The actual symptoms is a typical electrolytic capacitor failure. an oxide corrosion layer builds so the tweeter cuts out, and cranking up the voltage breaks down the oxide layer, establishing connection. Common in older receivers, etc when they need a re-cap job.
@isettech so, would extending this logic to say that regularly using speakers at higher volume levels keeps them in better condition over time be accurate?
@@sc3ku Only if the crossover in the speaker uses NP Electrolytic capacitors. Over use at high volume has other issues with the breakdown of the varnish holding the wire on the voicecoil, softening of the cone,, spider, and surround.
im going to just say that cone sag is a bit rare. Considering ive been around car audio for years and owned 20+ year old subs that did not even have this issue. And youre talking a fairly large difference to these small woofers he has. 🤔
When I was in college we had similar JBL speakers in all the music classrooms. The music theory professor was elderly and quite passionate about listening examples and would regularly push the speakers to the point that they would glow. We didn't know there were light bulbs inside at the time so we thought he was driving the speakers that hard.
@@Gameboygenius rofl, i set up my youtube account before youtube was bought by google, that's probably why the avatar isn't here. i love the frog, it's so cute haha it was one of the og default avatars on gmail before gmail accounts were used for everything on gmail. do you ever post there? you should :) just to say hi... that gave me a laugh, lol
@@DM78 it's not simply a dummy load. The circuit is exploiting the fact that the lamp is increasing its resistance when the filament heats up. It's more akin to a PTC resistor or resettable fuse with pretty unusual timing characteristics.
Yes it's true, I've seen too many people jamming in the screws without paying attention to the existing threads. And after repeated damages of the threads they wonder why the screws can't get a grip anymore... xD
@@JamesTK Yes, I did that, and other work at cars. And I'm a electrician, and my hobbies are (vintage) computers and electronics. I've seen a lot of "attempted repairs"... xD
@@frankmeyer9984 seen too many people jamming in spark plugs without paying attention to the existing threads 🤣. Combine cross threading with a breaker bar and you've got no more threads!
Some old school appliance repairers swear by "dim bulb testers". A regular household incandescent bulb is wired in series with the device you're testing. If the device begins drawing too many amps, the bulb will glow and you'll protect the device from burning out.
Yep, go watch the YT channel Shango066 who repairs mostly old TVs, and Radios, along with the offhand social commentary, and in a fair number of his videos, he uses a homemade dim bulb tester as part of his diagnosis process.
An easier way to do it is to use an automotive inverter with a fuse. This way you also get an isolation effect. as well as current limiting. Very cheap if you already have the inverter. Plus they are dirt cheap.
Reminds me of one time i went to the store to get a heat light, or a minimum, a regular light bulb. I explained to the sales person that it's to create heat for baby chicks. They handed me a LED bulb, and told me how much more efficient it is. I was dumbfounded. In that scenario, it was the exact opposite of what we needed.
I've done retail a few times in my life, once for my first job in high school in the late 90's working at a family owned gas station/delhi/liquor store, then for a Stihl, & New Holland/Kubota tractor dealership in the early 00's, and again as a 2nd job for about 5 1/2 years for Dollar General in the mid - late 00's, sadly most sales staff either don't know their stuff because compaies will heigher whoever they can get to work for least amout of money, they are told to push a certain set of products regardless if it's the right one for the customer(I usually ignored that crap, and got my customers the right product), and/or they just don't care for a vast number of reasons, and as someone who always tried to be as helpful as I could with my customers on a vast number of products we carried(which made me part of the 4th highest selling Kubota dealership in the nation at one point), so this has become one of my major pet peeves in life, which is why these days I almost always look up what I want online first to see if a store has it in stock before I go, and if it's someplace like Walmart, or Target I'll use their Android app to find out what isle it's on myself so I don't have to deal with sales staff, unless it's behind a locked case/cage, or they have to get it out of the stock room.
@@CommodoreFan64 I mean it's really no surprise, when you treat your employees like dirt and don't even pay enough to live on they're not gonna be very motivated to put in effort, and who could blame 'em?
@@fohkukohgeki That's true about how employees are treated by management, and higher ups once they are hired, but no one forced them to take the job, as they agreed to the starting pay when they fill out the application, or summited their resume, and they were then hired, but having said that, there is still no need to be shitty to the end customer, as they have nothing to do with it, I always put on a good face to my customers being nice as I could be, regardless of what was happening behind the scenes with the company I was working for, as when I worked at the local store, and for DG, as many of my customers were, and still are members of my community, with some I've known most all my life, including church, and I would not want them to think badly of me, if I had issues with my company I took it up with management, or the coporate line with DG which is why one day after I had enough of being used, and worked death, and still not getting enough hours to get by at DG I politely put in my weeks notice to my manger at DG saying it was nice working here, but it's not working out, and I'm going to have to leave to focus on my main career, which left me on good terms, and I can still use them as reference for future work if ever need be, and to this day I still have the same policy, and it's also why I've been able keep to my main job with a nonprofit dealing with seniors, and meals on wheels for nearly 20 years. I wish more people had the same mindset, but society does not seem to want to instill that in people anymore sadly. 😞
@@DouglasWalrath These days with so many companies looking for people to work, and upping their pay, don't settle, and then bitch about the starting pay. Hell I see McDonalds signs in my area begging people to work, with starting pay at almost $17 an hour plus benefits, so again you are not forced into taking a job with shit pay, so stop looking for excuses!!
Elytone, is a Japanese electronics company, that specialize in the manufacture of speaker crossovers. (Still in business) In fact, it could be, that the crossover is the only component made in Japan, seeing as how the sticker is on the crossover part itself. I love the lightbulb idea, because fuses will take out an amplifier if they pop.
Elytone was/still is an assembly manufacturer that supplies industry. Known for high quality assemblies. JBL must have outsourced the x-over module to them. Not a bad choice either.
I remember being a kid and watching my dad open his old Bose floor speakers to replace the foam rotted woofers, and I was SO surprised and confused why a light bulb was in there. Once I grew up and got the internet I randomly looked it up.
My father's 80's KEF speakers also have a red light but it's put externally, the problem of the higher circuitry inside is that for many years now the speakers can't handle much power while the crossover seems to be working fine and still sounding pretty good as soon as I put a bit of power into them the red light goes ON and soon they shutdown grrr... It also probably gets a bit expensive to fix cause I would never use cheap components so I never messed with them yet...
Yeah, if there's a crack in a solder joint, and it's oxidized, you need flux to clean up those oxides. Fresh solder is always wise when reflowing. even a touch of flux core solder is fine.
While I am not an electronic expert, I am a professional musician and I have had a set of JBL Control 5s paired with the matching subwoofer. I have used this set up in my studio as they are “deemed” as Mid-field monitors. My Control 5s also utilize hi powered light bulbs as a component of the crossover system. From my understanding I believe the lightbulbs protect the tweeters from excess distortion which is seen by the tweeter as DC power. DC voltage is Kryptonite to tweeters. TheJBL light bulbs are there as further insurance against this DC distortion. Seeing a dim glow through the ports as your music plays is normal. If you actually see BRIGHT lights inside, you are on dangerous ground and had better quickly lower your volume and figure out why you are producing such dangerous distortion. I have also used my C 5s along with the subwoofer as a VERY respectable stand alone main P.A. system in medium to slightly large clubs for solo and whole band sound systems. Very dependable work horses for various applications. I have LOVED my JBL Control 5s since the 90s. They don’t have to be babied, but if you take care with them, they will be a blessing to you for decades.
You don't have to be afraid of DC being on the tweeter in a loudspeaker with an internal crossover since the tweeter highpassed by a capacitor, or in second-order crossovers both highpassed by a capacitor and bypassed by another coil for good measure. The woofer ends up carrying the DC into its offset. You do however have to be afraid of clipping. A tweeter of this construction will self-destruct with probably less than 15W of power, while the rating for the whole speaker is 150W, which is actually way more than i would have suspected. With exception of horn PA tweeters and such, like normal dome tweeters, ones which can survive more than 25W long term, are basically not a thing at all - they need light, thin-wire coils, and they have nowhere whatsoever to dump all that much heat, except into the ferrofluid, but then that has issues as well. Anyway as you most likely know the frequency distribution in music roughly follows LTAS or slightly shaped pink noise law, with energy vastly declining in upper octaves, and by placing the crossover frequency high enough, you simply eliminate the vast majority of power from reaching the tweeter. HOWEVER if you have clipping, you can imagine it almost like a square wave superimposed where the clipping starts and ends, which doesn't really have any frequency bounds, or energy bounds. The amplifier will happily dump almost all of its output power into the tweeter that way. Also you can burn a tweeter with unusual music material that doesn't follow the typical LTAS distribution. I don't have it in my head the recommended ratio between the power tweeter can handle and the total rating of the speaker depending on crossover frequency - i'm pretty sure it's in Vance Dickason's Cookbook somewhere. Actually the fundamental read if you want to understand speakers.
I have JBL Control LA that are identical, except for the white cone. I purchased new in 1993 while in the Army. I also have the Control 5 Plus. I truly enjoy the sound they produce.
I have the same speakers, they were a kerb find, missing both grilles & the woofers had rotted foam surrounds. I replaced the woofers with a pair from a scrap Toshiba rear projection TV. These have the rubber surrounds and identical fixings, they now sound great! I have not had any problems from the cross overs yet.....
I got my non pro Control one's at best buy 15 years ago. There are AMAZING speakers for their price point. Their sound is top notch placed up against anything else in the price point! These absolutely disapear when powered right, lovely sound!
YES!!! That's why i bought a NEW pair after the 20 year old Control 1G woofers just DISINTEGRAGED!!! :\\\ So no... not a good long term choice! (as you can see described in this video). And they are not that serviceable (once opened, because the mounting screws are ALL plastic and don't have a METAL FEMALE, they will never be the same)
Great video Colin. The light bulb soft-limiter idea is ingenious, dissipating excess electrical energy into heat and light using a common component specifically designed to shed heat energy better than say, large ceramic resistors. One speaker design you might like to check out and do a video on if you get the chance is the Bose 901 system. My ex father in law had two pairs and they are quite weird and unique, using 8 rearward-firing drivers and a separate EQ unit placed before the power amp. Like all Bose systems then and now the sound is very coloured, also quite engaging on most types of music.
It's more than that - it's a widely dynamic resistor not a fixed value. The resistance is proportional to the filament heat (positive temperature coefficient, or PTC), the more heat in the filament, the higher the resistance.
I trust Japan THE MOST when it comes to how well-made and high-functioning equipment will be. They are extremely apt and show highest strength of build quality in my experience. : D
The company I work for regularly installs the current version of the Control 1 Pros! I actually hung up 3 pairs today. They sound pretty solid for their size.
