Buying Second Hand Tips

[Llyr Roberts 0]

I'm seeing a man tomorrow about buying some dj gear second hand,

 

He has 4 JBL's no clue what models and a gemini amp "1600", and lights to sell,

The only thing he's told me is they are 15inch and sound great. 4 JBL's for less than £600 must be good,

Will be demoing the system tomorrow.

 

What's the checklist i should have to ask him to make all well and good?

 

Where they've been stored e.g damp?

How old?

Model,

Wattage,

Been dropped?

How much use they have had?

Look for any kind of cosmetic damage? Some things might mean obviously they have been hammered, bent front grill..

Should I ask him to open them up for me too see the insides?! JBL drivers replaced by cheap ones?

Or would this be going to far?

 

Hopefully I haven't missed anything major out?!

 

Are there any not so good JBL speakers out there?

 

Thanks Llyr

Edited July 10, 2008 by Llyr Roberts

[Bolan-Boogie 0]

Llyr,

I can apprerciate your apprehension,everyone wants the best deal for their money (and rightly so !) BUT after reading the thread on you requiring Active speakers, you also ' HAVE TO GET REAL' there were some excellent deals proposed on the Active threads forum but you had obvious concerns.

 

It now seems its the same scenario with this lot, sorry to sound negative and its not aimed as a personal attack BUT you need to realise there are risks when buying any kind of gear (even new !).

 

If you are going for a demo of the gear then I think common sense prevails, look at the cosmetic condition of the gear (In context to the asking price) obviously if the guy is willing to demo then you have full opportunity to listen to the gear, so its highly unlikely the seller has anything to hide.

Also if you do decide to buy, get a reciept (incase there is anything dodgy).

 

But last but not least, you need to be realistic you are not going to get Champagne stock for lollipop prices !!

[norty303 0]

4 JBL's for less than £600 must be good

 

JBL trade off of the good name of their high end systems which cost a lot of money.

 

Without knowing which models of speaker they are its hard to say however at the budget end the cabs are often poorly made from cheap materials and there are often much better sounding options out there.

 

The old soundman joke 'Q. What does JBL stand for? A. Junk But Loud' rings true about a lot of their lower end stuff and its not particularly musical.

 

You may get a good deal but you would be wise to find out what they are first and do some homework about their real value and users opinions. They may also have been re-drivered with poor drivers at some point too. JBL drivers can be quite expensive to recone and its fairly common to find that a disco has bought cheap JBL speakers, blown the drivers and then replaced with Eminence or similar that aren't suited to the cabs.

 

Also, if these are mid/top cabs (rather than subs) you should check the tweeters/compression drivers carefully. JBL bullet/slot tweeters are great sounding units, but again, make sure they are original. JBL compression drivers are expensive to re-diaphragm (Eon15 is about £65 for a genuine unit, some of the 2" compression drivers are nearly £200 for the diaphragm alone) You can get copy diaphragms for about half that (which is why they are popular) but they are significantly worse sounding and you will notice this if you play the cabs next to each other if some have original and some copy diaphragms.

Edited July 11, 2008 by norty303