I know this is coming eight years too late but I’m dying to see how you repaired the woofer at the end of this video! I would love to know how to do that. My goodness, you left us hanging! Is there any possibility of a sequel so that you can tell us how to repair the voice coil on that woofer?
daikuone Me too. Actually, a Marantz 2270 receiver, Pioneer turntable, and a set of JBL L100s was my graduation gift to myself during my last quarter in college.
I have a pair of these L100's. Also wanted to change out the woofer. The captive nuts on the woofer screws were bound and would not come out. Ended up drilling the heads off the screws! Thanks for your descriptive video.
My granddad gifted me a pair of these and they are legit in perfect condition. They have the original frame, no knocked in dust caps and they sound amazing.
I was wondering if the crossover was burnt out as well, but this model does not seem to have a complex crossover. Years ago, I had to replace the outer foam rings of my 12" woofers on my home made 1978 speakers. Each speaker has one 12" woofer (15" outer rim), two mid-range drivers, and 4 tweeters, plus the crossover assembly. Just several days ago I re-stained the front black panels, since they had faded somewhat. I was amazed at how much that made them look new again. The only covers in these speakers are the two metal 15" Round Waffle Style Woofer Grille covers, so the front panel has to look its best..
love your informative videos. May I ask what you do when you remove the tweeter foam and realize there is no tape over the conductors that run on the surface of the tweeter and shown in your video? Should I apply tape back over them? If so, what should I use?
Great video! I have a chance to buy a pair of L100s tomorrow. Both tweeters is missing the foam and one of the tweeters cone is ripped… is that repairable? Or do you need a whole new tweeter
Regarding the pushed in tweeter dust covers. I can agree sometimes it pays to leave well enough alone but I just picked up a pair of JBL L100A's(Early black label) and had pushed in tweeter dust covers. I found using a q-tip and some water I was able to wet down the affected area that was pushed in, and then use a large to small vacuum adapter and the dust covers sucked out within seconds, then I used a hair dryer to dry them. This step is probably not necessary. Hope this might help others.
What annoys me is that the CAUSE of these pushed in dust covers is dumb assed people that just HAVE to touch the exposed speakers. With the current trend of speakers without any grill or cover assures that this crap will continue to occur. Go in any showroom with exposed speakers and some will be damaged in this way.
cmon guys, a little 5 year girl while the lady's were not watching smashed mine, that was my story, 25 years later she represented me as my attorney in court
@@redgrapeskins No, sorry, you're wrong guy. She could buy you 10 pairs of speakers, and wouldn't miss a beat. Children are absolutely wonderful.... compared to a child, a set of speakers are totally useless.
You just earned a subscriber. I randomly came across your channel searching for video electronic restoration. The first video I saw was a Marantz tape deck restore which had a thumbnail with on of these JBLs in it. I have a pair I bought new in 1977 . I have always hated the factory wire terminals and have wanted to change them . I just have never wanted to go in cold to do that if you know what I mean. This video gives me the assurance that this is well within my doing. I originally had a Marantz 2250 receiver. I now drive them with a Onkyo P304 and M304. I love these speakers. Is there a source for the original speaker grills mine dry rotted away in the 90s. I like your style also interesting and easy to follow Jim I obviously wrote my comment before watching the whole video. All mine questions were answered. I have the frames and badges so I just need the foam which I will replace in my original 70s orange. Any value in since I have the woofer out in cleaning or blowing dust out of the potentiometers?
Just acquired a pair of JBL L96 Deltas. The only drivers that are functional are the tweeters. I checked everything else on the bench (crossovers, binding posts, etc). I found direct replacement midranges from Simply Speakers. My problem is the white 10" woofers. I ordered two GRS square frame ones from Parts Express...haven't got them yet. Is there anyone out there that re-cones AND re-foams the white woofers? Cost?
I have my dad's centurys I got when he passed I just in mothballed them and I was just ranting about how horrible those binding posts were, for what was a fairly expensive speaker in the day they seem so chinsey. I remember as a kid in the early 80s picking at those quadrex grills because they were allready crumbling by then. I love those speakers my dad cherished them, my mom bought them for him in like 73 and they weren't cheap even then I understand. They still sound great and in good shape except foam is gone but he kept the grills on so the drivers are like new dust caps arnt pushed in and the woofers are still immaculate and bright white. I almost fell over when I see JBLs century l100 "classic" they recently released priced at $2000 a piece! I see These still pull down pretty good money in decent condition.
