen modification to their x-over, best damn speaker I've ever had.
Hello
I purchase a set of the JBL L220'S at the PX while stationed in West Germany in 1982. I was in the Army and living in the barracks and what does any good solider who was trained in the latest electronics do?...... Why have stereo wars! So the big guns were bought! I paid six hundred dollars for each speaker for a grand total of twelve hundred dollars. I still have them and yes I had to install new foam surrounds and replace the capacitors about three years ago. I love those speakers it was money well spent. Theses speakers sound the best with a big amplifier driving them. I have SAE and Studer Revox equipment mostly and the five hundred watt per channel amplifier does a great job! I was very surprised that they have held there value so well. Enjoy your speakers it's nice to know folks know about them and love them as much as I do.
They have become something rare, always in the shadow of the L300. But the L220s are house shaking monsters, I look at them every morning and smile.
Back then, I did not see the point of a passive radiator. Now I see that it makes a 3 cubic foot enclosure sound like a 10 cubic foot one.
The magic of sound engineers!
Nicely done. Thank you for the details and good photography. It took a couple of weeks to discover you were the same person who does the really great turbine engine videos without a studio. 2 things impress me about all your videos. 1) You take care to make sure the picture shows what you want us to see. I recently watched a video to see how something was done only to have the photographer focus on a point an inch away from what I wanted to see. 2) Despite the terrible acoustics you record in, your speech can be understood. I have trouble lately understanding speech in a noisy environment.I have been studying, designing, installing, and operating PA systems in stadiums with up to 12,000 in attendance since the late 1960's. At these events the spoken word is the important part and the sessions can be long. You will appreciate trying to set this up to minimize listener fatigue is quite different than a music program.So, when I say you are doing a great job despite conditions, I am speaking from experience. Your knowledge of audio shows.CJ Hodgson
Thanks! Sound is important to me. It was 1989 when I first hooked up an amp and those 4313s to my TV, and I've never listened to TV speakers since.
:) When you dropped in the speaker I thought "ok, a dry fit; still a hassle to get it out again to connect the wires and it really should fit, because the speaker already was in there". Then you aligned it and I thought "thorough dry fit, maybe that is something he's used to from assembling turbine engines". But you started putting the screws in and I was making bets at what point you would realize it.
+superdau See? I always knew you were more situationally aware than I was. I included this in the video because:
1) gotta be honest
2) it adds to the DIY aspect
3) it made me laugh!
Loved watching these! Brought back a log of memories of working in mine. You did a great job!
+Michael Hinman
Good speakers are immortal!
I half expected you to test them out where you test the engines. Those things look like they could melt some snow.
I like this new type of video, please consider recording a videos next time you repair a computer or other household device, especially if involves using any of your job skills :-)
Nice Job Jay. I love my JBL's & i have repaired & built many speakers over the years & Yes i use the same method to glue surrounds to the cone without having to cut the dust cap off & shim the voice coil. 70's monster crossovers are fun, Hot glue gun is handy for securing the Cap's. Potentiometers can be changed for later higher quality ones but sometimes i just spray some electronic cleaner in them & turn them rapidly back & forth, after a few go's they clean up inside a bit, this will stop any crackling whilst adjusting with sound output.
Love the Speakers Mate Great score, wish i had them guess i will just make do with my JBL S-312's , S-38's , EC-35, PSW1200 + Jamo concert 7's & Paradigm PSW1200 all being run by my Yamaha RX-A3000.
In the world of subwoofers the JBL is like a J79 & the Paradigm is like an after burning J79....lol, I tell people the JBL sub will shake the house & the Paradigm will shake the Neighbourhood :) great choices of music too, Keep up the good work.
From a Land Down Under 🔊 J T
what a nice surprise. cool miniseries jay.
much respect man keep them vintages runin!
