sound

speaker terminals

I have received numerous request for more information on the stacking of two pairs of L100's ,based on my last review, I hope the following will help:
As a hitoric note; I once witnessed a demonstration performed by an Advent dealer who stacked two pairs of original "large advent" speakers and compared then to a pair of JBL L300's. Many who were at this demonstration felt the stacked advents equaled the L300's. I was not one of them, but I was very impressed with how the, relatively inexpensive, two way advents sounded when stacked. The combined price of four advents was less than a third that of the L300'S. Remember, the L300's were the top speaker of the JBL line. They were huge three way speakers with 15 inch woofers, compression horns for mids., and slotted tweeters all with heavy Alnico magnets!!!
I personally owened a pair of large advents during the same time I had my original L100's. I compared these two classic speakers side by side dozens of times with all types of music and the L100's blew the advents away in every respect, no contest.I had always wondered, if the inferior advents sounded so good stacked, what would two pair of JBL L100's sound like? In a word Awe-some!Twenty five years after selling the advents I purchased a second pair of L100's
I do not understand the physics behind why Stacked speakers sound so superior to a single pair, I just know, I like what I hear. Stacking - placing one speaker upside down ontop of another connected in parallel achieves the following:
a)Mirror imaging
b)Independence is halved: a 4ohm load is an easier drive for most amps often doubling their output capabilities
c)Doubling the driver area: much more air moving
d)Larger sound stage:Now you can imagine full size performers
e)Tighter base: I dont know why, possibly because the woofers do not have to work so hard.
f)Mid range bloom:Again I do not know why it just happens more detailed more involving
g)Less listening fatique:as good as the L100's are I had sometimes experienced listening fatique after several hours of high sound level litening, not any-more, possily less ditortion due to more drivers sharing the work.
I now have that elusive "You Are There" sound we all seem to be seeking. The big easy sound that only seems to come with Big & Expensive speakers.
Try stacking two pairs of L100's you will not regret it.

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4311 4312 L166 L112 L100t

Bass, able to produce clean sound at loud volumes, overall sound, looks

None found after 25 years

Bought my L100's in 1977 at a local audio store for $420 (list price was $700, but I think they might have been discontinuing the model that year). My roomate also had L100's. We used to stack them for parties and let me tell you, they produced some kick-ass sound. I've moved from NY to Texas to Connecticut back to Texas and now to Atlanta with my L100's and they're still kickin and lookin great. I still have the original boxes which helps when moving them long distances so much. Just put some old english oil on the beautiful cabinets and they look like new. The original grills are gone, but I bought some egg-crate look alike sound material and they almost look original (except the material is black instead of the original brown). Also, the foam material around one of the tweeters is decomposing, but other than that, the speakers appear to be in great shape. Glad to see other satisified, loyal users on this board. I guess I didn't realize that they were such "classics" until I saw all the comments on this board. Made me want to put some Pink Floyd Echoes on and listen.

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None

The sound. Sez it all

That they don't make them anymore.
Rotting grills.

Excellent speakers - wouldn't part with them, even with the disintegrating grills. The sound is excellent and the bass is superb. My music tastes range from rock to jazz to classical and cathedral organ and now to movies on dvd and 'digital'(?) TV.

I bought these speakers in early 1970's. They had been traded in by someone who bought a pair of L300s. I paid about $350 CDN each. I've never regretted that purchase. I've used these speakers with 3 different amps, a Marantz 2270 in the early 70's, a Denon PMA 700V in 1987 and now a Denon 2802 in 2002. They sound as good today as they did 30 years ago.

I may get panned for asking this here, but I am just setting up a home theater system with the Denon 2802 and I want to use the L100s as the main speakers. Can anyone recommend appropriate center and surround speakers to match the color and tone of the L100s? With the bass generated by the L100s, I don't think I'll need a subwoofer for some time.

I've tried asking this elsewhere, but either nobody cares to answer or they aren't old enough to know what the L100s are .. (pity them).

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I've been so satisfied with these, I haven't been interested in any others - till now...

clean sweet sound at high volumes!

grilles, small wire conectors

Bought my first pair in summer 76, second pair for Christmas the same year.Listened to everything in the store, always came back to the 100's. Have driven the 2 pair with a JVC sx700 purchased in 77'(110 watts pure juice), and these will handle all the power w/o clipping.
I always thought,however, they lacked a bit on the bottom end. Added a JBL PB10 this month, and now the system is overpowering. I would put these speakers up against anything out there now.
I purchased a third pair in 86' and have those routed off the same receiver in to another room.
Have gone through cd players, turntables and cassette decks but these will not quit. Handles Nazareth to Carpenters with the same pure sound. Will never (willingly) part w/ any of them,and may even pick up another pair and try stacking.

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They wont die!

Grills and foam ring around the tweeter deteriorate, but for 23 years old, what do you expect.

