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L100T versus Heresy... JBL vs. Klipsch

A

atechnica

Member
So recently I found klipsch hereseys at the thrift and incorporated them into my vinyl setup. They sound awesome with a 35 watt receiver and I am really happy with how they look and sound.

Fast forward to the other day and at the thrift I found... JBL L100T for $15, needed foams. So I bought them of course and replaced the foams. I've always seen JBL speakers and wanted a pair, but the good ones lie outside my budget for vinyl speakers.

Anyway, I swapped them out with the hereseys and changed the amp over to my 175wpc Yamaha. Not sure what at all to expect, I dropped the needle.

Yep they sound better than the hereseys in every possible way. Overall flat fequency response with full, deep, but clear and nothwere near bloated bass. More extended and airy highs than the klipsch which I thought were good; some may consider them bright which is debatable but at any rate I like the sound and things like cymbals are all there and realistic sounding, to me.

So there you have it, West coast wins against East coast in this case, except for looks which I'd give to the heresys.
 
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Klipsch are not 'East Coast' in any way, shape or form. Heresy speakers were designed with a completely different goal in mind and for a different type of listener. No surprise that they sound different, they're supposed to. Move another step or two up the speaker food chain and the less you'll be impressed by the L100t's.
 
darkblue94 said:
Klipsch are not 'East Coast' in any way, shape or form. Heresy speakers were designed with a completely different goal in mind and for a different type of listener. No surprise that they sound different, they're supposed to. Move another step or two up the speaker food chain and the less you'll be impressed by the L100t's.
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I agree wrt the Heresy's. If you want classic east coast sound, look for some vintage AR, EPI, or Ohm speakers. Heresy's, and in my opinion most Klipsch horn models of that era, have a sound all their own, neither east nor west coast.

bs
 
The L100 was definitely west coast, but JBL went east coast a long time ago - the L100T is east coast and better in every way imaginable than the L100.

These days JBL is mostly China coast with the better stuff being Mexico coast, but that's a rant for a different thread.
 
That's interesting....I had a set of JBL L100's with nearly nos everything put into them. I wanted a set for so long. After I tried them side by side I much preferred the Heresy II's I had. That being said, I didn't want to be a Klipsch fan and fought against it for years. But, for some reason they just clicked with me and sounded great in my house. So much so, that I sold everything else I had to get Khorns, LaScalas and some others.
 
Uncle Paul said:
The L100 was definitely west coast, but JBL went east coast a long time ago - the L100T is east coast and better in every way imaginable than the L100.
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I don't consider the improved JBLs as being East Coast; IMO they have far better clarity, vocal realism and high frequency extension to be considered that. East Coast speakers were at least as flawed as West Coast ones, they just had different flaws.
 
Uncle Paul said:
the L100T is east coast and better in every way imaginable than the L100.
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Just to quibble: Better sonically, definitely. Not so much in terms of build quality: Cheaper veneer, plastic tweeter frames, electrolytic caps, plastic grill frames. But by any sonic measure, much better.
 
Yeah, the veneer on mine is coming off and should be replaced.

I'm not sure which pair of speakers I'm gonna keep though, the heresys are a lot more low key to have around in the house and they look better, but the jbl sound better enough to possibly warrant the visual intrusion and more complicated electronics (seperate versus integrated).

Unless I come across a good deal I don't think my vinyl setup will see speakers better than the L100T but I'm curious what it would take to "move up the food chain" although I'd imagine with upgraded crossovers and new veneer I would feel no need to upgrade ever especially since I was satisfied with the heresys and before that large advents.
 
Apples and oranges. Depends on what you are going for. I had Heresys and L80T's. I frankly did not care for the Heresy's at all. Seemed to be a very narrow spectrum of what sounded good on them and yes, better with lower wattage and tubes. Acoustic, female voices are very nice on the Heresys but that was about it.
 
I'll re cap both of them then try the heresy with a tube amp and see what's what. Was planning on recapping the heresy anyway and I want the t3 crossover for the 100.
 
atechnica said:
I want the t3 crossover for the 100.
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I think you'll be pleased. I've always liked the sound from my L100T speakers, especially the bass, but the highs could be fatiguing for extended listening sessions. Upgrading to the T3 crossovers took care of that. If you actually like how bright the stock L100T crossover is, it's conceivable that you might be disappointing in the way the T3 crossovers tame the treble a bit. I still think you should try the change.
 
L100T is NOT the same as the older L100 boom boom speakers ... no comparison!

I had one pair of L100 speakers to see what the legend was - did not care for them AT ALL.

I've had 2 pairs of L100T speakers - got the crossover updated to L100T3 specs to smooth the (to me) too shrill tweeter .. a nice speaker.
Liked them, only sold them so I could try something else at the time.
 
Zonker92 said:
Having owned Heresys and similar JBLs (L80Ts (same upper drivers) and 4425s (same woofers)), I, too, would take the L100Ts over Heresys any day of the week.
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Some people like 10 watt or fewer tube amps so the L100T's aren't going to be much good for them whereas the Heresy's will be singing a sweet tune (albeit without the lowest octaves.)
 
For anyone with the JBL titanium 035Ti / Tia or 052Ti tweeters, if the tweeters sound too shrill and the crossover mods don't help, it may be important to delicately disassemble the tweeter and check the cylindrical light open cell foam damper behind the Ti dome. Most of those dampers are now degraded or disintegrated into goo which does nothing for the dome resonances and at worst gets into the voice coil gap.

Here's a pic of the damper:

s-l1600.jpg
 
For many many years I have tried to love vintage Klipsch speakers.
I like them but they sound like a good speaker driven through a megaphone.
 
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