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JBL L166 Horizons

James F.

James F.

Member
Good day from Texas, This is my first post to this forum, and just need a small amount of advice. I just spent an hour or two pouring over the forums. I have been rebuilding my stereo system for a bit now, the week area at this moment IMHO is my speakers. I have found some L166's, the price seems kind of high for old speakers at $700.00. I have not inspected them yet. Just thinking about them. Now I think I want them after reading about them on this forum. The cabinets and grills on the first look seemed to be in good shape. Now the question is, is that too much for these speakers?
Thanks ahead of time.
 
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Agree with @nolasally.

The L166 are favorites from that era among those of us lucky enough to have them back then, good vintage JBLs.

It sounds like a good price for good ones. Cabinet condition is important, but minor problems can be repaired. Grilles are not replaceable nor properly repairable, those egg-carton grilles are unique and one of the things I like.

Be sure that the correct woofers are in them, very hard to find, and in good condition. Most of all IMO is the tweeter, if it is damaged or not original there is very little chance that you’ll be able to find a good one to replace it, even less likely a matched pair.

The silver (sputtered) coating on the tweeters must be in good condition, no holes nor dents, and operating properly.

Best of luck.
 
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I should add a footnote to any request about vintage JBL value:

If the woofers were re-foamed with the foam surround glued to the front surface of the cone instead of (correctly) attaching them to the rear surface of the cone, serious deduction in value.
 
SaturationPt said:
You still have your original pair? I’m so jealous, mine were gone when I bought my M&K system in ‘79, didn’t keep many things back then.

Only speakers I regret selling.
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Yes, New 1977, listened to L65 vs L166 for hours when I worked for Jbl dealer in college. My only regret is I didn't have the money for L300s at the time.
 
I put money down today to hold them for me. They are in good shape. Tweeters aren't dimpled nor is the midrange. Woofers look like they were refoamed but will most likely have them done again because someone did a shoddy job. The cabinets are decent shape one has a dark ring almost black on the top, hopefully, will sand out. The grills are not damaged although the one is missing a badge. Pics later when I take possession. Thanks for the quick and good advice.
 
Huntley Audio sells the badges.

Hopefully refoamed on the back of the woofer not the front of the cone, and all is good. Unless it affects SQ however I'd probably leave it for a while, refoaming does stress the cone and VC a bit.
 
James F. said:
I put money down today to hold them for me. They are in good shape. Tweeters aren't dimpled nor is the midrange. Woofers look like they were refoamed but will most likely have them done again because someone did a shoddy job. The cabinets are decent shape one has a dark ring almost black on the top, hopefully, will sand out. The grills are not damaged although the one is missing a badge. Pics later when I take possession. Thanks for the quick and good advice.
Click to expand...

When I bought my L166, the owner either did a DIY job or had someone not familiar with JBL redo the surrounds. You can see he put the darn surround OVER the speaker cones. The paper material should go over the lips of the foam surround. The woofers had to be redone with new cone and surrounds. So, I had Speaker Repair Pros put a new cone (+ voice coil) set onto each.


L-166 and L-100 (small).jpg Woofer L122A - reconed and aquaplas (SMALL).jpg

I redid the crossovers with Solen caps.

Solen caps for L-166 (small).jpg

L166 crossover.jpg
 
Also very important if the tweeters are truly in good condition, do NOT spray any cleaners on them, any caustics (for example) will attack the very thin metallic coating. Nice ones are to be coveted!
 
So I've been thinking and it seems the stock cable posts are a little weird and do not look like they will work with my cable spades. It also looks like the gauge of the cable is considerably smaller than my 10 gauge wire. Any ideas on how to deal with this?
 
I did not want to change-out the OEM posts. This is what I've been doing the last 5 years.

https://www.amazon.com/RuiLing-Insu...ctrical+alligator+clips&qid=1612848028&sr=8-6


alligator_clips_(10A)_on_JBL_terminals.jpg
 
It depends I guess.

On my L100A and L65As I kept them as-is, I just used wire with a "speaker pin" termination. Not a great terminal nor a great way to terminate IMO, but I wanted to keep the speakers original.

I finally gave in on my L300As, remvoved the plastic twist-lock terminals and installed nice big 5-way binding posts so that I can use banana plugs. They go through the same holes so no drilling or altering the cabinet, attach to the ring-terminals inside, and kept the original terminals.

If I ever decide to re-install the original terminals it'll mean removing the woofers to do so, but they can be reverted to completely original, and I get to enjoy using my real speaker cables and not fussing with those silly little plastic ones, I'm very happy I converted them.

I suggest converting to binding posts / banana plugs and just keep the old terminals, well worth the time.
 
I've had a number of older JBL speakers with the pinch posts or twist posts.
Can't believe JBL used that cheap junk for so many models.
Pull the woofers to get access and replace the rear connectors with proper 5 way connectors,
In a heartbeat, and don't think twice about it! ;)
 
hjames said:
I've had a number of older JBL speakers with the pinch posts or twist posts.
Can't believe JBL used that cheap junk for so many models.
Pull the woofers to get access and replace the rear connectors with proper 5 way connectors,
In a heartbeat, and don't think twice about it! ;)
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Yeah, prolly best thing to do. I dunno why I'm so into keeping things as OEM as possible. Maybe the years of collecting and selling vintage Fender amps... :idea:

And it's not like I'm going to sell my vintage JBLs. Three of the four pairs are on their third re-surround.

My last R&R load. :D

speakers before - A6500 (1) (small).jpg
 
would agree with @SaturationPt , If you don't grab them at that price, someone else will. The L166 had a more balanced sound than the L100. Was great for all types of music. Even if the foam surrounds are gone, take them to a pro and have them refoamed.
 
mcgjohn said:
would agree with @SaturationPt , If you don't grab them at that price, someone else will. The L166 had a more balanced sound than the L100. Was great for all types of music. Even if the foam surrounds are gone, take them to a pro and have them refoamed.
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Much better speaker, than the original L100s. Maybe due to the crossover design and the tweeters used in the L166.
 
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