I have owned a number of JBLs L100 l36 4311 etc these top them all. Fantastic sound great highs and mids Base is very tight . A joy to listen to ..Handles rock blues jazz any thing you toss at them . Even makes classical sound wonderful . Get a chance buy them

Looks a lot like the L100 ,but that is where it ends . The l112 blows it away for musicality. The highs mid and base are right on. The L112 sound good with any type of music. Put them on a stand off the ground. Out perform many speakers costing 1000s today, I have owned the 4311s and many other Jbls of this era and these are the best.

jbl L 112 speackers are amazeing i bought mine in 1982 at the bx on base
$640 they won the bookshelf speaker of the year award! and everyone who
has heard it has been blown away i alway hear that this is the best system they
ever heard so for 27 years these have been my pride and joy and when i m out i miss them
the sound reproduction is perfect you cant beat the L series nobody can compete with these
i have seen them used at a disco and rocked the house

Plenty of punch an beef and the clarity is excellent at high and low volumes. The weight and quality of the components were the best produced and if anyone makes a purchase there should be no disappointment. People who should buy this product are those who are true music fanatics and want perfect sound and can afford a pair otherwise don't bother.

There are no weaknesses in my opinion.

I purchased my jbl 4311 wx speakers on ebay last year for $220. There was a blown tweeter and the seller replaced it with another LE25. I had to tinker with the presence and brilliance controls and have them set at 4 and 7 but this would be an individual choice. Every time I listen to them I hear something different which increases my appreciation even more. I have over 400 cds ranging from blues,jazz rock and a little country and I have never heard better sound from any other speaker and I have had my share. I built a pair of speakers a couple years ago and they sound pretty good but can't compare to the 4311s. I am going to search for another pair and will purchase where I can find the best deal. I have no regrets with these and highly recommend them as well as any other jbl speaker produced during the 70s as there will never be speakers produced with this quality ever again.

Similar Products Used:

pioneer 33a speakers, dlk i 1/2 speakers, electro voice sentry 2A speakers.

Powerful bass, clear and open mid/high reproduction with a very wide soundstage.
Built like a tank ! Gorgeous looks !

Man, oh man, seller was a lady living on the third floor of an appartment without an elevator.
I had to take both of the JBL L112's (25 kilos) down to my car and yesterday Germany had temperatures of plus 29 degrees Celsius.
Actually that was my first "WOW" before i listened to these wonderful JBL's.

After having had a number of JBL's such as JBL 4311, JBL 4312A and JBL L110 i won a pair of JBL L112's on Ebay Germany the other day.
It pointed out seller was the first owner and she still had the original manual.
I took the JBL's home from Bielefeld in Germany, which city is at a distance of 250 kilometers from my place.
Coming home i connected the speakers to my upgraded Harman Kardon Citation 16a and hearing their soundreproduction i only thought: "WOW" and i was totally flabbergasted.
I have had big Infinity's etc. but this speaker has it all and better.
A very clear and open reproduction with a wide soundstage. It seems the speakers just disappear when listening to their magnificent reproduction.
The bass is just very tight and powerful. These speakers deserve a first class amplifier. I have reoiled them according to the JBL receipe (boiled linseed oil and gum terpentine) and they just look gorgeous now.
I am sure these babies won't leave my house again.

Similar Products Used:

A.D.A.M. loudspeakers from Germany.

Smile-inducing Sound
Mind blowing efficiency
Extremely flat horizontal dispersion
Extremely flat frequency response
Quality design and construction
30+ Year Life span! :)

Heavy (25kg)

There is no doubt that the design and engineering techniques implemented in this speaker made it a landmark for its time. To this day there is somewhat of a cult status for this speaker in some audio circles, and audiophiles of old. What JBL did in creating this speaker back in 1980, was their attempt at refining an already excellent product, the L100 series, the professional variant of which was installed in almost every professional recording studio at the time, the 4000 series, having almost identical sonic characteristics.

In addition to the JBL tradition of achieving high efficiency drivers by using massive voice coils and powerful magnet assemblies, JBL had a few other tricks up their sleeve to create the L112. For example the 12" woofer was given a 4.7kg magnet with a 3" copper voice coil producing 89dB efficiency with a symmetrical field geometry magnet assembly that reduces second-level harmonic distortion. If that isn't enough to make you stare blankly, you might also like to know that they used laser interferometry to produce 3D images to study diaphragm motion for all drivers and identify and eliminate flaws, and that’s all back in 1980! In doing this JBL created a speaker with an extremely linear frequency response and extremely uniform horizontal dispersion across all drivers, and to top the cake it could make your house vibrate by boasting 300W continuous RMS power- Hey, it was designed with studio use in mind, and that means 24/7 cranking to the max. What all this means, in reality, is that this speaker truly is in a league of its own, and forever will be.

Enough background though, and on to what I personally think of them. There's a simple way to sum it up- when I listen to them, I often find a smile creep over my face. They are extremely pleasant speakers to listen to. The accuracy of the speaker is reflected in replay performances that make you forget you're sitting at home in front of your speakers- they take you to the performance. What else can I say? For you techies out there- the flat frequency response and linear horizontal dispersion as well as the death defying efficiency of all the drivers creates a soundstage that is second to none for 3-Way speakers, and a truly faithful reproduction of any performance.

Almost 30 years later my JBL L112's are still making me smile :)
...and they haven't needed anything replaced either!

Similar Products Used:

Magnepan
Audio Research
ProAc

tight bass response. clear high frequency. LOUD!!!

At 55 lbs./ea, they are heavy but i aint movin them anytime soon. no weakness so far, i know thre wont be.

