The L100 Classic is a very good speaker system, I’ve auditioned them and although I went further up the chain, I felt that they sounded very good and better than the Revels we were A/Bing (that cost more). They were designed as a completely new speaker with neutral sound, all new drivers, but cosmetically tied to the original L100 series.
The Original Century or L100 Series did not sound neutral, they were born as a monitor to mimic another popular monitor’s sound, and only made it into the consumer space when people bought the monitor version for home (4310/4311) and JBL saw an opportunity to make a consumer version. If you are listening to some of MANY selections from the era that were mastered and mixed using JBL monitors during that time, they produce the correct / period sound. You don’t like the sound, don’t buy vintage speakers.
Personally, I like the L100 Classic as a speaker, and like the classic look, they just didn’t do what I needed at the time. Given a choice between them and this anniversary version it seems like I’d prefer the non-anniversary edition because I don’t like oak, don’t like the black bezel, and am tired of saving boxes in the attic but likely would need to save these for the resale some day. Obviously I’m not their target customer anyway, chances are many of these will go to collectors who want a limited-edition and most of those will be in the Asian market (where they don’t save boxes but the shipping crate will be beneficial for transport).
