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Posted

I’ve had a pair of JBL 88+12’s rocking the workshop for a couple of years, they love the open space and sound their best played loud.

JBL marketed the L88’s as an entry level 2 way with the option of purchasing the +12 expander kit which consisted of new crossovers and a pair of LE5-2’s. This transformed them into the L88+12’s the same boxes and drivers as the L100’s   

I traded mine for some labour with @5L15 thanks Ken

 

Original cabinets were trashed, I think Ken picked them up from the hard rubbish clean up! Seriously

 

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I salvaged the drivers and after some research I settled on building some 1st Generation L100’s, I prefer the driver alignment and the more complex crossover network.

 

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I had a cover sheet (damaged one side) of American Walnut that I was saving for a speaker project, I got it out and realised it was American Cherry. Similar grain with a tighter cell structure and little lighter in colour.

 

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I kept the components and sizing 100% to the originals.

 

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I used the old cabinets to make templates for routing the new baffles

 

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The only real change was to mitre the baffle into the cabinet, this eliminates the butt joint on face of the baffle that would crack after paint.

 

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I put a coat of clear over the whole box as an undercoat and to seal the grain against bleeding when I do the black

 

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Masked off the Cherry and put a few coats of black on the fronts and backs

 

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Removed the mask, sanded and applied a couple of clear coats over the whole speaker

 

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I didn’t want to deviate from JBL’s design, @MarcAL owed me a favour and built the cross overs to spec probably an upgrade in component quality. 

 

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The original cabinets had that horrible fibreglass damping, I switched this out for carpet underlay courtesy of  @Mr_Fried its made from 70% recycled clothing - 30% wool 

 

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Fitted new dust caps and the foam things to the tweeters

 

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Purchased new foil decals via Brazil, thanks @kelossus for the contact, good quality and service. I used a bucket style grille clip that gives a sleeker finish when the grilles off.

 

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Cheap JCar binding posts, I like the bucket type so you can lay the speaker on its back for working on and transport. 

 

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Copied the original grille frames and purchased repop cloth from the U.S.

 

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Sneak preview last night and a good blast all morning. Totally different speakers, just better in every department. The big test will be when I bring them home to a controlled environment.  

 

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Posted

Great job but I would consider putting a crossover on the woofer.Even just a first order/inductor at say 500 Hz.

I have owned the originals and the woofer breakup/intrusion into the midrange and probably higher was pretty unpleasant.Fine for a party speaker I suppose but listener fatigue sets in pretty quickly.

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Posted

Another excellent restoration project Powerglide.

Very much better than the originals in so many ways.

Thanks for sharing the journey with us and keep up the fabulous work.

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Posted

Classy, classy restoration - totally respectful of the original but a few steps beyond in many ways. Amazing! 

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Posted
12 hours ago, THOMO said:

Great job but I would consider putting a crossover on the woofer.Even just a first order/inductor at say 500 Hz.

I have owned the originals and the woofer breakup/intrusion into the midrange and probably higher was pretty unpleasant.Fine for a party speaker I suppose but listener fatigue sets in pretty quickly.

 

I did try the 88+12’s in a near field set up and didn’t get listener fatigue as they only lasted an hour before I shut them down, they were horrible. There was no crossover to speak off just two lonely caps. Ditto for the late model L100A Century’s. Which model did you have Jon?

 

Itching to hear how the drivers will sound now with a proper XO, better alignment and a well dampened cabinet. I’m hearing some major improvements in the workshop, the biggest being soundstage. 

 

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Posted

Top shelf stuff Alan. Always a great read. Those grills are off the hook. Congratulations and I look forward to checking them out in the flesh. 

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  • 2 weeks later...
Posted

After a few weeks of blasting the workshop I brought these home for a critical listen.

I was a bit nervous to be honest, I think there’s a placebo effect when you build something, you tend to believe it’s better than it really is. I have a pair of 4313B’s as well and find I need the brilliance and presence backed way off for my liking and that’s how I was running these at work. 

Friday night first impressions were not that good, I was playing loud, Physical Graffiti, Exile on Main St. something was off no depth,  just meh. Backed the volume off and put on Nina Simone arrhhh light bulb moment you dumb Fark! brought up the mids and HF ‘’Bingo’’ bit more fine tuning and all was good, still, not as good a sound stage as other speakers used in this room.

Had a long session Saturday afternoon, ended up rolling the cabinets over on their sides which aligned everything to ear level, increasing that sound stage depth I was missing.

Definitely not fatiguing @THOMO I talked with a friend who has owned multiple sets and went down the Troel Gravesen XO road with one, his advice was to stick with the OEM first generation - schematic above. 

 

After playing a wide range of music over weekend I’m very pleased with the sound

 

Look a bit weird set up like this but its how they sound their best.

 

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Posted

Great work!

How did you do your panel mitres?

Previously I have had mitres done CNC 3rd party.

Curious, as I'm looking to do the mitres myself on my next project, and looking for hints.

Posted

 

1 hour ago, Powerglide said:

@MarcAL No its yours, and they are in the foreground 

Ah yes, the tweeter repair.

Feel free to bring them over sometime.

Posted
1 hour ago, Gee Emm said:

Great work!

How did you do your panel mitres?

Previously I have had mitres done CNC 3rd party.

Curious, as I'm looking to do the mitres myself on my next project, and looking for hints.

A tilting panel saw is the best 

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