Picked this up in a trade. This was my first great love that never happened because I was a poor kid back in 1984. This is one of the most balanced speakers I’ve ever heard. It does nothing wrong. It’s now my main two channel listening set now. Mine are mint, crossover upgraded to T3 and the stands sold by JBL. My surrounds on the woofers and the tweeters (had no idea they had one) were replaced. I was told the tweeter upgrade keeps it smooth. I’m powering mine with a $5k Pioneer MOSFET receiver. The JBL pair sound incredible. From my past JBL ownership of 4311b and L20T, if you have a poor recording or poor power, they will sound like crap. Dec 11, 2020 I’ve upgraded my system from a pioneer receiver to a Lexicon preamp and Rotel amp. The added 250 wpc and the incredible Lexicon really made these JBLs blossom. The low end is so perfectly balanced and tight. The soundstage doubled in size. Smooth, sweet and so very flat. I put a mic on this pair and captured a few sweeps. They are the flattest I’ve measured. Love em.

They are big and heavy. But beautiful.

JBL T100s found on the street - relatively affluent suburb. Suspension rings shot. Took to a speaker fixer. Obviously had the suspension rings replaced. Went to pick up speakers from the speaker expert. Expert said "Hope you don't mind we have been listening to your speakers all day. The best pair of speakers we have heard for years." I said "Well thank you very much." Cost me about $100 to have the rings fixed." I have had big speakers for decades BUT I can say without any hesitation that these JBLs are simply the best speakers of their type ever made. They will not be sold at all. Felt guilty about picking up the speakers from the road after I realised just how good they were. I phoned the people who put them on the street to check that they did it on purpose. The lady said "No, me not want. Not work for me. Husband he not like. Not want, you keep." I thought - Thank You Lord. That was after the speaker fixer said "You'd have to pay about three grand nowadays to get such good speakers." Inside or outside these speakers perform brilliantly. Classic, country, ACDC - doesn't matter what type of music - just simply beautiful. If you find a set - you have found gold standard. River Tramp WA PS: The reviewer of January 2, 2013 must have fake JBL T100s or there is something dramatically wrong with his player; amp or connections. Hope you find out what the problem is mate.

These JBL L100t3's are absolutely positvely worst speakers I've heard. Over, super over bright and the bass is not tight but overstressed. There are no mids, teh mitrange is super tiny and screams in support to Ti lol tweeter.
If you want a nice clean bass and adriculated highs and mids, go with british makes like B&W or Harbeth. It will save harmful wear on your ears, believe me.....

I bought these speakers new in 1988. They have always sounded great but after living in dry climates the original foam surrounds on the 12" woofers disentegrated. After determining that there was no one in Albuquqerque who could repair or replace the surrounds, I was referred to Orange County Speaker, (www.speakerrepair.com), who sent me a set of new surrounds, new gaskets and glue with complete instructions for installation. Total cost $37.90 including shipping. I completed the installation in two days including drying times. The hardest part was cleaning the old foam and glue off the back side of the speaker cone without cutting the cone. Use the original gaskets as recommended if possible. The results are spetacular. I now get the clean 20 hz that they had when new. These L100T's are still the best sounding speakers I have heard and I hope to pass them on to my son when I leave the planet.

Strengths: Clean,lows, mids and tight highs with smooth crossover, excellent imaging and great sound at low volumes.

Weaknesses: Bulky size and low WAF, (Wife Acceptance Factor).

Sound....it is perfect

Imaging....but the warmth of the sound makes up for it

I bought these speakers used in 1993. They were manufactured in 1987 and that is when my friend had bought them. Originally I had hooked them upto an HK receiver (can't reacall the model number - 75watts/Channel). They sounded great even with a Sony Discman. Then I bought HK CD player 7525, which made a massive diffrence that I could not beleive. This CD player is one of the best I have heard (underratted) and has such warmth, if you can pick one up. Then I finally upgraded to a 5.1 Onkyo 777 receiver. This is a very good receiver for not just surround sound but also music and sounded better than the HK receiver. The biggest diffrence came from the Citation 21 (pre amp) I picked up for US$87 from ebay last month...and wow...I mean WOW!!! This preamp is a must for anyone who loves sound that is warm. Now I have the HK CD player going though the preamp and the Onkyo being used as the amp to drive the L100T's. Breathtaking sound is the way to discribe it. These speakers have not changed as my main for over 10 years now...they seem to get better as better components are used. I am not sure what thie limit is but will find out soon when I get some McIntosh equipment my x-boss is giving to me (C35 preamp, M 754 amp, MR 7082 tuner)....I will let you know when I get it all hooked up to the L100T's in the next few weeks. I know they will not dissapoint me.

