Rebuild my Dad's Jensen Model 5 speakers

[scottyb70]

Hi,

I was thinking about rebuilding my dad's vintage Jensen model 5 speakers. The foam rotted out on the 12" woofer, so I want to do a complete over haul. No more than 1000.00 budget.
Do you have any suggestions where to buy the tweeters, speakers, etc to make it sound close or better than the original?
Is it worth restoring them?

 

[j_garcia]

@ $1k, better off with new speakers for sure.

You can repair the woofer cheap with a refoam kit. As long as the other components still work fine, I would not spend the time to "upgrade" them.

 

[Verdinut]

A refoam kit would need to contain surrounds with the same compliance as the originals. I strongly doubt that some are still available. If the replacement foam is different, then the performance of the woofer will be affected because of its changed Thiele/Small parameters.

IMO monies should rather be used for new speakers.

 

[Kvn_Walker]

Jensen 12 inch Refoam Kit (F12-2) | Midwest Speaker Repair

www.midwestspeakerrepair.com

I've used Midwest foams to repair vintage speakers. It's likely impossible to find a modern driver that will drop in and work correctly so your best bet is to repair the existing woofer's.

If all the drivers are functional you should look foremost into crossover capacitors... then restoring the cabinet. Post pictures of what you already have.

 

[scottyb70]

well I just found out one of the subwoofers is missing. Oh well

 

[TLS Guy]

well I just found out one of the subwoofers is missing. Oh well

That is not a great loss. I doubt those speakers would compare favorably with modern speakers. I highly doubt the designers even knew about T/S parameters or how to use them if they did. Thiel and Small's work started to appear in 1971. Raymond Cooke of KEF recognized the importance of this work, and supported the endeavor. The work was not complete until 1972. US speaker manufacturers were slow to realize the importance of this work, and how to use it to properly align drivers and enclosures.
I believe that JBL were the first to use this work in the US.

In addition those side by side mids in those speakers, is something we would never do now.

I highly doubt those speakers are worth any trouble, or expense in any event.

 

[lovinthehd]

While I can understand somewhat the nostalgia with these speakers for you and your dad, for speakers not a great project as others have mentioned. Some really good speakers can be had for a grand, tho, particularly if you're willing to diy a kit....

 

[scottyb70]

Ok,
great thanks for the help guys. So what new speakers would you recommend for my dad's vintage Kenwood KR-7200? I will be using his original Empire 598 II turntable with it. I was looking at the klipsh heritage series or even the DIY kit would be interesting?

 

[slipperybidness]

Ok,
great thanks for the help guys. So what new speakers would you recommend for my dad's vintage Kenwood KR-7200? I will be using his original Empire 598 II turntable with it. I was looking at the klipsh heritage series or even the DIY kit would be interesting?

For decent speaker reqs, you need to provide a budget.

For the old speakers, perhaps try to repurpose them as decoration or an art project. for example, maybe convert them into racks to hold records or something. Just a suggestion to keep them in spirit, if they do have any sentimental value for you.

 

[scottyb70]

1000.00 or less

 

[TLS Guy]

1000.00 or less

What are you going to use your system for, AV, music or both? In addition is it just 2 channel or more, and do you plan on using a sub. What are you planning to drive the speakers with and what is the size of the room. We can't give you a sensible answer without knowing that. Lastly are you in the US? We often spend a lot of time with questioners, only to find they in Timbucktoo, with very limited access to gear.

 

[slipperybidness]

1000.00 or less

There are a lot of good options at that price range.

These are fairly well regarded, I would get the matching stands that make them into a "mini tower"

CMT-340SE MINI-TOWER PAIR

Uncompromising Performance, Our Best Value! "These speakers’ levels of design, capability, and refinement far exceed what could previously be expected from this price range. Those considering buying far more expensive speakers would be well advised not to ignore the Ascends simply because of...

www.ascendacoustics.com

I'm sure you will have a reasonable list to choose from pretty quick here.

 

[scottyb70]

just l

What are you going to use your system for, AV, music or both? In addition is it just 2 channel or more, and do you plan on using a sub. What are you planning to drive the speakers with and what is the size of the room. We can't give you a sensible answer without knowing that. Lastly are you in the US? We often spend a lot of time with questioners, only to find they in Timbucktoo, with very limited access to gear.

