advertisement


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

Craig B said:
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.
Click to expand...

Well...I hesitate to go where others fear to dwell but I have already sent good karma in your direction...so things may perk up if you put it out there....

just like Grenadiers

cheers
 
Cheers Ian,

I'll take 'Grenadiers', as in Royal Infantry men, rather than the bottom feeding fish with the large head and luminous bump on its belly, then.
 
ian r said:
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
Click to expand...
I was referring to the change to the bass loading method. Good to see you over on Lansing-good bunch, tons of knowledge and helpful members.
 
Yes re Lansing I have found them a more hearty bunch than us old cynics

Itll be fun to see whats what with the speakers
 
Last edited:
On my way to Conwy today,

no great rush of invites for tea and sympathy

10 hours of driving.... i must be keen

hope i dont end up in a travelodge
 
Hah!
The seller was a retired JBL agent....he had reconed the bass mid LET8h ...and his firm were speaker professionals with Leak, Tandberg, JBL and diverse Pro PA sales and service. Akai and others Japanese firms also did agency deals with the firm - Coast Electronics of Conwy and Bangor

So.... the speakers are in great nick apart from slight veneer lift

I haven't unloaded them yet but was so pleased to meet and receive these Amazing looking speakers... i will plug em in later today
 
These are extraordinary to hear.,They certainly needed warming up after 6 months no use and blowing the cobwebs off led to 10 hours solid listening some with the Mrs..

These things are like nothing I have ever heard...,they are obviously JBL's with complete mastery over any bass notes.... they are deeper than my briks.... they love live and organ and drums...

a cross between JBL PA punch and delivery and omnidirectional at the same time... its a totally beguiling sound

They are real party animals, i have never turned my amp up to these levels and they just keep swallowing it up.

s mentioned above they pushed the boat out trying to design this speaker and sweeten the drivers for this specific box

they fire backwards and down and yet have so much slam and loudness in a way my old Tannoys dont...

Totally amazing being so sucked into so much music... they are very involving and sort of make me want to listen.

Lots of space around the sounds and they seem to slow the beat down and yet let one into that soundspace ..a big sound

Im astounded frankly

bit of an issue with the presence rotary on one and the cable inputs are naff

One maybe louder than other, but they face diffent wals...
 
finally with help from Lansing forum got in behind the xover panels which are large and the wiring looks more complicated than then circuit diagram.

cleaned the presence pot with cleaner going in via the tag slots. its huge say 1 1/2 inches wide and over an inch thick.

visually the components looked excellent, no burn or bulges, wax clean, cardboard dry etc

full working restored to the presence pots which i can now operate over their full range. Before- this one felt granular and farked

change in delicacy in sound noted.

may get the other done today

gorgeous sound... so inviting to dance too
 
Strange imbalance between channels, left channel also has a flap going on in the extreme bass say 60 hz according to my test disc with some 70 scope audio frequency tracks ...it even works down to 16 hz....perhaps its an resonance artifact ..but one can count the cycles..

However the other channel doesnt make any flap out sounds

So will check the refoam situation on the LET8.

This also allows access to the xover board which is too big to come out via the input panel slot.

I have Fidele Audio of TNT fame doing a house call to check the xovers whilst in place this week ...before doing any cutting

The frequency tests of the tweeters were quite i impressive, a close tonal match and playing upto the limit of my cd trax at 15000hz easily. Also the cd replay tests at 400hz from Odb to - 60db were all audible... which is more than i can say for my reconed TannoyHPDs from 1955.

Anyway i couldnt find any tonal difference between the speakers but the left one require the balance control to be advanced to quarterpast the centre point.

Both speakers have the same wall material behind them, the tweeters seems matched tonally, same channel has a bass weakness at extreme bass levels and had the best presence pot which is now had spray in it

I believe some running in is occurring as the speakers were silent for at least 6 months and they are somehow just more effortless in their dynamics presentation ..which is almost frightening sometimes
 
OK got inside by removing the top tweeter cab which is held onto the lower bass section by 4 long bolts inside the tweeter cab. easy enough I think its a 8 or 9 mm spanner.

The woofer faces upward on top of the aperiodic lower bass cab. I could see the refoaming had failed or aged... so that explains the lack of power and inbalance

Its possible to bodge it for now whilst i search for that refoam kit

It suggests the xovers arent the issue inspite of their age.
 
im going to have to get foam kit from states Rick Cobb is on the bay and recomended by Lansing forum buffs.

i wonder if i will get hammerred by customs for 15$ of foam?
 
Very interesting thread to read, thanks.

I found this thread by searching for aquarius 4. I am designing something similar and it was the up and down firing drivers which really interested me.

Did you get the driver re foamed and are they still being listened to ? Your review was rather glowing. :)
 
From a quick look at the aquarian 4 diagram i thought it had a driver firing down from the top enclosure but on a closer look it is a loading plug with a stuffed trap. Whoops.
 
Craig B said:
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.
Click to expand...

When I was a young lad in Sweden in the 1970's the HiFi world was divided into Stig Carlsson/Sonab lovers (who hated JBL) and us who prefered front fireing speakers (divided in turn into JBL and AR fans). So, combining JBL with omni was something nobody bought. There are plenty of classic JBL's around here, but I never seen the Aq ones.
 
RJohan said:
When I was a young lad in Sweden in the 1970's the HiFi world was divided into Stig Carlsson/Sonab lovers (who hated JBL) and us who prefered front fireing speakers (divided in turn into JBL and AR fans). So, combining JBL with omni was something nobody bought. There are plenty of classic JBL's around here, but I never seen the Aq ones.
Click to expand...

Ah, so another "Radio & Television" reader?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.


advertisement


Back
Top