JBL LC310-1 speakers, how to improve?

[John Parkey]

Greetings everyone. I just purchased a pair of JBL LC310-1 speakers from a good friend on his very strong recommendation. He repairs and sells speakers for a living. He thinks these are some of the best sounding smallish speakers he has heard, period. I have them hooked up to a Sansui AU-D7 integrated and listening to Dianna Krall and Eva Cassidy on a Marantz DVD/CD. The treble sounds muted and thin to me, similar to how inexpensive Polks sound. Anyone have experience with this particular model of JBL's and how to improve? Are the capacitors in the xover known to go bad or does anyone know of a better tweeter that will "drop in." The base and mid range seem just fine, and they are a good size for my purposes. Thank you for your help.

 

[swechsler]

Hmm, this thread says they have great mids and highs but lack in bass. Apparently they are from the early 90s, so it is possible the capacitors have leaked. Probably pretty inexpensive to fix, there are only two caps per crossover, so that might be the best place to start. If that doesn't help, first thing I'd do is remove a tweeter and measure the diameter of the hole in the cabinet, that will give you an idea of what to look for in terms of magnet size. Then you can start looking at specs. You'll need a tweeter that 8Ω with at least 92dB sensitivity. If the tweeter ends up being too bright you can experiment by putting an L-pad or various low-value resistors in series with the high-pass section of the crossover.

 

[John Parkey]

Thank you swechsler! I will try your suggestions and I appreciate your help.