Would I gain anything?


I have a stock pair of JBL L-200 speakers. The cabinets are in excellent condition as are the drivers. One of the cheesy spring loaded input connectors is missing.

Would it improve the performance significantly to remove the crossover and rewire the system using good quality speaker wire and new binding posts and then bi-amping with an external active crossover?

From what I understand these JBL drivers are still among the best and the cabinets, while dated in appearance are well constructed and pretty dead.
macrojack
I suggest asking over at audioheritage, under the Lansing forum. Also, the guys at the hi-eff forum on audio asylum could probably help.
It is always speculative as an improvement to remove the internal crossover and replace it with an external active crossover unless the designer intended such an upgrade.

Speakers are (or should be) designed as a package. Trade offs are made between the various elements of the speaker. Although an active crossover is far superior to a passive one, the designer may not have envisioned the drivers and cabinet he chose to match with the crossover you are replacing his with.

So it may help, or it may not.
The crossover in a speaker often does more than just separate drivers from each other. What would be best is to use better components in the crossovers.
I feel, as many do, that in the case of the L200 the whole is much less than the sum of the parts, and that they can be substantially improved with a degree of modification . . . esp. adding a tweeter and turning it into a three-way system.

I will also second Dan_ed's advice on checking out the Lansing Heritage website and forum . . . you will find many others who have been down this road.
I tried to explore the Heritage website and found it was too dense for me to navigate. I was unable to find my topic and didn't understand the layout at all. I also find Audio Asylum to be more trouble than it is worth.
Am I missing something about these sites? I can get around a lot of others without any difficulty.
Dan_ed,

Thanks for the links. I didn't see my answer yet but I'll keep looking.
Would it improve the performance SIGNIFICANTLY to remove the crossover and rewire the system using good quality speaker wire and new binding posts and then bi-amping with an external active crossover?
Yes it would, although "significantly" is a relative term, isn't it!

However, talking about it is easy. Implementing it is not. You might try improving the matls used in the passive xover first.

Anyway, you need:
the original x-over schematic,
the tech sheet,
info on the drivers and, not least,
help from an experienced spekaer diyer or speaker tech. Enjoy
Thanks, everybody. Since these speakers are "extra", I guess I'll forgo the temptation to mess with them. Currently they are providing voice for a Yamaha P-120 electric piano. My fantasy concerned elevating their performance to a level where they might adequately supplant the speakers in my main system.It sounds like too much trouble.