JBL 4312 vs JBL L110

[Jayrosc]

Well, I gotta say that I'm giving the nod to the lesser known L110. In the past couple weeks I've given pairs of each of these the spa treatment. Refoam. New caps. New L-pads. The 4312's are great, but there's something a bit more punchy about the L110's that I like. Plus the highs produced by the L110's seem more, well, effortless. They do have a different tweeter. The 4312's use a paper cone and the L110's have, I don't know, a soft dome thingy that I think is an 033? I'm gonna spend more time with each. Scott McKenzie is now singing about San Fransisco through the 4312's and it really sounds great. Truth is, one pair's gotta go.
Not yet in the mix is my pair of L26's, also just reformed and recapped, but with what look like pristine original L-pads. I'm not sure they should be in a race with the other two pair. At least not yet. So glad to have so many JBL options! All are from what was probably this companies golden age. I hate to part with any of them, but I think many on this site understand the dilemma.

 

[Chris Brown]

I'm not surprised by your findings. The 4312 is a "Control Monitor", a descendant of the old L100/4310, which was mostly built to emulate the even older Altec 604e in the studio. The L110 certainly has a more neutral sound, maybe not as much as a Studio Monitor, and the L110 should still have that "west coast sound" for the most part, but the difference is still substantial. I am also not a fan of the paper cone tweeters. The 033 is a nice tweeter, I have the same on my L150 speakers. Great treble with a bit less of a hard edge compared to the later titanium dome tweeters.

 

[douggabos]

Well, I gotta say that I'm giving the nod to the lesser known L110. In the past couple weeks I've given pairs of each of these the spa treatment. Refoam. New caps. New L-pads. The 4312's are great, but there's something a bit more punchy about the L110's that I like. Plus the highs produced by the L110's seem more, well, effortless. They do have a different tweeter. The 4312's use a paper cone and the L110's have, I don't know, a soft dome thingy that I think is an 033? I'm gonna spend more time with each. Scott McKenzie is now singing about San Fransisco through the 4312's and it really sounds great. Truth is, one pair's gotta go.
Not yet in the mix is my pair of L26's, also just reformed and recapped, but with what look like pristine original L-pads. I'm not sure they should be in a race with the other two pair. At least not yet. So glad to have so many JBL options! All are from what was probably this companies golden age. I hate to part with any of them, but I think many on this site understand the dilemma.

Jay--I saw this old 2016 post and wonder if you ever made a final decision between the 110s and 4312s. I ask because I'm faced with a similar dilemma. I have to get rid of one pair. My 4312s are the "C" models that have the Titanium tweeters. The 110s are in wonderful shape and all original with reformed woofers. I think I'm leaning toward the 4312s. Just a bit more crisp. The highs and vocal range on the 110s sound a bit muddier. Any final advice, my good man?

 

[douggabos]

Jay--I saw this old 2016 post and wonder if you ever made a final decision between the 110s and 4312s. I ask because I'm faced with a similar dilemma. I have to get rid of one pair. My 4312s are the "C" models that have the Titanium tweeters. The 110s are in wonderful shape and all original with reformed woofers. I think I'm leaning toward the 4312s. Just a bit more crisp. The highs and vocal range on the 110s sound a bit muddier. Any final advice, my good man?

 

[Jayrosc]

Always a matter of personal preference, but I'll tell ya, I ended up keeping the L110's. The 4312's were good and in a perfect world I'd still have them, but something had to go. It gets better though....last year I found a nice pair of 4313b's and wound up in the same situation. Guess what? The L110's won out in that contest too. I'd say your account of the 4312 sound is spot on and they look better than the L110's do. In the end I think it was that my L110's had better bass. Seemed to dig a little deeper and still had punch. It was much harder to make a choice between the L110's and the 4313b's. Ultimately I got rid of the 4313b's because they had much higher resale value.

 

[Chris Brown]

My 4312s are the "C" models that have the Titanium tweeters. The 110s are in wonderful shape and all original with reformed woofers. I think I'm leaning toward the 4312s. Just a bit more crisp. The highs and vocal range on the 110s sound a bit muddier.

The 4312C has a newer midrange (104H-3) than the L110 (LE5-12) also, but that shouldn't necessarily be enough to make the difference. I would personally avoid comparing them directly back to back. The 035Ti(A) tweeters can be bright and I often get the same impression when comparing my L150 (033 tweeter, same as your L110) against my L100T or 4412 speakers (both have 035Ti tweeters, similar to your 4312C). That has more to do with the way the human brain works when comparing things back to back. You are most likely to notice what is missing from what was there immediately before; in this case, the strong treble of the 035Ti variant compared to the softer treble of the 033 tweeter. But when taking a small break in-between, and giving the 033 a fair shot on it's own, it really doesn't lack anything. I personally find that the 035Ti variants can even get fatiguing after a while whereas the 033 is one tweeter that you can listen to all day (or night?) long.