The activity here is lifeless. A real pity. Facebook is alot more active. All the experts have disappeared or don't care anymore
The activity here is lifeless. A real pity. Facebook is alot more active. All the experts have disappeared or don't care anymore
Nah, tik tok is the new shit!
Keeps the noise level down.
". . . as you have no doubt noticed, no one told the 4345 that it can't work correctly so it does anyway."—Greg Timbers
Activity here is fine...remember, there is a LOT of prior discussions that are still relevant and don't need to just be repeated so much as looked up.
A lot of what I've seen on FB is more show-and-tell fandom than good information. It is a different crowd and even if it has similar members, the mindset while on FB seems to be somewhat different.
New guys posting which Altec thumps with unrealistic bass gets more comments than others posting legitimate vintage Altec JBL questions about specific woofers and horns. And no not all questions are covered in past posts I have searched.
I wouldn't say lifeless, but it has certainly slowed down quite a bit over the decades.
I think there are quite a few contributing factors here.
1. Several of our most prolific members have sadly passed away.
2. Member 4313B, aka Giskard, Lancer etc. has left the building for personal reasons. Along with a volatile and sometimes eccentric posting style he was able to bring us a lot of insider and technical info from the braintrust at JBL. It is too bad we have lost that connection, but then that braintrust has been significantly damaged by upper management at Harman anyway.
3. JBL has become very bad about supporting their legacy products. The products that brought so many of us here in the first place.
4. Many of us have said what we had to say and it is out there for others to read. Some posts may be very useful to some and other posts... not so much.
Related to the above observations, Don McRitchie who founded this site and forum has a JBL system he is quite happy with and his interests have moved on to other areas like photography. I for one have a system that satisfies me and I may or may not ever tackle another DIY speaker system. On the new commercially produced products that JBL/Harman is producing, there is little to interest me personally so there you are. Beyond that, there are a number of other good sites that are better for general audio discussions.
Widget
Widget makes some good points.
There was a period of discovery and excitement and that applies to lots of interest areas not just vintage loudspeakers.
However there are still people out there searching for information and there are a number of alternative forums to LHS none of which l bother to visit. There are thousands of very useful threads and l would encourage any lurkers to search and or post on that they are specifically looking for?
Building big loudspeaker is certainly on trend.
There is a trend towards YouTube following and Facebook groups for those who want to interact directly in real time with others. Some of these groups are by subscription or invitation. Unfortunately forums are seen now was a place for combative opinions with often little fact or focus on resolving the OPs question(s). The LHS owner did not evolve the site into a place for commercial advertising like Diyaudio.com which is now buzzing with interest.
Over an earlier period there was much publicity of catch ups from visiting forum members. I am currently visiting SF at this point in time but unfortunately l have a hectic agenda (with my wife) and could not slot in any time for a group catch up). I have a busy few days in Southern California visiting Palm Springs but l do have this Saturday night free in Santa Monica if anyone wants to catch up and reflect on old times? If no one can do it l totally get it as we all have busy lives.
Ian
I wouldn't say dead, but it is very different from when I joined in 2003. Like others have stated, there is a wealth of information here. Sadly many have passed on while others, like myself, have reached a plateau of audio contentment. This results in a lot more reading and less posting, less research and more listening.
At first, not long ago, I was very excited to come across this forum. It has a wealth of info that is timeless.
My history with JBL, Crown, etc., was always on the pro side of things used in bars, theaters, and concert halls.
I had to adjust as many of the members here seem to use the pro stuff in their houses. I didn't realize that at first glance. I stopped posting and started reading to get a clue.
My income doesn't support this side of the heritage that it has in the past.So now that I've learned what the masses here are all about, I still find many posts interesting. There aren't many each day.
I've been at other hobby forums where the conversations deteriorated so bad, that I left. Some of those forums left too! Seems like they became a public posting of "listen to me" with no content.
So I'm always grateful for any forum that remains a source of great info (content) and less hype.
