L-110 s, why are not these more popular?

[maggnepan]

I am curious as to why a lot of people do not like thes speakers, is it because it was the replacement for the L-100s and there is just general hatred toward the newcomer?
I am as we speak, listening to a pair of them on stands with a m k passive 70hz crossover to a bass energizer from the L212 system and i have to say that the sound is very good. real dynamics and clarity. I run the controls flat and the speakers sound like one sound source and really have fast transient response. I also have L-100s and actually prefer the little replacement L-110s to them in most ways, at least in the mid and treble. I finally got these restore about 2 mo ago and have been stunned at how detailed they sound and are able to pinpoint all the instruments better than the L-100s. I have other speakers but have not felt a need to swap out the L-110s for any other just now...they are that good with good electronics......anyway, I phoned a friend that runs a used audio store and he turned up his nose at them , but offered me cash for the L-100s on the spot and I am offended since they sound so much better and were engineered by JBL to be a better monitor....so whats up?

[Alex Lancaster]

Magg:

What happens is the L100's are popular now, they are a piece of S***, but they are a "classic", and in their time, they made a lot of bang for the $.

Anyway, I love Oregon, do You know of Hillsboro?.

[4313B]

The really short answer is - Ignorance. Not a bad thing really since it leads to bliss, it's just the way things are.

The "twelves" (and "fifteens") were always popular systems with Sales and Marketing. One way to look at it is that their sales funded the R&D for the systems the engineers wanted to build. As one JBL Engineer has stated on a few occassions, "The 10-inch 3-way systems always behaved very well", and the statement is made with fondness.

The L110 got rave reviews when it first hit the streets and many of the "audiophiles" in the Industry took note. Unfortunately it was still a "JBL" and that, along with the L100 legacy, stiffled any real interest from the higher end crowd. So, a loudspeaker with truly great performance for the time unable to sway the higher end crowd and unable to take the merciless punishment of the lower end crowd (L100's worked quite well at frat parties, L110's not so well).

The JBL L110A was the first JBL loudspeaker to employ the now standard "bypass" capacitors. It also employed the use of conjugate filters for the three transducers. The crossover topology was also used in the L150, L212, and L250. It could be considered the first time JBL put as much effort into filter design as they did into their exemplary transducers.

[maggnepan]

thanks folks for the encouraging words, I guess I am not just thinking how good they sound, others think so also...Yes alex I know of Hillsboro Oregon...I live here and it is very nice weather today...75 degrees and sunny....
I am grateful for the topology info on the speaker, I knew there had to be more to this than just good drivers, altho they are good drivers,,,,,the tweeter and mid look to be identical to the L-150 setup, only the woofer is smaller obviously...I am told there are no longer replacement diaphrams for the tweeter so I am holding my breath when I turn up the volume on them, so far they seem to really be able to cook at high volumes, espically since i run them bi amped with a passive 70htz crossover on the bass end and run a fabulous bass energizer from a L-212 . I feel flat to 20 htz in my room and it really vibrates the whole house..can not run that loud too long, but the sound only gets louder, not compressed in any way....I have them sitting on top of a pair of L-166 horizons for stands..very sturdy and expensive stands i would say, but it puts them at a very good height for listening...no, they are not as good on the top end as the L-166s, but are better at normal volume levals, I always found that the L166s need to be fed some real juice before they started to sound real good, kind of thin at normal volumes.....thanks again for the replys, I have owned JBL s since 1974 and these little monitors kind of recreate the jbl excitement some of the other models kind of miss.....I will change me profile and list my other spakers like some of you do.....another pair of small jbls that kind of surprised me was my pair of p-30s made in denmark with a 8in woofer, mid and titanium tweeter..no leval controls but much better sound than other similar from other manufactures.......anyway, nice to have this forum to express my love for all the jbls, nice to know i am not crazy in my bellief that the jbl sound is much better than the general audiophile community has any idea of.....

[jbl4435]

Hello maggnepan,

I agree wholeheartedly. My second pair of JBL's were L-100's bought in 1976. About a year later the L-110 came out and 5 min. of listening was all I needed. A week later my L-100's were sold and I was jamming to L-110's. The entire audio spectrum sounded better. Sound was cleaner and more detailed with a much tighter bass. Bass I thought was much more accurate. Later in the '80's I bought a pair of 4313's that were stolen about 4 years later. I guess someone else thought they sounded good to. My L-110's were later traded in on a purchase of a pair of L-300's, both of which I wish I still had.

Enjoy!!!!!!!!!

[Regis]

I loaned the pair of L-110's to my brother, while I converted his L-150's. At first, he didn't want to take them and I think he looked at their diminutive size compared to the L-150 and took somewhat of an attitude towards them. But I convinced him otherwise, as I said it'd take me a couple of weeks to work on his other speakers.

He called me up a couple of days later and he stated that he was surprised at how good the L-110's performed. He said that he'd rate these as an 8 out of 10 to the L-150 and that's only because of the power capacity. They sounded every bit as good (they should, the L-150 and the L-110 share the same mid and 033 tweet).

I sure like them and whenever I hear them, I'm usually impressed with the clarity, excellent separation and solid bass that these little guys put out. I've heard the "oh-so-vaunted" L-100's and it wasn't the same experience.

[jbl4435]

I'm pretty much on the side lines on the debate about how "good" the L-100 really was. Not being an acoustic or electrical engineer I'm no expert, but during the early seventies recording engineers were taking the studio version home like mad, resulting in the consumer version. Let's face it, the L-100 sold like hot cakes . Was it the sound or the really neat speaker grill?

