[Snell K/II]

Here are my mint K2s….I think they were made 1990/91…does anybody know ?

[Snell K/II]

Hello, music lovers…just received my first pair of Snell K2s, in mint condition…very nice solid 18 inch book shelf speakers…any suggestions on my 3 amplifier / receiver options…..Sansui G5500 / Denon PMA 750 / Luxman R115 ?

[New to Boston speakers]

Right now using, Infinity RS 325s ....

[New to Boston speakers]

Waiting on a super clean re-foamed set of A60s due in next week....curious how they will sound after all the great reviews....driving them with my Pioneer SA 8500 Amp....

[Which receiver to buy with these older speakers ?]

Hello, music lovers...I'm waiting on a clean set of Boston A60s, due in next week ,  which I've never heard or owned any Bostons....and will be driving them with my Pioneer SA 8500 Amp....I'm 60 years old & don't always have it cranked up, try to go easy on my ears , I  just enjoy quality sound, and these got great reviews.....also have some JBL  L46s...

[JBL L46]

On 5/15/2015 at 2:48 PM, JKent said:

NOT "Classic New England Speakers" I know but I haven't gone over to the Dark Side

A friend's brother asked if I could repair them because "the woofer on one of them blew out." I figured it was the surround and told him to send them my way.

I'd never worked on JBLs before and found some surprises: They're nice looking, with real walnut veneer. The tweeter is covered with a mesh dome. Woofers are very substantial cast aluminum frames. Nice. Ported of course. Dimensions are 20.5" x 12.5" x 10.5". Smaller than an AR-2ax, about the size of a Dynaco A-25.

The L46 appears in a 1982 JBL brochure. Because the NPE capacitors are over 30 years old I decided to replace them with film. Each xo has two 14uF caps and one 7uF. In addition there are 0.0038 film bypass caps on 2 of the NPEs (according to the brochure; "The network makes use of polypropylene bypass capacitors for better resolution of complex transient waveforms, and therefore clearer, more accurate sound." I doubt it but I left the bypass caps in place. YMMV). I replaced the NPEs with caps I had on hand: A Madisound "surplus" 10uF + two "surplus" 2uF caps for one of the 14s, a 10uF surplus plus a Dayton 4uF for the other and a Carli 6.8uF + a Nichicon 0.2 for the 7. Side note: I really like the surplus 10uF caps but the surplus 2uF caps have maddeningly short leads! No mistaking polarity on JBL drivers. The + terminal is male and the - is female (or maybe the other way around, but you can't make a mistake!).

Got new surrounds from John at MSound. He's no longer on ebay but can be reached at msound@shentel.net. Also bought new dust caps and the "trim" external gaskets. The surrounds are rear-mounted to the cones. I'd encountered that before with Advents and it wasn't too difficult. I did try front-mounting first but it just looks better rear-mounted with the white cones (again from the brochure "the woofer cone is coated with Aquaplas, an exclusive formulation which creates a laminated construction with ideal damping characteristics").

First surprise: TWO dust caps! Roy said this is not unique but I'd never seen it before. I cut the inner cap and hinged it back for shimming, then glued it back in place when finished. The outer dust caps I ordered were the same diameter as the originals, which was a mistake on my part but I just trimmed the originals as close as possible, glued the new ones on and later filled in around the flange with white glue to give a smooth transition.

Roy says all those clamps were not needed. Makes sense. I was just following some old MSound instructions but the glue (Aleene's Tacky) really grabs well.

The cabinets had been well taken care of but there were a couple of whitish scuff marks and the wood was kind of dry so I first wiped them down with Howard Restore-a-Finish, rubbing the white marks with some steel wool. The next day I applied a coat of Minwax Antique Oil followed by a second coat the following day.

Put them back together and fired one up. UGH! Is this the "West Coast sound?" All bass an no highs. Oh wait--time to get out the ol' stethoscope and listen to the tweeter. Duh. Dead tweeter. I pulled it out and did a couple of tests to be sure. Yup. One good tweet, one bad. These tweeters can be rebuilt but JBL no longer has the diaphragms and after-market ones from Simply Speakers are $25 so I just bought a second-hand JBL 034 tweeter on ebay.

NOW let's give a listen. Very nice. I have not done an A/B comparison with my AR-3a's but these are nice speakers (when the tweeters are working)

Total cost of the restoration was about $70. Not bad. A few pics attached.

-Kent

 

Hello, music lovers...I'm waiting on 2 clean sets of speakers due in next  week.....JBL. L46. and Boston A60s...to go witfh my Pioneer SA8500 Amp....Will be interesting to hear the differences....