Sound Great!!!

Black base falls apart. VERY difficult to get JBL authorized service.

An excellent loudspeaker!! I got foam rot a couple of years back. I used a pair of Infinity SM115's while waiting to get my L100T's fixed. Those Infinity's were junk compared to the L100T's! The JBL service center I went to in El Paso, TX gave me the runaround and never could even figure out what kit to get to repair my woofers! They said they didn't know what model my woofers were. If they had LOOKED on the drivers it is there plainly marked: 2114H. After 6+ months, I took the woofers home and got a $20 kit on ebay to replace the foam myself. The kit worked great! I was back into high fidelity! I was happy to retire those Infinity SM115s

Similar Products Used:

4 L20Ts for surround. Infinity SM115. Bose 901. Polk SDA1's and a few others.

Makes any recording sound better than or at least comparable to any other speaker you will have heard before. I decided to save my cash and not buy the B&W801 mkII, and i also auditioned Infinity Kappa8 and 9, Klipsch forte, chorus, lascala, KEF 104/2, 104/3. and many others!! And am glad i did! Quality construction, and drivers.

poorer recordings come accross exactly that way, making them almost unlistenable.(in my collection, there are some that I leave in the car, I won''t even play them in the house, too nasty) so i suppose the only weakness is their ability to be too revealing.

The most versatile speaker ever made! Played at low volumes, it doesn''t fall flat on it''s face, (this may also be helped by using an Adcom GFA-555 to run them) then at louder levels they sound brilliant, I am a fan of live music and very few loudspeakers can create the sound of a live performance. This i''m sure hinges on the Fact that the 12" LF drivers on these hunks is taken from JBLs professional series. They have a clarity in the LF range which is not seen in many other speakers, (B&W 801 mkII) but don''t think of these as the having the crispiness of a Klipsch Lascala or other horn loaded LF. The midrange is one of the most natural sounding ever, great for reproducing and of the great vocalists out there. The Ti tweeter well it is again very accurate and shows awesome dynamics.

Similar Products Used:

see above

Bass!,sensitivity,looks,rugged

Boomy,bright

Bought them (new $1000/pair) in 1985 and have used them almosy daily since.

Great speaker for home theater because it is sensitive and has wide bandwidth. Can be bright, however. Can play very loud and has killer bass.

Reconed the woofers professionally ($220/pair) a month ago and plan on using them at least until they fall apart.

Finish is beautiful. I did a ground-up restoration while my woofers were in the shop - restained in red mahogany, rewired the crossovers with better cable, checked the crossover components (old caps and inductors), threw away the old ports and installed PNR Aeroports for better port flow at high volumes. They sound great!

Drive them (full-range) with a dedicated 200W/channel amp and have 350W Boston Acoustics sub for additional low-end impact in my home theater. Watching a movie like Private Ryan, or Super Speedway has people slack-jawed at just how much impact a home theater can have.

If I had the bucks, I would trade up to B&W 801 (perhaps) with 1000W amps, but until then, I am quite happy.

Flat, accurate response - among the flattest and best ever measured. Extremely low distortion

Low dispersion of highs

I got these in 1988 before JBL got bought and was cheaped out. The sound is the most transparent that I've ever experienced. But there are a few gotchas here for the audiophile community. JBL's of the classic vintage don't have much of a sense of air - rather, the sense of it is that they project sound forward as opposed to having a dipolar sense of "spaciousness" to the image. This is fine for rock where the sound is supposed to be up and in one's face. It is less ideal for the more delicate classics and laid back acoustic music. Personally I love these speakers but the soundstage is not for everyone.

Similar Products Used:

901, B&W, Klipsch, Infinity etc.

Very clear highs with plenty of accurate bass

Bright at high volumes, which is great for some movies

I have read lots of reviews on lots of speakers, and this one always pops up when people are comparing older speakers. Mine have just been reconed and they are excellent! My system sounds better than any that I've listened to. These match very well to the new Studio line, as the T signifies the titanium tweeter JBL went to in the early eighties on these things. They are very accurate and I now know why there is so much nostalgia about them. My system:
Parasound P/SP pre-amp
Technics DTS and Dolby Digital decoder
ATI 1505 150w X 5 ch amp
Philips DVD 711 (also my CD transport)
JBL 100-T's
JBS S-center
(soon to have S-38 or S-36 rears)

If you come across these reconed, buy them. You will not be disappointed and the new titanium tweeters timbre match very well.