Acousti-Craft Cabinets with JBL D130s

highwaychile

highwaychile

Well-Known Member
I made a very nice find at a garage sale last weekend. The proprietor had a few nice vintage pieces for sale dirt cheap (a Realistic SA-900 Solid State Amplifier, Kenwood KX-780 Cassette, and Pioneer TX-5500II Tuner) so I promptly snatched those up and asked if he had any more electronics for sale. "Just some speakers inside," he replied. He took me inside and showed me these. I had to make a call to the wife to bring the van over to haul them home. :D

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tq8uCTPQOPQ

I'm thinking I'm sitting on a goldmine here.
 
Last edited:
Zonker92 said:
Very cool! I don't recall D130s being super-valuable, but it's still a nice scroe.
Click to expand...

Maybe they don't bring much but having listened to them for over 55-years I can tell you they sound wonderful on any string music, orchestra to guitar.
 
Maybe "goldmine" is an ambiguous term, but the JBL's seem to bring a minimum of $100 apiece on ebay....and the cabinets are gorgeous and seem to be rare. I must admit that I purchased them with intent to sell; my main listening area is too small for these monster cabs, and I promised the wife long ago that we'd stick with satellites and a sub downstairs. I do have them listed, so we shall see.
 
I picked up the same drivers, in acousticraft cabinets, about ten days ago: http://www.audiokarma.org/forums/showthread.php?t=608806&highlight=acousticraft

they are set up like a folded horn, with a baffle angled up to a slot, returning to a port on the speaker bottoms.

I have been listening to them with the Scott 299c they came with, and they're...ok. some beautiful sound, but missing bass and some high extension. I just put my altec malibus back on the wires, and they do sound better than the jbls. 3-way vs. 1-way, though, so not an equal argument.
 
Madwing- I read your post on the other thread. The cabinets do look similar to mine. And I understand about not wanting to get too aggressive with the speakers. I saw a set that looked almost exactly like yours posted here when I did my initial research last weekend. I did a quick search but can't seem to locate the thread now.
 
Nice find. You're correct on the date of the cabinet. The Acousticraft model is the 1915 PS. My dad has the same cabinet he purchased at Audio Craft in Cleveland in 1962. He loaded them with Bozak 302's. The cost for cabinet was $90.00 and the Bozak 302 (207a and 209 mid and crossover)was $178.00 or 268.00 for whole the set-up. Keep in mind the price was for one speaker - mono set-up. I have a copy of the original invoice. He still has the speaker in his living room and it still sounds great.
 
CLB, I really appreciate your post. It's very difficult to find much info on these cabinets. The date I came up with was based on some info on the audioheritage site that had been posted a few years ago. I posted my JBL serial numbers there but it seems there's not much happening over there nowadays.
 
Welcome to the club. Picked up what appears to be the exact same Acousticraft cabinets loaded with JbL D130s a few months ago at the local flea market. Cabinets are currently housing my sub-woofers. The D130s are going to go in my Altec 828 cabinets for a test run here shortly. The vent at the bottom is adjustable for speaker tuning. Nicely built cabinets, definitely vintage styling, and could use some structural reinforcing , but I like them also.
 
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