what do you think of the jbl l7s

[mosteller]

i talked to a guy today that has a pair of l7s in good shape for $200..Has aanyone heard these? Are they a good speaker? I listen to anything from jazz to rock, and would like a speaker that is good at imaging
thanks

[SEAWOLF97]

jump on them , NOW (if in good condition) (and you can live with their looks) ...there is very little that you can buy for $200 that will be better. ( or mebbe even up to 500)

make sure it is a mirrored pair.

[VintageJBL]

I would be at his house first thing tomorrow morning with two crisp hundred dollar bills in my hand. The L7 might be the best, or at lest one of the best, consumer grade speakers JBL ever sold. Also, I look at the L series from the 1990s as the last really good speakers JBL made for sell in the big box stores. Just make sure you have enough power to drive them. To make them really shine, they need at least 200 wpc, IMO.

[HCSGuy]

Buy them and do some listening - if you don't like them, you can resell or part them out for a healthy profit. The L series (L1, L3, L5, L7) are one of the more polarizing lines JBL made - either you love them or you hate them. I used mine in 3 different rooms with 4 different sets of separate components, and never got them to sing, but you may love them - at that price you can't lose!

If you can't sleep tonight, here's the thread that discusses them:
http://www.audioheritage.org/vbulletin/showthread.php?7498-JBL-L-Series-%281990s%29/page37&highlight=L+series

It's mostly ra-ra cheerleading, but you may find a sane opinion in there somewhere :)

[Titanium Dome]

If you can't sleep tonight, here's the thread that discusses them:
http://www.audioheritage.org/vbulletin/showthread.php?7498-JBL-L-Series-%281990s%29/page37&highlight=L+series

It's mostly ra-ra cheerleading, but you may find a sane opinion in there somewhere :)

As opposed to the sane, logical, common sense opinions rendered in other threads? Or just compared to your own impeccable prejudices? :p

Hey, I guess they are polarizing. ;)

[VintageJBL]

Buy them and do some listening - if you don't like them, you can resell or part them out for a healthy profit.

I can see parting out a pair of speakers if they are non-functional but to part out a pair of perfectly working L7s is blasphemy, IMO.

[Slare]

Buy em. Check the side woofers, as they may need refoaming and you'll damage them driving them if so. The good news is that the side grilles can be a pain to remove so generally they are left installed and the side woofers live trouble free lives.

The midrange and midbass drivers can't be correctly refoamed... if they are damaged you are looking for replacements on eBay or whatever.

Far as parting out goes... I agree in principal but on the other hand there is no way for people to keep theirs up and running without parts being sold. So for every pair that dies to a parts flipper... maybe two or three other pairs are kept in service longer by caring owners. Call me a glass half full kinda guy.

Just my .02 but I think the L5 is the real gem of the line. L7's can certainly play louder and lower but the L5 is a damn fine all-around speaker without a lot of the weaknesses of the L7.

[gferrell]

I think they are both GEMS in my house!

[JBLAddict]

Just my .02 but I think the L5 is the real gem of the line. L7's can certainly play louder and lower but the L5 is a damn fine all-around speaker without a lot of the weaknesses of the L7.

Everytime I read this, I can't resist swapping the L7 and L5 for a test run, and invariably put any doubt to rest. "If" there's a better upper end balance to the L5, the room filling fullness from the L7 trumps the L5 everytime, and reminds me why I upgraded to the L7 after initially starting with the L5.......the L5 is clean and nicely balanced, the L7 immerses me in the music....

[Titanium Dome]

Everytime I read this, I can't resist swapping the L7 and L5 for a test run, and invariably put any doubt to rest. "If" there's a better upper end balance to the L5, the room filling fullness from the L7 trumps the L5 everytime, and reminds me why I upgraded to the L7 after initially starting with the L5.......the L5 is clean and nicely balanced, the L7 immerses me in the music....

The L5 is the odd duck of traditional JBL four ways. It started as a quasi three way (dual woofers), then ended up with an 8", 6.5", 4" and 1.5" driver complement. Only the Ti10K shares a four way design with 8" woofer (two of them), 6.5", 4" and 1" drivers.

Having spent the afternoon in my downtown office with the L7s providing the sonic Nirvana, I can only agree that the L7 is better in every way, except one: ease of out-of-the-box set up. Once that is done properly--if it can be done properly in some rooms--there really is no contest.

[mosteller]

ive read all the past thread in the forums , about problems with the l7s mids.
I think the mids on mine are great and i dont hear anything pushed off into the background.
To compare it with other speakers i used my trusty 4412a...and they sound alike on most songs except the l7 has a full sound with tighter bass...
it may be possible my ears are bad (cause of military and playin music)or its possible they fixed the problem in the later years of production..
I get goosebumps everytime i listen to music:bouncy:

[Titanium Dome]

ive read all the past thread in the forums , about problems with the l7s mids.
I think the mids on mine are great and i dont hear anything pushed off into the background.
To compare it with other speakers i used my trusty 4412a...and they sound alike on most songs except the l7 has a full sound with tighter bass...
it may be possible my ears are bad (cause of military and playin music)or its possible they fixed the problem in the later years of production..
I get goosebumps everytime i listen to music:bouncy:

Or it may be whoever wrote that was wrong.

