JBL L7 Review/Experiance Sharing

[Tuna Fish]

Hi all JBL experts,

I am a user of JBL L7 (you can find the product catalog at the JBL library of that lovely site).

Does anyone got the review of L7 from any sources? (e.g. Magazine etc.)

Anyone use it before? What is your comment?

Thank you before hand.

Tuna Fish:)

[Titanium Dome]

I don't have the article, but Audio published an L7 review in the December 1992 issue. If you can find a copy, I'd like to read it, too.

I've got four L7s plus a pair of L5s in my #2 system. I'd say the optimal use, however, is a pair of L7s used in a two channel system in a dedicated room with ceilings no higher than nine feet. Properly set up three feet from the front and side walls and bi-amped with the internal crossovers separated and a two-way external crossover in place, these mommas can put out some seriously fine, loud, wonderfully imaged sound. :yes:

If they're not well set up, which is the case most of the time, they can sound terrible.

[Titanium Dome]

In fact, an L7 will eat all the power available from just about any amp made. While it's rated to 450W, I've seen it take 600W at full output and suck an amp dry.

Those of us who conducted this "experiment" with Deep Purple's Machine Head LP chickened out before the L7 did. We were a little ......., and I think we got slightly paranoid that the whole thing would blow up and render us deaf and impotent. :shock:

The Crown amp's fan was whirling like a tornado when we cut the volume, and the case was almost too hot to touch. (Remember, this speaker is essentially a 6 Ohm load, but in a couple of places it's closer to 2 Ohms.)

[JBLAddict]

I don't have the article, but Audio published an L7 review in the December 1992 issue. If you can find a copy, I'd like to read it, too.

I've got four L7s plus a pair of L5s in my #2 system. I'd say the optimal use, however, is a pair of L7s used in a two channel system in a dedicated room with ceilings no higher than nine feet. Properly set up three feet from the front and side walls and bi-amped with the internal crossovers separated and a two-way external crossover in place, these mommas can put out some seriously fine, loud, wonderfully imaged sound. :yes:

If they're not well set up, which is the case most of the time, they can sound terrible.

so about 6 years late, but I have it, what's the rule for posting here?

couple teasers

"Their reproduction of high-frequency percussive sounds was extended and smooth, easily the equal of my reference B&W 801 Matrix 2 systems"
"The L7s low frequency output can keep up with that of the best speaker systems I have tested as well as with several subwoofers I know about"
"The L7s are quite handsome in their basic black finish" ;-)
"The front grill causes some fairly severe interference effects in the on-axis response. I suggest leaving it off for serious listening; the speaker looks quite acceptable without it"

[Titanium Dome]

I don't know, but a mod can tell you. In the meantime, send it to me, please. :bouncy:

If you do post it, I'd appreciate it in the L Series thread so it doesn't get lost.

[Triumph Don]

In fact, an L7 will eat all the power available from just about any amp made. While it's rated to 450W, I've seen it take 600W at full output and suck an amp dry.

Those of us who conducted this "experiment" with Deep Purple's Machine Head LP chickened out before the L7 did. We were a little ......., and I think we got slightly paranoid that the whole thing would blow up and render us deaf and impotent. :shock:

The Crown amp's fan was whirling like a tornado when we cut the volume, and the case was almost too hot to touch. (Remember, this speaker is essentially a 6 Ohm load, but in a couple of places it's closer to 2 Ohms.)

After selling my 4344's and waiting for the 4345 clones I put the L7's in place. 350 WPC Crown K1 Ashly 1001 McIntosh 125 WPC 2125 on top. What fun! Freakin $300 speakers.

[BMWCCA]

Freakin $300 speakers.


Wow! You must be rich! (Many of paid even less!) :thmbsup:

[SEAWOLF97]

Many of US* paid even less! :thmbsup:

I'm one of those ....;)

but the L7's got lost in the crowd competing for the available playing positions....'cides , I traded them for gear that had been $3200+ only 6 months earlier.

the L7's sounded better in the middle of the room during the trade than they ever did when packed back into the available listening slots. They were replaced with ADS L1290's that were smoother/more musical and now with AR90's in the HT which sound as good as the L7's, but go lower. (spec-ed to 23hz)

but, I still use the "L" center (CL505)

*implied ?

[jbl_daddy]

They are great for the money, I have a pair in my gym running from a hk reciver. They really rock the room no matter what you play through them. The other pair of L7's are in DC, my little brother is using them as rears in his home theater. Fronts are a pair of 250ti le's. It really sounds good, he has them biamped and is using the drivers as additional subs.

[BMWCCA]

*implied ?
Well, I knew I wasn't the only one, even if I did find two pair for less. Don't use either right now but I'll move some day and they'll make nice TV room surrounds.

[froze]

I was reading several review sites concerning the JBL L7's and found this forum. I read with quite a bit of fasination about what a bunch of you have written over the years, and almost didn't respond because the initial post was old, but then I saw recent posts so I decided to write in.

I bought a pair of L7's back in 94 from the now defunct Circuit City after going crazy and listening to a bunch of speakers at Circuit City and other stores for about a month while trying different CD's, and eventually settled on the L7's. Circuit City not only sold me these speakers at the sale price, but the JBL marketing rep happened to be there and he went to his van and gave me a complete set of side and front grills! I still have the grills in their boxes waiting to be used in case a original speaker grill gets damaged.

