Help with my JBLs

[ThadStr]

Good afternoon, I’m a newer user and have been building this system for less than a year. My knowledge and experience with audio systems is limited. All of these pieces have been bought secondhand in attempt to put together something decent and budget friendly.

The system:
-Rega Planar 6 TT with Ania M/C cartridge
-Rega Fono MC Preamp
-Sansui G-5700 amp
-JBL L100t

The issue I’m currently facing I think relates to either the amp or speakers. I’m getting a significant less amount of sound, mostly bass, from my right speaker. The speakers were bought with very damaged woofers. I had them professionally replaced and refoamed from a reputable speakershop in Chicago. The amp was bought from an estate sale for cheap and needed extensive cleaning for it quite dusty on the inside, but functions very well from what I can tell. I used Deoxit on the pots and switches. From my research, this amp may not be powerful enough for the JBLs, but is that the sole reason I’m not getting equal sound from my right speaker or why the bass isn’t there?

Any comments and advice to optimize my system is greatly appreciated.

 

[hjames]

The first thing you need to do is switch the speaker wires between the two speakers and see if the low bass is due to the amp, or if its a problem with a specific speaker.

If you switch the speakers wires and low bass moves from the Right speaker to the left speaker, its an AMP problem.
If you switch the speakers wires and the Right speaker continues to be the speaker with low bass its a SPEAKER problem.

We can talk more after you tell us what you find when you do this test.

 

[SaturationPt]

What @hjames said ^^

The first step, after that you can continue to eliminate parts of the chain and find out where the problem lies.

We'll be here.

 

[Nyjblbob]

Speakers replaced? That could be a big issue
Try and post pictures of the speakers with the grills off

 

[hjames]

TEST the speakers first -
Its easy and should not take long ...

 

[avguytx]

Do you have any sort of amp newer than 40 years? Has that amp been gone through by a tech and/or a recap done?

 

[WaynerN]

TEST the speakers first -
Its easy and should not take long ...

Could woofers be out of phase? That could cancel bass in one speaker if the room is a large contributor......

 

[ThadStr]

The first thing you need to do is switch the speaker wires between the two speakers and see if the low bass is due to the amp, or if its a problem with a specific speaker.

If you switch the speakers wires and low bass moves from the Right speaker to the left speaker, its an AMP problem.
If you switch the speakers wires and the Right speaker continues to be the speaker with low bass its a SPEAKER problem.

We can talk more after you tell us what you find when you do this test.

Thank you for your replies everyone. I switched the speakers wires and the issue still persists on the right speaker. Assuming it is a speaker issue. I tested this method on both A and B speaker channels and the issue persisted. I noticed that as I push my amp more and more, the reflexive response of the woofer on the left (healthy) speaker is much more than the right. Perhaps it’s still just very stiff from being a new woofer. I had it replaced early December and have probably logged close to 100 hours of playing time since then. Not sure if that’s long enough to properly break them in.
I plan on running this phase test. I unfortunately don’t have a newer amp, but I have another identical G-5700 that I will experiment with. I appreciate everyone’s help.

 

[ThadStr]

Speakers replaced? That could be a big issue
Try and post pictures of the speakers with the grills off

Posted, thanks!

 

[hjames]

Did you replace BOTH woofers, or just the one? I believe the 2214 woofer in the L100T just has a pinch clamp for the + and - wires?
If you changed both woofers, have you checked to be sure the wires are connected the same on both speakers? The wire color code should be consistent.
Like WaynerN said, that can make a huge difference

 

[Nyjblbob]

Mission control: we have a problem
Going to ask you to remove both woofers and see what they are

 

[Chris Brown]

One woofer looks like an OEM JBL cone with a small tear that got fixed, while the other looks like a 3rd party aftermarket recone kit was used. In the pictures you can see clear differences in the voice coil leads. The glue around the dust cap is clearly different. The pattern on the cone only looks approximately similar. I agree that comparison pictures of the two woofers (front and back) while outside the cabinets would likely be helpful. Generally, if you are going to get your woofer reconed, it's best to do both at the same time. But depending on exactly what recone kit was used, it might not even be that similar to the original. A recone kit doesn't just replace the cone, but replaces the voice coil also - so it's entirely possible, if not probable, that it will NOT function like the original woofer unless it was a very good reproduction recone kit.

