JBL-L100 Speakers

[CGabriel]

Originally Posted by chessman

Anyone else remember these fondly? My friend had these in a high ceiling room and we played the hell out of them. No isolation, no acoustic treatments, playing vinyl on a cheap turntable, we thought it was a good as it gets.

Oh yeah! Loved everything about them. My buddy had a set that we listened to often.
I had a set of stacked Advents at the time - another nice speaker.

[Joe]

OH YES!
Lovely speakers and I love them.

[Glenee]

That was the First speaker I bought Brand New. Telling my age now. It is the one that got the whole ball rolling. If I would of stayed with the Radio Shack Garage sale pair, it would of not been as addicting.

[Bill Stevenson]

I worked high end retail during and after college in the 1970s and sold a lot of JBL speakers including the L100, which was not my favorite speaker, and the L200, which I thought was a real sleeper. The store also carried Klipsch and I thought the L200 was a better speaker than than the more expensive La Scalla. But, and this will provide insight for those old enough to remember, I sold a whole lot more Bozak (~10X) than JBL and Klipsch combined. My personal speakers during most of those years were Bozak Concert Grands. Not that there was anything wrong with JBL, superb quality. I just liked the more laid back East Coast sound.

[CGabriel]

Originally Posted by Bill Stevenson

I worked high end retail during and after college in the 1970s and sold a lot of JBL speakers including the L100, which was not my favorite speaker, and the L200, which I thought was a real sleeper. The store also carried Klipsch and I thought the L200 was a better speaker than than the more expensive La Scalla. But, and this will provide insight for those old enough to remember, I sold a whole lot more Bozak (~10X) than JBL and Klipsch combined. My personal speakers during most of those years were Bozak Concert Grands. Not that there was anything wrong with JBL, superb quality. I just liked the more laid back East Coast sound.

Interesting. I never saw or heard a Bozak but did find that many friends had Bose 901's or AR3a's. But I was in the military at the time we didn't have a lot of money to spend.

[Joe Appierto]

A very close friend had them and I and my future wife must've spent hundreds of hours listening to them. I went with him to an audio store on Kings Highway in Brooklyn (Crazy Eddie) c.1972 when he purchased them from Eddie Antar himself.

A couple of years later my now-wife and I returned and as much as I liked the L100, we got the Cerwin-Vega 211R since it was less expensive and we needed four of them for the quadraphonic system we were assembling.

The person who started me on the road to audiophilia nervosa owned these huge Bozak speakers which I first heard c.1968. I no longer remember the model but they must had about 6 or 8 tweeters in a line array, a pair of large woofers and a single midrange driver.

This thread has brought back so many good memories. Thank you.

[Mechnutt]

Originally Posted by Joe Appierto

A very close friend had them and I and my future wife must've spent hundreds of hours listening to them. I went with him to an audio store on Kings Highway in Brooklyn (Crazy Eddie) c.1972 when he purchased them from Eddie Antar himself.

A couple of years later my now-wife and I returned and as much as I liked the L100, we got the Cerwin-Vega 211R since it was less expensive and we needed four of them for the quadraphonic system we were assembling.

The person who started me on the road to audiophilia nervosa owned these huge Bozak speakers which I first heard c.1968. I no longer remember the model but they must had about 6 or 8 tweeters in a line array, a pair of large woofers and a single midrange driver.

This thread has brought back so many good memories. Thank you.

We were practically neighbors as I lived not to far from Kings Hwy. My first speakers were a pair of Altec Lansing Model 1's I believe. I was saving money for a pair of Genesis model 44's if I remember correctly but by the time I had the money they went out of business.

[Bill Stevenson]

Originally Posted by CGabriel

Interesting. I never saw or heard a Bozak but did find that many friends had Bose 901's or AR3a's. But I was in the military at the time we didn't have a lot of money to spend.

I still own a pair of 901s, but mine are in storage right now. The AR3a is a better comparison to the Bozaks because both are direct radiator speakers. To give you some idea of the difference, Bozak Concert Grands were infinite baffle speakers, approximate dimensions 52"(h)x30"(w)x18"(d), weight ~250 lbs. each and housed 4-12" woofers, 2-6" midranges, and 8-2" tweeters in a line array. They were best if biamped and cost ~$950 per speaker. Big, expensive, serious speakers in the day. The AR3a was a sealed bookshelf speaker using the relatively small volume of air as an air spring known as an accoustic suspension design, approximate dimensions 30" (h)x12"(w)x10" deep, weight ~35 lbs. each. Because of their relatively smaller size, the AR design was less efficient. But both of these speakers had a sound that was easy to like. They were less bright on the top compared to JBL, Klipsch, Altec and so on. More laid back, less assertive is the way I would describe it. Bozak and AR made speakers that sounded so good to me that I forgot that I was listening to speakers. Another speaker from that era that did that for me was the Rectilinear III. People who preferred JBL or other west cost sound speakers thought the East Coast sound was dull, boring, lacking sparkle and excitement. The thing for me was to match the buyer to his or her preference in sound. These were all good products.

[CGabriel]

Originally Posted by Bill Stevenson

I still own a pair of 901s, but mine are in storage right now. The AR3a is a better comparison to the Bozaks because both are direct radiator speakers. To give you some idea of the difference, Bozak Concert Grands were infinite baffle speakers, approximate dimensions 52"(h)x30"(w)x18"(d), weight ~250 lbs. each and housed 4-12" woofers, 2-6" midranges, and 8-2" tweeters in a line array. They were best if biamped and cost ~$950 per speaker. Big, expensive, serious speakers in the day. The AR3a was a sealed bookshelf speaker using the relatively small volume of air as an air spring known as an accoustic suspension design, approximate dimensions 30" (h)x12"(w)x10" deep, weight ~35 lbs. each. Because of their relatively smaller size, the AR design was less efficient. But both of these speakers had a sound that was easy to like. They were less bright on the top compared to JBL, Klipsch, Altec and so on. More laid back, less assertive is the way I would describe it. Bozak and AR made speakers that sounded so good to me that I forgot that I was listening to speakers. Another speaker from that era that did that for me was the Rectilinear III. People who preferred JBL or other west cost sound speakers thought the East Coast sound was dull, boring, lacking sparkle and excitement. The thing for me was to match the buyer to his or her preference in sound. These were all good products.

Oh yeah! I had forgotten about the terminology of the day - west coast and east coast sound. One of my buddies had set of of AR LSTs being fed by a nice Tandberg tape deck.

I had a set of stacked Advent speakers at the time which I liked. Later I got a pair of Technics SB7000 which was quite a radical looking speaker at the time. It was driven by a Phase Linear 400 and Phase Linear 4000 preamp and Nakamichi 600 cassette deck and Technics SP11 turntable. Bob Carver created Phase Linear BTW.

Don't you sometimes wonder how these apparently ancient systems would stack up to those of today?

[Bill Stevenson]

"Don't you sometimes wonder how these apparently ancient systems would stack up to those of today?"

I still have some of this older equipment. For example, a Tandberg 10XD tape deck, Phase Linear 400, Apt Holman preamp, KLH Concept One speakers, Bose 901s and so on. Compared to what is available today, this old stuff is not bad at all. I was listening to one of my older systems two weeks ago that has Adcom electronics, Snell speakers, a VPI turntable and it sounded very musical. It lacks a bit compared to my latest system in terms of impact and detail. New stuff is better, but the incremental difference is not huge.