I orginally powered them with a 120 watt per channel HK PA2400 and the sound was fantastic; movies would explode and literally shake the house, and music was was great as well from hard rock to smooth jazz, the speakers excuted all of it wonderfully. I then thought of trying to increase the sub frequency response so went and tried 6 or 7 different powered subwoofers, and because the L7's were so good on the bottom end I couldn't even tell I was using a sub so I never bought one. Then about 2 years ago I heard that tube amps sounded great through L7's making the highend sweater and the mid range warmer so I got a 75 watt per channel MacIntosh MC275 tube amp, and now use that to power the mids and the highs but left the HK2400 powering the big base speakers. And they were right, it made the speakers sound warmer but still able to crank hard rock much louder then the human ear can take! Then I decided to try go further into analog and got my old Rotel AR1000 turntable out of the attic (had it gone through by a techy), and started buying records since I had thrown all mine out 25 years ago. Now I have a warm sounding speaker system with the wonderful sound of records instead of the compressed sound of CD's and I'm loving it. I don't buy into ultra expensive speaker wire, I think that stuff is hocus pocus crap. I use 10 guage oxygen free copper speaker wire with silcone covers that cost me 75 cents a foot, and bought 4 7 foot sections, and then I use gold plated banana clips.

It is true, as one poster mentioned, the speakers do sound better with the front grills off, but only with soft music like jazz, classical, old school R & B etc, with hard rock or hard core movies you're not going to notice any difference. I leave the grills on to protect the speakers from kids and now grandkids and only take them off when no one is around. They also sound better 3 feet from rear and side walls, but that's impractical for most homeowners, so I have mine about a foot from the back wall and about a foot and half from the side walls, then I've angled them roughly 5 degrees so the speakers point slightly into the center of the room, but the angling allows the air coming out of the rear port to bounce off at an angle instead of back into the port, and the base speakers blast into the wall at an angle so the sound wave doesn't come straight back into the speaker; they do sound better this way but not quite as good as the 3 foot rule that the JBL instructions say to do.

The great thing about L7's is you can go from Boney James to Earthless and get smooth lush sound to hard driving loud rock, or put in any kind of movie and have explosions seem like the bomb went off in the house! I don't have surround sound, and can't really figure out the need for it, with speakers like the L7's the movie is in your face, and besides a lot of movie theaters to this day do not have effective surround sound so I'm just duplicating most movie theaters sound. The L7's after 18 years of hard use are still going strong.

I still listen to speakers in stores over the years and still haven't found a speaker close to price I paid for the JBL's that sound anywhere near as good.

I guess you can tell I hate my L7's. But if anyone is reading this stuff and wondering about these speakers because you found them used...buy them, just make sure they work good and none of the speakers are damaged. Also realize that while the speakers are extremely efficient they do best with higher powered amps, so don't get these and try powering them with a 40 watt per channel Sony receiver or you'll be disappointed; and a lot of modern receivers are way over rated with their watts ratings, Sony and others will say they put out 1000 watts total but they don't, simply read the back of the receive and the find the total watts used will tell you all you need to know then devide that number by the number of speakers you'll be driving.

[BMWCCA]

Welcome, you're definitely one of us!
:cheers:

[svollmer]

I don't buy into ultra expensive speaker wire, I think that stuff is hocus pocus crap. I use 10 guage oxygen free copper speaker wire with silcone covers that cost me 75 cents a foot, and bought 4 7 foot sections, and then I use gold plated banana clips.

Sorry to butt in to the L7 dialog, but can you tell us the source of this wire? If it's available online, I'd like to get some. Thanks!

[froze]

Sorry to butt in to the L7 dialog, but can you tell us the source of this wire? If it's available online, I'd like to get some. Thanks!

I got those wires at Speaker World, it's a place in the town where I live that repairs speakers and fixes vintage electronics. I live in Fort Wayne Indiana, I don't know if I can give out the phone number on this forum or not. Their the ones that told me that expensive speaker wire is psychobabble crap that doesn't work...and I think they would know because they do the bulk of the business repairing speakers sent from all over the US to get fixed there. They don't have a web site but here is the info I found on the web that includes a phone number: http://www.manta.com/c/mm2hlf4/speaker-world-inc I don't know the brand of the wire but I'm sure they could tell you. I also got gold bananna plugs from them when I got the wire.

[SEAWOLF97]

Sony and others will say they put out 1000 watts total but they don't, simply read the back of the receive and the find the total watts used will tell you all you need to know then devide that number by the number of speakers you'll be driving.

I look at a fair number of amps/receivers and use a slightly different formula, and check the innerweb when I get home...my calc is usually pretty close.

I look at total draw watts ..then divide by 3 ...1/3 goes to overhead ...each of the other thirds is per channel watts available.

ie: if draw is 300 ..then 100 in overhead and conclusion is that the amp is 100wpc.

[BMWCCA]

I look at total draw watts ..then divide by 3 ...1/3 goes to overhead ...each of the other thirds is per channel watts available.

ie: if draw is 300 ..then 100 in overhead and conclusion is that the amp is 100wpc.


Wow! My Crown amps just jumped to 400WPC. Cool!

[SEAWOLF97]

Wow! My Crown amps just jumped to 400WPC. Cool!

some have more overhead than others ...some are just head cases.

My 750D can draw up to 1500w , but is rated 375 into 8 or 450 into 4

[BMWCCA]

Crown PS400, for instance, is rated:

Max. power in 1200 watts
330 W per channel into 4ohms out