early christmas gifts ....

[yggdrasil]

Congratulations.


Keep us posted.

[hmolwitz]

I am a trashpicker from way back, but you have me beat.
Did you get a chance to look in the other cabinet yet?
Might be a 604, or an old Jensen, that guy had great taste.
Harry

[Fred Sanford]

Love it. Maybe I sould relinquish my "Fred Sanford" nickname to you?


Good luck with them. Now you see why I always drive a big, empty truck...just in case!

je

[Mr. Widget]

So Glen if I am reading this right, you now have several singles?

It might be awhile before their mates turn up...


Widget

[Regis]

Great find! Gawd, I'm envious!

[glen]

So Glen if I am reading this right, you now have several singles?

It might be awhile before their mates turn up...


Widget

Yeah, these will be joining my other lonely singles: A C-34 and an L54 trimline (shown in the photo gallery) and ***warning: non-lansing*** Stephens Trusonic 12 inch 2-way cabinet. The fruit of years spent scouring thrift shops and rummage sales.

Maybe we should open a Lansing Heritage singles bar where lonely speakers might meet their mates?

[glen]

Congratulations.
Keep us posted.

Opened up the newest cabinet, the wood grilled Olympus, to start things off.
It was an S6 system (not the S7).
An early one with an LE15 (not LE15A) making it a vintage 1960 or 61.
The edge surround is solid as a rock! But apparently not cracked that I can see, a candidate for the brake fluid treatment?
Pictures below, opening the D-1002 next, saving the mystery cabinet for last.

[glen]

Well, this was good news and bad news.
First the bad news: no Jim Lansing Signature components that would have been appropriate for a D-1002, and no crossover at all. And the D130 woofer has a torn, stained cone.
The good news: bolted to the butchered baffle that doesn't even cover the square hole in the front of the cabinet is an LE75 driver with horn and lens matching the one in the S6 system in the C50 Olympus cabinet. In fact the serial number on the fracturing decal is just 10 off from the one in the Olympus (3726 & 3736)

Looks like when the owner wanted to update to stereo he bought the C50/S6 and then installled some sort of matching components in the empty D-1002 box. Maybe he already had the D130 around? I wouldn't think a JBL dealer would sell that as a match for an LE15. And that weird cheese-cloth wrapped batting on the sides and back of the enclosure? Maybe Steve Schell knows whether that is original?

I was pretty down hearted when I realized the D-1002 didn't contain any of the original components, finding replacements for a restoration wouldn't be easy.

But then, there was that third "mystery" cabinet...

[glen]

Opening up the third speaker, the one that originally caught my eye as I was driving along an unfamiliar street proved to be the most fun of all.

Here were the D-1001 Jim Lansing Signature components!

No crossover, mounted eccentrically, and the H-1000 horn seems to have one corner of the mounting flange cut off, but there they were.

The woofer is the D130A and the horn driver is designated D-175 as in the 1948 brochure (compared to the D-175H name in 1949) BUT neither has a serial number that I can make out on the typewritten model tag. I was photographing the tags with the aid of an inspection mirror, didn't actually lay eyes on them until I blew up the digital pictures later, but no serial numbers?

Did they only assign serial numbers to the drivers that were sold separately?
Could this have been a system sold to a factory employee?
And does anyone recognize the cabinet? material attached to the back looks like crepe paper. Original baffle cut-out looks like it's for a single 15 with a big rectangular port below.

So it looks llike Santa brought me MOST of a D-1002 after all!

[Steve Schell]

Outrageous!!!!!!

Glen, it is just so neat that you scored all this stuff. I'm just in from an 18 hour workday, but I'll try to remain coherent. Perhaps this glass of merlot will help... hic!

It does look like the owner was trying to cobble up a match for the Olympus in the D-1002 cabinet. The original components and baffle board are long gone. The cheesecloth and rock wool padding are typical of the way Jim Lansing did things and absolutely original- the Lansing Iconic boxes are padded the same way, only with thinner pads. He probably made this box himself, so guard it with your life!