Awesome series! Thanks for sharing
great job .i'm doing the same to a pair of jansen (nz) rcf (italy) big bins i found in a rubbish skip they are huge .work in progress may do a vid on it never done one before so that'll be a learning curve in it's self.keep them vids comming and have a great day.cheers from New Zealand.
Part of the reason I made this series of videos is to show how easy the process is, and how well it turns out.
Excellent series..
If your reciever has pre-outs on it, its a simple matter to hook up an external amplifier. Barring that, you could also use a couple of speaker level to line level converters (very common in the car audio industry... but get a pair of good ones) and drive the amps that way. And if you wanted to keep it all around the same vintage... I recommend either a Crown PSA-2 (beast of an amp.. great low end) or a Bryston 4B (but a Rexdale, Ontario-built 4B... those are the ones that have the lifetime warranty. New Brystons are "only" 25 year warranties.. heh... heh). Both weigh a metric assload though.
Great job! All of the 2200 series are hefty sound producers! I bought a couple E series 12 inch guitar speakers that were from a Marshall Amp supposedly used by the Allman Bros and they ARE trust-worthy! I was surprised to see that your 15" lower was a passive transducer. During the video I was under the assumption it was a 3-way system especially after seeing that monster crossover board! You go Jay!
+Fred Carter It is a three way system. There is a 14 inch LF, a 5 inch Mid,and a 0.75 inch HF in each speaker, in addition to the 15 inch passive radiator.
The purpose of the passive radiator is to make the total enclosure volume smaller. I must admit, I never thought much of the idea, but now I'm sold.
Oh thats right! It blew me awayhaha
+AgentJayZ i prefer passive radiator design because the box is sealed, it may have some weird frequency issues, but so does a ported design as well, it is about the best you can do with a monkey coffin :D my main speakers are sealed omni directionals but are not anywhere near as powerful as those, i want open baffle but the W.A.F. is close to zero :-(
Great video, love those speakers! Great picture quality on your video!
I love this model! That tweeter is so rare.
They've been going strong at my house for a few years now. Awesome speakers!
Awesome music selection during the videos project!! Is that a Spotify playlist? If yes, please share it!! Congratulations for the project, very interesting!
+Leonardo Rodrigues It's 1.FM Blues Channel, and Classic Rock Replay.
Free to download the app, no fees ever, and no commercials. I don't know how they make money, but I've never paid a cent.
I am not a spokesperson, and I get nothin. I'm just saying I use it and it's great.
Excellent series! You did a great job.
if no one else has suggested this, you should try driving those with a vintage amp from the 70's or 80's. I'm sure it will fulfill your expectations of how they should sound.
+Pete Lorenzo When the amp was made is of no consequence. They make class A tube amps now. I am driving them with a new technology digital amp, and I am amazed that these 1970s dinosaurs sound "ahead" of the source, even when playing movies made this year.
The walls were shaking and the earth was quakin'... to use an old reference.
They are far exceeding my expectations.
Wicked!
Awesome!
Outrageous!
Brilliant!
Forza!
AgentJayZ, didn't you hear me shouting at my computer screen that you didn't plug in that speaker? lol
I have those tweeters and two brand new old stock Altec 416-8a woofers,I would like to make a two way,just need to study cross over points,and cabinet internal volume.
Fantastic Jay! Thank you very much! How about giving us a quick look at those Crown power amps when you get a moment? I believe Crown went on to be called Amcron? Great amps! A blast from the past! I always loved EV speakers too. Maybe not the last word today but jeez! All the best and thanks again for this great mini-series,
Rich.
+MrWarwick15 Crown is still called Crown... in most places :) The Amcron name was used for products that were for markets they DIDN'T have the Crown trademark in. Canada at one point was one market they were called Amcron, and I believe all product that goes to Japan is still branded that. Their i-Tech touring amps are beasts.. and I use an iTX1000 amp with built in DSP in my bass guitar rig (driven by an Ampeg SVT tube preamp naturally ;) )
+Matt Tyndorf Thanks for that Matt! Your bass rig must kick some ass?
