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JBL speakers.A love hate relationship.

I am not polarized by JBL. I unreservedly love my L150s and my LX600s. My 4311Bs (very close to a L100) are a different story.

So, my point is that saying JBLs are polarizing because you have mixed feelings about your L100s isn't really appropriate. The real question is whether L100s are polarizing.

I would imagine the answer is yes. When a speaker has such a colored sound, some recordings will fare well, but others will suffer greatly. This is why many of us seek a neutral sounding speaker.

But, ultimately, it's all in your ears. By your ears, I mean YOUR ears. Some people love the L100, others don't. If you like them, crank 'em up and rock.
 
My 4312As sound great on Pioneer SS gear (SX-1080, SX 3700, and SX-580). Meaning they sound good with all types of music played on these receivers.

However, when driven with Carver 1.0ts and a Yamaha CX-800 pre, they're sketchy....depending on the recording. Best recording I heard from that set-up was an old Beatles "Past Masters" CD. Really let me hear the genious going on in the production and mixing of the CD (a remastered version of their 'B' hits).

Regardless, Will likely never get rid of them as they provide a known sound I can use as reference.....and all that talk about no bass response - poo-poo.

I suspect placement is a key factor as well.....as I really haven't toyed with moving them into the right spots in the room. All my experiences are antecdotal- but there's magic in the somewhere. Just have to figure out how to make it consistent.

Also, played them off my Magnovox 8802 tube amp and sounded wonderful....but not enough power to drive them near concert level. Easy listening OK and pure - rocking, not a chance.

Still a JBL believer.
 
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superdog said:
I think listening style,music and mood play a part.I can't recall what music I did not like through JBLs because I probably changed it right away.I guess I am not telling some JBL owners something they don't already know maybe the fake but fun which is fun at times doesn't work for everything.Like I said I really like what they do for certain music but can be too forward and shrill for some at lower levels.I don't think I would know that if I didn't have other types of speakers."Moonbeams"by Grover Washington.Try it at moderate to loud on JBL.
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Hey SD, you need to move up the JBL food chain. The L100's are a lot of fun but the better monitors have all that fun and very accurate reproduction.
I've owned L100's, 4312a's, and 4313's. The 4313's with a 10" woofer, better mid, and the 066 tweeter out-classed the others and dug lower. It didn't have the pronounced midrange and bass boom like the L100's.

The larger studio monitors of the 44xx series are another game, entirely. They are professional quality all the way and the better drivers used present another level of reproduction. That is why the prices for the larger monitors are climbing, deservedly.

If you'e kind of happy with the L100's but are looking to get something in JBL that is better, I'd be on the lookout for the 4313's or, if space is no object, the bigger 44xx seiries.
 
The first speaker system (speakers in a cabinet from a single manufacture) I purchased was JBL L100. This would have been around 1969/70. I listened to them for about a year before buying a set of L200s.

I don't think that I grew tired of the L100 or felt I needed/wanted something better/different. I just had the room for floor standing speakers and when I A/B the 100 and 200 there was enough of a difference to convince me to sell the L100s and buy the L200s.

I listened to the L200s for about a year before purchasing another set of speakers. I don't think that I was tired of them or dissatisfied with them. I believe that it was just the start of the quest which lead me a few years later (and many other speaker systems) to what I ended up with in 1977 and what I am still listening to today.

L100s and L200s are the only JBL speaker systems that I have ever owned. I have had many JBL drivers that I put in musical instrument amps but no other JBL speaker systems.
 
I worship my JBL speakers...

I worship my JBL L7 speakers, but they are very difficult to please.

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Almost any "new" equipment, like amplifiers, CD´s etc, can take all the fun out of listening to them.

They do not like 1-bit D/A converters at all, but older multibit sounds wonderful.
So do vinyl, and I use Stanton 881S, and some Yamaha MC cartridges.

Presently listening with a Pioneer PD-8500 CD player, Peavey 50/50 for the top, and a Pioneer SS amp for the side mounted woofer.

So, maybe those that do not like the sound of JBL, should look at what they use to feed them.

/SWIN
 
I don't understand the love hate thing !

When it comes to audio components you own. :scratch2:
If ya love it keep it.If ya don't get rid of it!
If ya can't decide. I can't help ya ! :smoke:
 
The 250ti's is the most nutral JBL speaker I have ever heard. I own or have owned 4340's, 4 pairs of l100's, l65's, l100t's, l80t3's, 4 pairs of l20t's, 4 b380's, etc. that is about half. (I DID NOT AND DO NOT CURRENTLY OWN ALL THEOSE SPEAKERS AT ONE TIME) for all around listning the 250ti's are the best bang for the dollar. There is also two Paragons in my neighborhood (only sounds good on a small selection of material). They all have their own sound. I listen to a pair of l20t's in my office every day all day. The most unhappy I have ever been with a JBL speaker was a pair of 4311's (L100's) they never really warmed up to me.

I am browsing for a pair of 4435's to play with when the money is right.
 
I have heard L-100's and I believe L-120's driven by a sx1250 and they were owned by a committed JBL fan. I sadly liked his kappa 5.1 over the JBL's, and even more than those I liked my heils driven by my marantz 2226 and my sm122's that I modded with ribbons and my ev-sp12's.
The JBL's sounded a bit too soft in the highs to me, they are all very close in bass IMHO and the sx1250 puts out a good bit of it compared to the 2226 anyway, but I am a bit of a treble guy. I like the ear piercing highs. I must have ribbons.

So far I have liked the heil amt's and how they can fill a room and more with so little power. I was listening to houses of the holy a week ago sunday, and I opened the door to put the trash out and my neighbors stopped dead in their yard and went, man that is some loud music ... Well no, the heil was facing the door. It pushed a ton in that direction.
Cool.
Srinath.
 
I've had these for a few years now. Every time I think about parting with them my son just shakes his head. He tells me I can never part with them. Maybe he's right. There is a pair of Altec Model 19's I've had my eye on for a couple of years though.:yes:Currently they're powered by a Sansui G-9000. My wife is at the beach. I think the neighbors are hoping she'll get home soon.:D
 

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I vote infinity.

70salesguy said:
I must have missed the memo, what speaker are we trashing next month?
Click to expand...

I vote infinity. And not next month, its august already, so this month.

I'll start -

Ribbons that kill amps, followed by polycell that sounded lifeless, CF woofer that sounded nice and tight but they only put it in a few and I've never seen it in the 12 or 15 WTF.

I modded a set of sm 122's with fleabay ribbons in place of the polycell. Night and day. Everything went clearer. Voices, music everything. I need to stuff the cabinet like crazy - like crazier ... but they had to know swapping emit's for poly's will sound dull.

I guess we're at that point where we have to mod stuff else we dont like it. I know I am.

Cool.
Srinath.
 
I like to see a little speaker trashing (realism) in here once in a while to keep things balanced. Otherwise, visitors would come in here and think anything old was amazing.
 
My beef with virtually every JBL loudspeaker system, compression driver, or horn that I have heard is a shrillness in the treble that is unacceptably grating to me. One marked exception is a DIY three-way system using JBL drivers and horns (woofer in modified Onken cabinets) that was built and tweaked by Kevin Kennedy in MA. Driven by a 300B SE amplifier of his own design and construction (Kevin's been in the business before, working for very large companies as well as on his own). His are very nice sounding, sweet and well-balanced, even near field or on-axis and up close. I cannot say that about any other JBL-based loudspeakers I've encountered (even driven by very sympathetic vacuum tube amplifiers).

None of their consumer loudspeakers or studio monitors that I have heard did it for me at all.

In all fairness, I have a pair of JBL 275 compression drivers mounted on the the right-angle HF horns used in the Metregon (I found these at the dump). Based on very short-term listening tests, these had some promise... but I haven't pursued them at all. FWIW, the 275s don't seem to be common at all.
 
Dont even get me started on ewaves ...

bowtie427ss said:
E-waves?:D
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Dont even get me started on those ...

Its basically a 12" horn and a 12" woofer ... AKA, gut a maggie/zenith/no name console of yore and use it, along with the cross over. Now maggie tube consoles are hard to come by ... yes I agree, but, maggie consoles with SS amps are plentyful and cheap - AKA CL fools cannot give them away (I know, I tried) ... and some people have 3-4-500 bucks tied in it. Yea they also put JBL drivers in em though ... which rather ties back into the JBL bashing ...

BTW Magnavox made speakers that looked like real wood and beautiful silk cloth fascia with the 12+12 already in, same X as the console I think and they sound wonderful. Mine cost me under $30 off CL.

Not against E waves, but dropping 300+ on one is just criminal.

Infinity 3 ways with emit and emim - very nice speaker for the way it sounds, but you dare not run it on an amp that cannot handle what I'd say is a really complex load that could be as low as 1 ohm.

Cool.
Srinath.
 
Just to be clear, my "E-wave" comment was 99.5% joke and light hearted ribbing. A lot of good folks here at AK have dedicated vast amounts of their time and knowledge to these mods that have in many instances taken mediocre loudspeakers to the next level and beyond. It's not my intent to discredit any of these folks or their efforts, just to be clear.

However, there is one common reality among ALL loudspeakers, and that is that ALL of them have an imperfection or shortcoming somewhere. Based on this fact alone, i'd wager that for every single loudspeaker ever made, modded, and refined there resides somewhere among us a "hater".
 
srinath said:
Its basically a 12" horn and a 12" woofer ... AKA, gut a maggie/zenith/no name console of yore and use it, along with the cross over. Now maggie tube consoles are hard to come by ... yes I agree, but, maggie consoles with SS amps are plentyful and cheap - AKA CL fools cannot give them away (I know, I tried) ... and some people have 3-4-500 bucks tied in it. Yea they also put JBL drivers in em though ... which rather ties back into the JBL bashing ...
Click to expand...

Um, no. I've built both (Ewaves AND Magnavox-horn based systems). They're not remotely the same thing.

The Magnavox horns are basically midrange-only... they won't go below around 1500 Hz (with any power handling in the double digit range), and they don't go much about 12500 Hz flat, either. They are a small 5/8" or so throat design, which, though good, can't really handle significant power.

And the Maggie crossovers are beyond primitive. I simply throw them out, and design my own (second-order, with EQ built in, including a supertweeter circuit). Unless you have the Maggie bi-amp (SE horn amp, PP woofer amp), you really haven't heard what the Maggie horns can do, without building your own crossover...

OTOH, the Ewave driver and flare is a stout 1" throat compression driver, that, after the crossover is applied, is flat from around 1400-20000 Hz. With great power handling, and smoother/flatter/more detailed than the Magnavox horns.

Every system with the Maggie horns, I've had to add a supertweeter. Never had that impulse with the Ewaves. Ewaves simply don't need treble assistance. And the simpler 2-way Ewave system images better, as a result...

I'd never consider using a Maggie-horn-based system as a basis for a high-power, high-realism home-theater system (for use with high-def programming). I wouldn't hesitate a moment, to use an Ewave for that purpose. In fact, the Main Video Room at Anime Weekend Atlanta now has 5 Ewave cabinets for its 5.1 main speakers. Enough to fill a 400+ seat theater, no problem- with fidelity better than most high-end home theater systems, as well as better than most movie theaters too...

Regards,
Gordon.
 
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