JBL L40 Speakers

A fellow coworker has offered me a pair of these for $40 a pair...

Orion states $130 in fair condition

These are far less than fair condition - woofer need surrounds and
cabinets need a complete refinish, but the veneer is in good shape.

The grilles need to be redone as well - fabric has been attacked by
four legged felines...

All drivers work (so I'm told)...

I decided to take them... just wondering how good of these speakers
were/are

Thanks!
Scott

Never heard 'em, but of course I have an ad. This one's a two pager.

Hmmm... that ad states they sold for $200 a pair new,
but Orion states that they could go between $130-$180

These must be really good speakers...

Thanks!
Scott

$40 I wouldn't give it a second thought. They would be playing at my house right now

If you decide you don't want them I believe Wardsweb is been looking for the woofers in those for ages.

They're great two way speakers. I had a pair like yours and got surrounds and glue from Orange County Speaker Repair who is an authorized JBL repair shop. Although a little more costly than other sources, they worked great. If you're not experienced at refoaming, do a search, there's lots of posts on that subject.

Interestingly, OCSR didn't have an issue with gluing the surrounds on top of instead of below the cone as on the original. They said the 2-3mm offset from original didn't make any difference according to their tests. However, you may consider that when making your decision from an aesthetic or originality standpoint. I used the shimless method with binder clips and a low frequency tone from a tone generator to center the voice coil while gluing, worked like a charm. Just take your time.

The veneers will usually clean up very well, again, lots of recent posts here and at Lansing Heritage site about how.

For grille fabric, OCSR has both the brown and black polyester knit that works really well. If you want to go more boldly, Steve Gonzales at Lansing Heritage has just found the original source for JBL Blue (bright blue) grille fabric that adorned the JBL L300 and professional 4300 series monitors. May look bitchin.

Let us see the before and after pix. Right now, my L40's are with my son at college and believe me, they can rock :thmbsp: :thmbsp:

Regards,

Bart

I had already bought them, they're pretty rough, but I'm game!

I'll get some before pics taken in the next couple of days...

mech986, nice collection of Porsches ya got there! :thmbsp:

Scott

My first JBLs were a set of L-40s. Excellent speakers.

Oh, I wish all of the below Porsches were mine!!

But I do have 2 914/6's (1 kinda runs, the other has to be put back together) and a daily driver Boxster S which is a lot of fun.

Beaurtiful Sound

I have a set and they sound fabulous (in fact they sound better, IMO, than an all-original set of L-100's that I owned...more punch!)

I just pulled a set of these out of an estate sale store on a country back road. No telling how long they had sat there. I paid the insanely high price of $5.00 for the set. The veneer was rough, foam is rotted out, and a tweeter dustcap was smashed in.

Well, after I got them home I blew them off with a air compressor, wiped them down with a wet rag, and pulled the dustcap out with a piece of duct tape. After that I went to my local harware store and got a can of minwax dark walnut stain and a pack of fine steel wool. I rubbed the veneer down with the steel wool and applied two coats of the stain. Do not apply so much stain that it puddles up. Rub the surface until all excess stain is rubbed in. Dried, puddled stain will dry and flake off if I understand correctly.

NOTE: If you ever decide to steel wool veneer on these cabs be sure to remove or cover the drivers as the tweeter magnet on mine attracted tiny pieces of the steel wool. Had to blow the speakers off again with the air compressor.

After the stain dried, I went over the front of the speakers with a black sharpie marker to hide any imperfections. I plan on waiting a couple of days before I oil them up with JBL's recommended mix of 3 parts boiled linseed oil and one part pure gum turpentine.

These things look very impressive now. Can't wait to get the re-foam kit and rock them out. Would like more info on the tone generator method instead of cutting the dustcap and shimming the voice coil. I don't want to chop them up.

After I fininshed restoring these two loudspeaker systems, I have to ask myself - "Why doesnt't JBL make anything PRESENTLY that looks this good?" Commitment to quality out the window now?

SPL db said:

A fellow coworker has offered me a pair of these for $40 a pair...

Orion states $130 in fair condition

These are far less than fair condition - woofer need surrounds and
cabinets need a complete refinish, but the veneer is in good shape.

The grilles need to be redone as well - fabric has been attacked by
four legged felines...

All drivers work (so I'm told)...

I decided to take them... just wondering how good of these speakers
were/are

Thanks!
Scott

Click to expand...

Hi Fella, the L40 is epitome of the JBL sound. $40 is maximum, considering they are going to require some serious labour. Sold my pair for $210 locally within the last 6 months. It is a very good thing they employ a pot for tweeter control otherwise your ears would shriek.

They use a 125A or 127A woofer and an 033 tweeter, but I'd rework the X-over. A better idea would be auctioning off the parts and save your time. The tweeters should yield $90 to 100 /pair.

I think L40's are great vintage JBL's. :thmbsp:

Their compact size would make them wonderful surround-speakers for movies.


Russ