JBL Dorian? Need advice

[Twanx]

Hey guys,

A friend of mine is a furniture dealer and through one of his contacts he found a gentleman with this set of JBL:



I think they must be JBL "Dorian" or some variant, any guesses? I have been VERY curious about vintage JBL and would love to spend some time with a pair. Most of my listening is vintage jazz LPs which these types of speakers seem to excel at.

All I know is that the guy wants $500 for em, and I can see from the photo that the surrounds may have issues. I might be able to take an amp and demo sometime this weekend.

What does the gallery think about these? Should I offer less? A lot less?

Thanks
Jesse

 

[cyclotronic]

Yes, C56 Dorian. I have the exact same speakers and they are great. These are more desirable with a fancier driver load including horn tweeters and with the wooden grills, but I think this basic model is just fine. Expect to refoam the woofers -- even if the original surrounds are not cracked, they will be too stiff to run to spec. I had them professionally done by a JBL Pro dealer/service center, including replacing the spiders, and it ran $90 per speaker. I also later had the connectors on back modified with modern JBL parts so they could accept larger speaker wire. The stock ones are so tiny that it's hard to even find pin terminators that fit.

As for price, just check eBay. The top-of-the-line version in great shape can definitely do $1,000+/pair but I don't know current value on this one.

 

[vinyldavid]

That's the basic model of Dorian-I wouldn't pay more than $250 in that condition. The woofers have to be refoamed, and they don't have the ultra desirable and cool looking wood grilles, or the LE175DLH tweeter. The top of the line version isn't a bad sounding speaker stock (and I'm not a JBL fan). My C56 Dorians with the S1-1 driver load were $175, and sat around for months before I bought them.

 

[Djcoolray]

Maybe you can update the tweeters and crossovers to the top of the line models if the information can be found...

 

[Brad Muller]

Speakers are always worth the value of their parts.....as are those. If you like the sound...try and replace those drivers, crossovers, cabinets for $500. I doubt it can be done...

 

[BMWCCA]

If you're expecting to enjoy the sound of JBL, you can do far better for $500 than these. In fact, you can do far better in JBLs for $200 than how these will sound even with new surrounds. If you're just looking for a collectible vintage JBL without regard to sound, he's still asking way too much—unless you just love marble!

 

[Brad Muller]

Look for some JBL 4410's or 4412's....

 

[hugo454]

4411's

 

[lattiboy]

I have a pair with the coaxial speaker only. I think $500 is a fantastic price personally. These usually go for $800-1400.

 

[jim t]

I got a pair at a yard sale with the wood grills and the better horn. The man at the yard sale said take them away they are too heavy!

 

[cyclotronic]

I'm kind of surprised at the negativity in this thread. They're easily worth the $500 in parts alone, as previously stated. But if you have to drop another $150+ into refoaming, you may be getting pretty close to retail on the pair. Also I'd think the price of acquiring the parts on eBay or elsewhere to upgrade them to the better version would be prohibitively expensive. And yeah, the wood grills look cool, but the plain cloth ones must be sonically more transparent.

 

[BMWCCA]

I'm kind of surprised at the negativity in this thread. They're easily worth the $500 in parts alone, as previously stated.

Okay, I'll play.
What parts are worth $500? There's little demand for those woofers or the tweets. I'm not being negative on a member here selling a pair, since there isn't one, just being realistic on the value for someone obviously not familiar with JBLs who's been offered a pair at a named price.

The original poster hasn't even been back to let us know whether he's looking to delve into the world of JBL sound, or if he just want's a period piece to decorate a living room. You can buy a bust of Mozart on a pedestal for less and a nice pair of L96s probably for less, too.

So, what's the point of the original question? Are these good JBLs for their price considering how they sound? Or are these collectible in some way that the potential buyer can turn them for a profit? I say the answer is no to both questions. That's not being negative!

 

[Twanx]

Sorry I've been away, I really appreciate the input here.

It's true, I am interested in the JBL sound as I mentioned most of my listening is vintage jazz LPs (from the 50's & 60's). It seems that many jazz collectors that are in deep (especially if they live in Asia) have vintage JBL or Tannoy so I'd like to see what the fuss is about.

That being said, I do also own a record shop that sells equipment and would like to be able to potentially make a few bucks if the speakers weren't exactly my cuppa.

Currently I have PSB Stratus Golds run by a modern Rotel integrated so there is also a question of whether the amp would be a good fit with an older speaker such as these. There is also the possibility that I a JBL such as this is a downgrade from what I already have and am accustomed to.

I appreciate the comments here. I might try and meet with the seller and get more info later this week. Until that time comes I welcome more input and discussion!

 

[BMWCCA]

I don't know of any Asian jazz clubs that swear by JBL that aren't using at least some version of a 15-inch 2-way—if not 3-way or 4-way. These are not in that league.

A quick perusal of "sold" Ebay auctions shows several LE14A in need of re-surrounding having sold for around fifty-bucks, each. High-dollar is maybe $200/pair. I was surprised to find the lowest price paid for a single LE20 recently on Ebay was $49 with a pair actually hitting over $180. A pair of crossovers actually brought eighty-bucks, or so it says. So, with that as our metric, that's $460 as top-dollar Epay pricing. Less your time, trouble, fees, etc. Maybe you could re-purpose the marble to make back your initial cost.