+MrWarwick15 Oh yes :) The DSP has a subharmonic synth setting, so it generates a second note one octave below the lowest frequency... absolutely shakes the house :)
Good job, congrats on the score!
I used to have Pioneers version of those speakers, not quite as good but sounded nice no matter the volume, so i know how nice it is to have those gems of yours. You gotta find some way to get AJ taken care of so you do not owe your soul lol.
Jack of all trades master of none.
+Vincent Vega That is the politest one yet, but it still qualifies as a personal insult, so...
Oh, Ok then. My experiences have always been that the second half of it carried the emphasis.
Maybe that's a glass-half-empty way of looking at things, eh?
@@AgentJayZ Thank you Jay for taking the time, trouble, expense, to put up these very entertaining vids.
Beautiful speakers ! I have several sets of jbl’s of the same vintage .. but I don’t have 220’s ... never heard a set, but I’ve heard lots about them .
You need a different amp . I don’t know what you have there.. but I can tell it’s newer age stuff by the looks .
I’ve been down this road . I had a modern Denon receiver rated at 100 watts per channel . When I bought my first set of vintage speakers.. I used the denon to power them thinking it would be plenty of power . Nope .. no bass . No thickness to the soundness.. pretty flat all around . These speakers sounded absolutely awesome when the guy I bought them off demoed them for me . I knew something wasn’t right . They rated the power of vintage gear differently then they do new stuff .
I ended up getting a vintage marantz receiver that put out 50 watts per channel. Wow ! It was like going from AM to FM in sound quality. The speakers came alive .. and the bass was deep and thick . I have since used vintage amplifiers as low as 20 watts per ch with vintage jbl’s .. and even that has gobs more power then that modern Denon did .
Try something from the mid to late 70’s in the 50+ watt per channel range and you will love those speakers 10 times as much .
They did sound best when powered by my Crown Com-Tech 810 from the 80s.
My favorite tunage to hear on my 220s was Steely Dan- Two Against Nature the presence and imaging is mind blowing! Okay, I'm done!
+Michael Hinman
...to misquote Frankie and Tina...
Welcome to the thunderdome...
Is what I mutter when energizing my battle scarred warriors of the future passed...
And there you go. One set of classic 'wounded' speakers, saved and restored. There should be (hopefully) some audio output ("to processor"?) you can use to drive the Crown amps in your theatre. Then you must make a video of you watching/listening to one of your J79 A.B. videos on that system! Just a thought. Anyway, great project!
DD
That one thumb down was my wife..... 8-)
Can you post a complete list of capacitors that you ordered ? I have a set of these but I want to recap them. Thanks
Did you watch all 4 parts? The online circuit diagrams are readily available.
I wonder what people feel about the sound of these speakers. I used to sell them and although I loved the way they looked at the time, I could never get them to sound decent. We had other speakers in the same room that performed much better. Not only could I not get decent bass out of them the mids and highs really had no details. I used to compare another brand to these using a a violin as one of the tracks to compare. The violin had a visceral sound to it. The bow scratching across the strings was amazing in it's realistic qualities. Just not on the JBLs . I used to ask people which sounded best to them, funny thing was people preferred the sound of the JBLs because they didn't have that visceral sound. After I explained that if you recorded a school teacher scratching her nails across the chalk board and it didn't make you cringe then the sound isn't being reproduced well. Maybe the better caps helped make these sound better. I still like the look of them but I have move on and up in my speakers.
The bass in the Deep House Test didn't come through TH-cam very well but I could tell it was there by the camera shaking.
You can only guess how much Donna Summer and Frampton was played through those. Awesome!
+SomeGuyInSandy They do an amazing job with "Do you feel like we do"... I don't think the neighbors are ready for me to crank them up with "On the radio" or "Bad girls"... yet!
Lol, right on!
i have 4313 and just love them with my l65
Ah, the L65 is a classic. It has steadily risen to a price I can never afford.
