Century L100 owners

[Ian Mackenzie]

This is nothing to do with other recent threads other than the model.

The first speaker I tried out the new Passlabs X250.5 on was my L100's.

Why do you ask? Sacrifical lamb? While I was setting up the amp..maybe.

But I wanted to hear it on an ordinary 3 way full passive loudspeaker.

So what I did was I perched them up on bar stools about 1 metre off the floor laying on their sides and positioned them about 1.5 -2 metres or less from the listening position. I don't recall where I had the Lpads set but they are set for smoothest balance.

Anyway this is essentially a near field listening setup and its how these particular systems are/where used in studios.

With a friend we played the L100's with X250.5 till the early hours of the morning and we had a lot of fun. That is what this is meant to be all about!

The sound of the amp, or lack of it was immediately obvious and as my friend a musician said you can hear the attitude of the artists with this amp. That being the vigor and pace, and the tonality that comes across with a particular style of playing of a musical instrument.

Some tunes are dull and boring and so they are sometimes played with attitude.

We could also hear distinct differences when swapping the front end digital transport and optical and co axial digital cables.

The fact is used right the L100 is quite good at bringing out and distinguishing specific details. It may not have the most linear response or have the lowest IM distortion but when you use it the right way and for the intended purpose it actually does the job. They were never intended as a home hifi system but somehow it caught on when mixers took them home for parties and what not.

I have several loudspeaker systems, the L100 is not the best of the bunch but it is the most fun to play with...

Ian

[Zilch]

They were never intended as a home hifi system but somehow it caught on when mixers took them home for parties and what not.

HUH?

Well, 4310 wasn't, but L100 certainly was.

It was aggressively promoted from its introduction as the home equivalent of JBL monitors for Hi-Fi use....

[Ian Mackenzie]

Sorry,

I was thinking of the 4310. At any rate that is still the point..that got them in the business but it was the wrong thing for the right reasons if you know what I mean.

Ian

[alexkerhead]

Thanks for the L100 opinion Ian Mackenzie. Definitely not great, but still a good speaker system for all-around use.

[Zilch]

Definitely not great, but still a good speaker system for all-around use.

Sorry, Alex, it's simply not.

What it is good for is well documented in these forums.

[You're welcome to pretend it's whatever you like, of course.... ]

[Mr. Widget]

Zilch... you are going a bit far there. The L100 is certainly a decent speaker. As Ian pointed out it does sound best in the near or mid field, and it isn't SOTA and never was... it is simply a good speaker.

If you hate it, fine... but that doesn't make it an inherently terrible speaker. It is a perfectly serviceable ~2 cu ft bookshelf system and better than many.


Widget

[Earl K]

- Yeh, I'm always surprised at just how much fun 4310s are to listen to .

- A buddy has a "modded" pair as his monitors in his home recording studio . His son plays drums and a lot of demo recording gets tracked in this room . The le20s are missing and have been replaced by Vifas ( most likely ) . I suppose I should lend him my le20s .

- I think the minimalist network has a lot to do with the attraction I have for them . They certainly sound unclutered. A whole group of us who like these monitors also ( surprisingly ) "all have a thing" for 1st generation EPI 100s . The EPIs' network was a single PIO cap .

[bigstereo]

I would like to publically apologize for my inflammatory post over on the original L100 thread that was raging earlier today.

I do realize that there are better speakers.

To anyone that I may have offended, I'm sorry. Forgive me.

RJ

[HipoFutura]

Ok, I've got to jump in now! I missed out on the last thread.

I'm an L100 kind of guy - I love em! I've got a 44 year old hotrod and 30 year old speakers. Seem to like the old stuff. That's just the way it is with us Geezers!

HOWEVER, in order to make the L100s enjoyable I've had to add a few pieces of hardware to the mix. When used as the only speakers in a hifi system the L100s suck, big time. I'm running 5 amplifiers (tube & SS), preamp, EQ, and three-way crossover. Not to mention a pair of subs and a pair of 2405 slot tweets.

I can't claim to have an "accurate" sounding system, but EVERYONE who listens gets a BIG smile! None of my speaker are physically large, but the sound is mind blowing! It works for me! Rock On!!

Members like Zilch and Widget give freely of their time, expertise, and experiences. We are so fortunate to be able to tap such resources.

Don

[Robh3606]

Sorry, Alex, it's simply not.

What it is good for is well documented in these forums.

[You're welcome to pretend it's whatever you like, of course.... ]

That's your opinion not a fact. As such it should be treated as just that. An opinion. He is also entitled to his as well. Frankly I know full well as I used a pair of L100's for over 25 years and it's damned site better than many of it competion at the times and many current today. That's my opinion so you can file this under more useles information you all read on the net today.

Rob

[boputnam]

Yea, hell. I'm repeating a post of maybe three-years ago, but my first and best L100 experience was a pair with the orange grills. Them white-faced woofers were gaga, man!! JBL did a marketing genious, and did it with a relatively low-cost, low-priced entrant. And, they then sounded better than anything peer companies had on offer. But that was then.

I'll never forget the experience, but what I mostly learned from it was to move up the lineage a bit, and see what JBL had to offer. It is a rich family...

[Zilch]

To anyone that I may have offended....

Well, I THOUGHT you spelled "pompous" wrong at the time, but I've since checked, and it's all good....

[bigstereo]

Well, I THOUGHT you spelled "pompous" wrong at the time, but I've since checked, and it's all good....

I admit that I don't know the difference between a capacitor and a resistor, and a transistor, but spelling has never been one of my weaker points.

I do however, have to remind myself of the whole "i before e except after c" thing fairly often.

RJ

[JBLRaiser]

Ok, I've got to jump in now! I missed out on the last thread.

I'm an L100 kind of guy - I love em! I've got a 44 year old hotrod and 30 year old speakers. Seem to like the old stuff. That's just the way it is with us Geezers!

HOWEVER, in order to make the L100s enjoyable I've had to add a few pieces of hardware to the mix. When used as the only speakers in a hifi system the L100s suck, big time. I'm running 5 amplifiers (tube & SS), preamp, EQ, and three-way crossover. Not to mention a pair of subs and a pair of 2405 slot tweets.

I can't claim to have an "accurate" sounding system, but EVERYONE who listens gets a BIG smile! None of my speaker are physically large, but the sound is mind blowing! It works for me! Rock On!!

Members like Zilch and Widget give freely of their time, expertise, and experiences. We are so fortunate to be able to tap such resources.

Don

I agree!I'm tapping their resources now>

[alexkerhead]

JBL L100s are good speakers.
Five reasons:
1) One of the best sounding speakers for the price. With an equalizer, it takes a LOT of money to beat it.
2) Looks great.
3) Parts are easy to acquire.
4) Simple design gives them many options for flexible amplification choices be it :receiver, amp, or integrateds.
5) Doesn't take up much room.


I think I will leave this debate closed on my side, because I respect other people's stuff.