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JBL D130F Monsters

brainsmasher

brainsmasher

Mid-Fi Madman
Today while I was staling from helping a buddy move I hit a thrift store and there was a giant speaker cabinet kinda ugly but you know I gotta look. I pulled out my trusty leatherman and removed one of the drivers, low and behold a jbl d130f so I put the screws back in and loaded it up. The dust caps are very dented and the cones are dirty but they measure 8 ohms and sound pretty descent. My question is can they have any value in a home set up being that they are more geared towards guitar amps and the such. And if they are good for home would they be suitable for something like an upgrade for my speakerlab Khorns.
Thanks, Brian
 
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I'm using a pair now in my #3 rig. They do real well actually.
100 or 102 db, I forget, 100 watt voice coil instead of 70 as in the D130.
Those cone dents can be worked out but not perfect, they're just
too thin. They can be replaced separately. Alledgedly a full range but really a 2 or 3 way. Killer in a bass reflex! :) Nice price! A fun quick read:

http://www.dickdale.com/history.html

Carl
 
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BTW, the guy who designed that speaker at JBL, Harvey Gerst, is an occasional poster over at the AudioHeritage.org message board. Great guy, wonderful source of info. According to him, the difference between the early D130 and the D130F (and other later D130 alnico-magnet variants as well), is that for the D130F and all newer variants, Harvey spec'd a bigger magnet gap, where the voice coil moves within the magnet assembly, to allow more airflow and better power handling. This addressed the problems people like Dick Dale were having, with blowing up/seizing D130s up to that point. This more open gap reduced the magnet flux strength a bit, causing about a 1 dB loss in sensitivity (about 100.5 dB as opposed to just over 101.5 dB originally)... but the increase in power handling MORE than made up for that!!

I had a pair of Viscount C36 cabinets, with those woofers, 077 tweeters and N7000 crossovers. While I wouldn't call the sound "high-end hi-fi", they DO do some AMAZING things with dynamics and in the lower midrange. Not much bass whatsoever, and not the smoothest upper mids... but BOY talk about LIVELY!!

Regards,
Gordon.
 
Thanks Carl, that was an interesting site. So is this one of those cabinets that they designed, if so maybe take some time and bring them back to life. I do have a couple of large cabs for 15's so I may experiment with them and some EV t35's or st350a's and see how that goes with either a pilot 602 or a VM el84 amp I have hiding around here.
Brian
 
I'd try the ST350As. Doubt the T35 will be efficient enough to keep up with the D130F/... but I'd be pretty sure the ST350A (which has a stronger magnet and a "higher gain" horn flare) probably will work, no sweat.

If you do this, I'd recommend just trying a 3500 Hz, 12 dB/oct crossover. That's what EV used for those tweeters (the EV X36); it should be more than OK just to "roll your own" as long as you stay reasonably close to that.

BTW: If by strange chance, neither kind of the EV tweeters is loud enough, I've got one derelict JBL 2404 "baby cheeks" horn... about the same size and shape as the EV ST350A, but rated at 104 dB sensitivity instead of about 98-99 or so for the EV. Needs a diaprhagm, and the flange has pieces broken out around where the screws go in... but it would still be usable, if a new element were installed. I'd be willing to entertain ideas for trades for it...

Regards,
Gordon.
 
Well instead of sleeping last night I did some hooking stuff up. I used a pp amp from a vm console got out a university x over like the x 36 and both tweeters. The sound was very respectable and will improve when I get things all buttoned down. Gordon I now see what you mean about the T35 it sounded good but a little on the low side. The st350 both are open so I guess I should get new diaphragms to try them out, are they that difficult to do or is $100 for both a descent price to have them done.
 
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