I've never experienced the alleged deficit in any of my L7s, and neither has my son heard it in his. I believe that was a one-man crusade. :)

[JBLAddict]

Or it may be whoever wrote that was wrong.

I've never experienced the alleged deficit in any of my L7s, and neither has my son heard it in his. I believe that was a one-man crusade. :)


ive read all the past thread in the forums , about problems with the l7s mids.
I think the mids on mine are great and i dont hear anything pushed off into the background.
To compare it with other speakers i used my trusty 4412a...and they sound alike on most songs except the l7 has a full sound with tighter bass...


Funny this came back up again, I will admit openly that I was among the three pushing this, along with Regis and KenP.

When this thread started, I contemplated going back to the main thread for some correcting statements, but since it was such a long winded discussion in the first place, with only disagreement, chose to let sleeping dogs lie.

But while we're here, will share my revelation/experience. In the main thread, some (myself included) hear a very clearly recessed mid, while others do not. Of those that do, we covered amp selection, bi-amping, etc, with no significant changes to perceived character. What changed things for me, night and day, was not bi-amping, eq, or room treatments(tried all three), but upgrading my CD player to an Oppo 83SE and using its 2ch analog outputs to the analog bypass of my AVR. Since I have the player hooked up with both HDMI and analog, I can with a click, switch between using the AVR's DAC and the player's and the difference is simply ridiculous....goes from the diffuse vocals, somewhere in the background, but distinctly left and right, to putting them front and center, pinpoint imaged, standing right in front of me, dead center between the two speakers and pronounced like my L100... very happy.

Whether the AVR's dig-analog converter is that bad, or the Oppo's that good, or somewhere in the middle, I can only say that using a high quality converter does in fact make a HUGE difference in what you might have thought was a speaker's inherent character. Perhaps the poorly decoded digital was more apparent on the L7 than the L5, and only by improving the source was the L7 able to reach it's potential and perhaps explain, along with power source (placement aside) why the L7 experience seems to range so much. I put very serious time into rearranging my room around them, buying a second amp for them, hanging acoustic panels all over my room, and finally spending more on a disc player than any other component in my setup, which was the key. I suspect those using a good decoder, either in the disc player with analog out, or a better pre/pro, are those not hearing the problem, and those with lesser components are blaming it on the L7.

I realize this is not an OPPO disc player thread, but the thing is aces, along with killer video decoding, killer MCH analog output, best GUI on the market, SACD/DVDA capability, media file playback from memorystick, sub-10 second load and play time, and so on.

EDIT: interestingly, was just reading an XPL200 thread and this compelling post (http://www.audioheritage.org/vbulletin/showthread.php?10065-XPL200-Rehab&p=290592&viewfull=1#post290592) sings the exact same night and day difference from the decoder, more than the amps. Exact words are "For me, the processor made the biggest difference when I switched to a Meridian 568.2mm, absolute night and day difference between anything I've heard or tested."

[Titanium Dome]

Funny this came back up again, I will admit openly that I was among the three pushing this, along with Regis and KenP.

When this thread started, I contemplated going back to the main thread for some correcting statements, but since it was such a long winded discussion in the first place, with only disagreement, chose to let sleeping dogs lie.

But while we're here, will share my revelation/experience. In the main thread, some (myself included) hear a very clearly recessed mid, while others do not. Of those that do, we covered amp selection, bi-amping, etc, with no significant changes to perceived character. What changed things for me, night and day, was not bi-amping, eq, or room treatments(tried all three), but upgrading my CD player to an Oppo 83SE and using it's 2ch analog outputs to the analog bypass of my AVR. Since I have the player hooked up with both HDMI and analog, I can with a click, switch between using the AVR's DAC and the player's and the difference is simply ridiculous....goes from the diffuse vocals, somewhere in the background, but distinctly left and right, to putting them front and center, pinpoint imaged, standing right in front of me, dead center between the two speakers and pronounced like my L100... very happy.

Whether the AVR's dig-analog converter is that bad, or the Oppo's that good, or somewhere in the middle, I can only say that using a high quality converter does in fact make a HUGE difference in what you might have thought was a speaker's inherent character. Perhaps the poorly decoded digital was more apparent on the L7 than the L5, and only by improving the source was the L7 able to reach it's potential and perhaps explain, along with power source (placement aside) why the L7 experience seems to range so much. I put very serious time into rearranging my room around them, buying a second amp for them, hanging acoustic panels all over my room, and finally spending more on a disc player than any other component in my setup, which was the key. I suspect those using a good decoder, either in the disc player with analog out, or a better pre/pro, are those not hearing the problem, and those with lesser components are blaming it on the L7.

