JBL re-introducing the L-100

I bought my original new pair of L100s for $666 in the mid 70s. $4000 is a far cry from my price.

Come on, this is about as sophomoric of a post as i have seen in a looong time.

$666 in 1974 comes to $3480 adjusted for inflation.

How far of a cry is that, really?

All JBL is doing is selling the L100 today for pretty dang close to the same price they did before.......adjusted for inflation.
 
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Yikes. In 1974 a phone was ah, errr - free. Pick your poison - today they are hundreds to a thousand dollars. Would you like to buy a JBL L100, today, only $4K man! The average consumer has so much more disposable income today. You can't blame JBL for trying to capture some of it. It's a grand experiment. New speakers ... $4k ... watch my wife's head explode. This might be just what I need!
 
Yikes. In 1974 a phone was ah, errr - free. Pick your poison - today they are hundreds to a thousand dollars. Would you like to buy a JBL L100, today, only $4K man! The average consumer has so much more disposable income today. You can't blame JBL for trying to capture some of it. It's a grand experiment. New speakers ... $4k ... watch my wife's head explode. This might be just what I need!

Not really. Back then one 'rented' the phone from Ma Bell, the charge was a line item in your monthly phone bill. Also, current phones, even cheaper ones, have more processing speed, power and functionality than the most powerful computers that cost hundreds of thousands in 1974 dollars. Just sayin...

Personally I don't care how much JBL wants to charge, I am curious how they sound
 
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As I said on another forum, $4,000 doesn't surprise me at all. Vintage prices are in a world different from modern gear. Hell, DeVore Orangutans, with the same basic driver complement as the L40 (10" two-way, dome tweeter) but with a bigger box, are $10,000 a pair. The profit margins are just insane on stuff like this.
C'mon Zonker92, are you seriously comparing the JBL L40 to DeVore Orangutans? They are worlds apart.
 
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The adjusted for inflation thesis is friggin ridiculous. The cost of manufacturing is FAR less and also FAR easier than it was in the 70's. Items such as speakers should be LESS when adjusted for inflation. A fair price for these would be about $2000 - $2500 for the pair. I'd probably bite at $2500 as I always liked these with the blue foam grills. Not $4,000 however.
 
The adjusted for inflation thesis is friggin ridiculous. The cost of manufacturing is FAR less and also FAR easier than it was in the 70's. Items such as speakers should be LESS when adjusted for inflation. A fair price for these would be about $2000 - $2500 for the pair. I'd probably bite at $2500 as I always liked these with the blue foam grills. Not $4,000 however.

It may be that manufacturing is easier, but be that as it may, msrp adjusted for inflation still comes to the $3500 range.
 
It may be that manufacturing is easier, but be that as it may, msrp adjusted for inflation still comes to the $3500 range.

The adjusted for inflation thesis is friggin ridiculous.

The adjusted for inflation thesis is friggin ridiculous.
The adjusted for inflation thesis is friggin ridiculous.
The adjusted for inflation thesis is friggin ridiculous.
 
C'mon Zonker92, are you seriously comparing the JBL L40 to DeVore Oranutans? They are worlds apart.

Sound-wise, sure; you’re most likely right, but in terms of hard manufacturing costs, how so, specifically? I mean, the DeVores have larger boxes and a nicer finish, and I’m sure the crossovers have more spendy bits, but otherwise? (Especially given the ease of modern design and manufacturing processes, noted above.)

Call me crazy, but I’m just not buying the notion that one paper-coned 10” woofer and one dome tweeter cost literally thousands of dollars more to manufacture than JBL’s older offerings. (And given the proprietary nature of such costs, it would be tough to show otherwise.)
 
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I don't buy into $4,000 being the same price they were back then, if they were $666 in 1975, then we have to look at other items as well. In 1975, we bought a brand new Ford F100 truck, for $2,600, in today's money, that's about $12,100 or so, try and find a new truck for anywhere close to that now. If we're going to believe one of those inflation calculators for one item, then it needs to hold true for all items.
One could argue that a lot more goes into a modern truck or set of speakers, or anything built today then in 1975 but the same would hold true if you looked at items made 40 years prior to 1975.
What we have to look at is the buying public and how much spending cash they have today vs. 1975 or any year prior. In 1975, we bought that truck cash, along with a new car that year. The likely hood of buying a new F150 for cash these days is slim. If it were say $12,100, then maybe, but the last time I priced a new F150 here it was well over $30,000 with a base price of $28K.
So either inflation is far greater than the 3.73% that those calculators figure on, or manufacturers are just price gouging these days.

I've been a long time fan of JBL, but the likely hood of me ever spending $4K on a set of small speakers is nil. For a set of Ti250's or similar, maybe, but again, there's plenty of vintage originals to be had.
Besides, when was the last time a reproduction model turned out to be as good as the original?
 
Are those like the JBL Centuries I had a lifetime ago? They were nice but most of what sticks out in my memory was their orange grills. I recently rebuilt these JBL's for a friend. I believe he said they were Lancers but I'm not sure. They surprised me for vintage speakers.

P7090002.jpg
 
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One of the reasons the L100 was so popular is they were relatively affordable to average working people.

Not seeing this at all...

L100s were expensive in the 1970s.

I have the original sales receipt (from the original owner of my L100's)--the "discounted" price from Dec. 1977 was $623 and change. I'd say that was a bit on the expensive side--minimum wage was still under $2/hr back then. Look at what Klipsch is getting for their "mildly updated" current Heritage series models. $4K is not IMO, unrealistic.
 
"LAS VEGAS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--HARMAN International, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd."

This is the part that is the problem for me. If they are going to be manufactured in the USA, then $4k is probably an OK price. If they are going to be made in China, or elsewhere in the Far East, it smacks of just jacking the price up because of the JBL name. Because you know, they could make these in China for less than $500.

Lee.
 
"LAS VEGAS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--HARMAN International, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd."

This is the part that is the problem for me. If they are going to be manufactured in the USA, then $4k is probably an OK price. If they are going to be made in China, or elsewhere in the Far East, it smacks of just jacking the price up because of the JBL name. Because you know, they could make these in China for less than $500.

Lee.
Yep if it's American-made craftsmanship through and through there's a quality that can't be replicated.
Like food made by Loving Hands it definitely taste better.
Products that are handmade in the United States by Craftsman are definitely better than any product that is mass-produced by a people oppressed and enslaved by a government.
The people assembling products in factories that reside in lands where the people are forced to work for little to nothing and have heavy demands placed upon them to produce vast quantities in high rates of production will NEVER be able to produce a product that has the same elements of craftsmanship and quality like can be done in the land of the free and Home of the Brave.
 
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