Hey Colin, from the description you provide, I'm fairly certain that's a dried out capacitor. Every you crank the volume, you raise the voltage across the capacitor, and in turn you are reforming it. Once the capacitor is "reformed", there is an electric field across the capacitor due to the stored charge, which allows it to conduct further current more easily. However, until you reach a certain voltage, the capacitor will not start charging, and will remain empty - no electric field. The capacitor needs to be replaced, in both speakers. While you're at it, you can add somewhat thicker wires going to the midrange speakers. Those are kind of thin. Yes, they worked for a long time. Doesn't mean they're optima :)
Since there's only one cap, it's quite likely the crossover is 1st order lowpass to the woofer, 2nd order highpass to the tweeter. So, the cap (and one of the inductors) is in series with the tweeter, and one of the inductors with the woofer. In that case, if the cap is the problem, it should only affect the tweeter. If both drivers are playing at a low volume, the problem is upstream of the crossover.
@@nickwallette6201 the "tweeter" here will be handling frequencies down to 1 kHz. It's easy for it to sound "louder" or "quieter" when the tweeter gets dimmed.
I had no idea JBL was such an old company (1946)!? I guess I assumed they just popped up in the last decade or so. Also, the fact that they have never changed/updated their logo is pretty cool!
James B. Lansing (b. Jan. 2 1902) Lansing Manufacturing Company (1927) Altec Service Corporation acquires Lansing Manufacturing Company becoming Altec Lansing (1941) James B Lansing leaves Altec Lansing and forms James B Lansing Sound Inc. (1946) JBL (1955) He took his own life by hanging himself (Sept. 29 1949) aged 47 Harman International acquires JBL (1969) Samsung Acquires Harman International (2017)
Why is it weird that a major USA brand had their speakers made in Japan? Wasn't Japan a major manufacturer of quality electronic parts in the 80's/90's, wouldn't it stand to reason that multiple brands would have gone a step further and assemble electronics or audio equipment there as well?
It wasn't commonly done. If you wanted made-in-Japan you bought Japanese brands. Having an American company marketing to Americans, selling products designed here, but shipped from overseas, was seen as needlessly complex and risky. Why not build the stuff locally where you can keep an eye on production and have a much faster turnaround? It's not like you could just hop on Zoom with a floor manager halfway around the world. And you weren't exactly going to save a pile of money by outsourcing to Japan either, between a strong Yen, the cost of shipping, and import duties on finished products.
Used to do sound for a guy who did a giant local fireworks show. He had 4 giant Peavey speakers -- each RMS rated to something like 1200W. (We'd drive 2 on each 2000w amp). Even those beasts had lightbulbs inside. Those were socketed automotive 12v lightbulbs Your videos are always a highlight of my Friday mornings!
@@kaitlyn__L yes everything goes through the crossover but the light bulbs are only wired in series with the tweeters in most professional gear. Also, most professional sound reinforcement cabinets have the option for biamping or triamping, which bypasses the crossover entirely. Some home stereo speakers (Bose 301, for instance) have the bulbs wired only in series with the tweeters.
@@ScottGrammer sure, if you’re using separate amps for every single one then protection can be selectively applied. I didn’t look too closely at this one but it looked like one bulb per speaker driver in this instance to me. You’re right of course that it doesn’t universally apply to every design though.
Thanks Colin! Your channel has given me a greater appreciation for the electronic devices we take for granted and discard when a newer model comes along. Your JBL speakers remind me that I have a set of Klipsch Promedia GMX 5.1 speakers that I have to get fixed. The receiver is not working. I hope you acquire a set of Klipsch Promedia speakers in the future and review them. It’s a stellar sound system for gaming although it’s not practical if you live in an apartment complex.
@@popefacto5945 NS-10’s really contributed to it I can say with certainty especially if you talk to the mixers around that time period. Whether or not they are exaggerating its significance is up for debate. But after asking in person as an audio engineer I can say with certainty that it’s what the people in the industry have said to my face… also sorry to vinyl wasn’t at all the limitation or the disco sound would have way less bass than they do, seeing as bass and its bias really is why is the limitation, plus vinyl wasn’t at all incapable of producing mixes that didn’t sound like disco… many many genres didn’t end up sounding like disco do to vinyl technical limitations, so yeah that makes zero sense…
Just an FYI in general: the melted spots on electronic equipment of any kind do not have to necessarily indicate an actual heat-induced melting (like soldering iron)... but chemical. Some leads/wires outer "plastic" isolation layer (whatever the chem. compound it is) can eat into the surface and melt it, but it's the process that takes years: think equipment that has had leads wrapped around it tightly and then stored for a prolonged period of time, or just stacked one on top of another, with leads in the middle. So, I guess the lesson is: for long storage, store your wires/cables/leads separate from your device - but best wrapped next to it in, maybe in a plastic bag, potentially zip-tied or taped to an inconspicuous spot (for eventual residue clean-up). And, if storing them separately, always tag the leads with not-too-easily-removable parent device's identifier, if such thing matters (for "it's-of-higher-quality-than-average" or "proprietary-connector/wiring" reasons). This is especially useful for external power adapters, even more if it's the ubiquitous barrel connector: mark the adapter with the device name, and label the device with adapter's voltage, [minimum] current, and polarity (even if device has this marked on a label or impressed into plastic somewhere, those can fade or get worn down with time). This way, you'll always have means to find the original adapter, or substitute with appropriate one in the future. ....does my "organizing control freak" nature show? _:-D
the Control Series where by far the best speakers available at the time they came out for the purpose, also served extremely well as "monitors" in clubs and stuff, and like you said, perfect studio monitors. the use of light bulbs was quite common actually, even on much largeer speakers for live events .. sometime you could actually see them light up inside when they kinda clip them for too long, the temperature could aso cause thee issue you have with the need to push them first to get the lamp to a certain temperature.
I purchased JBL Control 5's when I was still a teen, they had the same surge protector bulbs, and when I was irresponsible I used them as kick drum indicators. Yep, they eventually died, but I replaced them with self powered JBL EON 15" speakers. I still have those and loan them out to friends for bush doofs every now and then. Not bad for late 80's tech and early 90's stage gear. $0.02
Years ago my sister gave me a pair of her old Ohm Model C2 speakers. The foam around both woofers had all but turned into dust. I found replacement parts online and had my hand at repairing them. It was a little fiddly but it worked out well and these speakers now sound amazing (and am listening to Colin's video through them now). So, yeah, I don't need to be convinced regarding the need for speaker maintenance. Good video, Colin.
Ohm speakers are really nice. The company is still around and still made in a small shop in upstate NY I think. If I remember correctly they still will support all thier old speakers, and even offer factory rebuilds if you can send them to them.
@@JessHull That's cool to know, Jess. I'm glad they're still around. These are certainly a nice set of speakers. The best I've ever owned and they cost me about $35.00 (if memory serves) for the foam replacement gaskets (or whatever you call them).
@@bradnelson3595 Thats so great you've kept them going with the repair/maintenance you've done. There certainly are modern new speakers that are amazing, but you have to spend insane amounts of money to access them. There are a myriad of vintage speakers that from companies like JBL, Altec, Ohm, Audio Reseach etc. that made speakers in the 70 and 80s that can be had for still reasonable prices and if you're willing to put a little work into them, like you did, you can have a speaker set that rivals even the highest end of modern stuff.
@@JessHull It's satisfying to bring an old electronic thing back to life. And the fact often is that old stuff is of better quality than what you can buy today. I might be able to buy some good speakers...but not in the thick, solid wood cabinets of these old Ohms. Which reminds me...probably a good time to hit them with some lemon oil.
Why would a great speaker like the CONTROL 1 / 1G be made with FOAM woofers?!? I loved mine! They sounded great, they seemed rugged, until they didn't!!! The woofers just fell appart! Servicing was not an option (more expensive, and the PLASTIC screw mountings are a BIG NO NO!!! OMG...). So, i recycled them, and bought a new pair! (stupid me! ahah)
I'm a bass player. My bass cabinet used light bulbs as fuses. It was stolen. But an interesting thing happened with the new one I bought, a 2x12 cabinet that I was powering with 1300 watts. I was playing Stranglehold complete with chorus effect. The bass was constantly "rolling" through the entire song caused me to blow both speakers. It wasn't mechanical failure. It was thermal failure. They just got hotter and hotter, and finally the voice coil wiring "disintegrated". When I removed the woofers, the voice coil windings were like loose spaghetti draped over the voice coil. I learned a valuable lesson on the different ways you can blow speakers. i.e. it's not just "too loud" volume that over drives your speakers. But using them within their excursion range, but close to the limit and for too long, can still destroy them. On a side note, thank God it was the last song in the gig. 😁
I have some nearly/roughly 100 year old speakers made for film projectors, Bell&Howell Filmosound 179’s and the only ‘maintenance’ they ever had were TRS Input modifications. Still the best sounding speakers I’ve ever had paired with guitar amps. The rear of the cabinets are hinged and latched and the interior is completely covered in velvet,… and the magnets and drivers are very heavily shielded.
I'm staring right now at my own JBL Control 1's (also made in Japan). Bought mine brand new nearly 2 decades ago. Still running strong. Might not have perfect sound but I still love them nonetheless.
The only time you'll see them "in action" is when you're pushing the speaker beyond its limits. Otherwise, they're in-circuit, but not really doing much more than a wire.
@@nickwallette6201 Thing is the lightbulbs should have the tiniest of glow with even fairly little current, long before they reach operating temperature and their resistance rises to the nominal level. It might just show up in total darkness. Worth an experiment - at normal operating conditions, not burning up any speakers.
@@nickwallette6201 He could have hooked the bulbs to a power supply just for fun on camera, therefore making them glow at their full brightness, personally I would have done that.
Btw Colin, you said the “speakers may have been dropped but there are no signs of external damage,” but i see there is some damage, maybe melted plastic on the right rear mounting slot of the broken speaker. That’s a sign that it was mounted at one point and the speaker got ripped out of the mount and fell.
Just an FYI in general: the melted spots on electronic equipment of any kind do not have to necessarily indicate an actual heat-induced melting (like soldering iron)... but chemical. Some leads/wires outer "plastic" isolation layer (whatever the chem. compound it is) can eat into the surface and melt it, but it's the process that takes years: think equipment that has had leads wrapped around it tightly and then stored for a prolonged period of time, or just stacked one on top of another, with leads in the middle. So, I guess the lesson is: for long storage, store your wires/cables/leads separate from your device - but best wrapped next to it in, maybe in a plastic bag, potentially zip-tied or taped to an inconspicuous spot (for eventual residue clean-up). And, if storing them separately, always tag the leads with not-too-easily-removable parent device's identifier, if such thing matters (for "it's-of-higher-quality-than-average" or "proprietary-connector/wiring" reasons). This is especially useful for external power adapters, even more if it's the ubiquitous barrel connector: mark the adapter with the device name, and label the device with adapter's voltage, [minimum] current, and polarity (even if device has this marked on a label or impressed into plastic somewhere, those can fade or get worn down with time). This way, you'll always have means to find the original adapter, or substitute with appropriate one in the future.
