Audio Discussion => General Discussion => Topic started by: bmwr75 on October 22, 2011, 06:13:41 PM
Title: Goodwill JBL L40s
Post by: bmwr75 on October 22, 2011, 06:13:41 PM
Found these today at the Goodwill. First decent audio find I've ever had there.........other than an organ full of like new tubes.
The woofer foam is rotten, but both woofers are still good and measure 5.2 ohms. One tweeter dome was pushed in, but duct tape pulled that right out. Didn't measure the tweeter resistance, but am hoping they are good too. Will measure them before I order woofer foams.
Cabinets are in good shape, Howard's Restor-a-Finish should make them look like new. The grills (not shown) are good too. Cloth has come a little loose on them, but nothing some 3M spray glue won't fix easily. Badges are still there too.
Was there some kind of diffraction foam around the tweeters originally? There are deteriorated foam stuck to the grill cloth in that area.
Title: Re: Goodwill JBL L40s
Post by: OldiesButGoodies on October 22, 2011, 06:59:58 PM
those are the most fun finds, they look good. replace the eletrolytics and the suspension and u r good. let us know how they sound afterwards...
pepe
Title: Re: Goodwill JBL L40s
Post by: OconeeOrange on October 22, 2011, 09:15:50 PM
I go to GoodWill, yardsales, etc, but never find even a good LP.
JBL is a good name. After years of fun tunes, a couple JBLs changed it all for me.
Title: Re: Goodwill JBL L40s
Post by: Falcon on October 23, 2011, 01:34:08 AM
Nice find!! I always liked those L-40's. The first pair of speakers I ever bought from Tom. Those were the good old days, always had plenty of cash in my pocket!! Back then Vintage HiFi was in a second floor apartment, wall to wall equipment, even had some gear in the bathroom :o :o. What a great place!! I was like a kid in a candy store. :D Heck, that was many years ago!! Sorry, I got sidetracked.. Good luck with the speakers!!!
Title: Re: Goodwill JBL L40s
Post by: Kingman on October 23, 2011, 05:59:51 AM
Congrats on the find! 8)
Title: Re: Goodwill JBL L40s
Post by: bmwr75 on October 23, 2011, 08:13:56 AM
Falcon,
Good to see you posting again. Hope you are feeling better.
Scott
Title: Re: Goodwill JBL L40s
Post by: bmwr75 on October 29, 2011, 12:44:53 PM
Finished up the restore on these today. Refoamed the woofers, refreshed the veneer with Howard's Restor-a-Finish and Feed-n-Wax and restretched/glued the grill fabric in places. Set the Presence pots to 2.5. Good to go!!!!!
Title: Re: Goodwill JBL L40s
Post by: Kingman on October 29, 2011, 02:03:12 PM
LOOKS GREAT!!!! 8) 8) 8)
Title: Re: Goodwill JBL L40s
Post by: Mr. M-500t on October 30, 2011, 06:06:40 PM
What Kingman said !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
:) :) :)
Title: Re: Goodwill JBL L40s
Post by: SunnyDaze on October 30, 2011, 11:20:04 PM
Nice job, Scott! How do they sound?
Title: Re: Goodwill JBL L40s
Post by: bmwr75 on October 31, 2011, 06:09:08 AM
They sound good SD. The tweeters were way too hot until I turned the Presence pot down ~2.5 on both of them. Hooked them up to a vintage Marantz pre/amp and good digital source. They image great. I'm surprised at how good they sound. Very well built.
Title: Re: Goodwill JBL L40s
Post by: SunnyDaze on October 31, 2011, 09:03:30 AM
Yeah. Those JBL 630's I picked up out your way really surprised me too. When I pulled one of the woofers, I was shocked at the build quality.
They are a bit on the sparkly side, however, I rather enjoy that. How low do you recokon your new JBL's go?
Title: Re: Goodwill JBL L40s
Post by: bmwr75 on October 31, 2011, 01:23:29 PM
No idea how low they go. Got some test tones I could play to see though.
Title: Re: Goodwill JBL L40s
Post by: gdv on October 31, 2011, 02:55:50 PM
Nice refurb... Rare to find anything good at Goodwill...
Enjoy, George
Title: Re: Goodwill JBL L40s
Post by: bmwr75 on October 31, 2011, 05:12:05 PM
No idea how low they go. Got some test tones I could play to see though.
They fall of ~10 dB when going from a 50 Hz test tone to a 40Hz tone. You can hear them all the way down to 16 Hz, albeit if softly. That is as low as my test tones go.
Title: Re: Goodwill JBL L40s
Post by: MacGeek on October 31, 2011, 05:36:06 PM
16HZ is outstanding. Might benefit from some careful EQ