Just listening to music and as my second system. I just want 2 channel and no sub. I am going to use the Kenwood Receiver to drive them, it's 50w per channel. Going for vintage looking speakers

 

[lovinthehd]

How do you define a vintage looking speaker? How much of a kit are you willing to do for yourself? Some come with a knocked down box, or perhaps just the baffle, and assembled crossovers, some have you do pretty much everything including building the box by just providing a design and BOM. You might look around at various kits in your price range at diysoundgroup.com, madisoundspeakerstore.com, meniscusaudio.com and maybe parts-express.com.

 

[zieglj01]

Just listening to music and as my second system. I just want 2 channel and no sub. I am going to use the Kenwood Receiver to drive them, it's 50w per channel. Going for vintage looking speakers

If you want vintage then find a vintage store where they will charge you a lot of money

These JBL Stage speakers will be on another level compared to them Jensen speakers

JBL Stage A180

Floor-standing speaker

www.crutchfield.com

 

[Kvn_Walker]

There are no shortage of great vintage and near-vintage speakers out there you can get for well under $1000. Heck you could find great stuff for half that price. Older JBL, infinity, and a lot of other brands out there made great speakers that sell pretty cheap these days.

Just scour Craigslist and Facebook marketplace... any speaker you have questions about, ask us here.

 

[john vinga]

Hi,

I was thinking about rebuilding my dad's vintage Jensen model 5 speakers. The foam rotted out on the 12" woofer, so I want to do a complete over haul. No more than 1000.00 budget.
Do you have any suggestions where to buy the tweeters, speakers, etc to make it sound close or better than the original?
Is it worth restoring them?

Hope you rebuilt the Jensen Model 5 speakers. I still have my pair purchased in 1975 for $210 total. They were demo floor models, but were in perfect condition. They sounded great, and were very efficient, putting out a lot of sound including low bass notes with rather low power input. I compared them to more prominent brand name speakers at the time, and to ones costing several times more. The Jensen Model 5 compared favorably (I actually preferred them), and for the little money they were being sold for, I decided I couldn't go wrong. They cannot take too much power without distortion or damage to the dome tweeter. After about 27 years of use, the original foam surrounds had deteriorated around the woofers, and I think I had over driven the tweeters. I replaced the woofers with new 12" units, and also the tweeters with some rather mundane tweeters which required me to alter the mounting holes in the cabinet a bit. The total cost for the speaker replacements was under $100 in 2002. I wasn't expecting the Model 5 set to sound very good with the off the shelf speaker replacements. Amazingly, they sounded quite good, and maybe as good as they did when new. Almost 50 years later, I still use them in my shop as the main speakers. The cabinets are marred and scratched, but they sound very good--especially for the very low price paid originally. Their grills are tough and still look new. The trick I used to remove the grills was to run dental floss behind the "J" emblem in the upper right hand corner. The floss was strong enough (as was the "J") to allow the grill to be easily pulled away from the Velcro stays.

 

[Mitch Lee]

I am a bit confused. I though the Model 5 had folded paper surrounds. Let's see if I can get a pix. Yes.

 

[Mitch Lee]

I am a bit confused. I though the Model 5 had folded paper surrounds. Let's see if I can get a pix. Yes.

I WAS WRONG. I thought my Model 5s might be an older version with older style woofers. NOPE! These were not the originals woofers. The originals had foam surrounds as shown here. Mine still sound very nice mostly due to the mids and tweeter. I suspect any modest woofer that is efficient will do. And I will be replacing these current woofers with something deeper and louder to match the other drivers.

 

[Verdinut]

I WAS WRONG. I thought my Model 5s might be an older version with older style woofers. NOPE! These were not the originals woofers. The originals had foam surrounds as shown here. Mine still sound very nice mostly due to the mids and tweeter. I suspect any modest woofer that is efficient will do. And I will be replacing these current woofers with something deeper and louder to match the other drivers.

If you replace the woofers, you will also need to replace the passive crossover components. The replacement woofers have to be a good match for the other drivers, and a different woofer most likely will not have the same Thiele/Small parameters as the current woofers. If you don<t modify the passive crossovers, you will not succeed with the new venture.

Loudspeaker building or any alteration is a complex endeavour and you may waste your time and money if you don't have the equipment and the proper knowledge to do so.