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do you remember JBL Aquarius 4 from (1974) @ £50 too

ian r

401's Nakman
JBL-Aquarius-4-S109-Speakers-_57.jpg



Got from the Bay and
amused to find thaT after being outbid for 24 hours the higher bid oddly withdrew and disappeared to leave my lowest bid standing as the highest after 9 days...that was odd.

Anyway happy days

who knows i might find some old sonabs one day to complete my omnidirectional heaven, or better still my longterm interest in Empire Grenadier 9000's

does anyone remember hearing these, not known for amazing bass but edge wound coils, jbl bass units and in this one Bolivar tweeters... unlikely to be the cheapest tweeter to replace a discontinued jbl original....
what fun
 
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So Im planning scotland to Conwy trip in the next week if anyone is en route for tea and hifi

Drew Pritchard land..
 
AQUARIUS 4

Development of the Aquarius 1, 2 and 2A were virtually complete when Ed May left JBL in 1970. Refinement of the partially complete Aquarius 4 fell on the shoulders of George Augspurger, who was then Technical Director of JBL


Aquarius 4 Geometry
© and Courtesy George Augspurger

The original concept for this speaker was a very compact, columnar design that top mounted an LE8T. This driver operated full range and fired into a conical diffuser that would provide 360 degree dispersion. This concept was not new and continues to find resurgence every few years. However, it proved difficult to adapt to the chosen driver.

The LE8T was not suited to slot loading. The design had to be modified so that the loading operated more as a radial horn. Further, it was discovered that the system had to be baffled above and below the mouth so that an empty top chamber was added to the enclosure. Even with this added baffling, the short horn generated a pronounced resonance at around 1000hz . This was finally mitigated by drilling out the center of the conical loading plug to create a quarter-wave stub. However, this solution introduced a new problem. The quarter-wave trap dissipated frequencies above 5000hz so that high frequency augmentation was required. This was provided by an LE20 that was rear firing and had it's own circular slot loading to make it onmidirectional.

Equally challenging was engineering the system to develop a reasonable low-frequency response. Originally, the column below the driver was designed as a simple vented enclosure. However, this space had the geometry of an organ pipe and sounded like one. Extended trial and error was required to develop a solution consisting of a stuffed chamber open to a vented space below. This provided usable low-frequency extension to 40hz.


im cant get this quotes url,to behave but will credit the above next time i post
 
Hi Ian,

I do remember Aquarius from the brochures, but never saw, let alone heard a pair in the shops. Certainly seemed unusual for JBL.
 
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Well, that's it then, regardless of how they perform as loudspeakers, you'll certainly have nice Scandinavian/modern looking pedestals for the annual rotation of your busts of famous composers.:)

Sounds like JBL had their work cut out for them trying to get from initial concept to finished product though.

It will be interesting to hear what you make of them Ian.
 
well I feel they will provide serious radio dvd cd and mp3 ambient listening in a sit 'outerie'
with a fern on top
AND my favourite busts
and conversation pieces.

and not relevant at all re. vinyl
 
Looking closer at the plan diagram, it would appear that JBL's solution to the 'organ pipe' problem was essentially an internal aperiodic port into a lower reflex ported section. Other than Naim using a sealed box, that is how SBL/IBL load the bass/mid driver. Back when these JBLs came out, a few makers, Dynaco among them, were using aperiodic port loading more so as an alternative to fully sealed boxes, rather than as alternative to reflex port loading. Interesting how JBL came to this from the port side, as it were.
 
Yes they have some 70's chutzpah ...its not mentioned that I have read but I wonder if these were loosely aimed at the quadraphonic market as well?

Omni's are hard to pin down sonically given they actively use room acoustics anyway but the bass is often described as unsatisfactory...they need some fettling externally & its reported it depended on the day of the week as to what quality of components were on the xovers.

some survive to this day some dont... Re the porting the coloumlike shape must add some solidity to the build and thus facilitate tuning... was port tuning calculating done on slide rules back then?
 
With the mostly omni-directional models that I heard back then, quadraphonic would have been overkill.

Ohm Acoustics F and G models with Walsh drivers, in particular (and later the BIC 'Soundspan' TPR-200), placed in open space, delivered an all-enveloping sound field that can be best described as being 'immersive'.

The results do depend upon placement, and can be 'toned down' by having them nearer to one preferably long wall.
 
overkill.... clearly you never worked in marketing :)

I have to plan the journey down well due to busytimes
so I hope a relative in Manchester might oblige..
 
Those do appear to be well conceived.

BTW Ian, a pair of Empire Royal Grenadier 9000 came up on Kijiji locally over here recently for next to naught. Had I had known you were a fan, I could have picked them up for you. Shipping to the UK wouldn't be cheap, but likely no more than what these should really sell for.

You do like your pedestals! :)

Empire_9000_LR.jpg
 
thats very generous of you ...if that should work out again let me know...Buying next to naught and spending on shipping is a good deal, but its so problematic buying ancient kit which needs fettling as opposed to a going pair ...mollycoddled by one loving owner

I have located JBL recone kits...which might be perished too being so old and new ones from ebay usa which JBL forum users rate well.


Its a 10 hour round trip to collect the jbls so need to plan that.

I like the idea of omnis but listen to Tannoys, i like the absurdity of the grenadiers and the original timewindows in cardboard tubes

i like the look of modern normal thin speakers quite often but speakers that disappear are my bag.... and globe speakers...clairtones G series more than Grundig or JVC but always like those too

great pic, no obvious sweet spot in that room

ho la
Those do appear to be well conceived.

BTW Ian, a pair of Empire Royal Grenadier 9000 came up on Kijiji locally over here recently for next to naught. Had I had known you were a fan, I could have picked them up for you. Shipping to the UK wouldn't be cheap, but likely no more than what these should really sell for.

You do like your pedestals! :)

Empire_9000_LR.jpg
 
thats very generous of you ...if that should work out again let me know...Buying next to naught and spending on shipping is a good deal, but its so problematic buying ancient kit which needs fettling as opposed to a going pair ...mollycoddled by one loving owner
No worries Ian, I do doubt that I'll ever see another pair of Empire speakers available locally though. If I do, rest assured that I can detect the merest hint of some fettling required, having had my head inside more vintage speaker enclosures than women's pants.
 
i had missed that page Cooky, thanks. Its the most positive rite up on them I have come across so far
There's more there Ian, you just need to sign up then do some digging. AIUI the Aquarius range nearly did for JBL such was their lack of commercial success. The fix, ie aperiodic/reflex loading was nothing new, Tannoy and Lockwood were using it at the time.
 
Fix as in the later more expensive and beefier db's or the later Aquarius 4 ...the L120 i think with 4 tweeters a la Sonab and a wimpier bass mid version of the LET8. However i dont know if thats what you mean.

The last Aquarius had a all cloth top surround larger footprint.

Re going bust i thought the pro side basically bailed them thru after the Age of Aquarius left the LP charts...

Thanks re forum I am now a member same monika as here
 


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