Unlimited wattage handling power.

weigh 55 lbs each.

My dad has had these speakers since they came out. When I was little I would play with them and I wrecked his L100 Century''s out of use. But I didn''t wreck the original L100''s very bad. They sound great. Me and my dad have cranked them up almost max volume on his reciever and there was no distortion at all. He had a Kenwood KR-9600 receiver hooked up to them. He didn''t have a subwoofer like he does now, But the 150 watts a channel the Kenwood KR-9600 puts out it still really loud. I''m only 14 but I know what quality speakers sound like and I will only buy JBL.

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JBL Century

Great highs and lows

bad grills, kinda heavy

My dad gave me these speakers and hes had them for god knows how long. He has an old pioneer sx-312r stereo reciever that does not have enough power to give them a lot of bass. So he gave them to me. I hooked them up to my pioneer vxs-d509s and they really kicked. I also have a klh ksub-10 that i have hooked up. The only problem with them is the grills are decomposing...oh well.

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none

Legendary great highs, and tight bass.

Hard to find replacement grills. But what do you expect, they''re over 25 years old!

I recently bought a nice pair off of Ebay, almost 30 years after I first heard them at a friend''s apartment. At the time I was just a teen in high school and couldn''t afford them and settled for a pair of JBL L56''s. Well what more can I say? These L100''s sound just as awsome as the day I first heard them. The high''s are just magnificent and the bass nice and tight. My only regret is that I never bought a pair brand new but buying a used pair is better than not owning a pair at all.

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JBL L56...similar?...NOT!! LOL!

Plays LOUD. Well-built. Efficient.

Strong upper midrange boost in the "presence" area. Colored sound.

We may romanticize this old warhorse, but I would not confuse it with high fidelity. Seemed like half of America owned them. Goes well with Kiss, Led Zepplin, and black lights.

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Cerwin Vega, Klipsch

They Rocked in the 70's ! Build Quality, Made in USA, Furniture grade cabinets.

None to date 26 years later, Foam grills but probablly won't find those anymore anyway

I purchased these new in Phoenix in 1974, and I have just retired them from my main listening area to the downstairs 2nd dairy listening area. They have been replaced by Paradigm Active 40's. I finally found something loader and cleaner.

If you still Rock n Roll, I couldn't recomend anything better. To say I have abused these musically in the 70's is an understatement. I toasted a Phase Liner & a SAE Amp with these babies and they kept on hummin. As my tastes and db levels have mellowed out a little I had them rebuilt early 90's. Had the woofers professionally reconed and the crossovers rebuilt. Made a new grill cover myself and refinished the cabinets. You can do this with these speakers as they are futniture grade, I believe they are mahagony wood. I then used them in my home theater set up mixed with PSB speakers. I needed no sub woofer as they still kicked out the bass.

At the current street price (ebay ussually) they can be found from 200-500 depending on condition. Plan to pay a few sheckles for shipping as they are heavy weights, Assuming you get a good pair they will not disapoint. I highly recomend these speakers still, as they represent an excellant used value. Oh by the way, I still have an original SUNN AMP Like Hendrix used, powered by none other than JBL's !! Rock ON.

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None, They were my first set of real loud speakers

Best rock speakers ever. Unbeatable bass.

Foam grills (but easly replaced/upgraded) Speaker terminals are now too small for high end wire

Bought a set of 4 seqential serial number speakers back in 1973 for quad stereo (remember those days!) Wanted to recreate the sound of live rock and R&B. Was not disappointed even though I ended up spending more than I wanted. Have not been disappointed since. The 70's style
foam egg crate speaker grills eventually dissolved (could never figure out the design as it seemed to the last thing you'd want to put over speakers). Anyway, the sound was never impacted and got replacements from JBL with a more traditional fabric grill. Great speakers that sounded just the way I wanted with a lot of presence and low end. Not accurate, but just what the doctor ordered for rock and R&B (and even some jazz). Always thought about replacing such old speakers figuring that there must be something better by now, but never actually found anything that sounded much
better. (Unless you spend a lot of big $$$.)


Now the 4 speakers are in 2 separate systems - one a full blown home theater system with an Onkyo TX-DS989 receiver 130 watts X 6 channels, JBL S Center speaker, 4 JBL S36 surrounds, and a Velodyne HGS18 sub providing sound for a Mitsubishi 73 inch rear projection monitor/TV and a Faroudja DV1000 DVD player. I was seriously considering getting some newer JBL S312's for the left and right speakers, but the sound wasn't that much better/different. So my old L100's are now holding their own in a home theater system and match pretty well the newer S series JBL's. (I consulted with the factory who suggested that I try the L100's before I bought the newer speakers.) The other set is in very simple system powered by a old Marantz 2220 receiver playing CD's through a Sony Walkman type player. I'm amazed at how good a modest 20 watts rms can sound pushing the JBL's. The receiver originally was a part of a system with old JBL S26 speakers, but those speakers are long gone. I know that a lot of newer speakers are much more accurate, but I still like the sound from the L100's and couldn't be happier. For what I listen to now, rock and R&B, and loud surround sound movies, the L100's still hold their own a lot of newer and more expensive speakers.

