JBL S105 Aquarius 1 Restoration Log

[spwath]

I purchased these speakers a while ago on craigslist, and it was probably a mistake, especially for $250.
Regardless, I am now restoring them.
As I purchased them, the grills are falling apart, the original 10" jbl woofers have been replaced by shitty radioshack woofers, the 10" woofer diffuser plates are missing, one of the bases is a bit messed up, one tweeter has a hole in it, and one binding post is broken.


Tweeter with hole, I have removed other drivers to clean speaker


Nice vintage JBL badging on tweeter


Nice vintage jbl badging on midrange


Cool vintage jbl badging on back of speakers



Also came with all original paperwork from 1971, including jbl product pricing guide.
These cost a whopping 288$ each in 1971. The legendary paragon cost a whopping $2500 though, or about $16000 now. Fun fact, the designer of the Paragon, Arnold Wolf, also designed the exclamation mark logo of JBL as seen throughout the 60's, 70's, and 80's, and is only slightly changed now.




My progress on these so far:
Cleaned out inside. Removed all fiberglass, and 2 dead mice.
I just ordered a new (used) tweeter for the one for $50. So already $300 in.

To do list: Find 2 JBL LE10A woofers, they come up on ebay now and again. I hope to score a pair for under $200. Rebuild grills using a frame and speaker cloth. I like the cool retro circles on the current one, but pretty hard to reproduced. Its made of a weird mesh plastic covered in fuzzy material, but has become brittle with age.

 

Cool reading on the JBL Aquarius:

http://www.audioheritage.org/html/profiles/jbl/aquarius.htm

[rice guru]

I agree $250 is a bit much but those look great minus the front good luck on the process. 

[spwath]

9 minutes ago, rice guru said:

I agree $250 is a bit much but those look great minus the front good luck on the process. 

and minus the two dead mice inside.

[rice guru]

3 minutes ago, spwath said:

and minus the two dead mice inside.

Lol yeah that's kinda gross and sad. Hopefully you can get the grill situation figured out makebe making a custom one? Or would the affect the sound too much

[spwath]

Just now, rice guru said:

Lol yeah that's kinda gross and sad. Hopefully you can get the grill situation figured out makebe making a custom one? Or would the affect the sound too much

Should be pretty easy to make a new grill with a frame and speaker cloth. Just cant get the cool circles.

 

The diffuser plate thing for the woofers though, that would be harder...

There is supposed to be these diffuser plates over the woofers and the mids, I only have the ones for the mids

Hard to reproduce the curve specifically for the woofer

[rice guru]

3 minutes ago, spwath said:

Should be pretty easy to make a new grill with a frame and speaker cloth. Just cant get the cool circles.

 

The diffuser plate thing for the woofers though, that would be harder...

There is supposed to be these diffuser plates over the woofers and the mids, I only have the ones for the mids

Hard to reproduce the curve specifically for the woofer

Did it not come with the plate?

[rice guru]

You could probably make it out of resin

[rice guru]

Something similar to this 

 

[Derkoli]

1 hour ago, spwath said:

I am now restoring them.

Good to see more old speakers being rescued. I would check the crossover componentry is all in good working order, maybe replace the caps. Also odd how the midrange has a diffuser. I would try them without the diffuser over the midrange, might sound cleaner. Also i assume you are replacing all the internal wiring?

[spwath]

Just now, Derkoli said:

Good to see more old speakers being rescued. I would check the crossover componentry is all in good working order, maybe replace the caps. Also odd how the midrange has a diffuser. I would try them without the diffuser over the midrange, might sound cleaner. Also i assume you are replacing all the internal wiring?

Yeah, probably would be a good idea to check out the crossover, replace the caps. Didn't bother doing that on my Dahlquist DQ-10 I sold, but that's because there were like 10 caps per speaker. This one looks simpler.

Internal wiring replacement, probably a good idea, the current stuff is very stiff.

[Derkoli]

1 hour ago, spwath said:

paragon

Really want to listen to a paragon sometime, or see if i can score one for less than 10k..

[Derkoli]

1 minute ago, spwath said:

Yeah, probably would be a good idea to check out the crossover, replace the caps. Didn't bother doing that on my Dahlquist DQ-10 I sold, but that's because there were like 10 caps per speaker. This one looks simpler.

Internal wiring replacement, probably a good idea, the current stuff is very stiff.

Yeah. just use decent 16/18 gauge wire. But a cap replacemant will probably help a great deal in the fidelity department.

[spwath]

Just now, Derkoli said:

Really want to listen to a paragon sometime, or see if i can score one for less than 10k..

Me too. Such a classic mid century design, some day I want one in my living room.

But they are rare and expensive, and you can get better sounding speakers for less.

[Derkoli]

Just now, spwath said:

Me too. Such a classic mid century design, some day I want one in my living room.

But they are rare and expensive, and you can get better sounding speakers for less.

You can get the diagrams online, i've seen people make them themselves, the soundstage might be quite interesting though.

[spwath]

1 minute ago, Derkoli said:

Yeah. just use decent 16/18 gauge wire. But a cap replacemant will probably help a great deal in the fidelity department.

Yeah, should get the crossovers out anyway to clean everything, doesn't smell to good with years of mold and dead mouse and mouse shit.

Need to get original woofers too, IDK why someone kept all original paperwork from 1971, but put cheap radioshack woofers in it.

1 minute ago, Derkoli said:

You can get the diagrams online, i've seen people make them themselves, the soundstage might be quite interesting though.

I do have the diagrams, I bought them. it looks very hard to make, so many parts. 

[Derkoli]

1 minute ago, spwath said:

Yeah, should get the crossovers out anyway to clean everything, doesn't smell to good with years of mold and dead mouse and mouse shit.

Need to get original woofers too, IDK why someone kept all original paperwork from 1971, but put cheap radioshack woofers in it.

I do have the diagrams, I bought them. it looks very hard to make, so many parts. 

You could put new woofers in, aslong as they have similar displacement and X-max, the paragon would be a fun project if you had the correct tools, but getting such large horn loaded drivers might be difficult.

[spwath]

Just now, Derkoli said:

You could put new woofers in, aslong as they have similar displacement and X-max, the paragon would be a fun project if you had the correct tools, but getting such large horn loaded drivers might be difficult.

Trying to find original woofers, for best quality. I should be able to get a pair on ebay for around $200 if I am lucky.