Hindsight is 20/20 they say, and I probably should have left well enough alone. However that isn't what happened in this case and now I feel like I crapped on my 42 year old speakers that I have owned since new.
For whatever reason I decided it was time to "recap" my JBL L200 speakers, being so old was my main reason, but also hoping the sound would improve too. Problem is, the original crossovers came inside a little can that had some sort of gunk in it gluing all the components together in the bottom of the can. I heard that it was at least possible to slowly heat the can and the gunk would let go of its grip but I didn't really want to try this so I ordered all new stuff and decided to build a new set.
The results were that the speaker plays okay, the hi freq and low freq is going to the correct drivers, but the hi range sounds off. Flat would probably describe it best. Right now I have only done the one so I have the old xover to compare right and left and right now the old one is much more pleasant to listen to. The high frequency sounds like AM radio to me on the rebuilt xover where the old one sounds pretty good for their age.
Here is some shots of the factory schematic. One thing of note is I couldn't find the 5 ohm resistor anywhere in the factory crossover. Could this be a mistake in JBL's literature?
Here is a diagram of how I built the new one, using terminal strips and jumpers. All joints were soldered and shrink tubed.
Here is a picture of one of the crossovers I built:
For the caps I had to use 2 wired together to get the exact spec. The small inductor was exact, the big one is 2.5mH whereas the original is 2.4mH. I used a #18 gauge air inductor in order to try to match the resistance to the original (sort of a shot in the dark approach). I am wondering if these air inductors could be what is amiss.
Any help greatly appreciated! Lot of sentimental attachment to these old beauties and I am a little sick about it right now.
For whatever reason I decided it was time to "recap" my JBL L200 speakers, being so old was my main reason, but also hoping the sound would improve too. Problem is, the original crossovers came inside a little can that had some sort of gunk in it gluing all the components together in the bottom of the can. I heard that it was at least possible to slowly heat the can and the gunk would let go of its grip but I didn't really want to try this so I ordered all new stuff and decided to build a new set.
The results were that the speaker plays okay, the hi freq and low freq is going to the correct drivers, but the hi range sounds off. Flat would probably describe it best. Right now I have only done the one so I have the old xover to compare right and left and right now the old one is much more pleasant to listen to. The high frequency sounds like AM radio to me on the rebuilt xover where the old one sounds pretty good for their age.
Here is some shots of the factory schematic. One thing of note is I couldn't find the 5 ohm resistor anywhere in the factory crossover. Could this be a mistake in JBL's literature?
Here is a diagram of how I built the new one, using terminal strips and jumpers. All joints were soldered and shrink tubed.
Here is a picture of one of the crossovers I built:
For the caps I had to use 2 wired together to get the exact spec. The small inductor was exact, the big one is 2.5mH whereas the original is 2.4mH. I used a #18 gauge air inductor in order to try to match the resistance to the original (sort of a shot in the dark approach). I am wondering if these air inductors could be what is amiss.
Any help greatly appreciated! Lot of sentimental attachment to these old beauties and I am a little sick about it right now.