The other cabinet was made by Stephens; I've got the catalog somewhere that shows this box. The paper padding is probably Kimsul, an insulation product of Kimberly Clark in those days that was often used for speaker box padding. My parents packed the ashtrays they made in their 1950s ceramics business with Kimsul for shipping. Just search for "Annie Laura" most anytime on ebay to see the map ashtrays they made. I've had Stephens utility enclosures (Iconic copies) in the past that were lined with Kimsul.

The drivers in the Stephens box are pure gold- Van Nuys era D-1000 series drivers. The woofer is a "flat back, no hole" as I call it D130 or 130A. Can you check the label on this one? I have believed up to now that all of the drivers with no vent hole in back were made in San Marcos or Venice. The H1000 horn and 175 driver are correct for your D-1002. Hey, come to think of it, the previous owner may have pulled these components out of the D-1002 box when he installed the components to match it to the Olympus.You will be able to make a new baffle for the D-1002 box, reinstall these and have a close to original system.

Anyway, most all this stuff is worth a lot on ebay, and I regard the early JBL components and cabinet as priceless. Fantastic score.

[norealtalent]

Nice score Glen. Been livin' right eh?

Merry Christmas everybody

[jandregg]

It was the month before Christmas I saw an add in the local Craig's list for jbl L-96. One le-5 in bad shape but otherwise good condition. I called and talked to Mark the owner. We lived three hours apart, but Mark said he would bring them into his work on friday and I could hear them. Still a long trip for me but my next call that day was to farm out an overtime job in the same area where Mark worked. Spur of the moment I say see you friday. The speakers were in good condition as described. The job paid my gas and turned out to be twelve hours at time and a half which paid for the speakers and left enough to buy my wife the digital camera she has wanted for several years. Mark was a pleasure to meet, tuned out to be a fan of pioneer speakers. A long, hard, and pleasurable day.
Forum member Brian sold me a replacement le5 at a reasonable price and the speakers were playing by Christmas. I was'nt too impressed with the sound, but I knew that Mark had installed new surround on the le10s, so I left them playing for week and they improved considerably. A sweet little speaker I thought, and what would they sound like if I bi-amped in my 15's under 350 hertz.
WOW! With the le15s suppling the bass these speakers sing wonderfully. They beat my regular speakers for imaging. My regulars are an 2123 to 085 to 077 and are pretty stellar themselves. I had planned on putting the l-96 in the bedroom, but they sound so good with the le15 the bedroom may have to live with smaller speakers while decide anew every day which speakers I will listen to today in the living room Life is good.

John

[glen]

Outrageous!!!!!!
D130 or 130A. Can you check the label on this one?.

Hi Steve,

Thanks very much for your info on these. The woofer label states D130A.
I do think that it and the D175 driver + H1000 horn were originally installed in the D-1002 cabinet.

Is it unusual that they don't have serial numbers on the lables?

[Steve Schell]

Hi Glen,

Your drivers have the first version of the "cut corners" rectangular decal, which dates to the Van Nuys location as evidenced by the "racetrack" decal on the same driver. The serial numbers on all these early era JBL drivers, or lack of them, signify nothing that we can decipher nowdays. John Edwards, who ran the office through these years and typed the labels, told us that the serial numbers signified something like batch numbers or production dates to them at the time, but he has forgotten the particulars.

At least you have model numbers on your drivers. On my Venice D-1002, the same "Jim Lansing Signature Speaker" paper label is applied to cabinet, crossover, compression driver and woofer- no model numbers on anything.

Do you have the appropriate early N-1200 crossover for the system? If not, I may be able to help you obtain one. Also, I hope to do some restoration work on my D-1002 early next year. If you like, we can use its baffle board as a pattern to make one for your cabinet.

I am repeatedly impressed by the amount of late 1940s JBL product still in circulation. Jim Lansing worked tremendously hard during those four years trying to get JBL off the ground, and these products are the lasting result of that effort. Most of them still work fine and sound great, after a 55+ year "break in" period.