Fantastic video/review, I also own 2 pairs of JBL Control 1 Plus Loudspeakers, 2 pairs of JBL Control 5 Plus (1 pair brand new in box). Absolutely love the sound of the JBL Control series.
@klwthe3rd Hey, yea I'm very lucky to own a pair of JBL Control 5 Plus that are unopened in its original packaging. Yep, unopened box. I purchased them from Japan about 1 year ago.
I found a JBL Sub 6 with a blue "Control" badge on it for 50AUD last year! Seems to be from the late 90s. Love having the port and controls on the front for quick tweaking. Only thing is the magnet starts rattling when I push it too hard. Couldn't figure out how to get farther inside even with a service manual :( Regardless it pairs very well with the 80's Wharfdale Deltas I also found locally. I wired them into the JBL's high-pass filter so they don't have to work as hard. Works really well for my needs :)
Bought a used set of these many years ago as well, but didn't have luck, they were installed in a bar or the like, smoker environment, and completeley ruined, I had to write them off. Regardless, you should really consider a more powerful soldering iron, it makes such jobs a lot easier and the result is better as well.
A lot of us electronic engineer build "light-bulb current limiter" socket tester as a simple way to test short circuit on any project because we can't be arsed to flip the breaker or replace a fuse (or wait for the self-healing fuse to reset) for every single time we test a pretty powerful circuit. . ...also, you'll definitely love JBL 4435 if you like this kind of sound.
ive bought here in germany a pair of used infintity reference 50 about 5 years ago for 20€ the lady who sold them said they were broken... but they just had cracked foam rings.. i ordered for 8$ per driver foam rings from the usa... and watched all youtube videos i could find on refoaming... it tooked me 3 hours to clean off old adhessive before glueing in the new ones and 3 days of drying out the new addhesive but damn... they sound like the 1000 $ speakers they had been in 1991.
18:07 -- My dad had a pair of Realistic Mach Two speakers back in the 90s, and I was surprised when my brother took the grille off of one of them (something I thought was impossible until I saw it), and I noticed there were knobs behind it! Those speakers were huge, and they were up against a wall that was shared with my bedroom, so sometimes, I could hear the music playing through my wall :P
Just finished refreshing my mach 2s that my parents bought me as a kid. They do have the light bulbs on the crossovers and while not the highest quality, most definitely a house shaking party speaker.
I have 2 pairs of JBL L-19 and they are my end-game speakers, I love 'em that much. They're a little bit more neutral than say the L100. The bass coming out of that 10 inch woofer is incredible. It really kicks yet it's tight and clear
Hi, I have a pair of these in black. I have not seen very many mirror image baffles on these. A friend had these for a long time and I heard them a lot and always liked them. The foam rotted, so he gave them to me and I got new mid drivers for them for $50 US. I recently bought a JBL Control SB-2 subwoofer (38-160Hz @ -10dB) which is made for these as a system and for the contractor series. It has a 10" dual voice coil driver and is a slot loaded, vented bandpass design and handles 340W. It is a passive set up. The satellite output crossover is at 160Hz, so this makes a nice system. These Control 1s are older and have polycarbonate tweeters. Other noteworthy specs are that they handle 150W and have a freq. range of 80hz - 20kHz (-10dB). I plan on using them for a small keyboard system and music listening. The older ones do not have a 1/4" threaded insert on the back, but newer ones do. I am going to refoam the original speakers and build DIY oak cabinets for them with small Vifa tweeters. I got a pair of JBL Control 1 Pro crossovers on Ebay cheap as well.
I have a pair of monitor speakers that are also asymmetrical (the correct term I believe since your “standard” speakers are also mirror images of each other) so I guessing that it’s something they do with monitors.
I got a set of these after seeing this and the other one about them. I was disappointed that the ones i got werent book matched and are in face both "right side" with the tweeter on the right. This bothers me since i have them laying on their side for my PC speakers, powered by a Yamaha RX-V379. Despite their small size, they fit really well with the 10" sub that came with the receiver and MAN, do they sing when pushed. Very balanced, maybe a touch warm, but overall a VERY nice sound. I have a very long audio engineer and musician background, so i know a bit more than your normal "audiophile" who've never touched an instrument or mixing console in their life. I snagged them for $39+ shipping, which ended up being under $70 total. They were a bit dirty, but virgin in that they had never been apart and worked perfectly as soon as i hooked them up. Completely pleased with this recommendation, which is good, cause i usually dont listen to people for purchases. I can trust Colin though, despite his Mac leanings ;)
About 30 years ago the other guitarist/vocalist from the band I was in at the time acquired a rather rare Dean Markley "voice box" -which was their brand's version of the (then) quite hot "talk box" that had become well known at the time by musicians like Peter Frampton and Joe Walsh, However they both used a much better built "talk box" that used very high quality components, most notably...high quality, high wattage full range compression drivers that were designed for powerful large venue horn speaker cabinets. Those high end ones used a capacitor as a "filter" much like a crossover does in a multi speaker component cabinet. Connecting to your amp just like an extension speaker does, they could handle a powerful guitar amplifier with no issues -BUT if the amp was too powerful, or their filter capacitor simply wore out...it would fry. And just like with a blown crossover, you'd get no sound until that filter cap was replaced. Conversely, the Dean Markley "voice box" ingeniously used a 12 volt DC light bulb of the type that are commonly used in automobile tail lights inside, in place of a filter capacitor. It served two main purposes, one was to absorb the excess voltage spikes from it's source amplifier, so whether it be a powerful source amps powering it or not, the light bulb would simply swell from bright to dim in response to the incoming voltage. The second and probably most important main purpose was this also allowed the Dean Markley "voice box" to use a far more inferior compression driver...I'm talkin' only 30 watts RMS of inferior vs. their main competitor at the time Heil Sound, who's "talk box" used a THREE HUNDRED WATT compression driver! The horn driver in the Markley "voice box" was of the type commonly found in school football field announcement horn speakers, etc. whereas the Heil "talk box" used a horn driver often found in powerful concert hall and high end theatre speaker systems. The difference was (obviously!) like day and night...YES the "voice box" DID indeed provide a suitable talkbox effect, and was much more affordable. But meanwhile, the original Heil "talk box" was professional gear and could pretty much rattle the fillings right out of your teeth if you wanted it to. The chances of an incandescent DC light bulb burning out from a newbie musician's amp weren't likely (most newbies didn't have Marshall stacks) and afterall, it provided the effect it was supposed to provide...so the Dean Markley was a decent choice for beginners. And it was alot less expensive. They didn't sell very well, probably because most beginners didn't even know what a talkbox was, not to mention how to properly connect one, or use one properly. It's even more unlikely they knew much about any of the pros and cons due to the quality of the components used inside of them either. To sum up my short novel...this was just another example of another use of a light bulb in what is essentially another version of a type of speaker cabinet, but this type has a horn driver and a mouth tube connected to it. I mention the most logical reasons the manufacturer probably chose to do this, and the main advantages and disadvantages of it. Interestingly, the Dean Markley "voice box" is a rare collectible now, even more scarce than the old purple Heil Sound "talk box" from the mid 1970's and even though they weren't known for their legendary performance, the "voice box" is nonetheless another clever use of a light bulb in this application, and I thought it was relevant to this video and worthy of mention...even though I've somehow made this mention of it into a small book's worth of reading ha ha ha ha! Thank you for sharing this informative video! -Rock on
音律電子股份有限公司 ELYTONE ELECTRONIC CO., LTD. They are the electronic parts suppliers based in Taiwan which is closer to the Japan, So the parts used here were supplied by them aka Elytone...
Control 1, control 5 & I think they also sold a bigger version. Commonly found in technical environments. They were widely used In AV Programming setups & meeting rooms.
I was real tired of my annoyingly big, bad-sounding (they didn't sound too bad initially, but one broke) floor speakers, and I was in a thrift store and found a pair of Canton slightly-bigger-than-bookshelf speakers. Black housing & grille match my room, great sound according to online reviews. Called up my dad who knows his stuff, he told me to check the rubber, which looked brand new, even though the speakers are 30 years old. Gladly paid fifty bucks for the pair and lugged them to the subway station four blocks, then from the subway into a train, then finally into my mom's car. One of the best purchases ever. Super good speakers for super cheap. After some time I had to replace a tweeter at a cost of less than fifteen bucks. (It's the very same thrift store where I got a 90s all-digital Onkyo double tape deck that went on ebay for 130 and up for just twenty five bucks. Amazing prices on some items, notably not amplifiers.)
Same here got a pair of Canton Fonum 60s from my parents (label says "Made in Federal Republic of Germany", that was used before 1990 together with "made in W(estern) Germany", Hifi-Wiki says 1984-1985), they're almost too large for bookshelf speakers but 3-way closed and I use these as the front speakers in my home cinema and they sound good. Maybe I replace them in the future with some JET Elacs but I don't feel the need at the moment. Better get a pair of good sounding used speakers than some crappy cheap new ones.
Incandescent lamps have a positive temp. Co-efficient, cold they have a low resistance and when hot have a higher resistance, and thus limits current if the level at the terminal gets too high
The bulbs light up to protect the voice coils from being over driven, and they also act as an indicator, my 30 year old peavey speakers have them, I can see the bulbs through the bass ports at the front.
Old power distribution fuse panels had standard Edison screw sockets in the USA. It was a common troubleshooting technique to screw a light bulb into the fuse box to diagnose a short circuit without blowing a bunch of fuses. One person would watch the bulb while another went around twisting cords and so forth until they got the lamp to light, locating the short. Some people used a penny instead of the light bulb but that was not very safe.
the problem with the rubber/compound sorround is that its mechanical characteristics change over time, that changes the compliance and with it, the bass response of the wofer. And it is not so noticeable unless you measure the frequency response of the speaker, in bass reflex boxes the change may be more noticeable, due to the mismatch (the rubber hardens and the "free air resonance" of the speaker goes up, that modifies how it behaves with the box and with the tuned port (tube)). I had some 8" woofers to build a studio monitor (Scan Speak, polypropylene, fine component); time passed (they were stored for 3-4 years, in perfect condition), and, when I went back to the project and measured the Thiele Small parameters of the components _to make the calculations of the boxes_, the change was evident, the resonance frequency had risen and it was no longer the same as the technical sheet (it's a well-known topic in recording/mastering studios, speakers have a useful life of a few years before they start to change; 10 is a good number) For relaxed listening and pleasure, the requirements are much more lax...
I have rubber surrounds from the 60s and 70s, they sound fine, and if anything, they softened, not hardened. Sadly I don't have specs for the drivers so I can't compare the impedance plot to the datasheets. However, it's normal for the resonant frequency to be higher than spec especially if you never used them, no matter how long they were in storage.
I have several pairs of original Control 1 pro. They were a pull from a nightclub install where the owner didn't want them. I think I got 16 of them but many had bad foams on the woofer. I got 8 replacement woofers and they are all through my home as permanent install. I like them. Add a subwoofer and they are great. I also got two pair of the Control 22 with blown woofers from another install. I repaired those as well and they live in my wood shop.
