What a great repository of recollections about a great speaker. I just read all 60 reviews here.

In the late 70's, I was in Jr. high and my Father took me to get a new separate component system to upgrade from my compact stereo.

At first I purchased the lower priced house brand, (something similar to Verity) The speaker kept blowing out on the Technics 40 Watt receiver I bought at the time.

After a few exchanges the salesman and my Father agreed I had to spend more money and get the HPM-100's.

I used to run them on large steel stands at ear level, and oriented horizontally. I used foam rubber in between - I was a kid - what did I know.

As a matter of fact, a friend always used to tease my speakers as having boomy bass, as he had just gotten JBL 4311's.

Little did I realized the HPM's has similar or perhaps superior design heritage.

I never liked the spring terminals and eventually I bypassed them with OFC wire going direct to the crossover, and bypassing the level controls as well. Meaning a direct thicker gauge more modern wire direct from the crossover out the back of the speakers for 10 feet. I also rewired the crossover to mid and tweeter.

The speaker then truly came alive. I had since gone on to Quads ESL63's but was curious to see how good they could sound.

A few years later I made a long term loan of them to a friend (with the provision I might want them back someday) Every time I heard them at his house on a modest receiver, he had the best sound of any other friend I had (other than my new audiophile friends).

The kicker to this story is that after a number of audiophile speakers, I am back to owning Pioneer speakers again.

I own the TAD CR-1, which is an all out assault on the concept of a bookshelf monitor. I haven't heard anything at any audio show that compares to the true realism these Beryllium
mid/tweeters reproduce.

I have recently added another companies electrostatic supertweeter on top of them for even more added realism. It's amazing to hear the concept of what the HPM tried to do, actually accomplished.

Hi. Before my born, my father had bought a pioneer hi-fi system. The system includes CT-F700 casette player, Tx 9500 II Tuner, SA-9500 II Amplifier and finally HPM 100 Speaker. We used it for a long time but while we were moving another house, the speaker was broken. Therefore I need a new speakers. What kind of speaker do you recommend? I hope I can find new speakers like HPM 100. They were excellent.

I've got infected with these things when I was 6 or 7. My uncle had them and they were the most amazing things that I've ever seen. During my younger days, I had money just enough to buy some cheap loudspeaker components and built carton boxes, reinforced by wood glue. My attempts to get to a closer sound level to those occupied me quite a bit and it took me so far that I ended up as an acoustical engineer, doing speaker development for a living.

2 years ago, I've paid top money for a mint-in-box pair of HPM-100s and matched them with my tube amplifier, one of the best there is and finalized my search for a speaker that would go together with any type of music that you would throw at it. At home though, I wasn't much satisfied with the staging, the depth and the presence of these at all. My transmission line design Full-Range unit (1600Euro/each) was really doing a great job as compared to these HPM-100s. Intensive adjustments, upgrades and different CDs, amplifiers didn't make any difference. However, I am lucky enough to have a 9x6x3 meter listening room at my work place and I've decided to listen them in that room. I have placed them almost 4 meters apart, 2 meters from the rear wall and sat at the other end of the room, 1,5 meter away from the rear wall.

It is in such a room, with decent volume level coming from a decent equipment you respect what they can be able to do. Then those full-ranges, those audiophile talk about 150K loudspeakers, 2K/meter cables, CD purifiers, amplifier suspenders come to a dead end. In my whole life, I have listened systems that cost more than 250K Euro and above, been to houses which had dedicated sound systems built into rooms, listened to nervous audiophile people discussing about the difference between directional cables and twisted pairs and spending thousands of Euros on CD purification equipment, and yet, their system fail to deliver the realism, impact and stage of these HPM-100s in a simple setup. I have listened to them in that room with great admiration. The whole room was playing, the whole room was contributing the music. The presence they could be able to deliver was so immense and lively! The staging was wide, the loudspeakers dissapeared completely! The tonal balance was very sweet, and with the help of the distance and facing them to each other, a beautiful balance was achieved. I've played Styx, I've played Yes, Meat Loaf, Genesis, Dire Straits, ELP and I just wanted that it would never end!

All I know is, there are lots of talking going on in the audio world. Firstly, JBL guys try to kill these because they sound much better than anything they made in those years, and the people who own a pair of HPMs and know what MUSIC is, know that JBL is just a nice looking badge, but nothing more. Secondly, in the Super High-End world people are tying to justfy the price tag of their speakers by telling bed time stories. Of course, most people listen with their Eyes, Ego, Super Ego and even with their ID and not with their ears, therefore they end up buying stuff that never sounds MUSICAL but with their terminology, refined, civilized, calm. There is nothing refined, calm or civilized with the energy transfer of music. Most instruments are played by hitting two physical objects together. This causes a shock wave to travel both in the material and in air till it reaches to our ear. There is nothing calm in a shock wave neither! It is totally non-linear and very caotic!

So if you ever decide to listen with your ears, go buy a pair, and turn a blind eye to other stories, because they are just there to steal your hard earned money but nothing else!

