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Help with JBL L7's, Anthem 720 & Monitor 9I Set Up

J

jrswoodal

New Member
Ok, let me introduce myself as the most uneducated guy on this forum. I've been trying to build my AV system in my mancave for some time. I had been running a mid level Sony AVR with Monitor Silver 9I's, Monitor sub, Klipsch sub, Definitive Tech Pro 1000's as sides & rears & Klipsch center. I bit the bullet and purchased a Anthem 720 and man did that change everything! I got ARC dialed in and have been enjoying it for the last month or so. Then, I go to a local auction and there was a pair of floor speakers that I hadn't had a chance to look at and the auctioneer was looking for an opening bid of $10 so I bid and bought the speakers for $10. I turned them around and and noticed they were JBL L7's. Pulled the covers off and no damage. Get them home and hook them up & WOW! The sound great, everything works!.

They didn't have the bi-wire jumpers so I made some out of 12 gauge speaker wire. My question is do I need to get the original style jumpers? Do I need to take the strap off within the crossover that I've read about on the web? Please, someone help me get these dialed in. They sound incredible at medium to high volume but lack low end at low volume. I'm still in shock that I bought a great pair of speakers for $10 but want to make sure I'm getting everything I can out of them.

Also, should I run my Monitor 9I's along with the JBL's? I just don't know what to do with what I have. Thanks in advance for any & all help & suggestions.
 
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jrswoodal said:
Ok, let me introduce myself as the most uneducated guy on this forum. I've been trying to build my AV system in my mancave for some time. I had been running a mid level Sony AVR with Monitor Silver 9I's, Monitor sub, Klipsch sub, Definitive Tech Pro 1000's as sides & rears & Klipsch center. I bit the bullet and purchased a Anthem 720 and man did that change everything! I got ARC dialed in and have been enjoying it for the last month or so. Then, I go to a local auction and there was a pair of floor speakers that I hadn't had a chance to look at and the auctioneer was looking for an opening bid of $10 so I bid and bought the speakers for $10. I turned them around and and noticed they were JBL L7's. Pulled the covers off and no damage. Get them home and hook them up & WOW! The sound great, everything works!.

They didn't have the bi-wire jumpers so I made some out of 12 gauge speaker wire. My question is do I need to get the original style jumpers? Do I need to take the strap off within the crossover that I've read about on the web? Please, someone help me get these dialed in. They sound incredible at medium to high volume but lack low end at low volume. I'm still in shock that I bought a great pair of speakers for $10 but want to make sure I'm getting everything I can out of them.

Also, should I run my Monitor 9I's along with the JBL's? I just don't know what to do with what I have. Thanks in advance for any & all help & suggestions.
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Wow, L7s for $10 Just wow. congrats man, and welcome to the site.

As others have said, no you don't need original jumpers.

you only need to take the "Strap" off if you want to bi-am or bi-wire.

So if you want to run the 9s with the 7s that's totally up to you. For me, I only run a single set of speakers at a time, a few feet back and a good 6-8 feet apart.

A few tips to get the best out of the 7s.

Start researching speaker placement.

They may not sound good at low levels of power for a few reasons, could be your amp, or could be the speaker sensitivity.


file:///C:/Users/johbrewe/AppData/Local/Packages/Microsoft.MicrosoftEdge_8wekyb3d8bbwe/TempState/Downloads/JBL-L7-Specifications%20(1).pdf

This is the spec sheet for the L7s ^^ that is a good starting point. If set up properly you should be able to run just that set and generate some great sound.

Good luck and congrats and welcome to the site!
 
The L7s want power... I don't have a pair but I have done some reading on the L series. All the info you need and want is here: http://www.audioheritage.org/vbulletin/showthread.php?7498-JBL-L-Series-(1990s) including some posts by the man who designed the speakers!

The woofers should be pointed toward the inside and not the outside of the cabinets... they need to be placed in a way where there is nothing in between them and they need some distance between the two of them...Obviously having a room large enough to accommodate them is important... Placement is important with these speakers much more than with the other speakers in this series so spend time figuring out the best placement and make sure you the rest of your system is not presenting a weak link.
 
I’ve owned a pair of these for about 20 years. As mentioned above, they do love power. As for the rear jumpers, most people replaced them with wire just as you did. If it is the internal jumper on the crossover board you are referring to, the only time you need to change the position is if you are going to use an active crossover to biamp them. The crossover contains 2 separate boards 1 which crosses the side firing sub from the remaining 3 speakers and the other is like an ordinary 3 way crossover. Not to set off a firestorm but these are one of the few speakers that benefit from passive biamping. Best results using 2 identical 200 watt per channel amps per speaker. This really wakes them up. 1 amp would drive the sub and the other would drive the remaining 3. You would just remove the LF/HF jumpers on the back. $10 for the pair is a steal:rockon:
 
mr.muddles said:
The L7s want power... I don't have a pair but I have done some reading on the L series. All the info you need and want is here: http://www.audioheritage.org/vbulletin/showthread.php?7498-JBL-L-Series-(1990s) including some posts by the man who designed the speakers!

