The OFFICIAL JBL Owners Thread - Page 328

I have the L series. 890s and LC2 upfront powered by a PIO 94. I watch a lot of mivies and the dialogue does not sound as pronounced as I would like it to be. It sits on a tv stand abput 7 inches from the wall. What can I do to improve this? Is it my receiver, the speaker not being wall mounted or do I just need to replace it with an LC1? Please help.

Thanks,

Andrew

The LC2 needs to be forward of all objects, to eliminate early reflections, which cause the dialogue to be muddled. The LC2 is primarily designed for wall mounting, which gives it added boundary reinforcement. When used wall mounted with a wall mount flat screen, all is good.

I would recommend placing in front of the tv stand, just below the screen, if possible.

Apart from making sure it's at the front edge of any shelf, can't you go into your AVR setup and turn it up? Replacing it with an LC1 isn't the choice that most here would make.

HA! But thank you still the same.

Honestly, there's quite a bit on this board. Appreciate all that this group (and others) have helped on.

I did use the YPAO originally, and then started adding the "L" series...so will have to re-run everything next week. To be honest, I'm not sure how the SWRs went back to 100 unless I did it while the 36's were up front...

I also saw your post on the 10 inch speakers for the 36 (below)...I had these speakers rebuilt by a pro about 15 years ago and if nothing else I should touch base with the shop...just in case.

Dang, I also need to stay away from Ebay. There's a pair of L810s and THEY would fit nicely behind the sofa...

I got two JBL J900MV towers off of craigslist.

Can you JBL experts rate these speakers? How good are they?

Run4cuvr - the LC2 is an excellent center that can blast out dialogue very well. Short of your setup, you aren't saying much about your AVR or settings. Have you just run the auto setup and left it at that? Have you tried hooking up the LC2 as a regular L/R and checking that everything is working? Some people prefer to run the center channel a few dB hot. While not "right", your ears are the judge. If you like it better that way, just bump the center level. Outside of that, there are about 20 different possible configuration settings in your AVR and source that can change things.

ps24eva - J900mv's are pretty low on the JBL food chain. Hopefully they were very inexpensive and you are just using them in a secondary environment like the garage or basement. There are many very good JBL speakers to be found used in the $100-200/pr range that are tons better... Original S series 1&2, L80/100T, L5/7, etc.

You can find out the technical specs here:

http://manuals.harman.com/JBL/HOM/Te...900MV%20ts.pdf

They originally sold for around $250 each over 15 years ago, so expect low prices accordingly. The crossover and driver complement is interesting, in that the 8" and 6" drivers essentially reproduce the same frequencies, all the way up to the single crossover point at 3500 Hz. Plus, how often do you see a 6" and 8" together, along with a composite tweeter? Answer: almost never.

The L5 had an 8", 6", 4" and Ti tweeter, so close but not really.

They should be decent units with a relatively high 92 dB sensitivity, but they're a very simple two-way with three drivers, if that makes any sense.



The real question is how do you like them? That's the only answer that matters.

[quote=Slare;19091263]Run4cuvr - the LC2 is an excellent center that can blast out dialogue very well. Short of your setup, you aren't saying much about your AVR or settings. Have you just run the auto setup and left it at that? Have you tried hooking up the LC2 as a regular L/R and checking that everything is working? Some people prefer to run the center channel a few dB hot. While not "right", your ears are the judge. If you like it better that way, just bump the center level. Outside of that, there are about 20 different possible configuration settings in your AVR and source that can change things.
QUOTE]

Hello,
Running my LC2 5 db hot and it sounds much better. I believe this is probably the most power this thing has ever gotten. Lot's more detail as if it just came to life. Thanks for the help.

Hello,
Running my LC2 5 db hot and it sounds much better. I believe this is probably the most power this thing has ever gotten. Lot's more detail as if it just came to life. Thanks for the help.[/quote]

Yes, running a center a few db hot makes up for bad room acoustics or bad placement.

How good are TLX271P towers?

Compared to what? This is another model with built-in woofer amp. (100W) I would keep expectations low, most of the components are fairly cheap.

MANUAL

Pair of S412PII = 1 man band

JBL made a lot of garbage in the mid 90's when they started selling product out of Best Buy. There is a sort of glut in between the L series (L1/3/5/7) & S/S2 (S26/38/312/412P, etc.) being the last good consumer offerings of the early 90's and not really getting back up to par until the recent Studio (820/830/880/890) series. Up until the HTPS400 or L8400P, all of the consumer subs were pretty terrible, as well.