I realize this is not and OPPO disc player thread, but the thing is aces, along with killer video decoding, killer MCH analog output, best GUI on the market, SACD/DVDA capability, media file playback from memorystick, sub-10 second load and play time, and so on.

Well now, I can certainly agree with all that, right down to the Oppo BDP 83SE. :yes:

[JBLAddict]

interestingly, was just reading an XPL200 thread and this compelling post (http://www.audioheritage.org/vbulletin/showthread.php?10065-XPL200-Rehab&p=290592&viewfull=1#post290592) sings the exact same night and day difference from the decoder, more than the amps. Exact words are "For me, the processor made the biggest difference when I switched to a Meridian 568.2mm, absolute night and day difference between anything I've heard or tested."

[mosteller]

ive used several brands of cd player but my favorite and the one i currently use is the playstation 3 ( its cd , blue ray , 3d blue ray and all that other mess) try one out , they seam to sound great , plus if your lazy like me , you can store your songs and movies on it, with no loss in sound quality....once again thats based on my ears....it doesnt download just in crappy mp3 format it has many others

[Slare]

Everytime I read this, I can't resist swapping the L7 and L5 for a test run, and invariably put any doubt to rest. "If" there's a better upper end balance to the L5, the room filling fullness from the L7 trumps the L5 everytime, and reminds me why I upgraded to the L7 after initially starting with the L5.......the L5 is clean and nicely balanced, the L7 immerses me in the music....

Heh, no doubt the L7 is the better speaker. But as dome wrote about 700 times in the main L thread... there are caveats with it that the L5 doesn't have.

You don't need the big room and good positioning the L7's need. Honestly, how many people do you know that have their equipment setup with their fronts 3 feet in and out from each wall, nothing big in between them and in a good triangular listening position?

You don't need the huge power the L7's will take. No AVR is going to give them what they want. L5's love more power too, but a good quality AVR will drive them fine.

L5's aren't nearly as big, and given the no side woofer configuration the placement flexibility is about a thousand times better. On top of that they are generally cheaper.

Bit of a minor fact for most but I also like that the L5 is a regular foam-free build. Most L7's are due for refoaming of the side woofs. This makes the L5 a safer buy it cheap to toy with it and invest no money option.

So... I just think most average people with average rooms and average AVR's will get much better results with L5's.

I realize full well all those mosts don't apply to the dedicated folks that frequent here. But people with big dedicated room and equipment to drive L7's are a small % of audio guys, who are a small % of everyone. Those average guys are gonna have better luck with L5's, I think, and maybe that is why I just love the L5. It's the everyman speaker of the lineup.

[gferrell]

I'm still saving for an OPPO, a great piece of equipment for my SACD collection. Both L7's and L5's are sweet, built like tanks and very sensitive.

[hjames]

You know, BMWCCA has brought his pair of L7s to a couple of our listening parties, and while they play really nicely, position doesn't seem nearly as critical as I have heard here.
he brought them to Opimax's once and I'm pretty sure they weren't 3 foot away from the back or the side wall ...

But maybe if we disparage them some more, the L7 prices will drop again,
and I can get a set pretty cheaply!:blink: I'd like that!

[BMWCCA]

he brought them to Opimax's once and I'm pretty sure they weren't 3 foot away from the back or the side wall ...And we all know that's a tough room! Needs lots of big subs even with 240ti's, right?

[opimax]

And we all know that's a tough room! Needs lots of big subs even with 240ti's, right?
Agreed a tough room , but they are 250ti not 240ti, have a B460 and a Velo spl1200 and still could use more bass mostly above the sub level but still that room just sucks bass out of the music!

Bass traps are in the works somwhere...

[hjames]

Agreed a tough room , but they are 250ti not 240ti, have a B460 and a Velo spl1200 and still could use more bass mostly above the sub level but still that room just sucks bass out of the music!

Bass traps are in the works somwhere...

They aren't 260Tis yet? for SHAME, time to UPGRADE!

[BMWCCA]

...but they are 250ti not 240ti

Yeah, I knew that but I make mistakes with that series all the time. I guess my mind thinks anything with a 14-inch in it should have a four in the model name! :o:

[gferrell]

what do you think of the jbl l7s (http://www.audioheritage.org/vbulletin/showthread.php?28895-what-do-you-think-of-the-jbl-l7s/page2)


Depends on how you drive them!

[Triumph Don]

I just love [the sound] of my L7's, and yes power does make a huge difference. Once again, you can't buy one good 15" 2235 for that price!

Once again, not furniture quality speakers, but it is all about the smiles from the sound right?

[BMWCCA]

Depends on how you drive them!Yes, it does. But even with just one 200-WPC Crown PS400 they make a fine inexpensive system!

I know the guideline for budget on a cello bow is 50% of the cost of the instrument. I'm right in line with that ratio on my L7s and my Crown. :)

[mosteller]

i noticed if you sit too close(say 10 feet ) , you wont hear music blend well, and you wont hear the highs well.....if your back further ( in a larger room) it blends and sounds perfect