Why would a nightclub have such small speakers ? I thought they were using much larger ones, you know, about 4 feet tall and with 10" drivers, that kind of thing.
@@psirvent8 "pulled from the nightclub" the original setup was more of a lounge. We renovated and built a new bar/nightclub. I was the install tech and after was running sound for a few years. I installed TX4's for tops that are loaded with 15" drivers. I also built two massive double 18 subs for under the stage along with 4 horn loaded 18,s. you can see the final results @hume hotel in Nelson BC. Check out Spiritbar, its a nice intimate venue with a 300 person capacity. mostly a live sound venue hosting a variety of bands.
Control 1 /1G have foam woofers. They just disintegrate! I learned the hard way! And no... replacing the woofers is more expensive than buying a NEW pair! It sucks! And even if it wasn't, the screws mountings are ALL plastic! Not even a metal female so it could be opened and closed with confidence!
I have a pair of Control 1 speakers I have had for over 10 years now, on occasion, I have experienced them 'glowing' at louder volumes. I also have a pair of Control 2P which are same form factor that are self-powered, I am curious if they have the bulb inside as well.
I love Vintage JBL speakers. Last year I got some vintage JBL L100 Century speakers, and went t hrough them and refurbed the cabinets and got new Quadrex foam grills for them in blue and they're great. Both great looking and great sounding. When I got them the drivers were fine and so were the crossovers. But I think at some point maybe this year I want to make a new pair of crossovers for them. When I do that I think I may make the crossover compatible with bi-amping.
Did you check the light bulbs? One of them could have a broken filament that reconnects intermittently, it's not rare to have a light bulb with a broken filament, specially in the high vibration environment._
Many speakers, especially semi pro or pro speakers use these 'soffitten' bulbs as current limiting devices. They will soft limit the power towards the speakers, protecting them and also making sure the mechanical limits of the speakers are less easily reached, so they will be able to handle high peaks in the signal better, but also limit dynamics. I've seen them in Bose, JBL, Denon, Jamo and many more.
Oh yeah fixing old speakers, such an easy intro to electronics, and the payoff is amazing when you can get something to sound beautiful. I inherrited 50 year old JBL Control Monitors (4311) and had to clean corrosion, glue a few cones and spiders and remove moisture from the cabinatery. Sounded perfect after that. Replaced original caps, yet they sound the same! The old caps were encased in cardboard too, so... somehow they performed after half a century! Aftermarket KSN1005 tweeters swapped out from the stock tweeters, which only went up to 15khz. Now probs goes around 25khz, and with that smooth bass and detailed mid driver, such a pleasure. Not expensive getting a pair online and learning how to service them. More fulfiling in my honest oppinion than going out and buying a new equivalent set for thousands.
Those JBL speakers do not look like bookshelf speakers, they look like the type of speaker used in a supermarket or a warehouse usually bracketed to the wall for background music.
it is a technique widely used by Bose to protect the speakers, if well calculated it dissipates the excess power that could damage the speaker, many audio companies dedicated to the consumer market use this
6:32 Kabuki speakers? Excerpt from an AudioKarma thread: Kabuki Speaker = Japanese made speakers from the 60's through the 70's that had a minimum 15" woofer, a minimum 4-way cross-over, at least 6 individual drivers, in a box that is less than 3 cu ft or weighs less than 50lbs. Out of the above six criteria, the Polk's mentioned above only meet one. For those wondering about the origin of the term, it had to do with the limited bandwidth and tinny sound that chracterized the first versions of these speakers. As a friend said "You can play Led Zepplin though them and it comes out sounding like Kabuki music".
I have many JBL Control 1 - 6" speakers that i got from a closed Target HQ, and they sounded better than a pair of vintage Acoustic Research 7s (90s version)
You should replace the butyl rubber because over time they get stiff and hard and made the speaker work harder effecting the overall sound quality. Good video.
I have a set of bose acoutsimass speakrs that have the light bulbs inside them. Was confused when I first opened them and just thought they were fuses. Still impressed with sound and how nice and clean the sub sounds on speakers that are older than I am.
Talking of JBL in Japan, you showed a shot of Kenrick Sounds - their RUclips channel is a very nice rabbit hole to fall down. I always end up on the one delivered to Mr Abe's room. Always sticks with me.
I wasn't entirely sure but instantly thought it could/would be from there, mostly recognizing the showroom :D I don't watch that many videos of this genre, but I always end up on that channel again and again, for many years ...
I bought the control 1 for 30€ brand new from a second hand market, including the wall mounts. The current version have a screw in wall mount and the old style wall mount. Because are the regular control 1 they only go from 60hz till 22.000hz, so i found also a magnat subwoofer witch i set it from 60hz down to 20hz (that's the maximum that the subwoofer can go). Over all i'm very satisfied with the speakers, just that the lac base. The control 1 pro are 4ohm speaker and the control 1 are 8ohm, but this one you have control 1 plus i don't know what's the frequency respons and what ohms.
Dang maybe I need to make a video about my Sony SS-H3500s. Those are three way with arguably superior specs and fabric surrounds. Glad to see some love for vintage bookshelf speakers. Very underrated source of value hifi.
I think today you can actually buy them as a consumer product, at least in my country. Here they were and still are a really popular set of speakers because of their price and sound quality. Off the top of my head I can remember at least 10-15 places in my small town that have them. Even in different models.
Elytone (established 1980) currently seems to be a Chinese/Taiwanese company still active in (about) the same field. It's not very clear however if they were originally a Japanese firm??
Not sure if you noticed but at 15:03 there appears to be a date code on the inside of the speaker. It looks like it was manufactured in September 1989 if I'm reading it correctly
Interesting. Now I know why the JBL pro3 version of these that I used as near field monitors for my keyboard rig in the early 90’s had their very own light show coming from the port on the front. 🎹😊
I'm still rocking my AIWA XR-MN5 stereo system that my dad found next to the dumpster at his work. Only issues are the 5 disk changer doesn't read disks most the time and the tape player is stripped out... but it works good as an aux-in
Hi there, doesn't the names of the control series speakers had to do with the size and number of drivers? I purchased in the year 2000 a pair of control 25 that can be used in exterior, even painted, but never used them like that.
There is a date code stamped on the inside of the front cover. Right above the port tube. 14:54 There's a mark at 9/89. There also seems to be two more on 11/89. I'm not sure what's up with that but that seems to put it at the end of 1989.
I'm a tiny bit more than a little bummed that you didn't hook them up while taken apart to see the bulbs light up while the speakers are in use. Still, I had no idea those bulbs were in there. There were tons of Ctrl1s in use at the theme park I worked at in the late 80s to the early 90s. There were many Ctrl10s there as well. I was so nostalgic for those times that in early 2000 I found a used pair of Control 10 speakers for sale locally and I went and bought them. I blast them on rare occasions and re-live my early adult years.
If you look closely you can find these including the control 30's at many uk theme parks. I would like a pair of these but my ms25's are good unless I run out of space
My JBL Control 2.4 G (an active wireless version of these speakers JBL had at the time) I got in 2008 came with a couple of threaded inserts: one in the bottom and one in the back (although it still has the hooks to pass a security wire through them, which is nice considering how heavy these things are). These speakers are built like tanks!
If these were also sold in Japan besides just being manufactured there, the steel safety wire hookup is for earthquakes, so they wouldn't be flung across the room.
You’d want that insurance in any outdoor installation (like museum parks for instance), but of course it’s even more crucial in Japan as there will be more jostling guaranteed.
One of my favorite speakers as a young musician. I got the combo with the sub from a gear trade. I always dug the over peak/light but assumed it was heat. lol
Probably already been mentioned, at 14:55 the date stamp on the back of the plastic has it at 1992 9/10/11? Not clear but you said not sure when they were made… just a thought
That lightbulb thingy has been around for ages! I’ve taken higher end speakers apart before and saw the fibre sleeve charred to a crisp. Whomever owned the sure blasted them regularly
Bose also used light bulbs in some of their speakers its a clever idea. For some reason the control 5s don't sound as good as control 1s, the mids are odd.
The actual symptoms is a typical electrolytic capacitor failure. an oxide corrosion layer builds so the tweeter cuts out, and cranking up the voltage breaks down the oxide layer, establishing connection. Common in older receivers, etc when they need a re-cap job.
Spot on. Unfortunately your comment has got lost in the all the waffle.
@isettech so, would extending this logic to say that regularly using speakers at higher volume levels keeps them in better condition over time be accurate?
@@sc3ku Only if the crossover in the speaker uses NP Electrolytic capacitors. Over use at high volume has other issues with the breakdown of the varnish holding the wire on the voicecoil, softening of the cone,, spider, and surround.
A small tip - on 20yo+ speakers remove the woofers and rotate them 180* if possible to counter the cone sag over the years.
also magnet movement & voice-coil rubbing.
unnecessary
good point
im going to just say that cone sag is a bit rare. Considering ive been around car audio for years and owned 20+ year old subs that did not even have this issue. And youre talking a fairly large difference to these small woofers he has. 🤔
Depends really, the poly drivers in my infinitys certainly arent sagging
When I was in college we had similar JBL speakers in all the music classrooms. The music theory professor was elderly and quite passionate about listening examples and would regularly push the speakers to the point that they would glow. We didn't know there were light bulbs inside at the time so we thought he was driving the speakers that hard.
That sounds like they were LOUD hahaha
The light bulb isn't just a "replacement" for a fuse - it also flattens dynamics, like a compressor.
Hey, cheater. I was about to ask what happened to your frog avatar. Then I realized I didn't remember it from YT but from the SDIY list.
@@Gameboygenius rofl, i set up my youtube account before youtube was bought by google, that's probably why the avatar isn't here. i love the frog, it's so cute haha it was one of the og default avatars on gmail before gmail accounts were used for everything on gmail. do you ever post there? you should :) just to say hi... that gave me a laugh, lol
also, that account's email inbox got filled up so i set up a new account, and that one has a tek scope now. haha
This mechanism is known as a dummy load - essentially a wattage dump. Light bulbs are really cheap ways to do that.
@@DM78 it's not simply a dummy load. The circuit is exploiting the fact that the lamp is increasing its resistance when the filament heats up. It's more akin to a PTC resistor or resettable fuse with pretty unusual timing characteristics.
When reassembling plastic housings, turn the screw backwards until you feel it sit in the groove, then start tightening. It avoids cross threading.
Seems to be what he did during the timelapse althought it wasn't too clear :P
Yes it's true, I've seen too many people jamming in the screws without paying attention to the existing threads. And after repeated damages of the threads they wonder why the screws can't get a grip anymore... xD
@@frankmeyer9984 ever replaced spark plugs in an engine?
@@JamesTK Yes, I did that, and other work at cars. And I'm a electrician, and my hobbies are (vintage) computers and electronics. I've seen a lot of "attempted repairs"... xD
@@frankmeyer9984 seen too many people jamming in spark plugs without paying attention to the existing threads 🤣. Combine cross threading with a breaker bar and you've got no more threads!