I own 2 pair of the vintage JBL's. One pair of the L100's and the other pair is the L112's. I purchased these new around the 1979 year I think. Driving the pairs I use a 1982 model Yamaha natural sound amplifier with 180 true watts per channel.The 112's I had the surround ring around the woofers redone, and I had to replace the grills on the L100's which is the brown cloth that matches and looks great, ordered the grills from JBL a few years ago. The foam ring around the tweeter is beginning to come apart but other than, the sound is fantastic. Being a musician, I have found no other speakers that can reproduce what these babies can when it comes down to demo playbacks. I had some friends over the other day, which they wanted to hear some of the tunes my son and I have done. I cranked things up and blew the dust from the air ports, these guys flipped. After listening to things for a bit, they told me thanks for the concert! One friend actually told me, you know that feeling when you leave a really loud concert, and you get into your vehicle and the car stereo sounds like mud, thats what he told me it felt like. I also have wondered why JBL doesn't come out with a duplicate of the good speakers from the 70's to let the younger folks really hear what Rockin is all about!!! Could it be because of they last so long and they dont break?????? Well if thats the case, put a pricey tag on them, the sound of the speakers would sell themselves, I didn't have any salesman sell me mine, the sound of the JBL's sold me! Have a great day everyone!
Webbs Music....

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The big heavy vintage amps and etc, without all the flashy lights and decor.........hehehe

the bass kills you on contact. extreme Xmax. ive never owned a better pair

i overdrove the woofer on one with my guitar amp a long time ago, and now it rattles when i play heavy bass songs really loud

these were sitting in the garage for at least 20 years before i found them. the grills were rotted away, but that was the only damage. my mom bought me an onkyo 50w x2 receiver, and had her banging on my door everynight telling me to turn the bass down (yeah right). one of the woofers needs to be repaired soon, due to some experimentation with a guitar amp when i was a beggining audio technician. i really pissed off a lot of neighbors with these speakers. the people 5 houses down could hear the bass in their basement. i just wish i had a better amp.

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Wicked Midrange Deep Tight Bass!!!

Tweeter , The le25 unfortunatly doesn't compair to the later alum domes, BUT all in all they sound good!!

The JBL L100's are by fay my best set of VINTAGE JBL's to date and are definatly front end material!! The Le5-2 midrange with a massive alnico magnet is absolutly amazing, deep tight mid bass and clear vocals , the bottom end is earth shaking and the highs sound good too.

When all is said and done they are 5* speakers!!!

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JBL L112 & JBL L110

Good low end, very efficient, well made.

terminals & crossover.

I have owned two pair for 20-25 years, they have served me well. My biggest complaint is the unpropotional midrange coming from the low frequency driver, I e-mailed JBL and discovered that the low frequency driver has no choke limiting the high frequencies to it? I am considering changing to the crossover from the JBL Century Gold speakers with a 600Hz & 2500Hz crossover, better terminals, biamp (passive & electronic) and biwiring capabilities. If you own a pair of these speakers DO NOT go into an audio store, you will not be happy with the far superior sound of modern speakers. Amp(s) driving the speakers:

Crown DC300A
Adcom GFA 5500
other old misc. components

Compared to the Ohm D2 speakers the JBL L100 are not very pleasant sounding. The frequency responce is probably flat to a perfect scale, where the Ohm's are more flat sounding to a human ear "A" weighted scale.

I have had to have two high end drivers reconed, and replaced all the potentiometers in all the speakers. JBL does have parts available if you contact them on there website.

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Ohm model D2 bookshelf.

built quality

wire terminals easily upgaded

Purchased my L100's in 1974 matched them to McIntosh seperates and have been in music heaven for 27 years. I find the L100's to be always musical,soft and warm when playig jazz and ready to rumble when the rock mood hits.

The jbl drivers are built to near military specs. I have well over 10,000 hours on my pair with never a sigle problem.These speaker have often seen the south side of 300 watts and keep asking for moore try that with dalquist dq10's or quad's

Always looking to find better sound I have auditioned numerous speakers of all prices and embarassed a few
audio salesman who could not better the 30 yr old jbl magic.

Last week I found a good used pair of L100's on e-bey I have them stacked as was a common practice in the 70's .I can highly recommend this if you can find two pairs of these fabulous speakers.

If you can understand why some people would rather drive a big block corvette from the 60's over any new wonder car from japan,you know why people are searching for these speaker .

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jbl 4311/4312/4412

Unbelivable highs and mid and insane volume. These will blow you out of the room.

Small sweet spot, worthless wire terminals

A friend at school (same friend as Roger mentions below) had these at school, I spent many hours listening to them, but I only needed about 5 minutes to know I had to have a pair.

The strength of these speakers is that they will blow you through the back wall of your room. They sound best when driven by capable equipment to HIGH volumes. They sound okay at lower volumes but that is not the reason to buy these speakers.

They are very bright...the adjustable crossovers help this, but it's better to just listen and get used to them being bright. The unbelivable brightness and punchy midrange are what make these probably the best hiphop speakers ever made. The tight bass helps this as well. They also sound really good with heavy rock. I am not a metal fan but if you are, these speakers are a MUST have. Heavy electric guitar will make your ears bleed...in a good way.

The imaging and their capability for home theater is okay. As Roger said, the sweet spot is small, and positioning is important. The brightness can be grating with TV and movies for those who aren't used to them.

The bottom line, is that for some types of music (esp. at LOUD volumes) these are the best speakers ever made. Outside of that, they are very good speakers, but not the best by any means. I love these speakers and plan to own at least one pair for the rest of my life, but I will definitely own other speakers as well. They are not the be-all, end-all of speakers, but there is nothing else that sounds as good as them in some situations.

System is...

Acurus ACT3 Preamp
Acurus 5x125 Amp
JBL Century L100A's
Sony 5 disc changer (needs to be upgraded!)

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Plenty of speakers...but none really compare to these.