JBL L80T question.

[Steel sinner]

So just recently (13 days ago) I purchased a pair of JBL L80T’s. I demod them in the store, and they sounded amazing. After a few days listening at home one of the speakers became flat and slightly distorted. After trying many different things to ensure that the problem was with the speaker, I took a peak through the port through the back, and in the funky speaker I can see a green wire hanging that is not visible in the working speaker. Is this likely culprit? And if so would it be an easy fix for a novice? This is my first pair of good speakers and I paid a decent price for them, and I’d rather avoid spending even more money at the repair shop. I’d post pictures but unfortunately I can’t angle my camera to see it.

 

[Chris Brown]

Are you able to tell which driver is causing the distorted sound (Woofer, mid, or tweeter)? I would start by removing the woofer from the cabinet, as that should give you a much better view into the cabinet compared to trying to look through the port. The woofer is the main driver likely to suffer from obvious age-related issues in my experience. On my L100T speakers I've already had a case where the spider on the woofer, which is the circular accordion looking fabric under the cone that surrounds the voice coil and helps keep it centered while the woofer is in motion, began to lift up from the woofer frame. A little glue fixed the problem easily but I would have never noticed it had I not removed the woofer from the cabinet and checked, and it certainly could have caused distortion had it progressed much further. There are a lot of wires inside the cabinet going to and from the crossover, so I wouldn't worry about the wires too much unless it looks like one has become frayed or disconnected.

 

[Steel sinner]

Are you able to tell which driver is causing the distorted sound (Woofer, mid, or tweeter)? I would start by removing the woofer from the cabinet, as that should give you a much better view into the cabinet compared to trying to look through the port. The woofer is the main driver likely to suffer from obvious age-related issues in my experience. On my L100T speakers I've already had a case where the spider on the woofer, which is the circular accordion looking fabric under the cone that surrounds the voice coil and helps keep it centered while the woofer is in motion, began to lift up from the woofer frame. A little glue fixed the problem easily but I would have never noticed it had I not removed the woofer from the cabinet and checked, and it certainly could have caused distortion had it progressed much further. There are a lot of wires inside the cabinet going to and from the crossover, so I wouldn't worry about the wires too much unless it looks like one has become frayed or disconnected.

I’ve pulled all three drivers as all of them are sounding off. They appear to be in great shape aside from one slight crease which I will upload a picture to show. All the wiring appears to be intact. It appears someone has been in here previously to do a repair based on the burn marks that were revealed on the cabinet underneath the woofer. I’ll share a picture of the crossover as well.

 

[avguytx]

Well, if you bought them from a "store", I believe I would be calling them and finding out what they might can do before digging too far.

 

[Steel sinner]

Well it seems all I needed to do was wipe down the crossover. I guess a bit of dust can do a lot to interfere with sound quality.

 

[Drugolf]

Something at the crossover is probably lose, or bare wires were touching.

 

[Johnny_Law]

^ +1

It may be worth pulling the crossover to look for that, and looking at the solder joints.

 

[Steel sinner]

^ +1

It may be worth pulling the crossover to look for that, and looking at the solder joints.

Yeah I’ve gone through the woofer to get to the crossover. Uncrossed a bunch of wires and cleaned it of dust. Now that both are working fine my au 717 is really making them sing.