Some old school appliance repairers swear by "dim bulb testers". A regular household incandescent bulb is wired in series with the device you're testing. If the device begins drawing too many amps, the bulb will glow and you'll protect the device from burning out.
Yep, go watch the YT channel Shango066 who repairs mostly old TVs, and Radios, along with the offhand social commentary, and in a fair number of his videos, he uses a homemade dim bulb tester as part of his diagnosis process.
An easier way to do it is to use an automotive inverter with a fuse. This way you also get an isolation effect. as well as current limiting. Very cheap if you already have the inverter. Plus they are dirt cheap.
I use one myself. Three bulbs with switches, (2x 40W and 1x 60W) to give equivalent 40W, 60W, 80W, 100W, and 140W power limits. Indispensable.
@@CommodoreFan64 I watch Shang066 & Mr. Carlson’s Lab…
Compare and contrast..😂👍
@@outaspaceman 👍
Reminds me of one time i went to the store to get a heat light, or a minimum, a regular light bulb. I explained to the sales person that it's to create heat for baby chicks. They handed me a LED bulb, and told me how much more efficient it is. I was dumbfounded. In that scenario, it was the exact opposite of what we needed.
I've done retail a few times in my life, once for my first job in high school in the late 90's working at a family owned gas station/delhi/liquor store, then for a Stihl, & New Holland/Kubota tractor dealership in the early 00's, and again as a 2nd job for about 5 1/2 years for Dollar General in the mid - late 00's, sadly most sales staff either don't know their stuff because compaies will heigher whoever they can get to work for least amout of money, they are told to push a certain set of products regardless if it's the right one for the customer(I usually ignored that crap, and got my customers the right product), and/or they just don't care for a vast number of reasons, and as someone who always tried to be as helpful as I could with my customers on a vast number of products we carried(which made me part of the 4th highest selling Kubota dealership in the nation at one point), so this has become one of my major pet peeves in life, which is why these days I almost always look up what I want online first to see if a store has it in stock before I go, and if it's someplace like Walmart, or Target I'll use their Android app to find out what isle it's on myself so I don't have to deal with sales staff, unless it's behind a locked case/cage, or they have to get it out of the stock room.
@@CommodoreFan64 I mean it's really no surprise, when you treat your employees like dirt and don't even pay enough to live on they're not gonna be very motivated to put in effort, and who could blame 'em?
@@fohkukohgeki That's true about how employees are treated by management, and higher ups once they are hired, but no one forced them to take the job, as they agreed to the starting pay when they fill out the application, or summited their resume, and they were then hired, but having said that, there is still no need to be shitty to the end customer, as they have nothing to do with it, I always put on a good face to my customers being nice as I could be, regardless of what was happening behind the scenes with the company I was working for, as when I worked at the local store, and for DG, as many of my customers were, and still are members of my community, with some I've known most all my life, including church, and I would not want them to think badly of me, if I had issues with my company I took it up with management, or the coporate line with DG which is why one day after I had enough of being used, and worked death, and still not getting enough hours to get by at DG I politely put in my weeks notice to my manger at DG saying it was nice working here, but it's not working out, and I'm going to have to leave to focus on my main career, which left me on good terms, and I can still use them as reference for future work if ever need be, and to this day I still have the same policy, and it's also why I've been able keep to my main job with a nonprofit dealing with seniors, and meals on wheels for nearly 20 years. I wish more people had the same mindset, but society does not seem to want to instill that in people anymore sadly. 😞
@@CommodoreFan64 "no one forced them to take the job" well when it's either that or homelessness it kinda is forced
@@DouglasWalrath These days with so many companies looking for people to work, and upping their pay, don't settle, and then bitch about the starting pay. Hell I see McDonalds signs in my area begging people to work, with starting pay at almost $17 an hour plus benefits, so again you are not forced into taking a job with shit pay, so stop looking for excuses!!
Elytone, is a Japanese electronics company, that specialize in the manufacture of speaker crossovers. (Still in business)
In fact, it could be, that the crossover is the only component made in Japan, seeing as how the sticker is on the crossover part itself.
I love the lightbulb idea, because fuses will take out an amplifier if they pop.
Elytone was/still is an assembly manufacturer that supplies industry. Known for high quality assemblies. JBL must have outsourced the x-over module to them. Not a bad choice either.
The light bulb thing has been used for decades by many manufacturers. A nice way for easy overload protection.
I remember being a kid and watching my dad open his old Bose floor speakers to replace the foam rotted woofers, and I was SO surprised and confused why a light bulb was in there.
Once I grew up and got the internet I randomly looked it up.
@@volvo09 My BOSE 501 have them too, 1968 Mk I edition.
I did make them make sound good now!
My father's 80's KEF speakers also have a red light but it's put externally, the problem of the higher circuitry inside is that for many years now the speakers can't handle much power while the crossover seems to be working fine and still sounding pretty good as soon as I put a bit of power into them the red light goes ON and soon they shutdown grrr...
It also probably gets a bit expensive to fix cause I would never use cheap components so I never messed with them yet...
One hint regarding the "reflowing" - you should use a little fresh solder or some good quality flux so you don't end up creating dry joints.
Yeah, if there's a crack in a solder joint, and it's oxidized, you need flux to clean up those oxides. Fresh solder is always wise when reflowing. even a touch of flux core solder is fine.
Also you can clean the flux residue using isopropyl 90% or better Alcohol
While I am not an electronic expert, I am a professional musician and I have had a set of JBL Control 5s paired with the matching subwoofer. I have used this set up in my studio as they are “deemed” as Mid-field monitors. My Control 5s also utilize hi powered light bulbs as a component of the crossover system. From my understanding I believe the lightbulbs protect the tweeters from excess distortion which is seen by the tweeter as DC power. DC voltage is Kryptonite to tweeters. TheJBL light bulbs are there as further insurance against this DC distortion. Seeing a dim glow through the ports as your music plays is normal. If you actually see BRIGHT lights inside, you are on dangerous ground and had better quickly lower your volume and figure out why you are producing such dangerous distortion. I have also used my C 5s along with the subwoofer as a VERY respectable stand alone main P.A. system in medium to slightly large clubs for solo and whole band sound systems. Very dependable work horses for various applications. I have LOVED my JBL Control 5s since the 90s. They don’t have to be babied, but if you take care with them, they will be a blessing to you for decades.
You don't have to be afraid of DC being on the tweeter in a loudspeaker with an internal crossover since the tweeter highpassed by a capacitor, or in second-order crossovers both highpassed by a capacitor and bypassed by another coil for good measure. The woofer ends up carrying the DC into its offset. You do however have to be afraid of clipping. A tweeter of this construction will self-destruct with probably less than 15W of power, while the rating for the whole speaker is 150W, which is actually way more than i would have suspected. With exception of horn PA tweeters and such, like normal dome tweeters, ones which can survive more than 25W long term, are basically not a thing at all - they need light, thin-wire coils, and they have nowhere whatsoever to dump all that much heat, except into the ferrofluid, but then that has issues as well. Anyway as you most likely know the frequency distribution in music roughly follows LTAS or slightly shaped pink noise law, with energy vastly declining in upper octaves, and by placing the crossover frequency high enough, you simply eliminate the vast majority of power from reaching the tweeter. HOWEVER if you have clipping, you can imagine it almost like a square wave superimposed where the clipping starts and ends, which doesn't really have any frequency bounds, or energy bounds. The amplifier will happily dump almost all of its output power into the tweeter that way. Also you can burn a tweeter with unusual music material that doesn't follow the typical LTAS distribution.
I don't have it in my head the recommended ratio between the power tweeter can handle and the total rating of the speaker depending on crossover frequency - i'm pretty sure it's in Vance Dickason's Cookbook somewhere. Actually the fundamental read if you want to understand speakers.
It's 3am and while your videos are extremely interesting I've just found out they are very helpful for falling asleep
I have JBL Control LA that are identical, except for the white cone. I purchased new in 1993 while in the Army. I also have the Control 5 Plus. I truly enjoy the sound they produce.
I have the same speakers, they were a kerb find, missing both grilles & the woofers had rotted foam surrounds. I replaced the woofers with a pair from a scrap Toshiba rear projection TV.
These have the rubber surrounds and identical fixings, they now sound great!
I have not had any problems from the cross overs yet.....
I got my non pro Control one's at best buy 15 years ago. There are AMAZING speakers for their price point. Their sound is top notch placed up against anything else in the price point! These absolutely disapear when powered right, lovely sound!
YES!!! That's why i bought a NEW pair after the 20 year old Control 1G woofers just DISINTEGRAGED!!! :\\\ So no... not a good long term choice! (as you can see described in this video). And they are not that serviceable (once opened, because the mounting screws are ALL plastic and don't have a METAL FEMALE, they will never be the same)
@MarcoLopesPT it's what glue is for in the thread holes
Great video Colin. The light bulb soft-limiter idea is ingenious, dissipating excess electrical energy into heat and light using a common component specifically designed to shed heat energy better than say, large ceramic resistors. One speaker design you might like to check out and do a video on if you get the chance is the Bose 901 system. My ex father in law had two pairs and they are quite weird and unique, using 8 rearward-firing drivers and a separate EQ unit placed before the power amp. Like all Bose systems then and now the sound is very coloured, also quite engaging on most types of music.
It's more than that - it's a widely dynamic resistor not a fixed value. The resistance is proportional to the filament heat (positive temperature coefficient, or PTC), the more heat in the filament, the higher the resistance.
I trust Japan THE MOST when it comes to how well-made and high-functioning equipment will be. They are extremely apt and show highest strength of build quality in my experience. : D
The company I work for regularly installs the current version of the Control 1 Pros! I actually hung up 3 pairs today. They sound pretty solid for their size.
Hey Colin, from the description you provide, I'm fairly certain that's a dried out capacitor. Every you crank the volume, you raise the voltage across the capacitor, and in turn you are reforming it. Once the capacitor is "reformed", there is an electric field across the capacitor due to the stored charge, which allows it to conduct further current more easily. However, until you reach a certain voltage, the capacitor will not start charging, and will remain empty - no electric field. The capacitor needs to be replaced, in both speakers. While you're at it, you can add somewhat thicker wires going to the midrange speakers. Those are kind of thin. Yes, they worked for a long time. Doesn't mean they're optima :)
Since there's only one cap, it's quite likely the crossover is 1st order lowpass to the woofer, 2nd order highpass to the tweeter. So, the cap (and one of the inductors) is in series with the tweeter, and one of the inductors with the woofer. In that case, if the cap is the problem, it should only affect the tweeter.
If both drivers are playing at a low volume, the problem is upstream of the crossover.
@@nickwallette6201 the "tweeter" here will be handling frequencies down to 1 kHz. It's easy for it to sound "louder" or "quieter" when the tweeter gets dimmed.
