JBL L45 Flair Score!

I picked up a pair of JBL L45 Flairs this afternoon at an attractive price.

http://www.lansingheritage.org/html/jbl/sp...rs/1974-l45.htm

These will go great with my new to me Marantz 1200!

Knock on wood, the gear hunting has been very good lately.

cool, i've never even heard of the Flair much less heard it. they are keepers you say?

Keepers? Good question. While the cabinets are in pretty decent shape, I did not get the grills. I've got them playing right now. The bass is plentiful and not out of control like HPM-100's. I'm starting to get a little of the familiar (L100-style) ear ringing from the paper tweeters. Fatigue could be the deciding factor whether they stay or go. Anyways, always happy to take in vintage JBL's.

Huh, those are cool looking. I've never had the opportunity to hear any truly vintage JBLs.

I had to take the woofers out to clean the controls. They are singing nicely now.

Jeeze, they look huge.

They are very living room unfriendly. Ugly without the grills too.

I replaced the LE25 and LE5 with the 035TiA tweeter and 104H2 mid out of the L-80T. This has gotten rid of the ear fatigue I get from the paper tweeter LE25. I also don't have to look at the rotten foam anymore.

Photo of new configuration.

Sam- have you found many cone tweets to be fatigue inducing? I had always felt it was most common with a badly designed horn tweeter or metal dome tweeter, of course with exceptions.

I personally am notcactive cone tweeter fan, but have heard some cone tweeters that were decent, if not good.

What's your theory on cone tweets that are fatigue inducing? Product of the design? Where it's crossed over?

Also, does swapping the tweeter hurt or help value of these?

Jace you pulled the woofer out to check construction? Typical quality cast frame?

Thed: PAPER cones I find to be bright and fatiguing whether they be Pioneer HPM's, JBL's, AR's, etc. IMO, untreated paper as a material is not a good reflector and is prone to material resonance which can cause unwanted frequency amplification. In other words brightness. My other objection is the soundwaves reflect off the housing edge and baffle which hurts clarity and soundstage. Off angle imaging is noticeably worse. This is not an issue with domes.

Crossover for the tweeter is 7.5kHz so the mid is doing most of the work. On the low side, it is 1.2 kHz so the 135A is getting some midrange action. In the NS-1000M, the xover points are 500 Hz and 6 kHz.

Value. This pair is missing the grills so I think the value is in the drivers and not the complete package. The 035TiA swap required a little cutting but the LE25 when re-installed will hide my changes. Yes, the woofer has cast frame. --S

This post has been edited by socal sam on November 03, 2009 09:20 am

Indeed paper cone tweets have their shortcomings, from breakup to off-axis dispersion. I found myself able to enjoy very few- the peerless in the Micro Acoustics designs (multiple used in an array for wider dispersion) and suprisingly the newer, budget-priced Cambridge Soundworks Model Six.

Otherwise, I favor soft domes, occasionally quality and well integrated metal domes, but also have enjoyed various ribbon and dipole/bipole designs like Linaeum offered.

Have not heard any ESS (correct?) tweets, and have heard mixed opinions of them.



Cripes, if you pull those 15" drivers, you gotta show pics. Probably looks like a musclecar mag wheel from behind.

I haven't owned ribbons or electrostats. I've heard them in showrooms and at audio buddy's homes but never in my house, which IMO is the true measure. Looking forward to spending time with these types of speakers.

So we like domes and not cones. We differ on choice of cone material and I think that is because of the respective Coasts we live on. Some of difference may be attributable to the kinds of amps we like. I prefer fast and forward amps, which pair best with metal domes.

I had the woofers out last night. They do look like automobile alloy wheels!

This post has been edited by socal sam on November 03, 2009 02:22 pm

I've spent time with EMITs and with Maggies. They have their positives and negatives but definately worthy any time you allot to listen.

Regarding dome material- I'd like to hear abyryllium dome- I imagine it overcomes the weaknesses of the soft domes without adopting the full fledged weakness of a metal dome.

That is, I like the detail a good metal dome offers over a typical soft dome, but find the metal dome, when it distorts, to be less forgiving than a soft dome.

Thed: BrushWellman makes Be domes:

http://www.berylliumproducts.com/Acoustics.aspx

Take a look at the Acoustic Properties of Beryllium white paper. Sam.

I find this all very interesting as of all the six speakers I have connected only one, Pioneer HPM-100, have the paper tweeters. I favour the JBL L112 because of placement. I was going to hook up a set of Qysonics in the system where I have some Design Acoustics PS8A, but I'm tight for space and I found if they get within 8" of the tv they distort the picture. Glancing around, I have very few speakers with paper tweeters and none in play save for the HPM-100. Forget what I have stored away in the garage though.