Unfortunately since most of those "glut" models were sold in high volumes at stores like Best Buy... there are LOTS of them out there giving JBL a pretty bad name. The easiest way to filter out the turds is to look at the tweeter - that TLX style 3/4" laminate semi-dome type tweeter, or a cone (ARC series) are the worst, and a lot of the 3/4" laminate dome tweeters (N series, Venue, etc.) aren't very good either. All of that stuff isn't worth much more than for use as shop speakers, imho.

Respectable JBL's all have 1" dome tweeters or better (compression/horns). The E50 and EC35 are the only two decent JBL's I can think of that fall outside of this guideline managing to be decent with the smaller tweet.

I'd also include the S38 / S38II's though

All the S's pass the 1" tweeter test, yo.

any good?
http://detroit.craigslist.org/wyn/ele/1914996844.html

thanks,

Not a bad price if it's in pristine condition. The S120PII is the predecessor of the L8400P in that it uses the same driver. It's more like any of the later 400W 12" subs from the other lines. Nothing special. Pretty boomy.

Nousaine's master list shows it as not being able to quite keep up with the L8400P (76.4 dB vs. 85 dB at 20 Hz; the S120PII 37-80 +/- 2.2 dB vs. L8400P 37-110Hz +/- 2.1). Slightly steeper roll off and much shallower range that results in the boominess RD's referring to (less musical). One's up used on Amazon for $265 right now too. Always nice to have their cast baskets, though, especially on a sub.

It's supposedly pretty flat at ~104-107 dB from 25-62 Hz, so pretty nice for movies, but aren't you worried about your neighbors?

just scanning craigslist and looking for any killer deals out there - whether or not i can use in my current location is irrelevant.
just curious

thanks -

I would be worried about the amp... I am not sure if the 120 was late enough in the game but it is right in the same year range when JBL's powered sub amps had a best a pretty finite life and at worst an extremely high failure rate. One of the main reasons to avoid JBL subs up until the 8400P timeframe.

Given $250 would get you into any number of solid brand new offerings, I think you'd be crazy to buy the 120 for that. I would be hard pressed to value it over $100.

I am thinking about buying a pair of these speakers, and have a couple questions for owners.

First, I am a little concerned about the impedance which apparently dips to 4 ohms. I have an older 5-channel receiver rated at 100 watts/channel at 8 ohms. I would only be using it in 2.0 stereo mode at very moderate volumes. Do you think it would be powerful enough to run these speakers?

And second, do you consider these to be higher-end 'musical' speakers? I like classical and some melodic rock, no rap or bass-heavy stuff. Do any L880 owners feel that those would be better based on my 2 concersn?

Thanks, I'd really appreciate any help.

I expect there are lots of people running L890s with less power than your AVR has and in 2-ch mode it should be fine.
They can actually dip to 3u, but it's not much of an issue in 2-ch setups. Most large towers do similar things. Needless to say, the more power you can feed them the better. Given the small price difference, I see no reason to consider L880s as an alternative nor would they be "better" in any way. I'd consider adding a good sub to the L890, but they're plenty good to try for a while as-is. EQ and placement can make a big different for bass.

Thanks for this suggestion RD. I did swap the 36s to the front with the LC2 and after running PYAO twiddled the settings. There's a "sweet spot" all across the couch and chairs. The L820s are supposed to be delivered Friday and hope to have an extension so both Polk SWRs will reach into the far back corners. (L8400s will just have to wait)

My back is hurting after moving these speakers around but I just had a few hours of crystal clear music as a reward.

Try moving these:

RD, I've been meaning to ask you how JBL got the photos of your living room for their promotional materials?



You and your boozing and horticulture...

Awhile back there was a kit of four 250's (not sure if Ti or not) along with some sc amps and such posted for $2500. Had it not been for the sheer size of the 250's, I probably would have bought that kit. By the time I pulled together some plan to haul them... they were sold.

Looking back on it, it was a blessing in disguise as the P-series is a better fit for me.

But someday in a bigger house I would still like to spend some quality time with a pair of 250's and XPL's. It's good to have something left to look forward to.

I have a pair of those (L250) in the back of my Sorento right now. After work, I'll take them home, and soon, like an opening cocoon, something new and different will emerge.

+1

Yup, it's not a bad sub....Just needs help to sound decent such as....placement, settings,polyfill and someone patient with enough time on their hands

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...=263602_263622

Sell your car (or both of them). Buy a work of art.