JBL 4411 Score

I

india42

AK Subscriber
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I found a set of these up for auction from the University of Idaho surplus (heads up was posted in D&S, or I wouldn't have seen them). Picked them up on Monday, needed new foam, and the cabinets have a couple problems. On the upside, the drivers look like nobody ever touched them, almost like the grille covers were never off. The cabinets had handles screwed into the sides on both speakers, and a twist lock electrical outlet screwed to the back. The veneer is actually pretty nice...except on the bottom, they're pretty scratched up. a few before pictures... 4411-1.jpg 4411-2.jpg 4411-3.jpg 4411-4.jpg 4411-5.jpg 4411-6.jpg
 
I finished these yesterday (well last night actually), didn't get a chance to listen to them until this morning. Wow, they are awesome, I have a pair of L110's that I really like, but these are a whole other level. Everything is super high quality, according to the info from JBL, the crossover uses mylar caps, bypassed with polypropylene and polystyrene caps. I just did a light sanding on the cabinets, didn't worry about the gouges on the bottoms. The screws were small enough that they didn't go all the way through, so I filled them and matched the color the best I could (you can see them, but I don't really care that much). Put a few coats of Watco's, and they look pretty good. But the real beauty of these is the way they sound, very balanced and detailed, I'm very happy!!4411-7.jpg 4411-8.jpg 4411-9.jpg 4411-10.jpg 4411-11.jpg 4411-12.jpg
 
It was actually an online auction, we also bought about 35 track lights and 20, 8 foot tracks for $12. There is a thread in D&S on it with a link to the auction site , I think it's called Public Surplus or something like that, they have some pretty good deals.
I did have to pick them up in Moscow, it was a beautiful day for a drive. They had a whole building full of stuff.
 
Nice work!, And thanks for the update. I'm glad you're enjoying them. If I would have bought them, they'd probably still be sitting in the garage. :D
 
Congrats on the nice set of 4411's Been looking for a set for a while now.

I think I may offer to trade my 4412A's for a set of 4411's, but I'll have to build the grilles.
Could you maybe put up a couple of pics so I can see how they are made?

My bud uses them for playback, they are at a seated drummer's ear level, like a big set of cans for the drummer. Last time I was up there I swapped one white cone for a black one so he had a matching set. When I sold my L150A's I forgot that they were supposed to have white woofers, so now I have 3, although the one that was in the 4411's really needs a new spider...

Still one of my favorite speakers, although the Ti tweeter in the 4412A's is better, at least if the foam is fresh. Oh and the mid is flatter too, but the look of the 4411 is much nicer with the blue grille cloth.

At least with the pro horizontal monitors there's no ambiguity about the orientation they were designed for. JBL even published graphs showing how awful they would sound in a vertical position. Tweet and mid in vertical alignment is a hard and fast rule, but there's always someone raving about how great their L166's sound standing up, it must be correct, the label is the right way round after all.
 
Last edited:
4343 said:
but I'll have to build the grilles.
Could you maybe put up a couple of pics so I can see how they are made?
Click to expand...
Sure, I'll try and get some pics posted, they look pretty tricky. They taper towards the control end, I'm sure it's beyond my skill level (most things are). One thing I'm good at is listening to music, oh, and buying speakers!
I'll try and get those up later today...
PK
 
Very nice work. The gouges and deep scratches on the long flat bottom can be worked out quite a bit with a moist towel and a steam iron set on cotton, hold the iron to the towel to the veneer section needing work for about 15-20 seconds or when steam arises from the heated interface. As usual, a number of short passes to each section is better than risking burning the veneer with a long hot pass. Eventually, the gouged sections will swell up and then can be sanded flat, and in your case, the extra stain that took to the gouge can be evened out.

If you want to go to the trouble.
 
Very nice grab!
They turned out beautifully! Curious what you did for the screw holes on the sides and how they came out. The woofers look professionally done!
Cheers to you sir!
 
Sophisticated does not equal better. As kappa 7 likely has more sophisticated crossover vs 4412. 4412 is replacement for 4411 so the specs are not suprising. My doubt is that yours or most person ears would not notice the difference between frequency curve of 4412 vs 4411. Now the brightness of tweeter one over the other I could see. All to often people view numbers as the gospel. I.e my old 87 mustang gt speedo only went to 85mph. What a slow car that was.
 
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