Taj Mahal

This is awesome. If you have never checked out Taj Mahal, this is an amazing place to start.

JBL L16s with newer JBL woofers.

UPDATED:
Listening some more ten days later (with a Kenwood KA-3500 integrated at 40 watts/channel), I'm loving them.

I bought a pair of JBL 2800s with rough cabinets so I could put the woofers into these L16s.

Though I would've prefered a pair of original 116A woofers, I wasn't able to find any, and knowing that JBL was still making quality drivers in the USA in 1988 makes me feel fine about this transplant. The proof is in the listening, and these sound as good as my last L16s.

Midweek Update

A few new things have arrived. I have a pair of Infinity RS4000s that look just like these, which I had in 2009. I refoamed the mids and woofers, and just fired them up. I'll listen tonight and see if I like them more than I remember. So far, I just want to switch to the stunning Yamaha NS-690s.

Update: The infinity RS4000s were sounding very thin in the bass when I wrote the above. As I listened the bass improved substantially over a couple of hours, as the new speaker foams broke in, and now they're quite nicely balanced.

I've have a pair of JBL L16s minus woofers for a long time, and haven't been able to find the correct woofers. Yesterday, I bought a pair of newer, but still vintage JBLs with cabinets in rough shape just to grab the woofers to install in the L16s. I'm glad I did, and I'll take pictures and tell you about them tomorrow.

I also have a pair of JBL 8216ATs, which are the pro version of the J216As that I had last week. They look the same, but weigh at least 7 pounds more. There seems to be a problem with one tweeter, but I have to check inside first.

Stephane Grapelli & Pink Floyd

Wish You were Here 2011 Experience Edition. Wow.

Yamaha NS-690 photos.

These are fantastic speakers, comparable to JBL L100s for full range, low distortion pleasure. I could (and will) listen to these for hours on end.

Yamaha NS-690 first photo.

Just arrived. Yamaha NS-690 speakers.

I refoamed a pair of NS-690 mkIIs for someone last February. It was cold and icy outside, and they weren't my speakers. I listened after I refoamed the massive, cast frame woofers (the equal of JBL drivers), and loved them. If I could've taken pictures, I would have, and they would have been the first in the 'Speakers I Wish I Owned' series. The NS-690s that arrived tonight are the originals, and have cloth surrounds that will last forever. These are wonderful speakers, and I'll have lots to say about them soon.

One More Technics Mini Integrated Amplifier.

This one is a DC coupled design, rated at 40 watts/channel, built like a heavy brick. It's even beefier than the SU-C04, allows connection of 2 sets of speakers, and has gold plated input jacks. It sounds fantastic driving the JBL L26s and a pair of early nineties vintage Revox Piccolo mini speakers, with and without a dedicated matching subwoofer.

JBL L26. The 6th pair I've had in 4 years.

and one of the coolest, prettiest pairs. The tweeters are original red surround LE-25s from a set of studio monitors. The cabinets are beautiful, I sanded them months ago as part of another abortive L26 project. I just did the binding posts yesterday, the grills this morning. The grills had the original orange cloth, but it was cat shredded, so I went black. The woofers are newly refoamed, not by me. That's a shame for 2 reasons. Firstly, the refoam was done with the foam in front of the cone, not behind as original. This makes no difference acoustically. The job itself is functionally excellent. Secondly, the refoam was done with contact cement. I suspect that the person doing the refoam did one woofer first...it worked beautifully and was (is) a nice, clean job. To celebrate, he/she drank a bottle of champagne/6 pack/whatever, then refoamed the second woofer...an equally excellent job functionally,but aesthetically sloppier. I replaced a bunch of contact cement stained gasket pieces, but now this is one of the coolest sets of of one of the coolest speakers I've ever had.

Just arrived. 2 pairs of JBL J216As.

I've had these before, but didn't put them on this blog because I had a strict 70s only policy, and these were made in 1985. I really liked them, and am happy to have them. They're made in California, and are JBLs good stuff (in terms of sound and build quality). You won't easily find such a modest, reasonably priced pair of small speakers that sound like these.