Are those JBL L100 "Century" speakers any good?

drphoto · « **on:** 25 Jul 2003, 11:52 pm »

Seems like back in the 70's those were the one's to have...unless you were some kind of audio freak into 'tubes' and British mini-monitors.

Would they make a good party speaker? You know, for those times when you don't care about imaging and just want to rock the joint.

hifitommy · « **Reply #1 on:** 17 Aug 2003, 07:06 pm »

but dont expect accuracy. they play loud and thump pretty good. probably best with CDs, youll never notice the limitations of the high end of cd with them.

Marbles · « **Reply #2 on:** 17 Aug 2003, 07:20 pm »

Doc, I saw some about two years ago from a long time JBL distributer. They were his originally and about 20 years old I think. Very nice, pretty large (but not by Maggie standards

) and reasonably expensive. I think he was looking to get $1700 for the pair. He wouldn't ship them, but thought in the mint condition he could get upwards of $3000 on ebay for them.

hifitommy · « **Reply #3 on:** 17 Aug 2003, 07:58 pm »

thats a FUNNY one!

Ogsarg · « **Reply #4 on:** 6 Mar 2004, 07:04 pm »

I guess I should first say that this is my first post having just been turned on to this site from the Asylum.

I have 2 pairs of L-100's. Both came from my local Salvation Army Store and both pairs were less than $50.00. The drivers are almost indestructable and the crossovers are very simple so there is not much to go wrong with them.

Do they rock? That's like asking if Ferrari's are fast. They are great speakers for Rock and (IMO) Jazz. On the west coast, they were probably the most common Studio monitor during the 70's, so lots of music from that era was mixed using them.

One misconception that some people have is that they are efficient. It is true that they sound decent with 40-50 WPC, but if you feed them 100 or more, they really come alive. I was running a Pioneer SX-1250 with them (160WPC) and they sound fantastic.... At any volume.

If you're a thrift store / Garage Sale bum, keep an eye out for a pair. I don't think I would pay the $$$ they fetch on ebay, but I am really enjoying them.

lonewolfny42 · « **Reply #5 on:** 6 Mar 2004, 08:11 pm »

Here's what they look like.... for sale on Agon >> http://cls.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/cls.pl?spkrmoni&1082671500 .

steve_jrc · « **Reply #6 on:** 6 Mar 2004, 09:52 pm »

Check this out.

http://www.solvenet.se/~u-10065/jbl/

lonewolfny42 · « **Reply #7 on:** 7 Mar 2004, 03:51 am »

Quote from: steve_jrc

Check this out.

http://www.solvenet.se/~u-10065/jbl/

Even better !! What a find!!

Marbles · « **Reply #8 on:** 7 Mar 2004, 03:55 am »

That doesn't look like the speakers I saw. The JBL's I saw had a sloped front and were larger.

The closest I have come to seeing what I remembered were the L300 Summit.

Tonto Yoder · « **Reply #9 on:** 7 Mar 2004, 04:38 am »

Quote from: steve_jrc

Check this out.
http://www.solvenet.se/~u-10065/jbl/

THOSE are the grilles that I remember:

Came in blue too as I remember.

Did someone say SLOPE?? Aquarius:

lonewolfny42 · « **Reply #10 on:** 7 Mar 2004, 04:50 am »

Here's a link that may or may not be of interest

. Shows old ad's for speakers including JBL's...... http://www.audioheritage.org/html/whats-new/site-history.htm

hifitommy · « **Reply #11 on:** 11 Mar 2004, 03:46 am »

boomy, tizzy, sound great at low levels, but not high end. sound engineers learned how to listen around the flaws.

the waffle grilles are the originals and if you ownn them, thats what to have.

orthobiz · « **Reply #12 on:** 7 Oct 2010, 03:25 am »

Just picked up a pair. This winter's project. Hope to redo the crossover, get new grilles, new foam on tweeter face. Like my dahlquists, they are revered and maligned, so what have I got to lose?

BTW, unlike the DQ-10 which has it's own user group on Yahoo, I haven't found the same devoted group for the JBL. Anyone know of one?

