Grateful Dead Music Forum

I was hoping somebody could tell me a little something about these things. My '78 Pro Reverb came stock with two of these. How do they stack up in comparison with other popular speakers IE JBL, Weber, Jensen?

Tony6Strings wrote:I was hoping somebody could tell me a little something about these things. My '78 Pro Reverb came stock with two of these. How do they stack up in comparison with other popular speakers IE JBL, Weber, Jensen?

run of the mill. upgrading from those will be one of the best things you can do for that amp.

TS is right. Really no comparison. I think they put speakers in that sound best at low volumes not loud volumes. The JBL's especially K's or E's will give you a much more articulate sound. A big big tone difference, IMO. I won't even play my twin with the stock speakers in it.

Right. That's what I figured. But from what I understand, magnets get better with age. As is, my amp has a really nice warm tone. I'm just searching for better cleans (it already has a really nice clean, but it starts to break up a tiny bit when I really crank it) and a more sparkly high end, tighter bottom. But I don't want to loose the warmth. Does that make any sense? I've thought about putting in some Weber Neo's but I've heard that brand new speakers can have a really harsh tone for a while. I'm pretty new to all this, forgive me if I'm way off base.

Tony6Strings wrote:Right. But from what I understand, magnets get better with age.

I don't know about this, not sure it's true? Jerry, for one, thought the magnets in his pickups deteriorated with age (also debatable). I think most would agree that a speaker generally gets better with age, but that's mainly the cone breaking in.

and to answer the op, I would upgrade the speakers but keep the originals for resale value

The real issue with those speakers is that they are made to break up much earlier than we would like as loud and clean Jerry players. A mutron will make the speakers fart like a well fed trucker. If I were trying to upgrade my twin with new stuff on the cheap, I would consider the eminence Commonwealths for the twin, especially if $200+ a piece JBL speakers are tough to get. Actually, it seems like a 70/30 gamble to find good JBL's anymore, especially a pair. Yes the commonwealths are from the same speaker maker, but totally different speakers. They charge you for the quality they put into them, they're not $30 speakers. According to them, the E120 was the inspiration/tone palate for the speaker. They are made to give you clean headroom, have the hi-fi aluminum dome thang/look and are db sensitive like the JBL's.

I am not sure about the neo's and warmth, the reviews tend to say otherwise, though I have yet to try them. Altec's, EV's and other vintage higher wattage speakers can possibly yeild similar results too.

Try celestion vintage 30's tight low end, sparkling highs, and real warm midrange. They do take for ever to break in but when they do they get even better. Imho they sound good out of the box but really sound great after 80 hrs. Or so. If you dont want to break them in buy a used pair. Theyre not jbl's but do a decent impression. Greg...