I bought a Pioneer Integrated System brand new in 1976, spending 2600.00 . It included Amp,tuner 10 1/2 inch reel to reel, PL-530 turntable. reverb amp and my walnut cased HPM-100s. Over the years these speakers have been played very loud at beer bashes, etc. They have even vibrated themselves off table at wedding reception falling onto a concrete floor. Corner got smashed a little, but these 70 lb. babies still kick A$$! My only problem ever, was a push button speaker wire connect on the back of one speaker melted ! I still use these speakers 36 years later! If you ever get a chance to get these HPM-100s ,BUY THEM!

Review from 42 yr vintage audio lover with a critical ear....

Take a legendary speaker designer (Bart Locanthi) add in a grudge against former employer JBL, give him a Pioneer sized 1976 budget and what you get is the legendary HPM-100.

I love 2Ch audio and vintage componets, no surround sound anything in this home. The pursuit of speaker nirvana has brought me to the legendary HPM-100. I found a 200W pair about three hours from the house in excellent shape and said WTF, road trip! Price paid was $250. The speaker seems to range from $250-$500 in the hands of someone whom knows what they have.

The speaker is 58 lbs and built like a fortress. Check out the internal baskets of the woofers, this will clue you in to the build quality...huge aluminum cast & commercial looking. Its not by luck that many of these speakers still exist & function perfectly.

Powering mine with a Kenwood KA-9100 on wood stands 10" high tilted slightly back. The speaker has bass for days, it's tight with a ton of punch. The midrange/tweeter combo is definitely on the bright side as this speaker is known for. I run the mid and high crossovers turned way down. I also run an ADC EQ as my room is hard wood floors and tuning them to my taste is priority #1. Listening to a lot of classic rock & funk (Rush, Genesis, JB, P-Funk) the HPM's growl at low volume and stay composed to ear bleed levels.

To summarize, the HPM-100 is a bad ass rock and roll brawler. It's a tad on the bright side but can be contained with a nice EQ. The bass is very impressive. The overall sound is very impressive. It puts a smile on my face daily and has my friends saying, "holy Sh-t"
I dont know what you'd have to spend in todays dollars to outgun this speaker. Check estate sales and pray you run in to a pair that are being cast off.......it's a holy grail find.

First let me say, I am an audio enthusiast, but know little about the problems that can be encountered with various components. I have always loved the sound produced by the Pioneer HPM 100. Recenty I was able to purchase a pair at, what I believe, to be a reasonable price.
I attached them to my Kenwood Model Eleven. One speaker was very weak and I was unable to bring it into balance. It becane very static like in its sound. I disconected the good speaker and was able to produce accaptable sound at a very low volume. As I increased the sound it again became distorted, lots of static, and sounded as if it were being cliped. It produces not noticable sound when played with the other speaker.
I have tried the speakers on all three speaker ports, and other speakers work well on the reciever.
Any one have any ideas, of perhaps a resorce trusted repairs.

I have had more speakers then I can name. B&W, Kef, Dalquist, Infinity, Snell, Spendor...Ok Ill stop thats enough. Ok these things are impressive to say the least. No matter what I listen to through them I am
totally impressed. These are efficient to boot, and easy to drive. I currently am running a Superphon pre
and a Bedini 100/100 1meg amp and this amp is a 4k amp and runs class A.
I was thinking about selling them cause I picked them up at Goodwill for 75.00 in mint shape...SELL? NOT a
chance. I love these things!
They were designed from a major guy from JBL who left JBL back in the 70's and designed the HPM series
Do they look similar to a JBL L100? YEA...But one big difference..they blow away any L!00 I have ever heard
If you have a chance to get a pair of these beauties then get them !

One of the best speakers ever made. Sought after by young and old, rich and blue collar, and for any music genre. My first pair was given to me by my mother which were HPM-60's that she had bought new after graduating high-school. They were the pair that changed my audio life.
The HPM-100's were the pinnacle of speakers for their time. To this day I still see many pairs of early HPM speakers in homes sounding as if new. If you bought a pair of these in the 70's they were truly worth every penny. I've seen pairs like mine go for more then $400.
I have modded my crossovers and dressed up the inner cabinets, but really not to much difference. I've heard them through many amps like Carver, Krell, Rotal, and even a McIntosh. Every time was an enjoyment! I currently haven't found the amp or set-up for mine, but would never let them go.

I purchased my HPM-100 new in 1977 for a little over $500. That's like five million in today's dollars. They have been my trusted companions for the last 34 years and I now use them to listen to music piped in from the internet. They have a little damage on the cabinets but that is as a resul of a few moves. I have read on here about the modifications to the crossover and that intrigues me but I fear I may be getting too old for such an undertaking. I bought these speakers to blast the competition in my barracks in my Air Force days and it worked. I do however want to give great praise to the JBL L-100 series speakers. A very fine speaker system and although I love my HPM's, the L-100's had a Stradivarian(?) type sound.

I bought my pair of Pioneer HPM-100 stereo speakers in November of 1980. they were $185 a piece.
I have had these same speakers "humpin'" ever since, with absolutely no problems ever since. I should say however, that they are sounding not quite as good as they did before. After 30+ years of listening to every kind of music, they still sound good. The cones are still tight and firm.

Guess I got my money's worth...eh??