Paul

CSI · « **Reply #13 on:** 7 Oct 2010, 03:57 am »

I sold these back in the day and owned a pair myself. Extremely popular. Beautiful cabinets. Pretty efficient (unlike the DQ10's). Flaws? A horrendous peak around 9 kHz. Made it hard to listen to in the long term but fun for awhile. JBL did much better with later, more honest, speakers.

hifitommy · « **Reply #14 on:** 7 Oct 2010, 04:06 am »

i found THIS: http://www.audioheritage.org/

JBLs are quite popular; L100s were spectacular looking with the waffle grill and the white coned woofer. a friend and i couldnt warm up to them try as we may. he bought 4310s, the pro model of the L100 and we tried them on the floor, on chairs (about like a good speaker stand),against the wall, away from the wall, every which way. we found that they sounded best at low levels.

because they were AS NEW, they sold quickly for as much as he paid for them at professional discount. he had worked in radio here in LA (KPFK and KPPC) and had those connections.

he ended up with infinity holosonics, 1001s, and pos1s at various times after he went to work for infinity. later he got IMF monitor IIIs and IVs, then martin logan reQuests. all way better than the L100s.

the holosonics had the ubiquitous peerless cone tweets (five, one on each facet all around, and one upward firing one) that had a near electrostatic sound to them. once, while piano was playing on a record, my friend went to the piano that sat between the speakers and played similar notes that closely resembled what was playing on the stereo. impressive.

but you can have a pretty good time playing rock and roll on the L100s, it just wont be accurate.

WGH · « **Reply #15 on:** 7 Oct 2010, 04:25 am »

orthobiz,

I still use a pair in my wood shop, with the right amp and a few crossover changes they can sound quite acceptable.

The speakers can get a little harsh when played loud, they roll off sharply below 40Hz, and have a powerful thump around 60Hz but they sure are fun to listen to - there is something endearing about them even with all their flaws.

Years ago I changed out the caps to Solens and it helped a bit. Dennis Murphy (Salk Signature Sound) designed a whole new crossover but I haven't made one yet. Here is the link:
http://forums.audioholics.com/forums/showthread.php?t=25014

Adding bracing the to the interior walls and gluing and screwing another 3/4" layer of MDF on the back really helps tighten up the bass. Then all you need is clean power, an amp that is not too detailed works best. I settled on an Anthem PVA2 with a Kingrex pre-amp.

You'll have fun with these speakers,

Wayne

orthobiz · « **Reply #16 on:** 7 Oct 2010, 09:50 am »

Thanks. I ignored the red writing "do you really want to post on this really old thread" and resurrectd this 6 year old post. HiFiTommy came right back!

I'll check out that crossover link, Wayne. There's a Danish fellow making crossovers that are sold at parts-express. His link is:
http://www.troelsgravesen.dk/JBL_L100.htm
and parts-express, just search for JBL Crossover. Maybe he has tamed the speaker a bit.

These were a single owner pair meticulously cared for by my buddy Mike who is looking to get a flat screen TV instead. I even have the original receipts, owners manual, like-new logos, etc. I also got his Pioneer SX-828 receiver so I am in full silverface rock mode.

Paul

orthobiz · « **Reply #17 on:** 7 Oct 2010, 10:04 am »

Starting reading through that thread, Tommy. Great stuff! Didn't see that in my Google hits. Wonder how that crossover compares to the one from Denmark.

Paul

eclein · « **Reply #18 on:** 7 Oct 2010, 12:42 pm »

orthobiz...keep us updated if you don't mind, I have some 4311B's that are due for a crossover upgrade and will be interested in your project.

R Swerdlow · « **Reply #19 on:** 11 Nov 2010, 08:42 pm »

I built that new crossover and wrote that Audioholics thread, http://forums.audioholics.com/forums/showthread.php?t=25014, and I happened to stumble on this thread.

The two different crossover designs mentioned above appear to be quite different, and I can't explain why other than to suggest that there is more than one way to solve the problem. Both crossovers seem to achieve a relatively flat frequency response. The only difference clear to me is that the Danish guy's crossover is a lot more expensive.

I can only speak about the Dennis Murphy designed crossover from experience, which I built several years ago. It clearly demonstrates what a big difference a properly designed crossover can make. If you have an old L-100 or 4310, you'll be surprised at how good these old speakers can sound.