I have the 250Ti’s had the foam surrounds done twice over 20 years, foam is crap, thinking of putting Beyma 15’s in the cabinets. Should have to re foam speakers that should last decades
If you decide to do that, I will buy your LE 14s...
Now you are ready to step up to a pair of transmission lines. ;-) BTW, they have a negative WAF, as I see another has coined that term.
A very important test and the project is finished. You will need 1 chair, 1 roll of duct tape, 1 hand held thermometer 1000 degree F range, And most important, the guy that ripped the speakers. Oh and one more thing, an after burning jet engine. Test complete !
No guy would do _that._ That damage was undoubtedly caused by a psycho bitch.
Nice job, I watched all 4 parts. Wish we knew how the drivers got sliced. My theory is, kid with a box cutter, or jealous wife. Anyways great series, nice detail, I didn't feel like you breezed over too much.
Thanks. As promised, when the LE-14As are no longer able to thump the house, I will recone them. It will cost as much as buying whole new drivers, but then I would still have to recone them, and then I would have four. You can never throw stuff like this out.
Did you straighten out the vanes of the acoustic lens on the second speaker?
I noticed the top one got displaced as you put it back in.
Also the spacing was uneven further down.
Dunno if Anyone could actually hear the difference but ...
Great videos and speakers.
1979 is not that old, I have stereo equipment from the 50s and 60s, all tube!!
I wonder what the JBL's cost new in 1979?
Also, did they come equipped with cloth grilles when new?
Better watch playing them loud with 400 watts, your neighbors will be knocking on your front door, lol...
+avioncamper In my town, they were 2500.00 in 1979.
They did come with black cloth grilles. I'm renewing those, but I like the bare look better anyway.
I was half expecting you would lock-wire the screws on the back.
Can you just stick the spare screw to the speaker magnet?
That would be careless and sloppy... Oh, I get it now!
I have enjoyed your 4 part series on restoring the L220 speakers as I am currently restoring a pair of L222 Disco. According to the online schematic they are the same for the most part. I did notice your personal sketch showing what colored wires go to which lug was a little different from what I found in my speakers. #4 & #5 lugs were reversed on mine. White on 4 and green and black on 5. I am wondering which way is correct? I am not skilled in electronics and would like to know if anyone knows the correct wiring? Thank you
After checking two online diagrams of the L220, the white wire and the green/black wire are both connected to ground, so reversing them would make no difference. Same for the black wire. All three are grounds. No worries!
This page shows both the L220 and L222 crossover wiring: goodmeowsk.life/product_details/38718639.html
Thanks for your quick response. That relieves the concern I had with those wires. I didn't want to mess anything up on these beauties. @@AgentJayZ
6:43...that answered that. At first I thought you had access through the back to connect the drivers.
Ya you're going to need a new amplifier for those babies.
I just watched your videos. Thank you for showing me how to re-cone these.The reason im here is I was just given a pair of these JBL's.Not really knowing what they were, but knowing they were special because of the weight and cabinet. They Reminded me of my Massive Klipsch Corner horns. I would like to give you a tip on wire strippers.Check out the ones that are made by Thomas and Betts.They are so much better that the generic ones that I noticed in your video. If you do a lot of wiring,,these babies will save you so much pain ..im not kidding.I figured you helped me here..so Id do the same for you.Thanks again.
If you do have a pair of L220s, just know they are fantastic. They have always been overshadowed by their big brothers, the L300s, but that does not mean they aren't house shakers.
Give them at least 250 watts each, and your smile will make other people smile!
Oh no, she found out about the affair with the speakers!, poor defenseless speakers! I appreciate the vid, I found some for sale and so was looking into these more. Then I came across your vid and had a hard time not watching it.
Now that's a xover!
is a good Sistem jbl old series
I don't know how I wound up here, but thanks for posting this....
Where did you get the surrounds?
