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After I dropped the B-15 a couple times and nearly wrenched my back one night with the 810, I've totally rethought this whole schlep thing
No John, you're absolutely right! I should man up. I think I'm going to bring my SVT to power my 210av's for my gig Thursday night, so that's a start
Great Post!!! man, I long for the sound of my old JBL's That's all I used my rigs in the early days. IMHO nothing compared.As some of you may already know, Im a huge fan of using JBL 15s in a lot of my rigs, ever since I experienced my first D130F in a 1962 rough blonde showman that i bought in 1969. IMO, even today, I havent found a speaker yet thats built with the same quality of construction and materials, and more importantly, quality of tone. The other day, I did a few comparison tests between three different versions of JBL 15s, namely the K140, E130 and E140 ( BTW, All but one of my JBLs have original factory cones and operate to factory specs, with many of them being NOS). I currently have ten K140s, four E140s, two E130s, four K120s, a D140F, a D130F, a D120F, a K145 and two K130s (for a total of 26 vintage JBLs).
And being addicted to the tone of JBL speakers since the late 60s, first, Ill start by saying that my personal favorite sounding speaker out of all of them for bass is the K140, however, since I have so many on hand, and really love the sound of all of them, I wanted to share/demonstrate their differences, in construction, efficiency (sensitivity) and tone.
Heres some front and back pics of the actual drivers used for this comparison test.
The D and K series both have large alnico magnets (w/ a 12000 flux density), for a total weight of 15 1/2 lbs. after alnico became so expensive to use in such a large quantity, the later E series used the heavier ceramic magnets (22 ¼ lbs). On all of them, the 130 and 140 versions of the same series used the same basket and magnet assemblies, with the only difference being their cones and voice coils. The only factory recone kit that JBL still offers is the E kit, so if you need any of them reconed and you want an OEM kit, youd have to recone the D or K series with an E kit. I might add, that in the past I've had Orange County Speaker Repair recone a K140 with an E kit and it still sounded just like a K140, except it had a slightly higher power rating afterwards. I've also reconed a few JBL's myself when I was fortunate enough to find a few OEM K130 kits. It's really not that difficult to do if you are very meticulous at cleaning off all of the old glue residue, have the proper voice coil shims and use the correct adhesives. OEM kits aren't seperately available from dealers though, so if you do need one reconed, you have to have an authorized JBL reconer do it for you. I've dealt with Orange County Speaker since 1973, and they charge ALOT ($264) for parts and labor, but it will be like brand new afterwards. Another, very meticulous authorized JBL service center is Upland Loudspeaker Service and they charge about $300 to recone a 15". Either one of them will do a perfect factory job on it.
The D series used a one piece paper cone with the F series (F stood for Fender) surround being doped with a flexible coating to yield better longevity/durability when used as an MI speaker for both fatigue (to handle larger transients/spikes) and adverse weather conditions. (BTW, if you google 'Harvey Gerst' you'll find that he was the designer of the JBL D series speakers. has posted a lot of first-hand info about them on various forums on the web). The D130F and D140F both used paper formers on their voice coils with the coil wire being flat ribbon aluminum wire on the 130 and flat ribbon copper wire on the 140 (flat ribbon wire is also used on the K and E series). The 130 cones are smooth, and 140 cones are ribbed (heavier and more rigid for use with a bass). On the K series cones, JBL introduced a treated linen surround and used Kapton formers which yielded a higher power (thermal) rating (125-150 watts) than the D series (75-100 watts). The E series upped their power handling again, with aluminum/nomex formers to 150-200watts (130/140)
On all of the versions, the 130s were more sensitive (efficient) than the 140s due to their lighter weight cones and lighter weight aluminum voice coils. To this day, I have yet to see a more efficient speaker than the E130 that has a spec of 105 dB @ 1 watt/1 meter! And BTW, JBLs spec is NOT just at 1kHz like most other companies use for their ratings, making the JBL more sensitive over a much wider range.
So, if you have a lower powered tube head and want to get the most clean volume out of it, a pair of E130s would be the ones to use, since they make a 100 watt head sound and feel like youre using a 300 watt head, as opposed to conventional speakers that are usually sensitive in the 98-101 db range at best, and two E130s will yield 108db @ 1w1/m.
Their sensitivity (@ 1w/1meter), frequency response, and X/max specs are:
E130: 105db 50hz-6khz 2.54mm
E140: 100db 40hz-2.5khz 3.56mm
K140: 98db 40hz-2.5khz 5.09mm
The 4 aluminum domes do add a bit of top end sparkle to all of them (which I love!) so, IMO, the 2.5khz spec on the 140s might be a bit conservative since theres definitely stuff going on at 4khz..
Ive also found JBLs power handling specs to be on the VERY conservative side, as Ive pushed two K140s with 600 watts all night long with no problems whatsoever. Their 150 watt rating is rated with a continuous sine wave, and at 300W of continuous music program (more commonly used today).
The soundclip:
The test amp that I used for the audio comparison clip is my 1978 Super Twin head with the rotary equalizer section bypassed, running into a non ported fender speaker cabinet. The tone controls were set as follows: bright switch-OFF, treble on 5 (mid way), middle set on 6, bass control set on 5. I played my 71 maple neck 8 1/4 lb p bass with the new vrsion of Fender's 9050L flats using my fingers. The bass's volume and tone controls set wide open (full up). I used a Zoom H4n to record it 6 in front of the cone, and recorded it in mono so as not to introduce any phase cancellations.
Heres a quick mp3 sound clip of all three speakers back to back. The tracks were not normalized intentionally so that youll hear a slight volume difference (sensitivity) between the three. The E130 is first, then the E140, followed by the K140.
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My take on them is that they all sound great, and IMO, a lot better than anything still offered today, and are at least as, or more efficient too.
My take on them:
The E130 is loud and proud, with excellent midrange detail, and obviously the brightest sounding one of the bunch.
The E140 is also very efficient (just not quite as much as the E130) and has a much softer mid/high end, with a little more low end punch. It has less upper mids, but still has a nice smooth top end.
The K140 is my personal favorite. It has a little more punch than the other two, as well as a less veiled and open character to it, with a very special & complex midrange. It has a slightly different attack & bloom to each note. To me, the notes sound thicker and have a little more clarity and definition. IME, you can actually play the K series speakers at a higher volume (of course, it takes a bit more power to do it), but IMO, it has less ear fatigue since it sounds a bit smoother. Some consider these speakers as old school but after listening to the clips, i think that you might agree that they just sound great, no matter what era that theyre from (at least I do), and they can handle a ton of power, although theyre so efficient, they dont really require it.
Anyway, sorry for the long post, but I thought that it might be helpful for those that might be considering acquiring some vintage JBLs for their 15 cabs.
Best,
Johnk
yup. i agree.
i have a few cabs loaded with two K140's and they're still my favorites:
Sunn 200S cab:
).:
