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JBL L50? How good of a deal did I get?

rs732

rs732

Active Member
I recently, picked up a pair of JBL L50's'and these things are stone cold near mint! The cabinets and baffles have no damage and have never been been refinished. All the drivers work and are undamaged. The serials numbers are only one frickin digit off. I wanted to change the grille cloth to burnt orange,but the original brown cloth is so pristine that I can't justify doing it.

I rarely see L50's being sold let alone L50's in this condition,so I'm just curious how great of a deal did it get? What are these worth in pristine condition?

Oh, I forgot to mention. All these need is a simple refoam around the subs. Which is quick and easy fix.
 
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They are a sleeper pair of speakers. Some like them much more than L100s, no kidding. They are well built and pretty accurate. Many compare them to better known, and hence more expensive, speakers.
 
faber12 said:
Sounds like a good deal, but hard to say how good without knowing the purchase price. :)
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turnitdown said:
They are a sleeper pair of speakers. Some like them much more than L100s, no kidding. They are well built and pretty accurate. Many compare them to better known, and hence more expensive, speakers.
Click to expand...
rs732 said:
I recently, picked up a pair of JBL L50's'and these things are stone cold near mint! The cabinets and baffles have no damage and have never been been refinished. All the drivers work and are undamaged. The serials numbers are only one frickin digit off. I wanted to change the grille cloth to burnt orange,but the original brown cloth is so pristine that I can't justify doing it.

I rarely see L50's being sold let alone L50's in this condition,so I'm just curious how great of a deal did it get? What are these worth in pristine condition?

Oh, I forgot to mention. All these need is a simple refoam around the subs. Which is quick and easy fix.
Click to expand...

I sold my L50s about five years ago. Bought them new in the late 70s. Had to reform them 15 years ago. I think I sold them for $150.00 and they were in excellent condition. To be honest I don't think they sounded very good and they sat around forever in storage. The retail price was around $650.00 for the pair when new, but were discounted at the time I bought them. Speakers today at the $650.00 a pair range would give you much better sound, but probably not the same level of boomy bass.
 
turnitdown said:
They are a sleeper pair of speakers. Some like them much more than L100s, no kidding. They are well built and pretty accurate. Many compare them to better known, and hence more expensive, speakers.
Click to expand...
Yeah, I seen a few threads stating they sounded better than L100's. I own 3 pairs of l100's,so I can't to refoam these L50's and put that theory to the test.

faber12 said:
Sounds like a good deal, but hard to say how good without knowing the purchase price. :)
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I paid $200 I'm more than content on the price. Just curious what these are worth in pristine condition. The last pair I seen for sale on ebay was 2 years ago,and they went for more than I paid and badly needed repairs.
 
sfseay said:
I sold my L50s about five years ago. Bought them new in the late 70s. Had to reform them 15 years ago. I think I sold them for $150.00 and they were in excellent condition. To be honest I don't think they sounded very good and they sat around forever in storage. The retail price was around $650.00 for the pair when new, but were discounted at the time I bought them. Speakers today at the $650.00 a pair range would give you much better sound, but probably not the same level of boomy bass.
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Yeah,that's what I love about the old JBL's. How well rounded the sound is and if needed you can bring the house down with bass. At the moment, modern speakers just don't do it for me. They just don't have the aesthetics like old JBL's. The ruffled grilles on these are so cool. I can't wait to refoam these, and give them a proper listening.
 
I'm surprised L50's get referred to as having boomy bass. I've driven mine with an SX-850 and an SX-1280, and in neither case did I sit there thinking, "Damn, that's some boomy bass." Rather, it seemed to be just right, you know, neutral, with accurate punch when the volume got cranked.

What I have thought, and continue to think, is that they run to the bright side. When I brought in my ADS 1290/2's, I couldn't believe just how bright they (the JBL's) were. As always, YMMV.

- Jeff
 
rs732 said:
Oh, I forgot to mention. All these need is a simple refoam around the subs. Which is quick and easy fix.
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I wouldn't call them subs!
Hope you enjoy them after the surrounds are replaced. Get the right ones from Rick Cobb.

What color are the grilles?

:needpics:

Just kidding but it's great to see a nice pair of these!
 
hertzdonut said:
I'm surprised L50's get referred to as having boomy bass. I've driven mine with an SX-850 and an SX-1280, and in neither case did I sit there thinking, "Damn, that's some boomy bass." Rather, it seemed to be just right, you know, neutral, with accurate punch when the volume got cranked.

What I have thought, and continue to think, is that they run to the bright side. When I brought in my ADS 1290/2's, I couldn't believe just how bright they (the JBL's) were. As always, YMMV.

- Jeff
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how would you describe a bright sound?
 
Thx for the explanation, i have a pair of these which i bought in december and still haven`t got to listen to them yet.
 
Refoaming those 'subs' might be difficult since there are no 'subs' in those speakers. Those are woofers, not subwoofers. If you don't know the difference then you should look it up. They are not the same thing so they are not interchangeable. It seems these days that most people are calling anything that puts out the bass in a loudspeaker a 'sub' because it sounds so cool. But if you look up 'sub' in a dictionary you won't find any reference to audio equipment. In fact you won't find any reference to anything solid since 'sub' is not even a word. It's a prefix, that is, three letters that go in front of a word to make it a different word. So I can't help thinking that on a site like this we should try to get it straight instead of adding to the confusion. Or am I just whistlin' Dixie.
 
rumblestrip said:
Refoaming those 'subs' might be difficult since there are no 'subs' in those speakers. Those are woofers, not subwoofers. If you don't know the difference then you should look it up. They are not the same thing so they are not interchangeable. It seems these days that most people are calling anything that puts out the bass in a loudspeaker a 'sub' because it sounds so cool. But if you look up 'sub' in a dictionary you won't find any reference to audio equipment. In fact you won't find any reference to anything solid since 'sub' is not even a word. It's a prefix, that is, three letters that go in front of a word to make it a different word. So I can't help thinking that on a site like this we should try to get it straight instead of adding to the confusion. Or am I just whistlin' Dixie.
Click to expand...

You're whistlin something alright.
 
rumblestrip said:
Refoaming those 'subs' might be difficult since there are no 'subs' in those speakers. Those are woofers, not subwoofers. If you don't know the difference then you should look it up. They are not the same thing so they are not interchangeable. It seems these days that most people are calling anything that puts out the bass in a loudspeaker a 'sub' because it sounds so cool. But if you look up 'sub' in a dictionary you won't find any reference to audio equipment. In fact you won't find any reference to anything solid since 'sub' is not even a word. It's a prefix, that is, three letters that go in front of a word to make it a different word. So I can't help thinking that on a site like this we should try to get it straight instead of adding to the confusion. Or am I just whistlin' Dixie.
Click to expand...
I believe I made the point earlier in the thread, in fewer words . . .
BMWCCA said:
I wouldn't call them subs!
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:beerchug:
 
Seems to me you need to fix the surrounds on the woofers and get an amp in there.
Once you do that you can decide if you like them, and if you got a deal or not ...
Its kind of a personal thing - doesn't matter what we say way out here ;)
 
OP, you ever get your 50's going? @rs732

I recently picked up the "The JBL History" Was reading up on the L40/50's.

How do you like them?
 
I owned both the JBLs L40s and L50s. I had the L50s for 25 years. I sold them maybe 10 years ago. I did have to have the woofers re-coned. I liked them back in the 70s and 80s, then didn't use them much for a long time. After listening to them a few years ago I sold them. Thought they sounded bad. Could have been the crossovers, could have been my tastes in speakers changed.
 
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