The woofers should be pointed toward the inside and not the outside of the cabinets... they need to be placed in a way where there is nothing in between them and they need some distance between the two of them...Obviously having a room large enough to accommodate them is important... Placement is important with these speakers much more than with the other speakers in this series so spend time figuring out the best placement and make sure you the rest of your system is not presenting a weak link.
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Thanks for the information! I have moved them around quite a bit and seem to have found a sweet spot for placement. I think I still have some tweaking to do on the Anthem receiver. I appreciate all of the conversation on this forum, being the first time to use one, it's been very educational.
 
fireprix said:
I’ve owned a pair of these for about 20 years. As mentioned above, they do love power. As for the rear jumpers, most people replaced them with wire just as you did. If it is the internal jumper on the crossover board you are referring to, the only time you need to change the position is if you are going to use an active crossover to biamp them. The crossover contains 2 separate boards 1 which crosses the side firing sub from the remaining 3 speakers and the other is like an ordinary 3 way crossover. Not to set off a firestorm but these are one of the few speakers that benefit from passive biamping. Best results using 2 identical 200 watt per channel amps per speaker. This really wakes them up. 1 amp would drive the sub and the other would drive the remaining 3. You would just remove the LF/HF jumpers on the back. $10 for the pair is a steal:rockon:
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I can tell they are power hungry. The Anthem pushes them well at higher volume but I need more low end at lower volume. Maybe I add an amp later? And I am still in shock buying these for $10? Now I can justify spending more on the rest of my system, lol. Thanks for the information!
 
They will amaze you the more you listen to them. Feeding them sufficient power will improve their low volume bass output. Not sure what you will ultimately do with them but if using them for music only a sub isn’t necessary unless you listen to pipe organ music. If using them in HT as fronts you’d have to buy a good quality sub to outperform these in the bass department.
 
jrswoodal said:
I can tell they are power hungry. The Anthem pushes them well at higher volume but I need more low end at lower volume. Maybe I add an amp later? And I am still in shock buying these for $10? Now I can justify spending more on the rest of my system, lol. Thanks for the information!
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You are very lucky getting those for $10. I have recently picked up two pairs of the little brother the L5 which are outstanding in their own right and I paid a few hundred for each pair.

Everyone gets lucky if they are patient, and I have definitely had my fair of lucky scores!
 
mr.muddles said:
You are very lucky getting those for $10. I have recently picked up two pairs of the little brother the L5 which are outstanding in their own right and I paid a few hundred for each pair.

Everyone gets lucky if they are patient, and I have definitely had my fair of lucky scores!
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What's ironic is we go to this weekly auction in rural Alabama just to look around and pick up the unusual piece or two. They were selling stuff down one wall and he got to the speakers and couldn't even get an opening bid on them then asked for $10 which I bid and that was it. My wife said I was hyperventilating once I won them because I had googled them as he brought them up to bid and realized what I had just bought. I did think there was probably going to be some issues, blown speaker, crossover, etc., but they play flawlessly! I've got to get educated on how to manage them along with the Anthem receiver. I thought my Monitor 9I's were great but these JBL's are so much more of a sound stage. Incredible!
 
jrswoodal said:
What's ironic is we go to this weekly auction in rural Alabama just to look around and pick up the unusual piece or two. They were selling stuff down one wall and he got to the speakers and couldn't even get an opening bid on them then asked for $10 which I bid and that was it. My wife said I was hyperventilating once I won them because I had googled them as he brought them up to bid and realized what I had just bought. I did think there was probably going to be some issues, blown speaker, crossover, etc., but they play flawlessly! I've got to get educated on how to manage them along with the Anthem receiver. I thought my Monitor 9I's were great but these JBL's are so much more of a sound stage. Incredible!
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If you are looking to get the most out of them I would do exactly as described above and get 2 power amps and bi amp them. Get a very good source, a nice SACD player, a nice cd player with a good DAC, or a nice turntable with cartridge and stylus.

The JBL instruction manual has some tips for placement depending on what is most important to you (bass, imaging, high detail) ... Just try and make sure they are at least 3 feet from the side and back walls and 6 feet apart with nothing inbetween the speakers... from there you can adjust your listening position until you find the best spot
 
Some people will tell you that the foam dampening material underneath the Ti tweeters needs to be replaced and I am sure they aren't wrong. I have not noticed them to be harsh sounding on my pairs of L5 so I have not tried to do the repair yet but it's something to be aware of... there is a foam pad underneath the dome that disintegrates over time and can make them sound a bit shrill and not as smooth as originally intended.
 
mr.muddles said:
Some people will tell you that the foam dampening material underneath the Ti tweeters needs to be replaced and I am sure they aren't wrong. I have not noticed them to be harsh sounding on my pairs of L5 so I have not tried to do the repair yet but it's something to be aware of... there is a foam pad underneath the dome that disintegrates over time and can make them sound a bit shrill and not as smooth as originally intended.
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Oh, now that you've mentioned that, one of the speakers does sound a little different on the high end. It does a little shrill versus the other one. Do you have any more information on how to do that?
 
jrswoodal said:
Oh, now that you've mentioned that, one of the speakers does sound a little different on the high end. It does a little shrill versus the other one. Do you have any more information on how to do that?
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If one sounds noticeably worse you may want to attempt the repair...

I would head over to the Lansing Legacy sub forum (JBL section) and make a post about rehabing JBL 035ti tweeters. I've not done it yet, but someone suggested using the foam replacement tweeter foam diffusers for JBL L100s and they can be cut to size to fit underneath the dome of the tweeter.. Since I have not done this yet I have not fully researched what it entails but I have heard disassembling the tweeter can pose some issues if you are not careful as there is some glue that deterioates and can put a stress on the leads causing them to break the voice coil.
 
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