Aaron Waltz I bought my set of JBL L100s in 1974 and they were $300 each back then. The “Classics” at $4,000 a set today are almost equivalent in price using inflation adjusted dollars.
Nice video, funny how things work, I actually bought a pair of those for my father back in the day I was in the Army, He played the heck out of them and when the woofer went he trashed them. If I only knew at that time about rebuilding stuff. Man what I would have today for a system.
I have a pair of B&W DM 110'S, probably 30 years old. The speakers are very good, sound great. But the grille frames are made from chip board. And mine have now turned into corn flakes. So I bought some 18mm AA marine ply, and used one of the old frames as a template, after I pumped a heap of hot glue into it, to keep in semi intact. I cut out the holes with a jig saw, and used my Dremel tool as a mini router, to cut the rebates to fit around the drivers. Bought some speaker cloth on line, and last Saturday, a mate and I made 2 new grilles. Trying to find original replacements, here in Australia 🇦🇺 is bloody impossible. I could get a pair from England for around $300. After all that travel, what condition would they be in?
Very informative video. Just got a pair of these today and having to replace the binding posts. They came with a set of cloth grilles in the walnut frames. Do you know how to remove the cloth grilles from the frames without damaging the frames or the grilles as I am going to replace them with a set of reproduction quadrex blue foam grilles ?
Fun watch! I am a happy HPM 100 owner since the late 70's so, I consider these JBL's the enemy!! Lol. I Never understood the waffle grills, the foam around the tweeters. What I can say is, the Pioneer HPM 100's have never needed ANY repair. I know they were an upgrade to the L100's. Would love to do a side by side demo for my ears. How do they stack up in your opinion?? Cheers!
I have a pair of L 112 I bought in Germany in the 80's. Since I've owned them I've only had to re do the cones once. L 112 's are a awesome set of speakers I love my music loud and these babies perform....Love your videos.
Drayhazel, I bought 2 pair of the L100's. I was in the U.S. Air Force at the time stationed in Germany as well. I don't have them any longer but truly loved them. Magnificent sound. By the way I was in Germany 1976 and 1977.
Ya I was there in 81 so you were well before me. I was in the Army stationed at Cooke Barracks in Goppingen We headed to Robinson Baracks where the PX was to buy all our electronics and other stuff. I have had my L-112's for over 30 yrs. and they are now getting an up grade, new caps and resistors to get ready to play with my newly acquired Pioneer SX 1250.... I can't wait.
When, I removed the old foam ring from the tweeters there was no tape covering the two wires. Should, I tape the wires down before adding a new foam ring? Also, any advice on products to use to remove the old adhesive around the tweeter? I hear old JBL cones warp when they come in contact with alcohol.
I bought a set of new in 1978 JBL 4311WX Control Monitors the professional version of the original JBL L100 and had the same size drivers. I still have then and they are still in perfect condition and always sounded incredible on every type of music I play on it in 2,000 parties in 42 years. Always great a real legendary speaker still popular today. The new L100 Classic is better and cost more but worth it.
Excellent How To! New subscriber! I have a pair of 4311s I bought in 1975. On my cabinets the brilliance and presence pots are externally mounted at the bottom of the cabinets. One of the potentiometers is broken; the knob and post were broken off somehow. Where would I find a replacement? It doesn’t effect the performance of the speaker, I can use needle nose to move the post if necessary (though it isn’t). I absolutely love these speakers and would never part with them. I would love to find a vintage receiver/amp like my old Pioneer SX939 that I blew up decades ago.
For some 20 years or so my L100 were stored in a bedroom but not used at all. Recently I tried them out and one works fine and one does not. Any suggestions where to look for problem or what may need fixing. Watched your video where you replaced the woofer.
Hi Do you have a pair of Century 100s for sale? Thanks great channel mate Just a thought but isn’t touching those foam surrounds bare handed what causes degradation?
Using a pick with an L shaped tip really helps with the woofer removal. Regarding the defective voice coil, is it possible to carefully remove the bubbled up areas with, say, a Dremel, then recoat those areas with a thin glue such as Super Glue or the like? Just curious.
Hi. I have seen alot of videos here on youtube on restauration JBL L100 speakers and I like your video the best. I have som JBL L100 myself and the foam on my tweeters is not good looking, but it sounds great. Why change the foam? does it have any improvement in the sound? Another questoin is, do you recomend to update the back of the speakers to bi-amplifying?
