JBL re-introducing the L-100

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.

While I like your thinking, I believe most of speaker building is automated in many ways from voice coil winding to die-cast baskets and their machining. Even cabinets are CNC routed for uniformity.

Wayner
 
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.
Well then go explain to the marketing crew in charge of the new L100 that $4000 not the correct price and that it should be closer to $2000 because manufacturing is easier.

If you adjust for inflation, the numbers line up. Thats all I was saying. It could just be coincidence that they line up. I don't know either way.
 
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?
Lawmakers made cars / trucks much more difficult to manufacture, so that in addition to inflation drives the price up.

So are you saying that since a vehicles MSRP rises much more than what inflation says it should, then speakers should to? The new L100 should me more like $8000 - $10,000 then?
 
Many a grasping, parsimonious skinflint around here talks more about money than sound; knowing the cost of everything and the value of nothing.

Thank you Oscar (Wilde). I find it doubtful that that they're going to sound better than other JBL offerings available at a lower price. Instead it seems like a cash grab. (That's not a knock, only modern capitalism at its best.:p)

Of course the real inflation adjusted comparison would be to make the identical speaker to the original.
There's an updated Dynaco A25 that sells for $2500 but used TOL cabinet, drivers and crossover. This is for a speaker that sold for $160 back in 1968.

Another speaker to look at would be Human Speakers Model 81 which sells for $540/pr, an updated version of the Genesis1/I and EPI 100. These all sold in the $200/pr range in the 1970's. The 81 is closest in size to the Genesis 1. It too is updated with better drivers, cabinet construction, crossovers, etc. The inflation adjusted price for that would be somewhere in the range of using m6erfan's inflation calculator for 1975 puts it in the $900 to $1000 range, roughly 1/2 an inflation adjusted price for the Human Speaker.
 
But will they Rock? That's why they sold so well in the day.
Put Creedence Clearwater's "Keep on Choogilin" on that turntable and let's see!
 
Not seeing this at all...



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.

Yes a bit expensive back then but people could save for awhile and get L100s, not to mention the rest of the components that made up a decent stereo rig (BTW, min. wage was $2.30 in '77 but people making that generally weren't buying L100s). Cost of living wasn't nearly so much either (we have less disposable income now in many cases).
 
If we're adjusting for inflation across the board, then a 25" TV, minuscule by today's standards, should cost about $6,000 now.
 
You do have to take into account that back then, almost everything was done with manual labor. Today, most of the speaker building process is automated, so comparing yesterdays dollars to today's dollars may not add up. Cost of the "per unit" also depends on how many units are being built.
 
The thing about inflation is that it's useless to compare different sectors of the economy with any equality. In broad terms inflation relates to buying power of the dollar over time. However, some sectors. especially tech heavy sectors (like electronics, computers, etc.) enjoy the benefit of changes in technology when items get smaller, lighter, more efficient & less expensive. Commodity heavy items that use a lot of steel, aluminum, oil, silver, lumber, etc may have a completely different real inflation rate over the same time period. So comparing say a TV to a pickup truck, equally for inflation, is not apples to apples. The 'official' inflation rate from the fed is one of their most concerning and manipulated #'s they try to control.

Anyway, regardless, JBL thinks the market will bear $4k for the new L100's. We'll just have to see...
 
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