JBL L300 Summit Restoration.

[Zonker92]

Some work went into these. I've been dreaming of Summits since 1978 or so. Bart hooked me up with the cabinets; he is the man!

New wood bases.
New feet.
Totally rebuilt grill frames, with bamboo reinforcing ribs.
New grill cloth (Huntley Audio on the 'bay).
Factory-recone kits on 2235H woofers.
Radian diaphragms on LE85 horn drivers.
New felt inside LE85 horn drivers
Lightly touched-up H92 horns.
New OEM diaphragms on 077 tweeters.
New tweeter badges with hand-faked serial numbers.
New factory O-rings on all driver mountings.
All fasteners cleaned and polished.
New grill cloth.
Delrin grill pegs.
New Kenrick horn lenses.
New horn lens Velcro.
Upgraded OEM binding posts on MF and HF drivers.
Upgraded binding posts on cabinets.
Cabinets hand-drawn by architect father in law, now being CAD drawn.
Pass-inspired charge-coupled crossovers on custom PCBs.
All new internal wiring.
All veneer cleaned and oiled.
All other surfaces repainted.
L pads dismantled, cleaned, bathed in Deoxit and reinstalled.
Foilcals removed, polished and reinstalled.
New glass tops.
New foam cores under glass.
New hang tags (thanks, Roberto!).

Now I need just to repaint and reinstall the grill badges. But the Summits already sounding primo!

 

[Zonker92]

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[turboyam]

Ohhhhhhh!!! you did good! And air core inductors!, awesome work!

 

[Johnny_Law]

Beautiful work! I have the same Barzilay cabinet! And can spy some other sweet JBLs ...

 

[faber12]

Beautiful!

I am sure they sound as good as they look too.

Thank you for the pictures of the grills, they are the first I have seen that show the framework and how they are constructed. I would love more, and a few dimensions if you are willing.

Excellent work, as I expected when I saw your thread.

@Valveglow you will love this.

 

[Stan man]

D---- Zonk,
a real pro job! I read you're liking their sound, but are they as good as what you'd hoped for and worth the 40 year wait?
Love to hear them.

Stan

 

[cason]

Wowzer!

 

[MCM_Fan]

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I can't possibly "like" this post enough! Those are stunning, absolutely stunning. I can only imagine how great they sound. The entire room looks amazing.

A couple questions on the Nelson Pass crossovers: where did you get the PCBs and what gauge inductors did you use? I'm about to build a pair of Nelson Pass crossovers for another AK member. I'm using all 14 gauge Erse XQ air core inductors and was planning to go with point to point wiring on an MDF or plywood substrate.

 

[Zonker92]

Thanks for all the props! MCM, I had the PCBs custom made; I drew up schematics, a fellow converted them to CAD, then I uploaded them to a company in China that printed them for me. Let me know if you need some names.

The coils are 18-gauge; I did not want to break the bank and it's consistent with JBL OEM coils.

faber, PM me about the drawings.

 

[Drugolf]

Sweet! Great great work man. Enjoy those beasts!

 

[toddalin]

Very nice work.

 

[onwardjames]

There's restoring speakers like I do it, and most everyone else as well.

Then there is Zonker's way of doing it.

Hat is off, sir.

 

[damacman]

OMG man - in addition to the big guys?

 

[bigaltx24]

Those are gorgeous

 

[daveg3588]

Bless you craftsmanship, you have a gift.

 

[GD70]

Dayum! Stunning on every level Zonk!
How long did this project take?
Cheers, Glenn

 

[RS Steve]

Nice work as usual Zonk, curious to see if you like them better than the 4435's.

 

[hjames]

That is just some superb work ... and custom PCBs? Exceptional!!

 

[Alobar]

That's off the charts! Truly outstanding work.. How do you like the Radian diaphrams? I found them to sound practically identical to the originals in my L200's.

 

[Speedbump71]

Beautiful work.