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JBL L110 Wrenching

Obankenobi

Obankenobi

Hypnotoaded
Thanks to very nice fellow AK'er in the east bay, I just landed these beautiful JBL L110's. I plan on replacing the grille cloth (just because), sanding and oiling the cabinets, and recapping the XO's. Does anyone have experience with popping the plastic grille frames apart?

JBL L110-1 (Custom).jpg
 
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Great find! Same tweeter/mid combo as in my L150s and I'm very fond of them.

Only thing I notice is that those look like 4" dust caps whereas the voice coil is only 3" IIRC. Someone probably refoamed them using shims, and likely butchered the old dust cap (and possibly the inner cone also?) in the process. Using a larger dust cap is an easy way to cover up the carnage, but it will stand out like a sore thumb to anyone familiar with these speakers.
 
Chris, wow - good catch on the dust caps! I measured and they are indeed 4". I couldn't find much info online for the LE111A woofers, seems they didn't last too long in the JBL lineup (nor did the L110's themselves) except for this enticing bit from the L110 brochure. The previous owner had the woofers refoamed at a shop in Berkeley, I believe they were stock before that and sourced at an estate sale. I've got them set up for a thorough auditioning tonight. And Zonker - I'm all about quality over quantity. If vocals are good, I'll be happy.

Alnico magnet, Aquaplas on the backs, and smooth response past 3K Hz?

LE111A write-up.PNG
 
The grill cloth is what many people, myself included, consider to be one of the nice features of the 110's. If you replace them, sell make the old ones available to others.
 
OK I admit - the transparent black cloth is pretty cool. I leave my grilles off as much as possible myself, but these are headed up to my son-in-law and I figured JBL orange would be pretty hep. I see holes in the inside of the frames - I think if I tap inside of those the 2 parts of the frames should come apart.
 
Did up the grilles and I think they came out great. In case anyone else with a pair of L110's would like to know how I hit them -

Am I really going to cut up these 40 year old stock grilles in pristine condition? Yes.

grilz-1 (Custom).jpg

Frames are two-piece deals, with a plastic outer bezel and inner wood frame to adhere the fabric to. First cut out the original fabric - turns out there was 40 years of dust in the cloth that floated free - then start on separating the two frame pieces.

grilz-3 (Custom).jpg

Enough passes with the X-Acto blade and the pieces will start to separate. I tapped a punch through the frame pegs holes, that finally separated the two delicate halves.

grilz-4 (Custom).jpg

Scraped the old glue off both halves, sanded them down, and painted the plastic bezels with Krylon "Fusion" satin black for plastic. Wood frames got regular old flat black. New burnt orange fabric from Huntley Audio stretched over the wood frame with Simply Speakers adhesive. SS has a great video online showing their method. I wasn't quite as smooth my first time - but it still worked great. More chance to stretch & adjust than when using hot glue. I set down a bead of adhesive and waited 5 minutes per side for it to tack up before stretching the cloth over it.

grilz-5 (Custom).jpg

Final result looks pro to me, phew. I was a little worried at the start, but the result was worth it.

grillz (Custom).jpg
 
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Crossovers done. Pots cleaned, Mills resistors, and new caps: Clarity Caps bypassed with Russian teflons for the mids and tweeters, Solens and Erse for the rest. New gold plated terminals from Parts Express - sorry to see the original twist-locks go, but these make life so much easier in a world of spades and banana plugs.

Stock, fresh out:

XOs Fresh Out (Custom).jpg
and hot rodded

JBL N110 (Custom).jpg
 
Wow. Great work man! The L110 is a great speaker. With some mods you can even turn it into a 4313b if down the road you want some change. Nothing wrong the L110 though. The grills look sick.
 
Great work. I have a pair but I haven't had time to finish them off. Listening impressions?
What kind of black paint did you use on the baffles?
 
Cranked them for a good hour plus last night, they sound great. A little bass shy, probably because 1. I'm used to my big 240Ti's and 2. The recently refoamed woofers need to loosen up and break in a bit. But otherwise fantastic, the comparative lack of bass meant I could hear more from the midrange, which sounds great with the new caps. I also lined the midrange enclosures with Dynamat just for the heck of it. I used Dupli-Color Black Trim paint (found on Amazon for cheap) which has been the best baffle paint I've used. Run resistant, slightly textured satin look that doesn't hold fingerprint oils like the stock flat black.
 
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