I had no idea JBL was such an old company (1946)!? I guess I assumed they just popped up in the last decade or so. Also, the fact that they have never changed/updated their logo is pretty cool!
schrodinger's speaker company
RCA similar - they even had a military weapons devision
1946 isn’t really old
James B. Lansing (b. Jan. 2 1902)
Lansing Manufacturing Company (1927)
Altec Service Corporation acquires
Lansing Manufacturing Company becoming
Altec Lansing (1941)
James B Lansing leaves Altec Lansing and forms
James B Lansing Sound Inc. (1946)
JBL (1955)
He took his own life by hanging himself (Sept. 29 1949) aged 47
Harman International acquires JBL (1969)
Samsung Acquires Harman International (2017)
@@jonvincentmusic Siemens was in 1847 😆
Why is it weird that a major USA brand had their speakers made in Japan? Wasn't Japan a major manufacturer of quality electronic parts in the 80's/90's, wouldn't it stand to reason that multiple brands would have gone a step further and assemble electronics or audio equipment there as well?
Agreed, that was kind of a weird statement.
It wasn't commonly done. If you wanted made-in-Japan you bought Japanese brands. Having an American company marketing to Americans, selling products designed here, but shipped from overseas, was seen as needlessly complex and risky. Why not build the stuff locally where you can keep an eye on production and have a much faster turnaround? It's not like you could just hop on Zoom with a floor manager halfway around the world. And you weren't exactly going to save a pile of money by outsourcing to Japan either, between a strong Yen, the cost of shipping, and import duties on finished products.
Used to do sound for a guy who did a giant local fireworks show. He had 4 giant Peavey speakers -- each RMS rated to something like 1200W. (We'd drive 2 on each 2000w amp). Even those beasts had lightbulbs inside. Those were socketed automotive 12v lightbulbs
Your videos are always a highlight of my Friday mornings!
But, those light bulbs only protected the tweeters.
@@ScottGrammer the entire audio path has to go through the crossover to work so it does protect everything
@@kaitlyn__L yes everything goes through the crossover but the light bulbs are only wired in series with the tweeters in most professional gear. Also, most professional sound reinforcement cabinets have the option for biamping or triamping, which bypasses the crossover entirely. Some home stereo speakers (Bose 301, for instance) have the bulbs wired only in series with the tweeters.
The protection bulbs are 12V on a 1000W system? I know the tweeter is likely padded down considerably from the woofer, but geez.. that's like 20W.
@@ScottGrammer sure, if you’re using separate amps for every single one then protection can be selectively applied. I didn’t look too closely at this one but it looked like one bulb per speaker driver in this instance to me. You’re right of course that it doesn’t universally apply to every design though.
Thanks Colin! Your channel has given me a greater appreciation for the electronic devices we take for granted and discard when a newer model comes along.
Your JBL speakers remind me that I have a set of Klipsch Promedia GMX 5.1 speakers that I have to get fixed. The receiver is not working. I hope you acquire a set of Klipsch Promedia speakers in the future and review them. It’s a stellar sound system for gaming although it’s not practical if you live in an apartment complex.
Ns10 are the reason disco sounds the way it does with a “disco smile” because the high and low end are very flat on ns10’s
Wrong. The reason for the "disco smile" was the physical limitations of vinyl as a playback medium (see: RIAA equalization).
@@popefacto5945 NS-10’s really contributed to it I can say with certainty especially if you talk to the mixers around that time period. Whether or not they are exaggerating its significance is up for debate. But after asking in person as an audio engineer I can say with certainty that it’s what the people in the industry have said to my face… also sorry to vinyl wasn’t at all the limitation or the disco sound would have way less bass than they do, seeing as bass and its bias really is why is the limitation, plus vinyl wasn’t at all incapable of producing mixes that didn’t sound like disco… many many genres didn’t end up sounding like disco do to vinyl technical limitations, so yeah that makes zero sense…
Just an FYI in general: the melted spots on electronic equipment of any kind do not have to necessarily indicate an actual heat-induced melting (like soldering iron)... but chemical. Some leads/wires outer "plastic" isolation layer (whatever the chem. compound it is) can eat into the surface and melt it, but it's the process that takes years: think equipment that has had leads wrapped around it tightly and then stored for a prolonged period of time, or just stacked one on top of another, with leads in the middle.
So, I guess the lesson is: for long storage, store your wires/cables/leads separate from your device - but best wrapped next to it in, maybe in a plastic bag, potentially zip-tied or taped to an inconspicuous spot (for eventual residue clean-up). And, if storing them separately, always tag the leads with not-too-easily-removable parent device's identifier, if such thing matters (for "it's-of-higher-quality-than-average" or "proprietary-connector/wiring" reasons).
This is especially useful for external power adapters, even more if it's the ubiquitous barrel connector: mark the adapter with the device name, and label the device with adapter's voltage, [minimum] current, and polarity (even if device has this marked on a label or impressed into plastic somewhere, those can fade or get worn down with time). This way, you'll always have means to find the original adapter, or substitute with appropriate one in the future.
....does my "organizing control freak" nature show? _:-D
What about vibrations ?
They look remarkably modern for 30 year old speakers.
Love the black and white woofers with the white enclosure!
the Control Series where by far the best speakers available at the time they came out for the purpose, also served extremely well as "monitors" in clubs and stuff, and like you said, perfect studio monitors. the use of light bulbs was quite common actually, even on much largeer speakers for live events .. sometime you could actually see them light up inside when they kinda clip them for too long, the temperature could aso cause thee issue you have with the need to push them first to get the lamp to a certain temperature.
I purchased JBL Control 5's when I was still a teen, they had the same surge protector bulbs, and when I was irresponsible I used them as kick drum indicators. Yep, they eventually died, but I replaced them with self powered JBL EON 15" speakers. I still have those and loan them out to friends for bush doofs every now and then. Not bad for late 80's tech and early 90's stage gear. $0.02
Bulbs are a dynamic way to dampen power to the drivers at maximum levels... its also a clever way to raise the power handling..
Years ago my sister gave me a pair of her old Ohm Model C2 speakers. The foam around both woofers had all but turned into dust. I found replacement parts online and had my hand at repairing them. It was a little fiddly but it worked out well and these speakers now sound amazing (and am listening to Colin's video through them now). So, yeah, I don't need to be convinced regarding the need for speaker maintenance. Good video, Colin.
Ohm speakers are really nice. The company is still around and still made in a small shop in upstate NY I think. If I remember correctly they still will support all thier old speakers, and even offer factory rebuilds if you can send them to them.
@@JessHull That's cool to know, Jess. I'm glad they're still around. These are certainly a nice set of speakers. The best I've ever owned and they cost me about $35.00 (if memory serves) for the foam replacement gaskets (or whatever you call them).
@@bradnelson3595 Thats so great you've kept them going with the repair/maintenance you've done. There certainly are modern new speakers that are amazing, but you have to spend insane amounts of money to access them. There are a myriad of vintage speakers that from companies like JBL, Altec, Ohm, Audio Reseach etc. that made speakers in the 70 and 80s that can be had for still reasonable prices and if you're willing to put a little work into them, like you did, you can have a speaker set that rivals even the highest end of modern stuff.
@@JessHull It's satisfying to bring an old electronic thing back to life. And the fact often is that old stuff is of better quality than what you can buy today. I might be able to buy some good speakers...but not in the thick, solid wood cabinets of these old Ohms. Which reminds me...probably a good time to hit them with some lemon oil.
Why would a great speaker like the CONTROL 1 / 1G be made with FOAM woofers?!? I loved mine! They sounded great, they seemed rugged, until they didn't!!! The woofers just fell appart! Servicing was not an option (more expensive, and the PLASTIC screw mountings are a BIG NO NO!!! OMG...). So, i recycled them, and bought a new pair! (stupid me! ahah)
I'm a bass player. My bass cabinet used light bulbs as fuses. It was stolen. But an interesting thing happened with the new one I bought, a 2x12 cabinet that I was powering with 1300 watts. I was playing Stranglehold complete with chorus effect. The bass was constantly "rolling" through the entire song caused me to blow both speakers.
It wasn't mechanical failure. It was thermal failure. They just got hotter and hotter, and finally the voice coil wiring "disintegrated". When I removed the woofers, the voice coil windings were like loose spaghetti draped over the voice coil.
I learned a valuable lesson on the different ways you can blow speakers. i.e. it's not just "too loud" volume that over drives your speakers. But using them within their excursion range, but close to the limit and for too long, can still destroy them.
On a side note, thank God it was the last song in the gig. 😁
I have some nearly/roughly 100 year old speakers made for film projectors, Bell&Howell Filmosound 179’s and the only ‘maintenance’ they ever had were TRS Input modifications. Still the best sounding speakers I’ve ever had paired with guitar amps. The rear of the cabinets are hinged and latched and the interior is completely covered in velvet,… and the magnets and drivers are very heavily shielded.
I'm staring right now at my own JBL Control 1's (also made in Japan). Bought mine brand new nearly 2 decades ago. Still running strong. Might not have perfect sound but I still love them nonetheless.
Cool speakers. Would have really liked to see the light bulbs in action. I've never seen that before.
The only time you'll see them "in action" is when you're pushing the speaker beyond its limits. Otherwise, they're in-circuit, but not really doing much more than a wire.
@@nickwallette6201 Thing is the lightbulbs should have the tiniest of glow with even fairly little current, long before they reach operating temperature and their resistance rises to the nominal level. It might just show up in total darkness. Worth an experiment - at normal operating conditions, not burning up any speakers.
@@nickwallette6201 He could have hooked the bulbs to a power supply just for fun on camera, therefore making them glow at their full brightness, personally I would have done that.
6:37
Very emotional to see the speakers of my dad's stereo, the speakers of my childhood!
Nice video!
Btw Colin, you said the “speakers may have been dropped but there are no signs of external damage,” but i see there is some damage, maybe melted plastic on the right rear mounting slot of the broken speaker.
That’s a sign that it was mounted at one point and the speaker got ripped out of the mount and fell.
Just an FYI in general: the melted spots on electronic equipment of any kind do not have to necessarily indicate an actual heat-induced melting (like soldering iron)... but chemical. Some leads/wires outer "plastic" isolation layer (whatever the chem. compound it is) can eat into the surface and melt it, but it's the process that takes years: think equipment that has had leads wrapped around it tightly and then stored for a prolonged period of time, or just stacked one on top of another, with leads in the middle.
So, I guess the lesson is: for long storage, store your wires/cables/leads separate from your device - but best wrapped next to it in, maybe in a plastic bag, potentially zip-tied or taped to an inconspicuous spot (for eventual residue clean-up). And, if storing them separately, always tag the leads with not-too-easily-removable parent device's identifier, if such thing matters (for "it's-of-higher-quality-than-average" or "proprietary-connector/wiring" reasons).