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Bose, Cerwin Vega, Pioneer, other JBL models

High SPL, Stays clean at any volumns

Midrange is Beamy,

Like Don, I also own a pair of L100's that date back to '71. The three drivers are in line in a tight cluster. These are ported without the duct. The Woofer handles the full frequency range natually rolling off about 2k. The crossover is simple cap and choke on the midrange and a cap on the tweeter.

These speakers have endured the likes of the Who, Led Zepplin and Santana at very high SPL's. Typically, we would
average about 50 watts continuous with peaks in the hundreds. They still work great and still sound clean. As long as the output from the amp is clean, then they seem to handle it.

Two problems I see with them. The bass can be tightened by adding a rolled piece of fiberglass to the port. The form fronts are long gone and so there is no damping for the Woofer. The Midrange/Tweeter can display real different frequency responses depending on where you sit. I believe this has to do with the lack of a good crossover.

Definitely, new crossovers would make these speakers better then they are but I'm not sure power handling would be the same.

Overall, these are an exceptional buy...

In 1977 I was rebuilding my stereo system, changing from the then popular all-in-one package to the new kid on the block "separates". Yes, that is 22 years ago. A specialty store in Athens, Ga allowed me to take home two pair of speakers at a time for comparison during some of the little parties that seem to pop up quite often. The party group became a loud and critical voice of several famous-maker brands of speakers. I found I was going to have a hard time finding something really good. Then upon entering the Audio Store one day, I heard the most LOUD and CLEAR music I had ever heard outside of a major club. WHAT IS THAT????? The salesman told me that " JBL L-100's but they're a little higher than what you've been testing. Anyway, these babies went home with me and stayed. Two weeks later, a friend from Memphis visited and when he returned home he bought 4 of them. These speakers are still with me and take whatever I dish out. I have upgraded everything else through out the years and now am into Dolby Digital for which the JBL L100's are the primarys. The American Black Walnut Cases are almost perfect although I have refoamed the grills. NO they are not and never will be for sale.
Just for reference, I have been into moderately high end systems for cars and home for 20 years so my ears are very critical and I know what I like. The rest of my systems are: HOME: Yamaha RXV905, Toshiba 2109 DVD, JBL L100, JBL Center and rear, Toshiba 50" TV. AUTO: Clarion drx9375R, with 12 disc changer, Rockford Fosgate 150HD driving JL Audio 10's, Soundstream driving Fosgate separates.
Needless to say, I am going to enjoy my sound wherever I am. Yes I am sure there is better, but for me these old JBL's just keep thumping. By the way I have had a hard time finding a sub that could add anything to what these babies put out.

Who needs a subwoofer,brilliant highs and strong mid-range Built to withstand an atomic blast

Foam grilles

I first saw and heard these speakers in 1973 at an audio show. I immediatly fell in love with them, it took 2 years before I could afford them. Components have come and gone in 25 years,but the L-100's have endured. They have been remarkable with LP''s, cassettes, CD's and now our home theatre. We now have them teamed up with a JBL S- Center and pair of BIC Venturi V-52's for surrounds. Recently we had a party and a first time guest to our home saw them and told me of his long love affair with them and offered me $1000.00 for the pair,it took all of 1 second to say forget it for any amount. My attorney who is a close friend has instructions in my will that the L-100's go in the coffin with me...honey you may get the house, but not my L-100's.

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None to compare

I haven't found any yet, but they're only 30 years old-I'll keep you posted if I find any.

When I first installed the L-100's in my audio system I had no idea what they were other than they sounded great. Three months later I was watching the "Life of Jimi Hendrix" and noticed recording engineer Eddie Kramer using a pair of L-100's identical to mine! My first clue! Then while reading Stereophile Mag.-Oct.'96 pg.207 there sits none other than Les Paul in his recording studio at home right in front of one of his L-100's. I am sure that these two very highly regarded audio engineers could use any monitor they chose and chose the JBL L-100 Century!
That was 3-1/2 years ago. Since then I have installed over $20,000 in equipment in my audio system, just to hear how much more detail and three dimentional imaging I could coax out of these 30 year old treasures. I must say that these monitors have always exceeded all expectations and have been my guiding light in my audioquest. In closing I would like to quote from the Stereo Review June 1974- "When we first listened to the JBL L-100 we recognized that it was something out of the ordinary. The smoothness and lack of coloration were unmistakable. The L-100 can take power-we drove the test units with an amplifier that delivered 400 watts on peaks with no damage to the speakers or our sonic sensabilities. The JBL L-100 ranks with the most accurate speakers we have tested-certainlyno other has been better.

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Nothing in this class.