L-26's? Sure, why not thank you very much!

TomBig58

Super Member
I came across a CL post only a couple hours old and less than a mile away. I let him know I could be there in ten minutes and he responded quickly so away I went. Here's the ad:upload_2018-9-2_13-36-12.png

I have a pair of old JBLs that need a good home. One needs a new woofer cone. On some sources cause a distorted sound. They were re-coned about 20 years ago. They both have the front covers but some of the posts are broken. I prefer to give them away rather than toss them. Pick up only

Cabs need a bit of work but not a re-veneer. All original drivers work with woofer foam intact but needing replace. No VC rub while playing horizontal or vertical that I can tell. One of the tweeter dust cones is severely dented/crinkled I hope I can pull it out. Can the dust cover be replaced on the LE-25's? Scratchy attenuator pots but working. One grill cover is in pieces, not sure if I will repair or make a new one, and one badge missing. I wanted to give the guy a few bucks but he seemed real pleased that I was planning on restoring rather than part out. All in all a good day!!

I gotta shelve them for awhile for other projects but just wanted to share my good fortune. When I get to working on them I'll share some pics.
 
All original drivers work with woofer foam intact but needing replace.

So both woofers work, unlike the ad which the previous owner said one woofer needed a new cone? You can see in the picture that the foam on the one woofer that you can see was installed incorrectly on the front of the cone, is that what the old owner was referring to?
 
Both surrounds are not bad, no tears, cracks, or chunks missing. If you're talking about the inverted cone I believe that is stock for that woofer. I'm not sure about the correct foam but whoever refoamed 20 yrs ago did a nice job. No glue smear or separation that I can see.....ah hell, give me a minute and I'll take/post some pics lol.
 
CACTUS BOB!!!! You don't know me but I've been drooling over those HK amps you have in BT since you first posted them.[/QUOTE]

….to the point of taking an Arizona vacation lol!
 
So here are some pics of the Decades.
 

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TB58 I have a pair of orange L26 grills. No logos but grill frames unbroken and solid. Orange fabric a bit faded and could use a cleaning.
If you want them let me know.
 
A0ABB90C-092B-4572-B914-79E2405D54B0.jpeg On that pushed in tweeter cover, here’s what I did to a similar L100 tweeter..

I moistened the tweeter cover with water, so it was damp, but not wet, and let it sit for 5 minutes.
In the meantime, I fashioned a plastic tube setup from a portable vacuum. Wound up taping
the flexible lines from a Harbor Freight liquid pump to the vacuum hose, and in the end, I got the closest thing I could scrounge to match the width of the tweeter cone, which in my case was a Lexus ES300 spark plug rubber boot.
(Helps to never toss anything). The end of the rubber boot was a near perfect fit.

Turn on the vacuum, and slowly approach the tweeter cover with the boot, let the vacuum do the work.
In about 3 minutes time, I had a perfectly formed dome in the tweeter, but Imdid this slowly and carefully!
Upon drying, you could barely tell there was any physical damage to the tweeter cover.

Just my experience, wish I had taked a picture of my McGyver setup, but it sure worked great.


Ooh, kept the setup in the garage, always hunting for more JBLs!
 
Thanks bdg69 I'll let you know. Not a big fan of the orange anyway I would probably redo in brown.

@ mrv8q thanks for that tip. I'm an HVAC guy with a garage full of stuff like that I'm sure I can scare something up. That rubber boot looks like spark plug but I think a little bigger. A little worried about a vacuum doing some damage maybe I would rig up some kind of "release port" so I can vary the the vacuum strength. I read here of a tiny pinhole then glue the hole but I like the vacuum idea better.

http://www.troelsgravesen.dk/JBL-L26.htm

What an amazingly informative read though I'm sure most of you JBL guys have seen those write ups.
 
Thanks for all the help. For all the speakers I have I really don't have a lot of knowledge/experience with JBLs. I'm more of an acoustic suspension guy and the only ported speakers I've played with a lot to try improve the sound (to my ears they were a little boomy) were some Klipsch RF-3 towers. Before I go to town on the cabinets I'm going to clean them up inside, out, drivers, pots, etc. and give them a serious listen. At least these L-26's don't need as much love as some Nova's I picked up almost a year ago that are still sitting on the shelf.

http://audiokarma.org/forums/index.php?threads/l88s-what-would-you-do.791353/
 
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