JBL Lancer 77.....any good?

z-adamson

Addicted Member
I keep seeing the Lancer 77 for sale in great shape for not a whole lot of money relative to other vintage JBL speakers. I see them is great shape for about $400 asking price. Good looking cabinets, new foam (black).

So, how do these stack up against the other more popular JBL speakers ie. L100, L110, L112, L96, 4311b etc. ??
 
Compared to the models you mentioned, I'd go for 4313b or L166 instead.

I think the L77 is more a collector's piece -
something to own for fun when you already have a stack of other newer and better JBLs.
 
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Looks like 2 way, cone tweeter, dual 10in woofers one being passive. Likely sounds different than the others.
 
$400 would be a stretch in my opinion. From the ones I heard, they are a clear step down from 1970's JBLs like the L100, which themselves are a clear step down from the later 70's and early/mid 80's JBLs.

Lackluster paper-cone tweeter, no real mid-range (though that 10" does better than most woofers in this regard), lackluster bass... the L77 doesn't have much to look forward to. They remind me a lot of the L88, but the L88 at least had better bass and an upgrade path to turn it into an L100. The L77 does have a bit of that old-school 1960's warm sound though, and if you like that due to nostalgic reasons or otherwise, they might be fun. I still think $400 is a bit too much regardless.
 
I have a pair of L77's that I got for $300 with all drivers professionally re-foamed without removing the dust-caps. They look like they were done in the factory. The foam is tucked under the cone, the way they were meant to be. The surrounds are also black, which I prefer over the newer anemic "white" surrounds. The cabinets are near mint but there is a stain on one of the grilles which is why I got them for less than the $400.00 he was originally asking. I think they are beautiful pieces of furniture.

In terms of sound, I agree with the above statements that they don't compare to the others you mentioned, but they do sound very good. I use them in a small basement room in a near-field setting. I really enjoy them with some of my vintage tube and SS amps. They really shine with acoustic music, Jazz and Classical but not that great for rock music.

listening room.JPG
 
I have had a pair of these for years and are one of about 11 pair of vintage speakers I use regularly. Other JBLs, ARs, EPIs, Rogers Sound Labs, Corals, and more. The question of how good these are depends in my mind on whether they have been repaired with standard replacement type foam surrounds. If so they will never sound the way they were intended to. The material used for the surrounds originally is a rubber which was firmer and stiffer than foam. It was developed by JBL and called Lansalloy. It is the white color that you see in pictures of professionally of restored , usually by JBL, JBL speakers. This stuff gets very stiff but can easily be brought back to working condition by the MINIMAL and careful application of clear brake fluid. I'm not making this up. I used a q-tip. If you find a pair of stiff ones that are still white or discolored white you have an opportunity to get an extraordinary pair of speakers. $400 may be high but given my own experience I'd gladly pay $250 for a pair if I didn't have mine. For the record I paid $40 for my pair at GoodWill.

You cannot get the equivalent of these new for $400 under any circumstances. If the original surrounds have been cut out and replaced with foam just walk away. They could never sound as originally designed or intended unless you source the original material and start over. Great speakers.
 
If the original surrounds have been cut out and replaced with foam just walk away. They could never sound as originally designed or intended unless you source the original material and start over. Great speakers.

So, why exactly do foam surrounds not yield favorable results?
 
My answer is based upon the shared view of a speaker builder. Not just out of my head. The movement of the more compliant foam will lead to a "sloppier" less precise sound. Different physical responsiveness, less snappy. Hope this helps.
 
Well I'd love to hear a few steps up from my 77s. Refoamed matched with a Luxman R1040 I simply can't imagine anything sounding better. I've had Bozaks, Kenwood, Sansuis, Polk 5s and many more..Nothing compares to this setup. I've owned 9090dbs, pioneer 1080, marantz of all wattages,75 or so receiver and 30 or 40 sets of speakers. These 77s sound wonderful.
 
If you Recap the Xovers they can be even better.
kinda Makes me want to get my white pair of 77's in the storage room redone
they are a perfect example of the parts alone Le10's PR10's and Le20's all Alnico
being worth more than the speakers!
 
