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JBL L300

I see. I am actually going to have to leave to go look at them soon, I have two little ones I have to have ready to take with me as well, so it is not as easy as just getting in the car and going. Minivan actually, and a good thing too for I am sure the L300 pair will be far bigger than I could haul in a car anyway.
 
I will update on condition and sound when I have a chance to try them out. The Rockwood woofers may be for car use actually, so the impedence may be off.
 
Definitely get them. Worst case you can sell them at a huge profit.

Personally, I would restore them.
 
Here is the thing, looking at prices for the woofers alone, shows to be a big chunk of change. Personally, I would walk, but that's just me. Not too many people will pay big for a project. The cabinets themselves are hard to ship, and would then be hard to sell. The woofers are key to the whole thing. I would not get them, but as I said, thats just me :)
 
faber12 said:
I have an opportunity to buy a pair of JBL L300. The asking price is $180 usd or best offer. I do not think the woofers are original, although the owner thinks they are. Is this as good a deal as it appears? Ebay has much higher prices for the L300 pairs listed.

Are they as good sounding as everyone seems to think?
Click to expand...


I think they sound kind'a "slow" and muddy in the bass, a good speaker but not a great one. Obviously many disagree with me. But at that price I'd buy them, even if the woofers aren't original. Hell, they might sound better.
 
In good shape with the right parts, grills, glass top and such they are worth over $2000. The fact that they are for sale for much less implies you need to put some money into them to make them right. It depends on how much money you are willing to work with to get these in good shape. Someone put non-standard woofers in them. So - if you are willing to drop $400-500 for the right woofers you can get them much closer to stock.
If not, let someone else know where they are so they can have a look at them and figure if they want to invest in a hacked-up pair of speakers.
 
faber12 said:
I have an opportunity to buy a pair of JBL L300. The asking price is $180 usd or best offer. I do not think the woofers are original, although the owner thinks they are. Is this as good a deal as it appears? Ebay has much higher prices for the L300 pairs listed.

Are they as good sounding as everyone seems to think?
Click to expand...

Note that the ORIGINAL woofers do not have some car audio brand inked on the front of them.

THIS is what they are SUPPOSED to look like, in good shape, from 1975 or so

That said, you could do a lot worse for $200 -

What kind of money did you figure you could spare to fix them up a bit?

If you don't fix them up much, they are probably worth a wee bit more than $180 -
but its hard to say without knowing if the rest of the parts are working right.

page1a.jpg


http://www.lansingheritage.org/html/jbl/specs/home-speakers/1975-l300.htm
 
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@hjames

Thank you for that picture.

The woofers are junk car speakers as expected, but the rest is original. The tweeters and midrange work fine, and sound good. The woofers will definitely need replaced, and they should sound great then. No grills or sound baffle for the midrange. That is what the finned thing over the horn should be called right?
 
I have a saved search on eBay, and a pair comes up almost daily; usually they have a Buy It Now around $5,000-6,000/pair for clean ones. I haven't recently checked the completed listings, but I suspect they do actually command those prices these days, which accounts for the BINs being used nowadays. I remember several years ago they used to sell around $3,000 a pair and I thought that was a lot.

The thing over the midrange is called a horn lens. JBL called them Koustic lenses I think. You can buy replicas on eBay.

The pair you are looking at sounds like they might be worth around $2,000-3,000, but I'd have to see the cabinets to get a better sense of it.
 
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Zonker92 said:
The thing over the midrange is called a horn lens. JBL called them Koustic lenses I think. You can buy replicas on eBay.
Click to expand...

A poster in this thread (not me) had a nice pair of wood ones for sale recently. Maybe they'll shoot the OP a PM if still available.
 
This is probably the only opportunity you'll ever have to get into what I consider one of the most ridiculously overpriced vintage speakers for so little money.
 
Did you ask the seller what he did with the original woofers. ?

Maybe just a refoaming job and he threw away the woofers....

in a box still in his basement !

Maybe, just maybe.
 
He never had the original woofers... he thought they were the originals. He did not know what he had. I have sold them actually...
 
faber12 said:
He never had the original woofers... he thought they were the originals. He did not know what he had. I have sold them actually...
Click to expand...

Hope you got some decent money for them and bought something really nice instead.
 
Jeffery said:
A poster in this thread (not me) had a nice pair of wood ones for sale recently. Maybe they'll shoot the OP a PM if still available.
Click to expand...
The Wood lenses were sold and have long since been shipped to Norway -
tho I do have 2 sets of the original plastic ones left -
I will keep 1 set for the L200s in my Avatar.

faber12 said:
He never had the original woofers... he thought they were the originals. He did not know what he had. I have sold them actually...
Click to expand...

Well, bought and sold already - sounds like a quick flippy ...
Should have kept them and enjoyed them for a bit -
whenever you decide to get some more speakers - let us know ...
 
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Sometimes it makes more sense to do the flip especially with young ones, etc. Nice little profit helps out with other things. Years ago, I once bought an RCA catalin radio at a garage sale for $10. Talked to a catalin collector friend of mine and he said he was looking for one. he made a decent offer, very close to what they were bringing at the time. Down the road it went. I think I owned it less than 24 hours. Wifey was very happy, helped out the family finances immensely that month.

Is the OP ever going to come across another deal like this? Maybe, maybe not. Have I found another catalin radio for $10. Nope. But I never regretted it. It was the right thing to do at the time.
 
I agree ggregg. My wife is very happy. I am starting to call myself "The Finder". I hooked the pair up and even with the crap car audio subwoofers in them they sound good enough that I had to turn them off before I regretted selling them. :-) Also @hjames, do you mean buy them from you, or if I find another pair of interesting speakers for cheap?
 
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