Re foaming speakers using the 50Hz method and a smart phone

I usually re foam woofer surround by removing the dust cap, shimming the voice coil and attaching new surrounds.

Springfield Speakers has a pretty good walk through on using your smart phone and your stereo to use the 50Hz. method. I recently used this method on a pair of Pioneer HPM-60's with great results.

Pioneer HPM-60 Speakers first generation

I picked up these first generation Pioneer HPM-60 about a month ago and finally got around to sourcing the proper surrounds of Ebay and re foaming the one woofer. The other woofer already had been done.

This pair was in better condition than the second generation HPM-60's that I had earlier.

The build quality of these speakers seems to be better with superior bracing on the inside and a cross over that uses polyester film caps than the second generation HPM-60's. The second gen used electrolytic capacitors.

I added more filling to the internals of the speakers as there was sparse material there to start.

For some reason the fake vinyl veneer seems to peel off this generation of HPM's as I have seen other images of the speakers in the same beige colour. Otherwise these speakers are in pretty mint shape and still have their spec sheets attached to the rear of the speaker.

So how do they sound?

Typical HPM rock sound with tight deep bass, very smooth lower to mid mid range and a sound that puts you in front and center in a concert, a rock concert.

These speakers were designed to to compete against the likes of JBL and Altec Lansing in the mid 70's

How do I like them compared to the second generation HPM's? Aesthetically, I think they look way better than the 2nd gen's. The sound is the same, this pair is starting to grow on me.

JBL 82 Speakers

I picked a few pairs of speakers recently a pair of Pioneer HPM-60's and a pair of JBL 82's.

The HPM-60's need a re foam job and will be featured in an upcoming post.

The JBL 82's was just a curiosity for me to listen to.

These JBL's seem to have been manufactured for the mass consumer market relying on there reputation in the bass department. The speakers did put out the typical JBL style bass from the 8 inch woofers, the tweeters were a soft dome tweeter with a titanium laminate coated on top.

So how did they sound? Deep in the bass region, sparkly highs and hollow in the mid range. These speakers were really not worth keeping in the collection and where moved along pretty quick.

These speakers appear on a regular basis in the used market and should not be over paid for.

Advent 5012

When I went to pick up the ADS L420's a few weeks back the seller threw in a pair of Advent 5012's for a reasonable price. They needed work though.

The Advent 5012, from what I gather are the last rendition of the large Advent and the best with the soft dome tweeter. These speakers are large, larger than the Pioneer HPM-60's and larger than the JBL L26's.

These speakers needed a re foam on the woofers, bracing on the inside cabinet, sanding and a new coat of Minwax and crossover work along with new speaker terminals.

Here is how they ended up.

So far I have really enjoyed these speakers, the 10" woofer goes as deep as the JBL L26's I just recently had but the dome tweeter just images way better.

I have read lots of stuff on the Large Advent and the consensus is this is the best out of the lot.

I did do a few tweaks tot he cabinet and installed a brace at the weakest point of the front baffle.

I tried changing the 7uF and the 32uF series cap into a single 5.6uF but found I was blowing the fuses, this aspect of the crossover still needs some work. My best option is sourcing polyester caps of the original value and going the series route.

Update: I have since returned the crossover to the original cap values in series using polyester film caps (7uf) and a Solen electrolytic cap in the 33uf value. 

This is the third pair of Advent to date, I once had a pair of Advent 2/W's and a pair of 2002 of which I swapped the EPI tweeters for.

Woofer re foam

JBL L26 vs. Pioneer HPM-60

A long awaited sound off on two classic rock and roll monitors the ever so sought after JBL L26 and the not nearly enough respect, the Pioneer HPM-60. These comparisons are non scientific and are only conducted within my sound room on the same source equipment. So if you are looking for a bunch of technical graphs and what not, that is not happening here. This is just what sounds best to my ears.

To begin with this is really a 2 way versus a 3 way battle and the JBL's got a new Solen cap installed where as the Pioneer still has the original caps, so lets get that out of the way.

Aesthetically the JBL L26 wins hands down on the fact that the cabinet is a real oak veneer where as the Pioneer cut the corners and give you the vinyl veneer. I also like the cleanliness of the JBL's front baffle with the tweeter over the woofer, it just looks cleaner and much more visually pleasing. JBL wins in this respect.

Sound, there is something about how well the 10" woofer attacks and reaches into the bass region in the JBL over the Pioneer. You can feel the rumble of the JBL 125 woofers and it brings a rush of anticipation of what is going to hit you, no other woofer gives you that feeling. The HPM-60's woofers are just as fast on the attack but they do not give you the rumble that JBL's gives off. The nod goes to the JBL's in the bass department.

Mid range is a completely different story, hands down the HPM-60 is smoother across the mid range spectrum and it is not to hard to figure out why. The tweeter and the woofer on the L26's need to share this role where as the HPM-60 has a dedicated mid range driver. Hands down the Pioneer wins in this respect.

The high end also goes to the HPM-60 as one does get a bit of sizzle out of the super tweeter, the JBL tweeter tends to roll of faster than the HPM-60's.