I found a pair of JBL L-112 loudspeakers at a garage sale and at first i thought they were just old, heavy speakers that were most likely blown. When i listened to them for the first time. The 3-way loudspeakers blew me away with perfect bass response and high frequency. They have been most prized posession ever since. I've been offered $400 for them and i turned it down cause these speakers are priceless and are very rare in mint condition. Mine aren't in mint condition, but i want to get them fixed sometime soon. The foam around the sub cone is puntured on both speakers and the caps on the mids are also pushed in. Besides the repair i have to do, these speakers have been pushed and fluttered. Every audiophile should have a pair, or atleast hear them for a say or two. These speakers have it all. I'd rate them a outstanding perfect 10!!!

Similar Products Used:

i also have a pair of fisher floorstanding speakers with 15'' subs but the jbl's have deeper bass and clearer high frequency at high volumes.

Great bass response, almost no need to have a sub woofer. The bass is also tight and the mids have a punch to them. The highs are as smooth as silk bringing out sublties other speakers cannot seem to reproduce. Very versitle in the ways you can disperse the sound field and equalize each speaker. They are built like battle ships, no cheap parts on these babies. They have "something" that other speakers don't seem to have, you have to listen for yourself to experience this magic.

Very big and heavy when compared to todays bookshelf speakers, some wives might not like them intuding on the decor, they look a bit retro. I refinshed mine (not my wife) and put them on cabnets which hold CD's. They are not magnetically shielded, which means they will interfere with televisions, so you must keep them a safe distance away. The speaker posts on the back are not great, replace them if you can with gold posts that can handle audiophile type cables.

I have had these speakers since 1981 and have never found any othe speaker that sounds as good. I bought them because I read that most recording done in the U.S. in the late 60's thru the 70's were mixed through the studio version of these babies. The foam around the wolfers gave away about ten years ago and my infant son pushed in the dust caps on the mids, so I put them in the garage thinking I would get them fixed. In the interm, I used Bose, Infinity, tried Klipsh, Cewin Vega and went to many a listening room at high end audio shops in L.A. looking for something as satisfying as my old JBL's. The only thing I found was some esoteric German floor standing monsters for 10 grand each! The salesman turned me onto a shop which rebuilds speakers, so I had the L112's refoamed, mids replaced with vintage JBL mids and gold universal connectors to replace the old broken and oxidized original connectors, all for less than $400.00. I've been in L112 heaven ever since! I hang with a lot of pro sound mixers and audiopiles and they agree the L112's as well as the L150a from JBL are the best speakers ever made. Why can't JBL, or any other company reproduce that sound? They are great for any thing you would want to listen to from movies, classical music, jazz, rock you name it. Every nuance is reproduced accurately, even at low volumes and the ability to equalize the speakers with the built in front attenuators for the highs and the mids is good when trying to match the speakers with others in a 5.1 set up (my center channel is a JBL C35, which does not have that classic JBL sound). Another feature I love about my L112's is the fact that they came in mirrored pairs, so you can place the tweeters on the inside of the listening area for a tighter, more focused sound field, or on the outside, for a wider, more dispersed listening area. If you can find a pair of L112's, snatch 'em up for the best sound you can experience from a set of speakers.

Similar Products Used:

Bose (no highs, no lows so they must be Bose), Infinity, Klipsh, Cerwin Vega, newer JBL's.

Deep bass, bright highs, and awesome mid. Crossover equalizer built in is great for fine tuning the speaker outputs for different settings. They weigh a fair amount (54lbs) but thats because they are made of solid wood, and are packed with insulation.

Not a thing.

Ive got to say, that these are the best pair of speakers I have ever owned. They are tough as nails when it comes to a beating. I am sad to say however, that the original Woofers that came with these speakers were destroyed. Foam, and the voice coil in both were blown. These were originally donated to my high school almost 3 years ago, and were working fine. They were being driven at that time by a 230Watt/channel Panasonic amp stack system. These speakers were so loud that my weight lifting coach put a block on the volume slider of the stereo. Well, one day while he wasnt there, some kids decided to take the volume up to 10.. all the way up. They started playing that rap garbage, and these old woofers just couldnt take the burden anymore of those hard bass hits. Needless to say, one woofer blew so badly that I was picking chunks of foam and voice coil out of the interior insulation on one, and the other just blew the foam to smithereens. Either way, I had to buy replacements. I didnt have alot of money (and will upgrade soon) so I bought some 300W Lightning Audio Subs with the same frequency response and RMS handling as the original, just w/o the 10 lb. magnet. They work great and the speakers still sound as good as they did new. I wont ever get rid of them. I did some research on them, and found the original specs, and price, and users manual for them at jbl.com. They have a current MSRP of $550 per cabinet. In perfect condition of course, but still. They handle 300W of continuous power and will make my house shake rattle and roll. I'll never get rid of them. Period. I advise anyone that finds a pair, to grab them as fast as they can, because they are worth every penny.

Similar Products Used:

JVC SP-85

Excellent build quality. Very nice hi end response. Very attractive. High power handling.

Muddy bass. Not very efficient for a ported design.

Very robustly built speakers in the JBL tradition. They suffer from the same deficiency as almost all ported speakers... muddy bass. It's usually a fair trade-off because it makes the speakers much more efficient, in this case you just get the muddy bass as these are no more efficient than acoustic suspension speakers. For that reason I ended up replacing them with RSa speakers, just as efficient but with a much sharper and cleaner bass response.

Similar Products Used:

Yamaha NS-690 and Infinity RSa