Deang Posted January 29, 2003 Share Posted January 29, 2003 O.K. loons. Anyone remember these? Time to tap into that old gray matter. http://www.audioheritage.org/html/profiles/jbl/aquarius.htm These are my Dad's. They've been out of service for about a decade. Since I'm already working on two sets of speakers, and have enough drivers, caps, resistors, and wire laying around to trip and strangle myself on-- I thought it fitting I take these on as well. I caught a hair a week or so ago, and decided to tear one of these down. I came away surprised with the quality of build. Real wood, with drivers that weigh about as much as an average bowling ball. Cool design really. The low frequency driver is a LE8T, which is actually a full range driver, and the tweeter is the LE20. The LE8T is slot loaded by using a radial horn, which is built into the endcap. It's very well done, being totally integrated into the wooden cap piece. The idea here is kind of 'Ohmish' if you know what I mean, with the idea being 360 degree sound -- which is what appealed to my Dad. Physically, the speakers are in great shape. Both drivers are fine, with the exception of the woofers having succumbed to very bad cases of foam rot. Until I started on this DIY thing, I had just assumed the awful sound was due to blown speakers. So, not the case, and I have already located replacement surrounds for the LE8T's. I just redid the surrounds on the DQ-10 woofers this weekend, and I don't anticipate any problems doing these. As a side note, if you ever decide to do this -- be sure to use test tones to ensure the voice coil is properly aligned in its magnetic gap -- bouncing the driver doesn't count. At any rate, Dad is going to rub out the wood with a kit, and I'm doing the drivers and crossovers. Of course, same old same old here. The resistor values are clearly marked, but the caps...well...I guess they're caps... Scroll down please... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deang Posted January 29, 2003 Author Share Posted January 29, 2003 ...caps? Well, they are either caps, or old Russian toilet paper rolls left over from one of their numerous shortages. What's up with the wires on those things? Unfortunately, the values are not marked on the caps, and if you read anything from the link -- you learned that the geniuses at JBL managed to lose just about every scrap of data from the project. So...suggestions anyone? Can I send these caps to someone who can tell me what they are? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bkrop Posted January 29, 2003 Share Posted January 29, 2003 Maybe you could ask TBrennan, He is connected to the chicago horn club, JBL makes/made horn speakers. Maybe a vintage JBL horn owner knows something. Just a thought. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom Mobley Posted January 29, 2003 Share Posted January 29, 2003 dean, You can buy a decent little Fluke meter that measures caps along with the usual VOM stuff. Real handy. I think I paid about $100 for mine. It's already paid for itself. Tom Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Invidiosulus Posted January 29, 2003 Share Posted January 29, 2003 Tom, I think deans point is that the caps are so old they propably would no longer be up to spec so any measurements he did would likely be off. Neat looking speakers btw Peace, Josh Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deang Posted January 29, 2003 Author Share Posted January 29, 2003 Oh crap, TB -- I'm supposed to give him money before the end of the month for some really cool tweets. Seems like I can never sell things off fast enough to get the new things I want. Another good deal down the tubes. Tom would chuckle at these "JBLs". I don't know, he might get nauseous, since they cross over at 5K. Actually, a "fluke" meter would be great, I didn't realize something like that was so affordable. I was thinking I needed something like what's sitting on Al K's workbench. I'm sure the caps have dried out some, but hey -- close would be better than a SWAG. Where do I get one of these things? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
michael hurd Posted January 29, 2003 Share Posted January 29, 2003 Deang : Parts Express has a mastech brand capacitance meter ( that's all it does ) for the lowly sum of $ 38.65 part # 390-735. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deang Posted January 29, 2003 Author Share Posted January 29, 2003 If I only had a brain. Thanks Mike. That will do nicely. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mike stehr Posted January 29, 2003 Share Posted January 29, 2003 Those LE8T's might be some pretty decent drivers. Not really too sure though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
michael hurd Posted January 29, 2003 Share Posted January 29, 2003 Deang : I found some pictures and more info on those drivers. http://members.aol.com/ikschiffer/jbl/bigbrother.html Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Good2BHome Posted January 29, 2003 Share Posted January 29, 2003 When these came out, I thought it was a good idea. I still think they would be good surround speakers. Wish I still had some useful information for you. There are some JBL groups out there. You can probably find someone with working ones, that you might get the spec from. Good Luck, Mike Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
horonzak Posted January 30, 2003 Share Posted January 30, 2003 I have a pair of JBL Le8T. Top end is a little rough. JBL Le20 is a good match. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vintage_audio Posted December 4, 2010 Share Posted December 4, 2010 i know this is an old thread, i just acquired a pair of these lovely speakers and wondering if you ever found the capacitor values? id like to restore the crossovers in mine! Cheers Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
djk Posted December 4, 2010 Share Posted December 4, 2010 LX12-7, network for S109 (Aquarius 4) http://manuals.harman.com/JBL/HOM/Technical%20Sheet/S109%20Aquarius%20IV%20ts.pdf The wax filled caps are ElectroCube, stacked film type with hand soldered teflon wire terminations. They sound vastly better than the spiral-wrap-and-end-mashed-into-tin-paste that the Solen type are(Hovland and Theta are soldered), the connections don't degrade anywhere near as bad over time. I bet they still measure good. Partial list of JBL part numbers and values for wax-tube capacitors: 10358 16.5µF 10359 13.5µF 10391 8µF 10434 12µF 10296 6µF 41040 4µF 11937 3µF 10460 1.5F Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vintage_audio Posted December 5, 2010 Share Posted December 5, 2010 thanks very much for the reply! i'll see if I can find a tester and measure them....if they dont measure good i'll try recapping them to your suggestion...do you suggest any particular brand to replace them with? whats your impression on these speakers? opinions seem to be divided? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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