This is especially useful for external power adapters, even more if it's the ubiquitous barrel connector: mark the adapter with the device name, and label the device with adapter's voltage, [minimum] current, and polarity (even if device has this marked on a label or impressed into plastic somewhere, those can fade or get worn down with time). This way, you'll always have means to find the original adapter, or substitute with appropriate one in the future.
Fantastic video/review, I also own 2 pairs of JBL Control 1 Plus Loudspeakers, 2 pairs of JBL Control 5 Plus (1 pair brand new in box).
Absolutely love the sound of the JBL Control series.
You must be a collector to have a set still in their original box. Very kewl.
@klwthe3rd Hey, yea I'm very lucky to own a pair of JBL Control 5 Plus that are unopened in its original packaging. Yep, unopened box. I purchased them from Japan about 1 year ago.
I found a JBL Sub 6 with a blue "Control" badge on it for 50AUD last year! Seems to be from the late 90s. Love having the port and controls on the front for quick tweaking. Only thing is the magnet starts rattling when I push it too hard. Couldn't figure out how to get farther inside even with a service manual :(
Regardless it pairs very well with the 80's Wharfdale Deltas I also found locally. I wired them into the JBL's high-pass filter so they don't have to work as hard. Works really well for my needs :)
Bought a used set of these many years ago as well, but didn't have luck, they were installed in a bar or the like, smoker environment, and completeley ruined, I had to write them off.
Regardless, you should really consider a more powerful soldering iron, it makes such jobs a lot easier and the result is better as well.
How can this be posted one second ago and this comment is 9 hours
@@michaelpastras My exact question lmao
@@michaelpastras He gives the viewers who pay him through patreon early access to the vidz.
@@michaelpastras It's because the internet is not fair.
A lot of us electronic engineer build "light-bulb current limiter" socket tester as a simple way to test short circuit on any project because we can't be arsed to flip the breaker or replace a fuse (or wait for the self-healing fuse to reset) for every single time we test a pretty powerful circuit.
.
...also, you'll definitely love JBL 4435 if you like this kind of sound.
ive bought here in germany a pair of used infintity reference 50 about 5 years ago for 20€ the lady who sold them said they were broken... but they just had cracked foam rings.. i ordered for 8$ per driver foam rings from the usa... and watched all youtube videos i could find on refoaming... it tooked me 3 hours to clean off old adhessive before glueing in the new ones and 3 days of drying out the new addhesive but damn... they sound like the 1000 $ speakers they had been in 1991.
Gosh, for a >30 year design, they still look startlingly modern.
18:07 -- My dad had a pair of Realistic Mach Two speakers back in the 90s, and I was surprised when my brother took the grille off of one of them (something I thought was impossible until I saw it), and I noticed there were knobs behind it! Those speakers were huge, and they were up against a wall that was shared with my bedroom, so sometimes, I could hear the music playing through my wall :P
Just finished refreshing my mach 2s that my parents bought me as a kid. They do have the light bulbs on the crossovers and while not the highest quality, most definitely a house shaking party speaker.
I have 2 pairs of JBL L-19 and they are my end-game speakers, I love 'em that much. They're a little bit more neutral than say the L100. The bass coming out of that 10 inch woofer is incredible. It really kicks yet it's tight and clear
Hi, I have a pair of these in black. I have not seen very many mirror image baffles on these. A friend had these for a long time and I heard them a lot and always liked them. The foam rotted, so he gave them to me and I got new mid drivers for them for $50 US. I recently bought a JBL Control SB-2 subwoofer (38-160Hz @ -10dB) which is made for these as a system and for the contractor series. It has a 10" dual voice coil driver and is a slot loaded, vented bandpass design and handles 340W. It is a passive set up. The satellite output crossover is at 160Hz, so this makes a nice system. These Control 1s are older and have polycarbonate tweeters. Other noteworthy specs are that they handle 150W and have a freq. range of 80hz - 20kHz (-10dB). I plan on using them for a small keyboard system and music listening. The older ones do not have a 1/4" threaded insert on the back, but newer ones do. I am going to refoam the original speakers and build DIY oak cabinets for them with small Vifa tweeters. I got a pair of JBL Control 1 Pro crossovers on Ebay cheap as well.
I like how these speakers are mirrored, that’s so dope. Noticed right away.
I have a pair of monitor speakers that are also asymmetrical (the correct term I believe since your “standard” speakers are also mirror images of each other) so I guessing that it’s something they do with monitors.
I got a set of these after seeing this and the other one about them. I was disappointed that the ones i got werent book matched and are in face both "right side" with the tweeter on the right. This bothers me since i have them laying on their side for my PC speakers, powered by a Yamaha RX-V379. Despite their small size, they fit really well with the 10" sub that came with the receiver and MAN, do they sing when pushed. Very balanced, maybe a touch warm, but overall a VERY nice sound. I have a very long audio engineer and musician background, so i know a bit more than your normal "audiophile" who've never touched an instrument or mixing console in their life. I snagged them for $39+ shipping, which ended up being under $70 total. They were a bit dirty, but virgin in that they had never been apart and worked perfectly as soon as i hooked them up. Completely pleased with this recommendation, which is good, cause i usually dont listen to people for purchases. I can trust Colin though, despite his Mac leanings ;)
About 30 years ago the other guitarist/vocalist from the band I was in at the time acquired a rather rare Dean Markley "voice box" -which was their brand's version of the (then) quite hot "talk box" that had become well known at the time by musicians like Peter Frampton and Joe Walsh, However they both used a much better built "talk box" that used very high quality components, most notably...high quality, high wattage full range compression drivers that were designed for powerful large venue horn speaker cabinets. Those high end ones used a capacitor as a "filter" much like a crossover does in a multi speaker component cabinet. Connecting to your amp just like an extension speaker does, they could handle a powerful guitar amplifier with no issues -BUT if the amp was too powerful, or their filter capacitor simply wore out...it would fry. And just like with a blown crossover, you'd get no sound until that filter cap was replaced. Conversely, the Dean Markley "voice box" ingeniously used a 12 volt DC light bulb of the type that are commonly used in automobile tail lights inside, in place of a filter capacitor. It served two main purposes, one was to absorb the excess voltage spikes from it's source amplifier, so whether it be a powerful source amps powering it or not, the light bulb would simply swell from bright to dim in response to the incoming voltage. The second and probably most important main purpose was this also allowed the Dean Markley "voice box" to use a far more inferior compression driver...I'm talkin' only 30 watts RMS of inferior vs. their main competitor at the time Heil Sound, who's "talk box" used a THREE HUNDRED WATT compression driver! The horn driver in the Markley "voice box" was of the type commonly found in school football field announcement horn speakers, etc. whereas the Heil "talk box" used a horn driver often found in powerful concert hall and high end theatre speaker systems. The difference was (obviously!) like day and night...YES the "voice box" DID indeed provide a suitable talkbox effect, and was much more affordable. But meanwhile, the original Heil "talk box" was professional gear and could pretty much rattle the fillings right out of your teeth if you wanted it to. The chances of an incandescent DC light bulb burning out from a newbie musician's amp weren't likely (most newbies didn't have Marshall stacks) and afterall, it provided the effect it was supposed to provide...so the Dean Markley was a decent choice for beginners. And it was alot less expensive. They didn't sell very well, probably because most beginners didn't even know what a talkbox was, not to mention how to properly connect one, or use one properly. It's even more unlikely they knew much about any of the pros and cons due to the quality of the components used inside of them either. To sum up my short novel...this was just another example of another use of a light bulb in what is essentially another version of a type of speaker cabinet, but this type has a horn driver and a mouth tube connected to it. I mention the most logical reasons the manufacturer probably chose to do this, and the main advantages and disadvantages of it. Interestingly, the Dean Markley "voice box" is a rare collectible now, even more scarce than the old purple Heil Sound "talk box" from the mid 1970's and even though they weren't known for their legendary performance, the "voice box" is nonetheless another clever use of a light bulb in this application, and I thought it was relevant to this video and worthy of mention...even though I've somehow made this mention of it into a small book's worth of reading ha ha ha ha! Thank you for sharing this informative video! -Rock on
Lol. Loved the “war and peace” length anecdote. And the fact that you were embarrassed about making such a long winded comment is endearing.
音律電子股份有限公司
ELYTONE ELECTRONIC CO., LTD.
They are the electronic parts suppliers based in Taiwan which is closer to the Japan,
So the parts used here were supplied by them aka Elytone...
Control 1, control 5 & I think they also sold a bigger version. Commonly found in technical environments. They were widely used In AV Programming setups & meeting rooms.
I was real tired of my annoyingly big, bad-sounding (they didn't sound too bad initially, but one broke) floor speakers, and I was in a thrift store and found a pair of Canton slightly-bigger-than-bookshelf speakers. Black housing & grille match my room, great sound according to online reviews. Called up my dad who knows his stuff, he told me to check the rubber, which looked brand new, even though the speakers are 30 years old.
Gladly paid fifty bucks for the pair and lugged them to the subway station four blocks, then from the subway into a train, then finally into my mom's car. One of the best purchases ever. Super good speakers for super cheap. After some time I had to replace a tweeter at a cost of less than fifteen bucks.
(It's the very same thrift store where I got a 90s all-digital Onkyo double tape deck that went on ebay for 130 and up for just twenty five bucks. Amazing prices on some items, notably not amplifiers.)
Same here got a pair of Canton Fonum 60s from my parents (label says "Made in Federal Republic of Germany", that was used before 1990 together with "made in W(estern) Germany", Hifi-Wiki says 1984-1985), they're almost too large for bookshelf speakers but 3-way closed and I use these as the front speakers in my home cinema and they sound good.
Maybe I replace them in the future with some JET Elacs but I don't feel the need at the moment.
Better get a pair of good sounding used speakers than some crappy cheap new ones.
Incandescent lamps have a positive temp. Co-efficient, cold they have a low resistance and when hot have a higher resistance, and thus limits current if the level at the terminal gets too high
Yeah, we learned that by watching the video.
The bulbs light up to protect the voice coils from being over driven, and they also act as an indicator, my 30 year old peavey speakers have them, I can see the bulbs through the bass ports at the front.
Old power distribution fuse panels had standard Edison screw sockets in the USA. It was a common troubleshooting technique to screw a light bulb into the fuse box to diagnose a short circuit without blowing a bunch of fuses. One person would watch the bulb while another went around twisting cords and so forth until they got the lamp to light, locating the short. Some people used a penny instead of the light bulb but that was not very safe.
So has reflowing the board resolved your issues? I am hoping so :)
Light bulbs as current limiters was a pretty common thing in electronics up to a few decade agos. Your amazement for something so simple amuses me ;)
Well it’s not every day I go take speakers apart just to see what’s in them lol
@@ThisDoesNotCompute It's not exclusive to speakers. When I say "common", I mean in every kind of electronics.
the problem with the rubber/compound sorround is that its mechanical characteristics change over time, that changes the compliance and with it, the bass response of the wofer. And it is not so noticeable unless you measure the frequency response of the speaker, in bass reflex boxes the change may be more noticeable, due to the mismatch (the rubber hardens and the "free air resonance" of the speaker goes up, that modifies how it behaves with the box and with the tuned port (tube)).