Rebuilt kits for either replacing just the surrounds or doing a complete recone are available from several sources. Just search for your speaker model and you should see a couple.
AgentJayZ well, that's where my situation gets kinda complicated. In a world of standardization, there were two speakers that used 14" woofers. A JBL and Sansui.
I looked relentlessly for Sansui, but hadn't thought about trying a JBL. I don't have anything to lose trying a JBL. The only other alternative I came up with was making a mold, and making several test pieces until I came up with a decent formula. I feel almost as enthusiastic about Sansui SP3500's as you do L220's.
Anyway, thanks for posting this and giving an idea.
You have a really cool set of speakers....
+Chuffing Ale
I see your difficulty. After looking around a bit, nobody seems to list a Sansui 14 kit.
Maybe somebody else actually makes that driver.
You can probably get the LE14 kit to work.
If not, I'll bet you can source some foam and make your own.
thanks for sharing, I noticed the subwoofer (bottom component/bass) is not connected. How does it work? thanks for your help
The black cone is a passive radiator. It takes the place of a calculated mass of air, and allows the overall cabinet volume to be smaller, while sounding bigger. The white cone is of the active woofer.
If you look up the brochure for JBL L220, they do a better job of explaining it.
@@AgentJayZ thanks a ton!!!
That is one old school crossover. Awesome awesome stuff, really enjoyed this series. Was it an angry girlfriend wielding the knife?
+jaysbob I have asked AJ for the story, and "further details were not offered"...
+AgentJayZ Some people say if you put your ear right up against one of the drivers while they're unplugged you can still hear the echo of "you love these more than ME!"
+Guy Smiley I'll bet that was indeed screeched at some point. Who the heck would stab a tweeter?
+AgentJayZ Jealousy runs deep! lol
for more bass please change cables and increase the size. it is like the burner no fuel to power....
As stated before, if that was true, I believe the professional engineers who designed these would have done so.
These do not need more bass. You have fallen victim to, and are pandering to, marketing bullshit.
Do not think so because it is industrial design and nobody take care about that but only comprise about cost and profit.
I remember you that there is a skin effect for lower frequencies.
Please do a simple test using a couple of cables not less that 4-6mm², shorter as possible to connect to amplifier. It is not important the quality of cable but only a size (off course do not use a single core).
To make this cable very simple, using a cable (i.e 1x6mm² you have a lot in your workshop) and glue (or fix) togheter in flat plane but take care do not twist. After that connect to your amplifier and listen.
The effect should coming immediately but not for the power of basses, but for the quality of than frequency.
Apologize for my english, but I thank you a lot for your explanations.
I have a mechanical workshop where design, manufacture and repair industrial pumps.
I like so much fluidynamic and design , but after 30year experience in this field, I'm "dirty my hand" anytime to understanding better. For this your lessons are so apreciated.
The notion that thicker or more expensive cables make your speakers sound better is one of the biggest hoaxes in the audio business.
Why you did not change the cones of the bigger woofer
+Light Man No need. No cones were replaced. The 14" white ones on the woofers were repaired and shown in the 3rd video to work fine.
The 15" black ones are not woofers, but passive radiators. They also perform well.
Only the foam surrounds of all four were replaced with new.
Now you just need a Krell KSA-200 xD
Ummm... I think you have to connect the... ahh. lol. Nice rebuild. Jealous. Great speakers.
Good Job
What is the song of 9'48 "?
I don't know.
fuck home made turbines, home made bass system RULEZ!
awesome!
good job, just happened on your channel. but I would like to let you know, if no one has of channel from Japan. KENRICK Sound. they restore JBL'S.
Looks great and sounds great, just keep knives, sharp objects and mentally unstable otherwise jealous individuals away from those speakers.
Also painting the cones might make em look a bit better...but not original.
independent channel tube amplifiers man go analogue
Dear AgentJayZ, please turn down the bass, the 911 call center here in Minnesota is getting calls of rhythmic booming sounds coming from the North by North West....
