JBL D130F 15 speaker. Tell me all about it.

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StevenO
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Re: JBL D130F 15 speaker. Tell me all about it.

Post by StevenO » Thu Oct 20, 2016 5:18 pm

My D130F look so exactly like those. Very cool setup! I'd hate to lug it around though. :D

I have to say, I've been playing through both my Princeton Reverb and my Showman and JBL, and I really love the sound of this thing. Crystal clear, but not sterile or brittle sounding. It sounds full-range, very hi-fi and flat sounding. I see why people like them. Though it won't kick out the Weber 10F150T as my favourite speaker for Blackface Fender tones. That speaker is seriously magical, BUT it's close for sure.

I'm truly fortunate to have such great gear at my disposal. Now just to do it justice!


Also, thanks Parry for pointing me in the JBL direction. :-*

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Re: JBL D130F 15 speaker. Tell me all about it.

Post by andy_tchp » Fri Oct 21, 2016 5:54 pm

My favourite speaker. They were used in open back cabinets by Fender, like my main amp for the last dozen years, the Vibrosonic Reverb (which is a Twin Reverb in all other aspects).

Unfortunately I blew mine up (cooked the voice coil) doing noisy things with a couple of distortion/boost and delay pedals and said 100W SilverFace Fender amp. Prior to that it had taken everything I'd thrown at it. We're a LOUD band!

The recone kits available today (both from JBL and aftermarket) don't really sound the same (only similar ballpark), and also don't have the power handling capability of the original speakers, which has been estimated from anywhere between 25 and 60 Watts.

At the moment mine sits as an empty bright orange frame after blowing it up for a third time :squint: I ended up throwing a Jensen Neo 15" rated at 150 Watts in to get the amp up and running again, which has held up for the last four years or so.


A random tidbit of advice I remember from Harvey Gerst is: Don't over-tighten the mounting fasteners or you risk warping the frame. Which would be a bad thing(tm). Finger-tight is fine.
Last edited by andy_tchp on Fri Oct 21, 2016 6:01 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: JBL D130F 15 speaker. Tell me all about it.

Post by parry » Fri Oct 21, 2016 5:59 pm

:blush:

SO happy to hear you're getting on with it. They're such great speakers 8)
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andy_tchp
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Re: JBL D130F 15 speaker. Tell me all about it.

Post by andy_tchp » Fri Oct 21, 2016 6:17 pm

surfingonacid wrote:Just a heads up to JBL D110F, D120F & D130F lovers,
WEBER do a JBL D series style speaker. Not exactly the same but people have done comparisons and have hardly been able to tell the difference, some say the Weber sounds better. I have heard they sound brighter, but that could really be to do with breaking them in for years.. There seems to be a common belief that the California series speaker is like the JBL, but it's not.. The Neomag is closer.
You've piqued my interest, as tracking down an original D-130F is now a $500+ proposition here.

I think people misinterpreted the 'replaces JBL D130' statement on Weber's description of the California 15" as meaning 'sounds like a D-130', and this was then repeated ad-nauseum until it became an 'internet forum fact'.


Have you heard one of these NeoMag 15" drivers yourself? I'm mostly interested in hearing the opinion of someone like yourself, who knows what a real D-130F driven by a Fender amp is supposed to sound like. The price of the Neomag is certainly 'right' if it gets even 85% of the way there.
"I don't know why we asked him to join the band 'cause the rest of us don't like country music all that much; we just like Graham Lee."
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Bothand Nether
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Re: JBL D130F 15 speaker. Tell me all about it.

Post by Bothand Nether » Fri Oct 21, 2016 6:41 pm

andy_tchp wrote:
surfingonacid wrote:Just a heads up to JBL D110F, D120F & D130F lovers,
WEBER do a JBL D series style speaker. Not exactly the same but people have done comparisons and have hardly been able to tell the difference, some say the Weber sounds better. I have heard they sound brighter, but that could really be to do with breaking them in for years.. There seems to be a common belief that the California series speaker is like the JBL, but it's not.. The Neomag is closer.
You've piqued my interest, as tracking down an original D-130F is now a $500+ proposition here.

I think people misinterpreted the 'replaces JBL D130' statement on Weber's description of the California 15" as meaning 'sounds like a D-130', and this was then repeated ad-nauseum until it became an 'internet forum fact'.


Have you heard one of these NeoMag 15" drivers yourself? I'm mostly interested in hearing the opinion of someone like yourself, who knows what a real D-130F driven by a Fender amp is supposed to sound like. The price of the Neomag is certainly 'right' if it gets even 85% of the way there.
Also hunting for a Neomag, aside from the weightloss bonus for scrawny weaklings like myself,
I am curious about the tech & it's possability to handle slight breakup.

Here's a 10" comparison vid I tracked down awhile ago.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XYE5WXW0zCU
(Kinda hard to make anything sound bad in that signal chain)
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