Tony L
Administrator
Finally, after about 5 years of quietly looking, I now have a nice tidy pair of JR149s:
I started my hi-fi journey with a pair of these and have been very interested to revisit them for quite a while - I remember loving them. I've been holding off for either a boxed pair or a pair locally and in as close to mint condition as possible as they are just something I'd like to have knocking around. This pair are boxed, though much to my horror when unpacking they were missing the top styrofoam insert that holds the tops apart - I was expecting them to be ruined as a result, especially as the only additional packaging the seller had thrown in was a few of those polythene airbag things. Amazingly they survived the jorney without any scars. UK Mail can be highly recommended as a courier! Cosmetically they are very nice indeed, clean undinged wood and scratch-free metal crossover bases. As nice a looking pair as I've seen in a long while.
Ok, being really pedantic I'd have prefered a pair in whatever the dark wood finish my first red-logo pair were in back when I bought them (second hand) in 1978, I think they may have been rosewood, can't remember, but hey, 1970s teak is cool too!
They even came with the original 'Serge Auckland-compatible' grey bell-wire, but I've stuck that in the box and re-terminated them with some thinish Van-Damme Blue studio stuff I had knocking around - I stuck some neat little spades on the end. It's actually about as good a cable as one could get into the speakers without modifications. It's good enough for sure.
It looks like the speakers had been stored somewhere just a little damp as the fuses and crossover terminals have oxidised a bit. I swapped the fuses over with the spares that were still in their original plastic bags in the crossover cavity as they were a little less tarnished. I plonked them on some heavy sand-filled Soundstyle Z1 stands that I had knocking about from when I tried some little ProAcs a while back and fired 'em up. Ran a few sweeps to make sure all drivers were present and correct with no buzzes, rattles etc. All sounding good, though pink noise does have a very slightly different timbre left to right. I'll come back to that. I'm confident I've two good B110s and two good T27s.
Initial impressions: Christ on a bike, these things have some treble! I was expecting no bass, but not this bright! I moved them as close to the record shelving behind as I could get them and still get records out and started listening. Sounding very good, but just too toppy for me. Given they had evidence of some slight oxidisation on the crossover I thought it might be a good idea to spray some switch cleaner in the tweeter trim-pots and give them a jiggle (remembering where they were, obviously). Lucky I did as I quickly discovered they were both set on maximum! Now, I've no idea where they are meant to be set, but I'm betting it's not full on - if it was there wouldn't be a trim-pot! I've now set them both at the exact mid-point in their travel and the speakers sound so much better.
I've still got a very slight descrepency on pink noise, I suspect I may need to check the cabs are still properly air-tight, but that can wait. I also need to figure out if the crossover needs recapping - the caps don't look like electrolytics to me (they appear to be plastic with plastic film ends), but they do have 'Elcap' written on them, so I've no idea. Maybe someone here can advise. I know Falcon have a cap kit, so it's no issue if it needs doing. My aim is to restore these only, not tweak / "upgrade" them. I'll obviously be needing grills too, and, unbelievably annoyingly, the guy who has been making them and selling them on eBay has stopped doing so and has no intention of making more, so I'll have to get some custom fabricated (they've got to look right!). Luckily www.foamspeakergrilles.com in the US seem to do it, and Graham (the eBay seller) gave me the specs so I'll get some ordered later.
Off to have another listen…
I started my hi-fi journey with a pair of these and have been very interested to revisit them for quite a while - I remember loving them. I've been holding off for either a boxed pair or a pair locally and in as close to mint condition as possible as they are just something I'd like to have knocking around. This pair are boxed, though much to my horror when unpacking they were missing the top styrofoam insert that holds the tops apart - I was expecting them to be ruined as a result, especially as the only additional packaging the seller had thrown in was a few of those polythene airbag things. Amazingly they survived the jorney without any scars. UK Mail can be highly recommended as a courier! Cosmetically they are very nice indeed, clean undinged wood and scratch-free metal crossover bases. As nice a looking pair as I've seen in a long while.
Ok, being really pedantic I'd have prefered a pair in whatever the dark wood finish my first red-logo pair were in back when I bought them (second hand) in 1978, I think they may have been rosewood, can't remember, but hey, 1970s teak is cool too!
They even came with the original 'Serge Auckland-compatible' grey bell-wire, but I've stuck that in the box and re-terminated them with some thinish Van-Damme Blue studio stuff I had knocking around - I stuck some neat little spades on the end. It's actually about as good a cable as one could get into the speakers without modifications. It's good enough for sure.
It looks like the speakers had been stored somewhere just a little damp as the fuses and crossover terminals have oxidised a bit. I swapped the fuses over with the spares that were still in their original plastic bags in the crossover cavity as they were a little less tarnished. I plonked them on some heavy sand-filled Soundstyle Z1 stands that I had knocking about from when I tried some little ProAcs a while back and fired 'em up. Ran a few sweeps to make sure all drivers were present and correct with no buzzes, rattles etc. All sounding good, though pink noise does have a very slightly different timbre left to right. I'll come back to that. I'm confident I've two good B110s and two good T27s.
Initial impressions: Christ on a bike, these things have some treble! I was expecting no bass, but not this bright! I moved them as close to the record shelving behind as I could get them and still get records out and started listening. Sounding very good, but just too toppy for me. Given they had evidence of some slight oxidisation on the crossover I thought it might be a good idea to spray some switch cleaner in the tweeter trim-pots and give them a jiggle (remembering where they were, obviously). Lucky I did as I quickly discovered they were both set on maximum! Now, I've no idea where they are meant to be set, but I'm betting it's not full on - if it was there wouldn't be a trim-pot! I've now set them both at the exact mid-point in their travel and the speakers sound so much better.
I've still got a very slight descrepency on pink noise, I suspect I may need to check the cabs are still properly air-tight, but that can wait. I also need to figure out if the crossover needs recapping - the caps don't look like electrolytics to me (they appear to be plastic with plastic film ends), but they do have 'Elcap' written on them, so I've no idea. Maybe someone here can advise. I know Falcon have a cap kit, so it's no issue if it needs doing. My aim is to restore these only, not tweak / "upgrade" them. I'll obviously be needing grills too, and, unbelievably annoyingly, the guy who has been making them and selling them on eBay has stopped doing so and has no intention of making more, so I'll have to get some custom fabricated (they've got to look right!). Luckily www.foamspeakergrilles.com in the US seem to do it, and Graham (the eBay seller) gave me the specs so I'll get some ordered later.
Off to have another listen…