You have to tell me how Pink Floyd sounds on those monsters !!!!!
should have heat glued the caps to illiminate vibrations
Not necessary in this application. Your opinion is valid. The only way to settle the debate would be to test each capacitor installation for a resonant frequency. If that frequency fell within the reproduction range of the drivers, it might be at risk if the drivers held that resonant frequency for extended periods of time.
That's not music.
You cannot test capacitor for ''resonnant frequencies'' lol snake oil. it is absurd. Gluin them is for vibrations.
@@francoisdesmeules5785 If you paid attention, you would notice that I said test the installation for resonant frequency... that means the physical properties of the wire supporting the mass of the capacitor, and how it vibrates. What is absurd is your assumption that you understand. Classic Dunning-Kruger.
Gwon, now... beat it.
when my speakers have a rip on it, i use cow glue.
How much
The series of videos shows exactly how much work was involved in this restoration.
The modern-ish equivalent model is the JBL Array 14.
OMG, you are going to have to replace your windows if you ever put 400 watts through those. They have to reach down to 30hrz usable. I hate modern specs -- "these speakers are rated at 50 - 20,000" except the 50Hrz is so weak that you can not feel it. Not with those beastie boys. Make sure all your pictures are really attached good to the wall, or they WILL be on the floor.
+Todd Dembsky Yeah, I hooked up my phone with a frequency generator app to the receiver, and the speakers seemed to resonate at 40Hz, which seemed disappointing. My 18 inch sub resonated at 31Hz.
But then, using only the L220s, I watched Terminator Genisys last nite, and the floor moved; these things made it sound like I was using the sub.
Built in 1979, these are THX-ready for the today's action movies.
But the L220 have an Xmax of 10mm. Your sub probably has an Xmax of 20mm. Also -- if you move the speakers about 12cm off the back wall, the wall will help re-enforce the bass. Also, it looks like you listening room may be rectangular in size and you may have standing waves that cancel out at lower frequencies. Try to angle the speakers slightly towards your listening position. That may help break up and room refraction that you may have.
Just did some quick calcs, a 40hrz wave length is 8.6 meters. That would put a dead spot almost right in the center of your room.
+Todd Dembsky I did move the towers around a bit for the camera, but maybe I should rearrange the room. The 2245H has an Xmax of 10mm, and it can easily move dishes in the next room at 5mm.
I would have said that nothing sounds like that, but these things are dang close.
Fixing up old hi-end stuff you can get on Ebay is the way to awesomeness!
AgentJayZ Amen to that!!!! I finished a refurb on a Dynaco ST70 Tube Amp last year. And i have re-coned a couple of speakers for friends of mine that pick them up at garage sales. I design and build my own speakers put would love to find a pair of Cornwalls for the amp. Jets and speakers have one thing in common -- it is all about moving air baby!!! The more air you move, the bigger the thump.
+AgentJayZ it makes you wonder why the "ye olde crap" from the 70's is schooling these modern 482million channel setups with dinky speakers. in 40 years the stuff has become progressively worse from my perspective.
利灰呀
The passive radiator and woofer look awful. Lots of scoring.
Thank you, captain obvious... and a couple years late.
Spoiler alert: they sound awesome, and that's what speakers do...
Of course sound is important, but good looks have been an important aspect of JBL speakers for a long time. Huge scratches and such may not bother you, but I consider them unacceptable. I've seen a lot of good videos on how to recone. That should have been done here.
As c;ear;y demonstrated here, a re-cone would be unnecessary for the speakers to function as ...speakers, and therefore, a waste of money.
I have re-coned several speakers, and I would be happy to re-cone these LE-14As to make them acceptable to you. Please send the 600.00 CAD that I need to purchase the unnecessary kits, and I'll get started. I'll make a video about the process.
Otherwise, I will make use of my perfectly functioning speakers they way I should... by listening to them and not worrying what they look like.