Sound stage, the HPM-60's are of course more forward than the JBL L26's, both put out a great three dimensional sound stage, putting the instruments in the right places. Although the JBL's reach lower both speakers give you the bass punch where you can feel it inside of you. A note that should be taken with this, is that both these speakers are meant to give you that live feeling, like you are there front row center at a concert, these are not the speakers that reveal the finer musical passages that give off details in an airy sense. Some call it the West Coast sound versus the New England sound.

So who wins in the sound off? My nudge would go towards the JBL L26's. Although the mid range is not nearly as smooth, the bottom end along with the real oak veneer and the cleaner looking front baffle is the clincher for me.

As I write this the JBL's did move along to a new owner and the HPM-60's are currently listed for sale, the used market for JBL's when priced right is far more liquid than that for a pair of HPM-60's. That said the HPM-100's move much faster and are more sought after. Some argue the HPM-60's 10" woofer is just a bit more refined than the HPM-100's as it is easier to drive.

JBL L26 update

The JBL L26's got finished off last week and I have been enjoying them exclusively along side of the Pioneer HPM-60's.

There is something about the early JBL's that is wholly unique to these speakers. The bass is just super tight and full, the mid range is not the best on the L26's but the high end is clearly there and it is like a concert in your living room. The fullness and attack more than make up for the mid range. These are fantastic speakers to own and I am glad I am experiencing my second pair.
 

 Crossover before and after with Solen Fast Caps.

Woofer re foamed

JBL L26 Decade

Another pair of JBL L26 speakers arrived this week and these will need the full makeover. This project will include a re foam, re cap of the crossover, new banana plug terminals on the rear and a re finish on the veneer.

I look forward to hearing these speakers again and perhaps I will do a L26 vs. HPM-60 shoot out.....might as well since I have both speakers.

JBL CF150

A regular reader and friend of Speakerholic dropped off a massive pair of JBL speakers a few weeks ago the JBL CF150.

These giants stand 36" tall and are 18" wide and 16" deep, it takes two people to move them. These JBL's  sport a massive 15" woofer, a 6.5" midbass driver acting as a mid range and a dome tweeter. The efficiency of these speakers are 98db at 1 watt which makes them pretty loud.

These are not your typical "Wife Friendly" speakers and nor do they work in a 700 square foot condo, these speakers overpower everything but the biggest home theatre or man cave. I have these in my room that measures 14'x18' and there is no way this space can do these speakers justice.

The CF150 was circa mid 1990's and retailed for about $1000 a pair. I don't really know where these fit into JBL's line up or what the marketing was behind these speakers.

When I got these giants and listened to them for the first time a distinct resonance was coming from one of the speakers, the woofers are so big and powerful that they rattled the poorly braced and dampened cabinet apart.

When I pulled these speakers apart I found them to be an odd mix of really well made components yet a poorly made cabinet. The 15" woofer is a typical high end JBL cast basket woofer, the crossover used poly film capacitors yet the cabinets had virtually no bracing and zero dampening material internally, it was almost like they started to cut corners to reach a price point.

The game plan was to reinforce the cabinet and add internal dampening material to beef up the cabinets. A drop by a friends upholstery shop and I cut the wood to size and got the poly fill material, lots of it.

The first thing I had to do was apply a bead of glue on every corner in the cabinet, after that dried I glued in bracing material on the side of the cabinets and on the front to rear baffles.

Next was the sound dampening material and lots of it.

Extra material also went into the midbass enclosure as well as a seal around the woofer.

These speakers are re assembled and I have had the pleasure of listening to them but before I get to the sound here a few pictures to see the scale of the size. First the JBL versus a Pioneer HPM-60.

The JBL in the room versus all my other speaker along a wall as there is no where else to put them.

 

The sound, typically JBL with very full bass, I am running them off the Myryad T-40 amp which is mid range forward and these speakers have a surprisingly good sound stage. I find them to be very open and airy not unlike the Dual CL390's. One can hear all the different positions of the instruments with a convincing three dimensional sound stage.When switching between speakers I had to adjust the volume for the JBL's efficiency. The 15' woofers really added a nice full bottom end that speakers with an 8" to 10" woofers can not do. 

I tried the JBL's out with the Sherwood S-8250 CP receiver which has a heavier bass and laid back mid range and the speakers did not sound nearly as nice. I also believe the higher dampening factor in the Myryad has better control over the speaker.

When listening to Pink Floyd the wall at 40% volume you felt the music like in a concert hall. I bumped the volume up to 50% but my listening space is not optimal for those volumes and I am sure the neighbors were annoyed. These speakers need a large space to let them run. One other note is spikes in the corners of the base would help isolate the speaker from the floor and tighten up the bass, an extra 4 inches of elevation would help out.

These speakers would shine in the right large room along with the right 100-200 watt amp, they certainly shined in my small space with a mid powered amp up to about 40% volume after that it just got to loud for the space.

Sherwood S-8250 CP listening update

I had a good audio session last night with this receiver, the characteristics of this unit emphasis a bit more bass and a laid back mid range.

The Sherwood worked really well with my Mission 770 Freedom IV's and the Pioneer HPM-60's. The Paradigm Control Monitors are bass heavy and not as forward in the mid range so the sounds did not work well with these speakers.

The Dual CL390's finished off the night and these speakers brought out the true sound of the receiver, uncovering the warmth that receivers of this era give off.

I have a feeling this receiver will be around for awhile.