I have a pair of L-100's now. About four years ago my next door neighbor asked for some help getting some speakers down from his attic. He was getting married and was "cleaning up". Next thing I know he's handing me L-100's down from his attic. They were a mess. Beer runs down the front, one low frequency driver was a little warped, all the cones very "dried" out. The domes on both tweeters were even pushed in. Before I knew it they were in my garage gym. He didn't want to bother with them and just gave them to me. Well, they're still in my garage, they're still dried out and they STILL sound superb!!! Punched in domes and all!!!

I wish they were L-110's.

[grayeo]

CHECK OUT A PAIR BEING DRIVEN BY A BILL BEARD BB100 ITS A MATCH MADE IN HEVEN ABSOLUTLEY SUPERB COMBINATION

[beppe61]

.... I finally got these restore about 2 mo ago and have been stunned at how detailed they sound and are able to pinpoint all the instruments better than the L-100s.....

Dear Sir, dear Sirs,

please excuse me if I refresh this old 3D on the L110 speakers.
I am about to buy a pair, in the end.
As last curiosity, I would like to hear some opinions about their ability to reproduce a soundstage well developed in the 3 directions.
Are they good at reproducing depth of soundstage ? I like this effect so much.
It always enthralls me.
I already know they have a wonderful bass and quite good mids and highs.
I listen to everything, from disco to classical.
I listen at about 2,5 meters from the speakers (is it this so called near-field situation ?)
These should be my definitive speakers ... for some months at least (eh, eh).

Thank you sincerely as always.
My kindest regards,

beppe
italy

[coherent_guy]

Giskard's story is informative regarding the L110 as well as being a good synopsis of the high-ends view of JBL at that time and perhaps even to this day, at least to a degree. The 110 was my first JBL speaker and found itself in the company of L36's, L65's, and L100's owned by friends. We didn't know quite what to make of them at first, they were different certainly, and as time passed the colorations of the others became more and more noticable. Still, the 110's were rejected by some as unexciting or just "missing something". I didn't miss that something. The 110's were the first speakers that taught me what imaging was and when I demoed that for some friends they were astonished. Sure, we were still kids but we were learning. I still have mine over 25 years later.

Though touted as an L100 replacement, they were not of that lineage (senior members please correct my info if necessary) at all. I believe they were the first JBL speaker designed using Thiele/Small parameters, or one of the first. Comparing the L100 crossover to the L110's shows how closely they are related - not much. The 111A woofer started rolling off below 50 Hz in the '110 enclosure, but was quick and punchy in the mid and upper bass, I've dreamed of a system using this woofer with a sub 1500 crossed at about 60 Hz. The 110 was never the pop culture idol the L100 is but as we can see here they are much appreciated.

Beppe, I'd say 2,5 meters is at the far end of near field (8.3 feet) but may be about right for a larger near field monitor as a 4313/L110 is (can you near field 4350s?) I have always had problems reproducing soundstage depth regardless of the speaker so I can't comment on that. L110's can image very well and disappear as sound sources in my experience. They certainly are in my speaker rotation for months at a time, as you suggest. I have had good results running them wide open with a subwoofer, without boom or bloated bass. Does anyone out there run them high-passed with a sub?

[4313B]

Does anyone out there run them high-passed with a sub?

First time was with a pair of B212's. It quickly got out of hand from there.

[grumpy]

Does anyone out there run them high-passed with a sub?

Not with
L110's, but I did with L112's and thoroughly enjoyed the experience. Have L96's in a
(much) smaller room and have never felt the urge to supplement them with a sub.
-grumpy

(L112's were sat upon custom ported boxes containing SUB1500's, used 525 as crossover, and found ~80Hz worked fine).

[coherent_guy]

First time was with a pair of B212's. It quickly got out of hand from there.

HA, that's good, out of hand is the only way to go I'd say . . .

Not with
L110's, but I did with L112's and thoroughly enjoyed the experience. Have L96's in a
(much) smaller room and have never felt the urge to supplement them with a sub.
-grumpy

(L112's were sat upon custom ported boxes containing SUB1500's, used 525 as crossover, and found ~80Hz worked fine).

L96's more extended than L112's?? I too did not feel the need to add anything with my '110's, until I got my SUB1500's running, and although that setup is far from perfect they taught me what low bass really is. I haven't looked, is the L96 woofer a 111A with aquaplas on the front of the cone, or something else? How does the L96 compare to the L110, technically and sonically? Uhm, and what's a 525 crossover?

[4313B]

I've posted the various networks so they can be compared several times. The L96 was a bit more "lively" than the L110A, basically a slightly less expensive version of the 4313B. The LE111A was a low Q driver used in the original L110 and 4313. The L110A, 4313B and L96 all used the LE111H/LE10H/LE10H-1; Same driver, different cosmetics. The L96 and L112 had the same bandwidth, the high compliance 128H exhibited more fullness. The 128H really liked the extra volume in the 4 cu ft L150/L150A box.

I've been waiting for a forum member to upgrade their L150A's to Ti components...

[briang]

I've been waiting for a forum member to upgrade their L150A's to Ti components...

FWIW, I'll be upgrading my L96s with TI components. I'll likely use the 120Ti crossover and re-do them with Charge Coupled capacitors.

I have enough spare parts for one pair now; I hope to creat a 5.1 system using five L96Ti. It will only happen if I can afford to snag the 120Ti crossovers, 104H and 044Ti off of ebay. The TI series of components is fetching a very high premium these days!