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JBL L50? How good of a deal did I get?

rumblestrip said:
Refoaming those 'subs' might be difficult since there are no 'subs' in those speakers. Those are woofers, not subwoofers. If you don't know the difference then you should look it up. They are not the same thing so they are not interchangeable. It seems these days that most people are calling anything that puts out the bass in a loudspeaker a 'sub' because it sounds so cool. But if you look up 'sub' in a dictionary you won't find any reference to audio equipment. In fact you won't find any reference to anything solid since 'sub' is not even a word. It's a prefix, that is, three letters that go in front of a word to make it a different word. So I can't help thinking that on a site like this we should try to get it straight instead of adding to the confusion. Or am I just whistlin' Dixie.
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I like to listen to my vinyls while I refoam a sub.
 
Do yourself a favour and recap the crossover, only two electrolytic cap. I got those speakers for a while now and one day one song made me think what is wrong with the base in my system then I bought a new amp with more power and got a small improvement but I was still not happy. I bought AR TSW310 speakers and that fixed my problem. The lows were finally what I wanted them to be but the high were a bit harsher. Then I read about recap of crossover and thought I have to give it a try. Now the L50s are back in the living room and sound just perfect with only 26wpc from my HK 330B.
 
L40's and L50's were sold at the same (1979 - early '80's) time as many of you know, but these models were their more "price-point" models. base on what I've seen they sold a helluva lot of 40's vs '50's. When I bought my L40's in 1981-'82'ish they were $220 each.

Nonetheless they are nicely-built speakers. As JBL's price-point speakers in a stereo shop, for the money, the quality is nice and solid. For the same quality today you need to spend many multiples.
 
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markshan said:
A recap doesn't really affect the bass.
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Very possible I’m the victim of a placebo effect but the very same song that started my quest sound very good to me now. Not only the bass but the full range of frequency. For other readers, would you say doing the recap is a good thing or not?
 
FrancisDumas said:
Very possible I’m the victim of a placebo effect but the very same song that started my quest sound very good to me now. Not only the bass but the full range of frequency. For other readers, would you say doing the recap is a good thing or not?
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I didn't say anything like that. Of course a recap can be beneficial if the old caps have drifted out of spec. It just doesn't affect the bass (at least in a standard design). X-over caps are essentially used as high pass filters.
 
I have a pair of L50's that I refoamed but alas one woofer is still warbly. I may just replace it with an OEM.

How is the base in those subs? :)
 
BMWCCA said:
As a UVA grad I'm tempted to insert a Hokie joke here, but . . .

As has been alluded to at least twice already in this thread: I believe what you meant to a say is, "How is the bass in these woofers?"
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I took the smiley to mean it was humor, I've been wrong before (often, ... I'm married).
 
I have the chance to pick up a pr. (cheap) L-50's knowing that one of the woofers needs to be either replaced or repaired. I'm looking for some encouragement to get them, hint, hint :)
 
Thank you....I can't believe anyone remotely interested in better-than-walmart audio equipment doesn't know the difference.
 
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