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Todays subwoofers find

motorstereo

motorstereo

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"Custom made subwoofers" the ad said so I bit and came home with these beasts for less than the price of one cheapo ht sub. It was impossible to see what the drivers were when I picked them up but the fellow assured me they were 15'' altecs. I popped the top off one once I got them home and they're not Altecs but very early 15'' JBL's.:banana: The cabs supposedly were built from plans that JBL had at the time. They're exceptionally well made and they seem to be very efficient from the testing that I've done. I started researching them but can find almost nothing about them. Plenty of info on the 150-4C's which were used in the Hartfields and go for stupid money. I'm thinking the 4B's are probably earlier than the C's which started their run in 1960. Does anyone know anything about these old JBL's?
 

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Here's a pic of the model number and other info
 

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Sadly they don't have a crossover but they do very well for running full range and down firing. Now I need to figure what to do with them. I'm thinking distributed bass possibly.
 
Late 40s, most likely. Maybe very early 50s. Can't remember exactly when the dust-up with Altec occurred and the switchover to the JBL name and the oval dataplates.
 
32 ohm impedance? Thats an oddity. I actually own an amplifier with 32 ohm output taps. Its the only one I've ever run across, and I've never run into a 32 ohm speaker. Interesting.
 
Yeow! Late 40's; First time I can remember owning a pair of speakers older than I am:yes:.
Here's a pic of what they ohm out at. They both read identical.
 

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unless you are a collector, i'd sell them for a modern sub in a heartbeat. at this point you probably have those as woofers and sub nothing (SUBwoofers are usually flat to 25hz at least. check out the HSU website).

now having said all that, you have a great score there!
 
Yes I can't see using them for actual sub duty the more I think about it. My ML1c's go down to 20hz and my main rig goes down in the low 20's to. The cabs are too big to put into actual use. These things are a cool piece of history though.
Here's the kicker.......the guy had them listed on ebay for short money and didn't get a single bid. So he lists them on craigs for even shorter money and that's where I came in and took a chance. There is absolutely no way of knowing what those drivers are without some dissasembly which had not been done. I'm no doubt the first person to peek inside those cabs since they were built God knows how long ago.
 
Jeez all of a sudden it seems to be raining speakers in my house. I'm going to pick up a pair of mint Bozak concert grands in a few minutes and this afternoon I'm bringing home a pair of RS mach 1's. Looks like a busy day once again.
 
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