Made the same thing today, just changed the binding posts. Did you already recap the crossover, i think i have a presence potenciometer compeletely dead. Thanks for posting this.
Hi Do you know the diameter and length of the L100 port (it appears to be curved in this video). I’m building a replica cabinet for a set of original drivers and crossovers. Thank you.
To me the JBL L-100s and The AR-3a were the best speakers of the 70s and 80s. I slightly prefer the ARs but the JBLs were also excellent. My main system still has the AR-3a speakers, but I scored a pair of the L-100s at a yard sale for 30 dollars. I use these in my repair shop and with my computer. Of course the grills are not the original foam, but they sound great.
The dents in the tweeter dust caps can easily be popped out. Get a piece of soft plastic 'aquarium' tube, about one foot long. These tubes are transparent and come in different diameters. Do not use a vacuum cleaner, just put the tube over the dent and suck, like you would drink from a straw. This way you can apply exactly the right force and as the tube is see trough, you can watch how you are doing. The dent pops right out.
I suppose the indented dust caps are caused by accident or maybe it's due to the rounded dome which makes them so enticing in pushing them in with the finger, especially the dome tweeters. Kids are famous for doing this. When working in a stereo store many years ago, I found many of the demonstration speakers had their dust caps or tweeter domes pushed in. By attaching a piece of tape to the center of the cap and pulling out, sometimes after several attempts, it usually regains its original shape.
The safest cabinet position for removing the units is front up. Don't touch the glass fibre with bare hands. Fitting a male 3 pin XLR socket is much easier than replacing the posts. You will struggle to align a replacement coil (these used to be flat wire that are now hard to find). Best done with a special jig before re-coning.
Looks like those new jacks would protrude past the back of the speaker. If the speaker falls onto its back it is likely to break that thing glueing board.
Im buying a pair of JBL 4412's but they have a dented dust cap on the woofers is there anyway to dent them back out? Tried vacuum but don't think ours is strong enough.
I need to replace speaker elements in my tower speakers, you have any ideas. What I have now are poly foam elements, they are toasted so they need to be replaced.
the JBL 2213 is a direct replacement for a 123-a and a 123-a1. The 2213 has a ferrite magnet and is rated @100 watts and 2 db louder then the 123-a1. The 104h2 is a direct replacement for the LE5-2 and has a flatter responce curve.... The 035tia is a non direct replacement for the LE25-1 but a much flatter and cleaner sounding tweeter..... all these replacements work with the original crossover installed.....
Great vid. I remember a thread on AK where edgewound or some other pro talked about using zinger's white primer very lightly to repaint a cone. Half the guys in the thread thought it would add too much weight to the cone but the guy swore by it.... if you only use one coat or two very light coats. I have a pair of white 128h's from my L112's that have a small wine stain on one woofer. I have yet to try painting it though. I care more about the sound and I'm not going to risk it. These vids are awesome btw!
Why do you call the fiberglass matting foam? It's clearly fiberglass. Otherwise a good video. The speaker connector binding posts you installed I always use the banana plug feature. Better connection and no loose wires.
Thank u very much sir I have l 100 jbl century speakers . L 100 . I 💘 the system .last 38 th years now the suspension rings small small damages I am very sad .I can't get the original one why they are wet and adhesive. I am in sri lanka jaffna.
Awesome video. Thank you and very informative! I have a couple of questions. I was lucky enough to recently find a pair of the JBL4311. They are in fantastic shape. The woofer is in great shape, but a little discolored and are not as white as your woofers. Do you have any easy tricks to cleaning the woofer and freshen them up at all? I found on forums people have used soap and water, but that sounds scary to be using on these drivers. I see so many of these drivers that look fresh on these speakers. What is the secret? Second question was, replacing the foam around the tweeters, are there wires going to the voice coil as well on the 4311? Those wires look super fragile and easy to rip off with removal of the old foam. Thanks!
I watch all you vids. Thanks for your time and effort. Hope you’re doing well... I can’t find a video on how to remove the crossover to recap. Looks like 3 screws and maybe pry the board inside..Any advice?
John Brender use hair dryer on LOW to loosen the glue. Very very carefully use a razor blade to lift the label that is covering your 4th screw. Do not lift, do not bend at all. Wait until you can slip a flat tool (preferably plastic) underneath the entire label. Good luck and pls don’t crinkle your label... replacements on ePay are ridiculously expensive.
if you take 3m grey two sided tape get it from home depot. You can stick a piece on that tweeter dust cover and pull it out without hurting it. i've done it dozens of times.