I keep seeing the Lancer 77 for sale in great shape for not a whole lot of money relative to other vintage JBL speakers. I see them is great shape for about $400 asking price. Good looking cabinets, new foam (black).

So, how do these stack up against the other more popular JBL speakers ie. L100, L110, L112, L96, 4311b etc. ??

I like the black surrounds over the faded white ones. Was the fix done correctly? With the cone paper OVER the lip of the surround? Stock tweeters, not dented in? Grilles look okay? Are you able to hear them?

$400 for a pair seems like a great price. In my opinion. :D

EDIT: Dang it! 4 year-old thread. $400 made me drool. Oh well...

Silly emoji silly (small) - Copy.jpg
 
I ended up with a set years ago from a Craigslist post. There was a "JBL Speaker" bullet point somewhere down near the bottom of a list containing potted plants and 70's furniture. These were actually my first JBL find in the wild so i was quite excited.

They were priced at $40 bucks and were pretty near mint except the rotten Lansalloy surrounds/sun faded grille fabric on 1 speaker. Closer inspection revealed the tweeters were completely eaten by silverfish but after rebuilding everything, including new caps, they sounded excellent.
 
You cannot get the equivalent of these new for $400 under any circumstances. If the original surrounds have been cut out and replaced with foam just walk away. They could never sound as originally designed or intended unless you source the original material and start over. Great speakers.

I have rebuilt many sets of these L77, and their brothers the L66s I've actually lost count of how may LE10As I've rebuilt over the last 25 years.

And, in fact, I owned a pair of L77s for quite a while.

I can say, the above was NOT my experience. The foam surrounds actually significantly outperformed the Lansalloy surrounds, by a wide margin.Both the bass and the midrange was better. Who would want the inferior performance of an original Lansalloy surround, for a speaker that is actually going to be used? I could only understand keeping the original ones, if it was going to be a collector's item "shelf queen".

There's a sonic reason why JBL went away from the Lansalloy, to a standard foam surround on ALL their woofers. And it wasn't because of failure- they did this, before any of them were even remotely old enough to fail.

Regards,
Gordon.
 
I have rebuilt many sets of these L77, and their brothers the L66s I've actually lost count of how may LE10As I've rebuilt over the last 25 years.

And, in fact, I owned a pair of L77s for quite a while.

I can say, the above was NOT my experience. The foam surrounds actually significantly outperformed the Lansalloy surrounds, by a wide margin.Both the bass and the midrange was better. Who would want the inferior performance of an original Lansalloy surround, for a speaker that is actually going to be used? I could only understand keeping the original ones, if it was going to be a collector's item "shelf queen".

There's a sonic reason why JBL went away from the Lansalloy, to a standard foam surround on ALL their woofers. And it wasn't because of failure- they did this, before any of them were even remotely old enough to fail.

Regards,
Gordon.

Dear GordonW, please tell me your opinion on this issue. I bought JBL L110 and the woofer has fabric suspensions instead of foam. What do you think is a fabric suspension worse?
Regards, Ivan
 
A fabric surround is not good on an an LE10 orLE111.

That looks like someone put the fabric surround- or maybe the entire cone assembly- for a JBL 2123H into an LE10/LE111 woofer.

I would want to make sure, that the woofer isn't actually a 2123H that has been improperly installed into the L110 cabinet, or that it is not an original woofer reconed with a 2123H kit. If so, then it would need to be reconed as an LE111... the frames are interchangeable, in that respect.

Regards,
Gordon.
 
A fabric surround is not good on an an LE10 or LE111.
That looks like someone put the fabric surround- or maybe the entire cone assembly- for a JBL 2123H into an LE10/LE111 woofer.

I would want to make sure, that the woofer isn't actually a 2123H that has been improperly installed into the L110 cabinet, or that it is not an original woofer reconed with a 2123H kit. If so, then it would need to be reconed as an LE111... the frames are interchangeable, in that respect.

Regards,
Gordon.
I checked. Installed Le 111A. On the inside, I also did not find foam rubber. Only fabric suspension. Unfortunately, I did not hear the original sound and cannot compare the sound with fabric suspensions. I will probably replace it. Thank you very much for your attention to my post.
Regards, Ivan
 
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