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bought my first JBL Paragon #779

destroyerzx1

destroyerzx1

Active Member
Recently picked up a paragon it had some issues when I listened to it but I managed to haggle a deal for them. the folks over at Lansing Heritage have been helping me with trouble shooting and repair. the 075 and 375's work, the LE15A's just have the hard as rock foam issue going to try brake fluid dot3 fix for the mean time. been having a hard time finding someone locally to re-foam them. Curved panel is stored safely atm till I can get them up and going.
JBL Paragon 779.jpg
Paragon 779.jpg
 
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Looks like a fine acquisition! Kudos!
Good luck getting things sorted out.
Roughly, where in the world are you?
Tho you can ship drivers to good shops, many folks prefer someone local.
There are folks that can be recommended West coast, East coast, or places in between.
 
Yeah, it would be good to know where you’re located. I’m sure it’ll be fairly easy to find someone to help you. Excellent find!

Dan
 
How about replacing the LE 15's with something current. I am sure JBL can help you with that. Both crossovers need to be rebuilt and the 075 need to be replaced with the much better 2405 with lower distortion and smoother response extending way beyond the 075's roll off point. If you want the best you want the other Lansing companies 950 UHF, thats flat to above 22,000 HZ. I heard the Paragons when they were new and the bass part was lacking in quality and quantity. So good luck. New diaphragms for the mid horn should also improve the resolution and accuracy. Its a real conversation piece for sure.
 
twiiii said:
How about replacing the LE 15's with something current. I am sure JBL can help you with that. Both crossovers need to be rebuilt and the 075 need to be replaced with the much better 2405 with lower distortion and smoother response extending way beyond the 075's roll off point. If you want the best you want the other Lansing companies 950 UHF, thats flat to above 22,000 HZ. I heard the Paragons when they were new and the bass part was lacking in quality and quantity. So good luck. New diaphragms for the mid horn should also improve the resolution and accuracy. Its a real conversation piece for sure.
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I've thought a lot about that and tried to talk to jbl about it but the gal on phone basically told me I'm SOL. other drivers I was maybe looking at doing were 2234, 2216nd, 1500AL (not sure if you can buy them), Lansing 515-8G. I honestly don't know much about other low drivers and what would be a good replacement for it. I have a fostex t90a that I bought for another project I might try. I have purchased some parts to rebuild the crossover should be here friday. I'm up for suggestions
 
I suspect you would have no problem finding a new home for the 2216Nd if you gave them a try and somehow didn't like them.

I would love to experiment with a Paragon loaded with newer drivers and an active crossover to dial in the crossover and delays...measure with a mic/REW and implement some room correction at the same time. Then I would stick an 85" TV on top and call it the worlds coolest (and most expensive?) soundbar ;)
 
donprice said:
I suspect you would have no problem finding a new home for the 2216Nd if you gave them a try and somehow didn't like them.

I would love to experiment with a Paragon loaded with newer drivers and an active crossover to dial in the crossover and delays...measure with a mic/REW and implement some room correction at the same time. Then I would stick an 85" TV on top and call it the worlds coolest (and most expensive?) soundbar ;)
Click to expand...

I'll start looking see what I can find. I have everything to try active and room correction. I could flank the paragon with my apollos to treat it just like a center speaker, the real estate that needs... I also have some recording gear I'll try and record each iteration for "science"
 
Wow! Congrats on one of the most collectible pieces of vintage audio gear out there! I've been hoping to find one for one for a while. It seems like you need to know someone that knows someone to get close to owning one.
 
markd51 said:
You'll love this Vid. From the Kenrick Artisans. I've watched this more than once.

Oh, the "little" boxes are the Amps.

Click to expand...
ya I've been watching lots of paragon videos lately. originally it was to see how they came apart and how they were transported. Now its more the tide me over till mine are running. I wish there were more videos available with more genres of music. perhaps I'll have to make and publish my own. this is also a cool video really dig the color
 
The whole brake fluid on the surrounds thing is such a bad idea. I wish it would just go away.
At any rate, congrats on the awesome find. I've always dreamed of lucking into either a Paragon or a pair of S8R Olympus.
 
Dot 3 worked for me. we replaced all the caps and resistors ( Jantzen superior-z highs/mids and clarity CSA woofer). once we had one built we tested it on a scope to make sure it matched original before building both. rebuilding the crossover was very time consuming I'm sure for a vet it's light work but it was new to us so we spent quite a bit of time double triple checking. there was quite a bit of time between the first one being built to the second and for the life of me I don't know the plywood was important to me at the time but to keep the symmetry we made the other match. after we got it back together we ran some music through it with fingers crossed but it worked great, thank god. the next fun part was moving/assembling it at its new home. when we first set it up it was close the cabinets and sounded off compared to when it was a larger part of the garage with tons of space around it for wiring up crossovers and what not. we moved the cabinets back a few feet and man what a difference I've seen a ton of videos of the paragon right up close to the wall which is really doing it a disservice. I lent my father all the amps I have ( Yamaha b2, First Watt F8, First Watt SIT-3, Pass Labs XA-25, Accuphase A-46 and Cayin TA-30) he tested each one for a few weeks or so, he really liked the Accuphase and Cayin. while the Accuphase does everything really well the Cayin brought a life to strings, horns and piano that nothing else could, but really lacks in vocals. He's going to roll all the tubes I have for it, I walked him through how to tube roll and re-bias it (bizzy bee mods make this easy) hopefully I have something that will work for him, if not perhaps I'll buy another tube amp ( balance out my solid state, tube amp ratio lol).
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My 3rd grader drawing of the crossover, elegant I know... but it helped immensely
jbl crossover diagram.png
 

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