JBL C40 Harkness Score

I saw these Sunday morning an hour after they had posted them on CL and with some advice from Cactus Bob on what to look for I moved quickly on them. They are in Mint shape. Just beautiful speakers in my eyes. They are the lowboys with the N1200 crossover. Serial numbers are 16701 and 16704, it would be interesting to date them. I haven't got that far yet.

I have only had a few hours of time with them but I am absolutely Loving them! I am no expert in audio, but just know what sounds good to my ears. As always my posts are a little rambling.

Out of the dozens of speakers I have owned these are shaping out to be my favs. The are just so open, effortless, detailed, smooth and just sound Big! The most important thing, they are musical!! I haven't had much time with them but they just disappear. The vocals sound so lifelike! They remind me of some Klipsch Forte's I owned in the regards they are dynamic, but so much more natural sounding....Not knocking Klipsch. Plus they are just so damn beautiful to look at!! I have a large room that these open up to and are filling the house well with stellar sound. If you see a pair, I would give them a chance.

I started off using a Marantz 2230 as a pre with a Mcintosh MC 2105. I have had several JBL's in the past, L166's, 4312B's, and some JBL L26. I have always preferred my Mcintosh gear with JBL's, just seemed to bring out the best in them.With the C40's the MC2105 just seemed a little to edgy. Granted I didn't have much time and I love my MC2105. I know my Mac has been serviced by a tech in Minneapolis and he replaced all the out of spec caps but not sure what all was done. That could be part of it. I will try it again later.

Yesterday I plugged my jumpers back in my Marantz 2230 that has had a complete recap of every lytic in it and brought to spec by an great tech. It really warmed the sound up, still has plenty of power for my needs and didn't lose any dynamics. Sounds incredible.

As I thought would happen, my back went out two weeks ago. I couldn't even get out of bed, I have just started getting better. I knew getting these 140 lb speakers out of the basement of his house was going to hurt. I was willing to roll the dice on that. I woke up this morning and i'm not moving well. When I get feeling better I am going to hook up my tube amp. My gut tells me these things are going to love some tubes. Thats going to involve pulling out the antique cab I have them in and pulling out my Marantz.

I posted alot of this in dollars and sense when I was trying to figure out price and what to look for. Just wanted to start a thread here for when I have some questions after some more time with them.

Here are some pics for anyone who is interested

Stereo Cab

My wife didnt want a rack in the room so I found this old buffet from the late 1800's. When my gear is on I leave the doors open. There is about 6" above the Mac to the top to of the drawer. I haven't noticed it getting too warm. The smudges on the Mac are just finger prints from moving it around. I am either streaming through my IPhone/Ipad to Apple Music or Tidal to my Apple TV then my Dac Magic. I also have an older Sony ES changer running through my DAC.

It would be better to have some more breathing room around my gear but it makes my wife happy so Im happy. Nothing is running to hot, I have run my thermal gun across it all.

Thanks for checking out my humble setup.

Jim

Nice.Real nice.

Those are beauties !

Congrats on the purchase. :thmbsp:

Just gorgeous! Looks like a lot of speaker for that room. Possible to put them in a larger space?

GD70 said:

Just gorgeous! Looks like a lot of speaker for that room. Possible to put them in a larger space?

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They may be, I'm sure not optimum. Sounds better than any speakers that I have had in that room though. I have a room in my basement I intend to finish. Which is about 24 x 12 feet. They may end up there. The room they are in now has a entry into the kitchen and into our living room. I like how I dont have to turn them up much and they fill those areas nicely with sound.

The C40s and your cabinet are beautiful. What's the load in those C40s?

Thanks fish and superdog for the comments!

jdwdmi said:

They may be, I'm sure not optimum. Sounds better than any speakers that I have had in that room though. I have a room in my basement I intend to finish. Which is about 24 x 12 feet. They may end up there. The room they are in now has a entry into the kitchen and into our living room. I like how I dont have to turn them up much and they fill those areas nicely with sound.

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I bet they do!

bhunter said:

The C40s and your cabinet are beautiful. What's the load in those C40s?

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Thanks! They are 16ohm. I'm not sure why?? Maybe some just bought one and bridged them?? Probably a dumb guess there. I have never owned a 16 ohm speaker.

I tried the 8 and 16 ohm taps on my Mcintosh and didn't hear a difference. They seem to be doing fine on my Marantz 2230.

bhunter said:

The C40s and your cabinet are beautiful. What's the load in those C40s?

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I think I misunderstood your question. I don't know much about these older JBL models but Cactusbob told me it is the 001. With the n1200 crossover.

Yes, The 001 load. 175DLH horn, D130A woofer, N1200 xover. A Mac tube preamp would work well with your SS amp. That's what I use with a variety of speakers.

Cactus Bob said:

Yes, The 001 load. 175DLH horn, D130A woofer, N1200 xover. A Mac tube preamp would work well with your SS amp. That's what I use with a variety of speakers.

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Yep Bob. That would be my dream pre. That is out of my grasp for awhile yet. They guy I bought the Mcintosh from used a MX 100Z and said he couldn't be happier with his.

Gorgeous! Congratulations! :thmbsp::thmbsp:

I would be proud and pleased with those speakers, too. Congratulations.

Nice!

You have a really terrific .......... wife. Please tell me, what was the bribe here?

jdwdmi said:

I tried the 8 and 16 ohm taps on my Mcintosh and didn't hear a difference. They seem to be doing fine on my Marantz 2230.

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The purpose of different impedance taps on tube amps is to match the speaker's impedance as close as possible. Tube amps are much less tolerant of being driven with no load (or presumably a load with too high an impedance) than transistor amps, and can be damaged if run this way, thus the need to match impedance.

Also (I assume) since tube amps are usually rated at the same output power for all impedances, you'll get double the power through the 16Ω tap vs. the 8Ω tap (or, stated more accurately, half the power via the 8Ω tap vs the 16Ω).

They're beautiful speakers, congratulations!

Thanks for the comments Zonker, tensleep, tubed,and nelsress!