Tony L
Administrator
So you had the X/O totally rebuilt?
Yes, this pair of JR149s are beautifully cosmetically, but were sadly way off spec, I think they’d been stored somewhere slightly damp. It was a very long journey getting them the way I wanted them. The crossovers were very interesting in that a couple of resistors didn’t match left/right, so I assume a construction error back when they were made (the serials match, so they are a pair, I’ve even got the box, or most of it anyway). I used Falcon’s matched Alcaps and Kiwame carbon comp resistors.
The JR149s look excellent, esp with those grilles. What’s the theory on why they are so much better value than LS3/5a and go for much less second hand?
I guess the lack of the BBC connection, plus they are very, very hard to find in nice condition. I think the cylindrical construction did them no favours as most look like they’ve rolled around and picked up all manner of chips and scratches. I’m very obsessive about condition and I ended up monitoring eBay listings for 5 or 6 years before seeing a pair I liked the look of! One would think the rarity of genuinely tidy pair, let alone anything even approaching mint & boxed has kept the real collectors away. I have a feeling far fewer people have even heard of them, let alone heard them, so again off the radar to a large degree. I have a real soft spot for them as they were the first hi-fi speaker I ever owned back in 1978 (an aunty died and left me a few £hundred in a will so I had enough to buy a nice second hand system aged 15, the rest being a GL75 and 33/FM3/303).