JBL L112 second hand, how to test them ?

[nicosalto]

Hi,
Iam new to the forum and i need some help to evaluate some second hand speakers that i found on gumtree:
http://www.gumtree.sg/a-speakers/eu...l112-3-way-speakers/1001564315620910673135609

If you look at the pictures you can see the speakers are not at their best condition. And iam looking for some advice to what i should look for when i test them from a visual perspective and sound perspective to make sure they are in working order...
As you can see in the picture one of the speaker is black and the other is white. is this the original design ? or the piece has been replaced ?
The seller dont have any amp to test them so i'll have to bring my own... i have a small little dot mkIII preamp but iam not sure it can drive those....

 

[elitopus]

Man those do look a little beat up. The cabs can be fixed up but you might have to splice some veneer on the bottom edges.

It looks like the one woofer was replaced. I don't think thats a JBL replacement woofer.

If I were going to test them I would at least want to hear all the drivers. A paper towel tube can be held up to the midrange and tweeter to see if they are working or not. It should be pretty obvious anyways.

Also you want to check the woofers for rubbing. You should have an amp big enough to move the woofers a little. Probably 5-10 watts would do it. I have a frequency app on my phone thats handy for this. Just plug that into the amp via an 1/8-Rca patch cord.

I am not sure about the price. Is that 990 US? It seems a but much for the speakers in that shape but I am not sure about the current market value. You would have to look up conpleted sales on ebay and see.

Plan to at least buy a replacement woofer, and maybe more

Good luck

 

[4343]

The white woofer appears to be a JBL 128H, while the black one looks like a 128H-1. It would be best to confirm this by removing them to check the labels. 128H-1 is the factory recommended replacement for 128H.

I had a buddy with a mis-matched pair like that, aside from some very minor sound differences*, the visual imbalance finally drove me to buy a matching black 128H-1 for him in trade for the white one. (Now I have enough components to build a matching center speaker for my L150A's.)

The cabinet damage looks like water swelling and would be a pretty big project, likely to need new veneer as well. For that price, I'd pass, but I see better ones for less here in California sometimes.

*The 128H is a tiny bit "sloppier" than the 128H-1. JBL says they are the same, maybe my examples are worn differently, YMMV

 

[Chris Brown]

*The 128H is a tiny bit "sloppier" than the 128H-1. JBL says they are the same, maybe my examples are worn differently, YMMV

Among the 128H / 128H-1 drivers, some have an actual cone diameter of 9 3/8" while others have a cone diameter of 9 5/8". Is it possible you had one of each during your comparison? I've swapped the 128H drivers in my L150 speakers with the 128H-1 drivers in my 4412 speakers and didn't really notice anything significant but maybe my situation was different.

 

[elitopus]

Thats good info about the 128H-1. I know enough about JBL's to know the white woofer is correct but I did not know the black woofer was also a JBL.
I am used to the pro JBL stuff that is all black (I think) but not their home stuff

 

[nicosalto]

Thanks a lot everyone! All you inputs are very valuable to me and i have a better idea of what iam dealing with now.
I always wanted to own a pair of those and its very rare to find them in Singapore.
I think i'll go to see them and see if i can lower them to a quarter of the price. I don't think this seller really know anything about it if you look at his other listings. I might take some more pictures and post them here if you are interested to look closer

I haven't solved my amp issue, i might borrow one from a friend.
Do you know which requirement the amp should have to drive those ?

 

[4343]

The spec sheet says 300 watts per channel max.

 

[BMWCCA]

The spec sheet says 300 watts per channel max.

As I wrote in the duplicate thread to this one over on LH:

My L112s have played just fine in my bedroom for nearly 35-years with the same Crown D150 amp I've had since then, too (about 75-WPC). JBL says maximum recommended power is 300-watts.
They also say the L112 will produce comfortable listening levels with an amp producing "as little as 10-watts continuous sine-wave per channel".

 

[mech986]

Thanks a lot everyone! All you inputs are very valuable to me and i have a better idea of what iam dealing with now.
I always wanted to own a pair of those and its very rare to find them in Singapore.
I think i'll go to see them and see if i can lower them to a quarter of the price. I don't think this seller really know anything about it if you look at his other listings. I might take some more pictures and post them here if you are interested to look closer

I haven't solved my amp issue, i might borrow one from a friend.
Do you know which requirement the amp should have to drive those ?

If you can get them for a quarter of the price (less than $250?) then you have superior negotiating skills. However, the cabinet damage is likely from water exposure and soaking - The swelling and veneer loss may be hiding corner seam splitting which is much harder to repair.

I wonder how much it would be to ship a pair of speakers like this from the US?

 

[toxcrusadr]

You don't need much of an amp just to see if they work, you're just testing if all the drivers make sound. A few watts is enough.

 

[dshoaf]

Proper testing would have you run a frequency sweep listening for rattles and scraping of the woofers. You'll also be testing for vibration in the cabinet that way, too.

Ideally, you would use a white noise generator feeding an amp to test frequency response. This is, of course, assuming the seller will let you have access to them.

From what I see of the pictures, they've been neglected - not necessarily abused.

Cheers,

David

 

[nicosalto]

Thanks for all the answer on thread, all very useful and helpful.

So i went to see those second hands jbl L112 during the week end. And indeed the condition of the speakers was really bad, even worse than what the pictures are showing. The seller didnt seemed bother by the appearance and told me they sounded great the last time he eared them, 10 years ago! I explained that there were obvious issues and the price was way too high, he went down to 400 sgd without negotiating actually. But i was reasonable after all and didn't bought them, i could see my self stuck with those for year trying to fix them.
Anyway i actually enjoyed looking for this deal and reading more about those speakers. I have seen a pair of second hand jbl 4319 for sale and i might go for those, i think they are a new serie inspired by the L112 series from the 80s...

Thanks again for all the advices!