Mr. Blueglow, can you please tell me where I can find the blue foam grill covers. I am the original owner of a set L100 dating back to 1974. I have the grille but the original foam disintegrated. Please let me know who sells them and for what price. Thanks for the help and the informative video. Regards, Robert.
These were nice systems, though not neutral. They did have a prominent midrange and an awful lot of people liked them that way. Similar to the Altec's, that "West Coast" sound. The L-110 was a much better speaker and really good with classical music. These "Century" speakers were sold with the Hitachi SR-804 (my receiver) in the 1979 issue of the tech hifi book. Well done video.
Oh my gosh... I knew these were cool speakers. I just found a pair of these speakers and I put them in my truck, and then I found this nice iron table, and I just opened the back door to my box truck and the iron table fell right on the white dome of the speaker! And the speaker was moving perfect. Damn. So can you put in a new dome on these? It looks like you can, but you said early on that there isn’t a good way. : (
I found the set on Park Ave. in Manhattan, NY! Hahaha Free! Easy come easy go though. I’m so mad at myself because junk is causing me to have no space.
i just got a pair of L100s. you said something about the connection posts has springs that go out? mine have the caps but i can't get the speaker wire to connect.
+brian ochoa You need to do what I demonstrated in this video and replace those terminals, they are horrible and the springs wear out (which you are seeing).
brian ochoa www.ebay.com/itm/8-pcs-Binding-Post-Speaker-Cable-Audio-Amplifier-Terminal-Banana-Plug-Jack-N0539-/272053150698?hash=item3f57a1a3ea:g:pYIAAOSwv-NWUS-e
if you watch the video you will see where there is a bolt that holds the spade lug on the inside to the board and then it goes through the fiberboard into the jack, you could replace the jack with a nut holding a similar spade lug you crimp to your speaker wires. but honestly, id wait a week and do it right
Hi, friend! Thanks for the interesting movie. May be You have an experience of repairing or maintenance the speaker such as JBL 035TI or JBL 052TI. It would be very interesting.
I had a pair of L50's many years ago in the 70s, I wanted the 110s but out of my price range at the time. The L50s were pretty good though. Great video thanks.
I wouldn't recommend anything but finding a good used 123. Nothing else you put in it will look the same and likely not sound the same. I'd keep hunting online (ebay) for a good used 123.
John... i got a pair of Dayton Audio 12" ST-305 Series II Woofers for the switch out; BUT have not pulled the original JBL woofers yet. I felt one of the JBL's crackled a little, but i have not heard much of it return. Leaving the originals in until i feel it's necessary. Thanks
The correct way to remove the woofer is to remove the tweeter and, with your arm reach into the enclosure and push against the woofer magnet until the woofer "pops" out. This is the factory method.
You can try chewing gum on a stick to pull out the tweeter. Sometimes it works, sometimes not.
5 лет назад
One should be very careful when applying the soldering iron to a assembly depending on low temp plastic to stay intact. As one has already spun out the buttons on the binding post, use a pair of locking needle nose vise-grips on the post to become a great heat sink. Or, just take the brass tabs that came with the speaker and open the holes up to 1/4". This will not be something you should do without a small bench vise.You were warned. I figure if those tabs were good enough for James.B .Lansing, they're good enough for me. One might make sure the stake-on is still VERY tight, or replace it. I believe some of the very earlier all black JBL logos had no foam around the tweeter. Overall, a very well produced video of great value, I will be doing a set this week. On edit, I'll give a link to getting those new binding posts www.newark.com/mcm-custom-audio/50-4475/binding-post-speaker-terminal/dp/54K3403?st=speaker%20binding%20posts
Here’s the L100 Century wiring diagram and a discussion of polarity. www.audioheritage.org/vbulletin/showthread.php?35501-Polarity-questions-L100-Century
To remove the woofer from the cabinet i recomend to remove the tweeter first and get your hand in there and try to push the woofer out atleast that is what i did because when i tried to do itnwith the screwdriver i messed up the cabinet a bit i was gona paint them eanyways funny part i got them for just 25$ I also have the original grills but the first owner removed all the original stuff and putted a black snake like cover wich looks disgusting and dosent let the sound come out!!😭 good thing is that i will be fixing the tweeters and buying good speacker grill cloth
Get a bottle of ''Awesome'' and cut it 1:2 with water, then use a SOFT bristle toothbrush and remove that nasty stain from the cone - avoid gertting very much on the surround.
