Interestingly, I had just commented to my wife what a far way off these are from the blue tooth speakers our kids have. I have to say, this entire hobby has such a wide margin for error that it’s hard to get a good picture of what components are capable of. I will say again, in my room, I’ve had a lot of top tier, highly regarded stuff that i personally didn’t care for. For what it’s worth, this pair of speakers has me listening to full albums, without being distracted by messing with my phone, messing with positioning, thinking something else would fix problems I.e. cables etc. it’s a shame that after all of the effort , engineering and care that went into designing these gets tarnished because the flagship store can’t demo them probably. I get it, speakers that under some conditions sound bad, but under others, they don’t. That’s all speakers. I’ve demoed $10,000 focals where everyone was scratching their heads saying they were ridiculously bright. I’ve heard 7k Audio physic speakers sound amazing in a showroom, only to buy them and be completely disappointed at home and then sell them. How many stupid reviews have we seen from stereophile and the absolute sound where a crazy expensive component under performed until some inconsequential change was made, such as cables or amp etc. then they were just amazing . I’d audition them in your own space if you really want to see what they can do.
Someone needs to have a talk with the Harman store since that seems to be one of the main places in the US where people can hear them.
Besides, all that $$ going into advertising in the big magazines only to have horrible demo conditions? What a waste!
I guess I’m lucky in that I have a great dealer near me and they took the time to set these up correctly. They sounded great when I auditioned them and I can’t wait to hear them in my home! My pair is ordered. I’m just waiting for my dealer to receive them so I can go pick them up. Can’t wait!!
I think it's great that JBL is doing this, getting back to there roots in a way. I tend to like larger floor standing speakers myself but if I was going the bookshelf route maybe. The good news for me is a few years from now I may be in the market. I'll consider used for and they will be in my price range by then.
Yes, agreed. My Klipsch LaScala speakers sound great in my space and I would not replace them. Other folks may hate them but who cares?
Exactly, who cares. It’s better than fiddling around with them the whole time, or getting onto forums to ask why a critically acclaimed speaker is not sounding so great.
They had these JBLs at the NY Audio Show in early November, but unfortunately I did not get a chance to hear them.
I had an original pair from 75 that were stolen in 85. I've had an original refurbished pair for three years in my downstairs office. I really enjoy them there. But I would never really consider them bookshelf speakers. They are too bulky and heavy and you better have a heck of a big bookshelf. They are good on short titled stands.
Listened to these briefly at Hi Fi Buys in Nashville today. Really liked a lot about them. With a 150 watt Mac SS amp I heard a big spacious soundstage with lots of air and separation (I've been reading audio reviews so long I can't get the cliches out of my head). Big, vibrant sound without being driven hard. A little brightness but in a good way, not irritating or harsh. PLENTY of bass, might get me evicted by the wife. Bass a little on the warm side but not too bad. We went into another room to listen to the same cuts through Revel F208's powered by the monster 1.25 KW McIntosh monoblocks(wow). Very nice, a little warm at first in comparison but really great sound. Played a few more cuts (Tin Pan Alley but that's ok, Ive never been to an audio show so I'm not sick of it yet) and loved the Revel's but size and prodigious bass might be a problem for me. I have a 15" servo sub that I can crank up and rock the foundation or turn down to a reasonable level when needed. As much as I loved the Revels, I wanted to go back and hear some more of the L100s but ran out of time. I'm going back in a week or so for another listen. I know they'll rock out. Ironically, I only listened to some Eva Cassidy and Harry Connick today. Hi Fi Buys has some really great pricing right now, including these speakers. Paul is a great guy to deal with. Sorry for the "ad" but it's a great store imo. The veneer on the JBL's looks very nice, not exotic and high gloss like I prefer but very presentable. The grills are very cool and these look like rockers with or without them. I have been looking at some larger standmounts so these are a different animal than what I had in mind but I'm anxious to hear more.
You should only buy speakers on the understanding you can return them if they don't work in your room. Then not end up selling at a huge loss. These modern speakers are so overpriced you would be lucky to recoup 60% of purchase price after opening the box. Often more goes into bling looks than drivers. Not the case with JBL but the L100 is a fairly simple design I would think to manufacture. Asking price is pretty daft for a 'bookshelf' all-be-it a very large one.
My memory of the originals is that when we auditioned them (early 70's) against our in-house monitors (designed and built by Marco Karpodinnes of Delphi Custom Stereo), the JBL's lost every time. Most of our customers were in the recording business in one manner or another. The originals, as I recall were muddy sounding but this is a memory from 1973 (the year I worked at Delphi).
I have an original pair and yes they are somewhat bass heavy but not muddy at all. But like any speaker, depending on source material...
They were muddy compared to Delphi's monitors. People were floored when they were demoed side by side. I delivered many pairs of Delphi's monitors to studios and engineers in those days. But, good luck finding surviving Delphi speakers where JBL is still around and in the game.
Very good question. I'd place my money on the 4429 though it is a $1,000 more. If I recall correctly, Steve Guttenberg enjoyed both but really liked 4429's.
So far the only thing i’ve seen in stereophile and TAS are a few mentions from show reports. As expected, they were dismissed, one even mentions how they were meh but the citation cloth covered towers in the room were more impressive because you could talk to them. Those magazines are nothing but a joke nowadays.
Probably still to early but has anyone seen these new JBL's on sale anywhere below the $4000.00 MSRP? If I could get a pair delivered to my home for $3500.00 including sales tax and shipping I'd pull the trigger.
me too, maybe in a few months someone will have them at a lower price, I just may send Music Direct an email to see if they would negotiate the price.
I did it, I sent the following email to Music Direct. I'll post the response when/if I get one. Item: AJBLL100B JBL - L100 Classic Bookshelf Speakers Price- $4000.00 Pair Dear Sir or Madam, I have been looking at the above pair of speakers. My question is what is the lowest price for a pair? Isn't there a price below the MSRP? Thank you very much, John Q Public (not real name)
