A very cool find.

I'll do more research soon, but I know that Avant made high quality speakers in Canada with excellent european drivers. These 5AXs are as big as JBL L100s, weight the same, and have 12 inch woofers with massive square Alnico magnets and fuse protected Audax/Polydax tweeters and mids. I refoamed the woofers last night and after an hour of playing, they sound great.

Two days later, they continue to sound great, and now look beautiful with the real walnut veneer cabinets sanded and oiled.

The latest JBL L36s.

KEF 104s!

These are awesome! No, you're not seeing funny...the grills do look like JBL L100 grills. They're not. They were made (cut) for these...probably from Marantz foam grills.

My computer is fried

I can't begin to tell you (but will anyway) how behind the curve I've been. I've been doing my day job (the one that pays the rent) on a Mac dual G4/1000.Tonight it's toast...I should be on an Intel Mac tomorrow, but I've been unable to post pictures tonight. The JBL L36s and the KEF 104s are ready to rock (or swing), and look great. If I can get a little cooperation from the old stuff, I will post pictures tonight, if not please stay tuned, the technical issues are temporary.

That being said, can you imagine making the blog I make, and doing a day job on a 10 year old computer running Windows? I didn't think so.

FULL DISCLOSURE: I audtioned a KFC DoubleDown last week. If you haven't, you should, but see your doctor first. It lacks transparency, but is a solid choice if you are curious about the state of the art in sodium and fat... it is truly the leading edge.

Cold Wednesday.

I'm drinking too much coffee to steel myself for a quick sanding of the JBL L36s and KEF 104s. I hope pictures will follow soon.

Tuesday Update

The Sanyo amp blew a channel a few hours later, but I've got 2 exciting speakers that will get attention first. I have a beautiful new pair of JBL L36s that need sanding, and last night picked up all the components I need to assemble an original pair of KEF 104s.

Update: The KEFs sound beautiful!

A surprising Sanyo amp.

60 watts/channel, DC coupled, built like a tank, cleaned up beautifully. It's sounding great with either of 2 sets of JBLs right now.

The case isn't black, but a very cool chocolate brown. The toggle switches too.

JBL 2118J Woofers

JBL L19s Improved photos.

So close to finished.

I had the JBL L19s out on the porch, sanded them, oiled them, was getting ready for photos when it started to hail (the size of peas). It's really gray now, I hope I can shoot these today.

JBL L19s Improved.

I had a pair of L19s in 2008, and really liked them. I bought a pair of beautiful L19 cabinets today, with crossovers, grills and badges. I installed the correct LE26 tweeters (from the L50s) and the 2 working 2118J woofers from my aborted JBL 4612 OK project (the cabinets are just too rough, and 2 of the woofers were reconed badly). They are at least twice as heavy as the stock L19 woofers, which are very good, with much bigger magnets and cloth surrounds that will last forever. The result is awesome, with a bigger sound in every good way. I will take real photos as soon as the weather permits. As great as JBL home speakers are, the professional stuff is stunning.

I just noticed that this 8 inch woofer (not sure what the number is...maybe 2118? the stamp is blurred and obscured...even the Lansing Heritage Library is missing some years of pro catalogues) is more than twice as heavy as the 10 inch 125A in the L26s! These upgraded L19s are wonderful.

A collage using a Herman Leonard photo, and extra cigarette smoke from another.

When it rains

I have another pair of JBL L26s! They came to me this afternoon...no grills, 125A woofers in great shape but need refoaming (which I'm doing as I write)...cabinets much 'cleaner' than the oak bar in the pictures below. When I've finished the surrounds (tomorrow), I'm going to try out a JBL L26 stack!

One off JBL L26 photos.

This pair had cabinets that were painted black when I got them. Stripped, sanded and oiled, they look like an old oak bar, with a few burn marks and knife scratches, but have a comforting warmth. The woofers are 127As, with regular dustcaps, drop in replacements for the 125As, one of which died on me. These L26s also have one black eye tweeter (LE25-2, original to the series) and one red (older LE25 from an L100 Century). The drivers are so similar that JBL recommends the LE25-2 as a replacement for the LE25, I'm just doing it the other way.

This pair (my 4th) has been a thrill and a relief after the lacklustre L50s, that I wanted so much to love, but just can't. As I've said before, the JBL L26 deserves a place beside the other classic american 2 way 10 inch woofer systems of the 70s, the Advent and the Dynaco A-25. It's that good.

Electrovoice MS-802 Monitor picture.

These are as good as I'd hoped, based on my experience with the Sentry 100As. Very neutral, great dynamics, awesome bass for the size, excellent high end, and built like bricks. As I said yesterday, the cabinets are very bland looking. But they are in new looking condition, so they'll stay bland.

Just Arrived: Electrovoice Studio Monitors

I've had 2 different pairs of EV Sentry 100As, late 70s 2 way, 8 inch, double ported compact studio monitors. I've loved them both times (here are the last set). They date from the late 70s. These just arrived MS-802s appear to be the same speaker, with perhaps some subtle updates, and a bland oak woodgrain finish instead of pro black. Compare the Engineering Data Sheets, and you'll see what I mean. Anyway, it's great to have Electrovoice back in the house. Made in Buchannan, Michigan, they were engineered, designed, and manufactured to very high standards, and were in my opinion, the JBL of the east. They are sounding great on 2 foot stands (too boomy on low stands...makes sense...typical studio installations would be up high.

More about these soon, with pictures.

I also have a ruggedly cool, slowly put together, oddball set of JBL L26s that sound amazing, and have changed my thinking about the cool looking L50s (not for the better). I'll try to get pictures tomorrow.

The Sansui AU-505, rated at 18 watts/channel, delivers over 45 watts/channel into the 4 ohm Braun L830s. It sounds more transparent (to me), more musical (to me) and has a bigger sound stage (to me) than a Marantz 2270.Through the Brauns, I'm enjoying some of the best sound I've experienced in my place since the blog started more than 2 years ago. Wow.