 

[ThadStr]

Did you replace BOTH woofers, or just the one? I believe the 2214 woofer in the L100T just has a pinch clamp for the + and - wires?
If you changed both woofers, have you checked to be sure the wires are connected the same on both speakers? The wire color code should be consistent.
Like WaynerN said, that can make a huge difference

Thanks for your help, everyone. I’m going to give my guy in Chicago a call to see what he used to replace these woofers. He replaced them both, I’m almost positive. I’m not confident enough in myself to take the woofers out and replace them for pictures, but I may give it a try. As things stand right now, they sound good enough, but the bass on the right speaker is considerably less. As long as I’m not at risk of damaging these speakers, I may have to wait until the spring and all the snow melts to get these looked at again.

side note- there’s a local guy selling L100t3. What are your thoughts on these? I may consider contacting him. From my research, they’re basically the same speaker with upgraded crossovers.

 

[hjames]

L100T and L100T3 are basically the same speaker. The T3 cabinet is slightly different, and the T3 crossover is more "refined,"
which removed some of the high frequency harshness from the Titanium tweeters.
I had the crossovers in both pairs of the L100Ts I owned updated to the T3 design.
Otherwise - both have the same drivers.

 

[GordonW]

We just had a case here, of someone who reconed a 2214H with a commonly-available aftermarket kit, and upon testing afterward, it became very apparent that the supplied replacement spider was much too stiff. This will definitely hamper the bass response...

https://www.audiokarma.org/forums/i...estions-aftermarket-kit.946581/#post-14481863

If the same kit was installed into your speaker, it could explain a lot.

Regards,
Gordon.

 

[Chris Brown]

Yeah it does look like a Simply Speakers recone kit was used on one of the woofers: https://www.simplyspeakers.com/jbl-recone-kit-aftermarket-jbl-2214h-RK-JBL2214h.html

It matches up perfectly with what is seen in the photo, including the voice coil leads that are spread further apart than stock and split outward in more of a "V" pattern, as well as the awkward looking replacement gaskets. The repair guy probably reconed one using that kit, and refoamed the other. That's not something one would ever do to their own speakers but I guess if you're just running a shop and you don't have to worry about how it sounds, then it doesn't matter... damn shady business people piss me off...

Simply Speakers does sell some good stuff, but they also sell a lot of stuff that enables a lot of borderline-fraud when it comes to vintage speakers. They sell 035Ti / 035Tia replacement tweeters that sound nothing like the 035Ti / 035Tia, and they sell LE5-style replacement midrange drivers that sound nothing like any LE5. They sell to hobbyists who don't know what they are buying, and shady repair shops that buy them and then install them into their customer's speakers when they "fix" them. It doesn't surprise me at all that their 2214H recone kit is nothing like the original.

Your other cone looks like it's still stock and matches up perfectly with what my 2214H woofers (stock, refoamed) look like:

 

[tarior]

We just had a case here, of someone who reconed a 2214H with a commonly-available aftermarket kit, and upon testing afterward, it became very apparent that the supplied replacement spider was much too stiff. This will definitely hamper the bass response...

https://www.audiokarma.org/forums/i...estions-aftermarket-kit.946581/#post-14481863

If the same kit was installed into your speaker, it could explain a lot.

Regards,
Gordon.

I don't know how many times I've gone round n' round with someone whose initials are D. G. about this.

 

[GordonW]

I don't know how many times I've gone round n' round with someone whose initials are D. G. about this.

When I order kits, I directly specify the spider I want sent with it, up front, for home audio speakers. It circumvents the whole problem.

The issue is- for every one of us that wants the "correct" spider- there's probably 10 dumb/mis-guided pro-audio reconer guys that will complain that "the spider isn't "strong" enough" to the guys at the parts places, if they send the soft one in many of these kits. So, they leave the default spider as stiffer, in most cases.

I have seen cases, though, where they will send TWO spiders by default, with a kit- a stiff and a soft. So, it's not like they don't know what's going on... they just have to play to the majority of the customer base, usually.

"Keep it from blowing up" seems to be the mantra, at many reconing shops. No matter what it does to the sound. However, I don't play that game. It's gotta be correct for me...

Regards,
Gordon.

 

[tarior]

"Keep it from blowing up" seems to be the mantra, at many reconing shops. No matter what it does to the sound. However, I don't play that game. It's gotta be correct for me...

Regards,
Gordon.

This.
I typically order everything part by part, but sometimes my brain short circuits or something, and I'll just order the kit, and end up having to raid my stash of spiders that I keep for just such an emergency.