I had some 8" woofers to build a studio monitor (Scan Speak, polypropylene, fine component); time passed (they were stored for 3-4 years, in perfect condition), and, when I went back to the project and measured the Thiele Small parameters of the components _to make the calculations of the boxes_, the change was evident, the resonance frequency had risen and it was no longer the same as the technical sheet (it's a well-known topic in recording/mastering studios, speakers have a useful life of a few years before they start to change; 10 is a good number) For relaxed listening and pleasure, the requirements are much more lax...
I have rubber surrounds from the 60s and 70s, they sound fine, and if anything, they softened, not hardened. Sadly I don't have specs for the drivers so I can't compare the impedance plot to the datasheets. However, it's normal for the resonant frequency to be higher than spec especially if you never used them, no matter how long they were in storage.
Oh! 'Home Listener'. I thought you said 'Homeless Nerd' at first.
I have several pairs of original Control 1 pro. They were a pull from a nightclub install where the owner didn't want them. I think I got 16 of them but many had bad foams on the woofer. I got 8 replacement woofers and they are all through my home as permanent install. I like them. Add a subwoofer and they are great. I also got two pair of the Control 22 with blown woofers from another install. I repaired those as well and they live in my wood shop.
Why would a nightclub have such small speakers ?
I thought they were using much larger ones, you know, about 4 feet tall and with 10" drivers, that kind of thing.
@@psirvent8 "pulled from the nightclub" the original setup was more of a lounge. We renovated and built a new bar/nightclub. I was the install tech and after was running sound for a few years. I installed TX4's for tops that are loaded with 15" drivers. I also built two massive double 18 subs for under the stage along with 4 horn loaded 18,s. you can see the final results @hume hotel in Nelson BC. Check out Spiritbar, its a nice intimate venue with a 300 person capacity. mostly a live sound venue hosting a variety of bands.
Control 1 /1G have foam woofers. They just disintegrate! I learned the hard way! And no... replacing the woofers is more expensive than buying a NEW pair! It sucks! And even if it wasn't, the screws mountings are ALL plastic! Not even a metal female so it could be opened and closed with confidence!
@@MarcoLopesPT I found a deal on a bunch of replacement woofers on ebay. Random score.
I have a pair of Control 1 speakers I have had for over 10 years now, on occasion, I have experienced them 'glowing' at louder volumes. I also have a pair of Control 2P which are same form factor that are self-powered, I am curious if they have the bulb inside as well.
I love Vintage JBL speakers. Last year I got some vintage JBL L100 Century speakers, and went t hrough them and refurbed the cabinets and got new Quadrex foam grills for them in blue and they're great. Both great looking and great sounding. When I got them the drivers were fine and so were the crossovers. But I think at some point maybe this year I want to make a new pair of crossovers for them. When I do that I think I may make the crossover compatible with bi-amping.
Did you check the light bulbs? One of them could have a broken filament that reconnects intermittently, it's not rare to have a light bulb with a broken filament, specially in the high vibration environment._
I'd go ahead and replace the caps anyway. You'd be surprised at how much they change over the years.
Many speakers, especially semi pro or pro speakers use these 'soffitten' bulbs as current limiting devices. They will soft limit the power towards the speakers, protecting them and also making sure the mechanical limits of the speakers are less easily reached, so they will be able to handle high peaks in the signal better, but also limit dynamics. I've seen them in Bose, JBL, Denon, Jamo and many more.
These JBL Speakers are 30 years old? It looks new and modern!
Oh yeah fixing old speakers, such an easy intro to electronics, and the payoff is amazing when you can get something to sound beautiful.
I inherrited 50 year old JBL Control Monitors (4311) and had to clean corrosion, glue a few cones and spiders and remove moisture from the cabinatery. Sounded perfect after that. Replaced original caps, yet they sound the same! The old caps were encased in cardboard too, so... somehow they performed after half a century!
Aftermarket KSN1005 tweeters swapped out from the stock tweeters, which only went up to 15khz. Now probs goes around 25khz, and with that smooth bass and detailed mid driver, such a pleasure. Not expensive getting a pair online and learning how to service them. More fulfiling in my honest oppinion than going out and buying a new equivalent set for thousands.
Those remind me of Cambridge Soundworks speakers we had in the late 90's.
Never stop rambling, your expanse of knowledge of the new, the old and the arcane is why I watch your channel!!
Those JBL speakers do not look like bookshelf speakers, they look like the type of speaker used in a supermarket or a warehouse usually bracketed to the wall for background music.
it is a technique widely used by Bose to protect the speakers, if well calculated it dissipates the excess power that could damage the speaker, many audio companies dedicated to the consumer market use this
6:32 Kabuki speakers?
Excerpt from an AudioKarma thread:
Kabuki Speaker = Japanese made speakers from the 60's through the 70's that had a minimum 15" woofer, a minimum 4-way cross-over, at least 6 individual drivers, in a box that is less than 3 cu ft or weighs less than 50lbs.
Out of the above six criteria, the Polk's mentioned above only meet one.
For those wondering about the origin of the term, it had to do with the limited bandwidth and tinny sound that chracterized the first versions of these speakers. As a friend said "You can play Led Zepplin though them and it comes out sounding like Kabuki music".
I have many JBL Control 1 - 6" speakers that i got from a closed Target HQ, and they sounded better than a pair of vintage Acoustic Research 7s (90s version)
You should replace the butyl rubber because over time they get stiff and hard and made the speaker work harder effecting the overall sound quality. Good video.
I have a set of bose acoutsimass speakrs that have the light bulbs inside them. Was confused when I first opened them and just thought they were fuses. Still impressed with sound and how nice and clean the sub sounds on speakers that are older than I am.
I have these exact speakers and want to restore them. So excited to see this video.
Talking of JBL in Japan, you showed a shot of Kenrick Sounds - their RUclips channel is a very nice rabbit hole to fall down. I always end up on the one delivered to Mr Abe's room. Always sticks with me.
I wasn't entirely sure but instantly thought it could/would be from there, mostly recognizing the showroom :D
I don't watch that many videos of this genre, but I always end up on that channel again and again, for many years ...
I bought the control 1 for 30€ brand new from a second hand market, including the wall mounts. The current version have a screw in wall mount and the old style wall mount. Because are the regular control 1 they only go from 60hz till 22.000hz, so i found also a magnat subwoofer witch i set it from 60hz down to 20hz (that's the maximum that the subwoofer can go). Over all i'm very satisfied with the speakers, just that the lac base. The control 1 pro are 4ohm speaker and the control 1 are 8ohm, but this one you have control 1 plus i don't know what's the frequency respons and what ohms.
Dang maybe I need to make a video about my Sony SS-H3500s. Those are three way with arguably superior specs and fabric surrounds. Glad to see some love for vintage bookshelf speakers. Very underrated source of value hifi.
I think today you can actually buy them as a consumer product, at least in my country. Here they were and still are a really popular set of speakers because of their price and sound quality. Off the top of my head I can remember at least 10-15 places in my small town that have them. Even in different models.
Sound devices out of Japan in the late 80's/early 90's were top notch, even guitars like Ibanez were almost untouchable for the price point.
I have an early 1980s Pioneer amplifier, I'm considering replacing the smoothing capacitors of the power supply.
so in ireland you can buy the control 1 pro for 138 euro brand new (excl. shipping though), which is around 145 usd.
Elytone (established 1980) currently seems to be a Chinese/Taiwanese company still active in (about) the same field.
It's not very clear however if they were originally a Japanese firm??
Not sure if you noticed but at 15:03 there appears to be a date code on the inside of the speaker. It looks like it was manufactured in September 1989 if I'm reading it correctly
Interesting. Now I know why the JBL pro3 version of these that I used as near field monitors for my keyboard rig in the early 90’s had their very own light show coming from the port on the front. 🎹😊
I'm still rocking my AIWA XR-MN5 stereo system that my dad found next to the dumpster at his work. Only issues are the 5 disk changer doesn't read disks most the time and the tape player is stripped out... but it works good as an aux-in
Hi there, doesn't the names of the control series speakers had to do with the size and number of drivers?
I purchased in the year 2000 a pair of control 25 that can be used in exterior, even painted, but never used them like that.
It is a special audio light bulb used for overload protection. Many PA speaker had this solution for many decades.
There is a date code stamped on the inside of the front cover. Right above the port tube. 14:54 There's a mark at 9/89. There also seems to be two more on 11/89. I'm not sure what's up with that but that seems to put it at the end of 1989.
I want some Aiwa bookshelf speakers, always loved the sound. My Yamaha receiver is high wattage so stll looking.
I'm a tiny bit more than a little bummed that you didn't hook them up while taken apart to see the bulbs light up while the speakers are in use. Still, I had no idea those bulbs were in there. There were tons of Ctrl1s in use at the theme park I worked at in the late 80s to the early 90s. There were many Ctrl10s there as well. I was so nostalgic for those times that in early 2000 I found a used pair of Control 10 speakers for sale locally and I went and bought them. I blast them on rare occasions and re-live my early adult years.
The light bulbs only light up when they're being pushed into protection mode. Not something you do on purpose.
I have had control 5 with C5 sub since 1987. Love them the light is in there as a warning if you overload it.
If you look closely you can find these including the control 30's at many uk theme parks. I would like a pair of these but my ms25's are good unless I run out of space
Repair starts at 13:18 ...
Very nice video. I noticed a pair of these recently that had a threaded insert. Did they add then in later production models?
Yeah, I think people got tired of the weird mounting brackets, so newer Control 1s switched to a much simpler arrangement.
My JBL Control 2.4 G (an active wireless version of these speakers JBL had at the time) I got in 2008 came with a couple of threaded inserts: one in the bottom and one in the back (although it still has the hooks to pass a security wire through them, which is nice considering how heavy these things are). These speakers are built like tanks!
If these were also sold in Japan besides just being manufactured there, the steel safety wire hookup is for earthquakes, so they wouldn't be flung across the room.
Mind you, that's my educated guess without checking but seems obvious.
You’d want that insurance in any outdoor installation (like museum parks for instance), but of course it’s even more crucial in Japan as there will be more jostling guaranteed.
@@offperception All professional speakers for overhead use have safety wire hookups.
One of my favorite speakers as a young musician. I got the combo with the sub from a gear trade. I always dug the over peak/light but assumed it was heat. lol
Probably already been mentioned, at 14:55 the date stamp on the back of the plastic has it at 1992 9/10/11? Not clear but you said not sure when they were made… just a thought
That lightbulb thingy has been around for ages! I’ve taken higher end speakers apart before and saw the fibre sleeve charred to a crisp. Whomever owned the sure blasted them regularly
Bose also used light bulbs in some of their speakers its a clever idea. For some reason the control 5s don't sound as good as control 1s, the mids are odd.