If you're looking for excitement, I could see where you feel this forum is not "the place". I'd rather have the quiet over the political based ranting forums that have little or no facts, only opinions that aren't even informed ones.
So to the hosts, Thank you for this forum!
BTW having a resource like this may not be exciting to some members. I came from a time and place where the store was the only source. No forums. Info was scarce at best. When you had nothing, something can be exciting!
Not long ago I saw Vinny post looking for a source for original 2402 diaphragms. Yep, this place is gonna be dead for that unless somebody happened to have a pair stashed away. Simply Speakers and Speaker Exchange were a pretty good source for a lot of replacement parts, but looking at their listings, every OEM JBL ring radiator diaphragm is out of stock or discontinued. JBL pro might have some, but the common retail sources have dried up.
EngineerJoe:
The old home stuff is fading fast, most of the DIY builds these days are current production drivers or pro gear adapted for home use because that's what can be purchased. And forget about stuff like replacement diaphragms for home tweeters more than a couple of years old, or really any home drivers more than a few years old. All the old legacy gear that brought many of us here is dying off from attrition, finding somebody parting out one of those old systems is the only source of parts. There are some aftermarket parts that pop up now and then, some better than others. The only hope for the legacy systems is a high quality source of aftermarket parts IMHO, JBL has moved on.
Yes, and I agree with most of this. I like the new stuff and think we should at least look at it.
I also think we should look at just how old some of this stuff is now. Having replacement parts drying up, is not the fault of JBL. It has to be a part of overall demand and good business sense. You might think the demand for fresh 2402 diaphragms is high? I would not. I haven't used them in decades. I can't see JBL wasting resources over supplying a few diaphragms for outdated components that doesn't help them. They would go out of business I feel.
I think the heritage stuff is anything over 5 years old. I might be way off on that? In today's market and production overseas, importers are lucky to get reruns of anything. I believe factories make a limited quantity of most anything, and stop. They want to get paid and there's no more molds or dies lying around for years waiting for future use. Technology advances and what's today's production is gone tomorrow.
So it sounds to me that this very forum could just become a place to gripe over what's not available? Do we blame this site?
I don't think it will be long before anyone here will have to go with the modern stuff. Heritage in the near future might become anything that's more than a year old?
Of course, all this is just my opinion. I loved the old JBL components. I had to sell many because of life's circumstances. That forced me to go with more modern stuff as I recovered each time. Each time, I realized that I was better off for it. Lugging around JBL '50 bins wasn't going to cut it for very long. I love the new lightweight driver designs that seem to defy logic. Dual voice coils, high vmax, huge power handling, etc..
If digital isn't your thing (anyone reading this), I understand. I just think we will die off (happy times here) and new users won't know the difference. They will have grown up without analog devices, passive crossovers, vinyl records, tone arms, etc. Ooops. I'm too late!
Wait have you looked at these?
https://www.parts-express.com/selenium-st400-super-tweeter-black--264-450
Things have changed so much over the life of this forum. Back when we were most active if you wanted to do a DIY build on almost all of the legacy large format monitors it was no big deal. We had equivalent crossovers posted to replace the tapped inductors and all you needed were driver cores. You were able to build "New" systems by re-coning the cores. It was awesome! I can't think of anyone else who supported legacy systems like JBL once did. Now it is all gone.
I would be hard pressed doing a DIY legacy system today. I still want to do a 4315 which luckily I have drivers for but if I didn't already have them?
Rob
"I could be arguing in my spare time"
That was kind of my point. I think every now and then somebody might pop in wanting to build a 4315, for example. That's a tall order, I bet there's not more than a few people in the world who could pull that off with correct components. A proper rebuild of a 4312 would be a stretch today. Some of the large format systems that shared pro components still seem to be the most DIY-able stuff, even those need a little massaging here and there. Kenrick only has a system or two for sale, they used to have a load off stuff and it sold ASAP for top dollar. So yeah, the world has changed. But it's not this forum's fault, it's the hand that was dealt.
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