JBL L Series (1990s)

[JBLAddict]

That's someone here. Pics are back some pages when first purchased. Wonder what prompted the sale

[JBLAddict]

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...B:SS:US:1123:D

[gferrell]

I happen to know where a pair of L3's in great shape are for $150. Does anyone think this is a good deal as an investment? I already have one pair I am not using but the cabinets are in rough shape.

Thanks

[BMWCCA]

I happen to know where a pair of L3's in great shape are for $150. Does anyone think this is a good deal as an investment? I already have one pair I am not using but the cabinets are in rough shape.

That's the cap I put on myself for those in excellent shape. Passed on a couple over distance. I wouldn't consider any of this stuff an investment, particularly the L3 with its penchant for blowing the surrounds on the 708G-1 rendering them nearly useless. Seems to be a problem in the L3 much more than the the same driver in the L5 or L7s for some reason. And my personal opinion (worth what you're paying!) is that I prefer the L1 to the L3.

Then as an "investment" in parts such as the tweeters to keep L7s or L5 operating, that price still isn't too bad.

[gferrell]

Thanks for the opinion. The L3's are great sounding and my current L3's are spares, so I really don't need the $150 pair. I just don't know if the drivers are going to be more or less valuable in the future. However they are rather rare in the first place.

[Ed K]

I have finally secured a replacement 708G-1 for my L5's. Two years to get the darn thing and now I am missing my set screws. Anyone have a source, extras, ideas?

[rdgrimes]

now I am missing my set screws. Anyone have a source, extras, ideas?

Lowes has a selection of machine screws that will work.

[Ed K]

Thank you for the advice rdgrimes. I am happy to report I found them!!!

Excited to see how they respond to Emotiva XPA 2 power.

[Ed K]

My replacement driver should be here in a couple hours and rather than fixating on the diminished state of my Scott Trade account I figured this dilemma much more pleasant to consider. Currently Running a Denon 3808 CI tied into a Super Cube1 and have a Emotiva XPA 2 amp driving very reticent Ert 8.3 fronts, which I a selling. I accumulated all these "modern" items because I was frustrated by my inability to locate a replacement driver in a timely manner. Four grand later and, the circle has closed.

As the L5's I recall have a dynamic low end I'm wondering about a few things.


How low shall I go?

Audyssey or no

Liquidate & Start Over

Embrace the addiction- go retro.

Man I am excited-ED

[Sonance'84]

I have a question about the minimum wattage that I should use with these L5's I picked up.

Brief back story...

I found the speakers first, then proceeded to borrow my stepfather's Yamaha M-60 (185 wpc into 6 ohms) to power them with because I read a few people say they were power hungry. While the amp sounds pretty darn good with the speakers...I started to it has slightly stronger output of mids/lows in the right channel than the left. I have not checked bias yet due to needing to borrow a DMM from a friend, but I think this may be the problem.

Now, normally I use a restored H.H. Scott 299-D (34 wpc into 8 ohms) with Klipsch Forte's and it's simply amazing.

---> What I'm wondering is...will this Scott 299-D be fine to use until I can get the M-60 checked out? I know the L5's are rated at 6 ohm and 35-300 watts and I had the Scott hooked up to them for a brief moment when I first brought them home. It sounded good!

Basically, I want to make sure that I'm not taxing my Scott 299-D and that it can run the L5's under normal listening conditions, i.e. not cranked up.

Thanks for the help!
Cory

[gferrell]

From the schematics it looks like it can handle 4 ohms. I think it would be fine, just be careful. Should sound nice too.

[WCHurtt]

I have thought about getting rid of the wear and tear on my set but it seems like quite a challenge. When I painted my center channel I used the rustoleum all surface satin black which is a very close match. I would like to see someone take on the challenge of refinishing a pair.

I had my L7's professionally painted by a custom body shop a few years ago. They came out great but cost a small fortune to do so, $500 each! They had to use a special primer to fill in the wood grain, I think they said it had chopped carbon fiber in it and then finish coated with Mercedes silver. I bought them new in Okinawa, JA at the PX when I was stationed there in 91. They're currently for sale on eBay.

[audiomagnate]

A pair of Polk Audio RT5s came up for sale on CL, which got a rave review on Stereophile, http://www.stereophile.com/content/p...t5-loudspeaker so I bought them, and they are in my bedroom system, displacing my L1s. What were they smoking? Snarly midrange, no real bass, and worst of all, they sound like....speakers. The L1s are simply amazing. Zero vocal coloration, and they sound like big speakers when called upon. The RT5s are decent, but now I'm thinking someone got paid off.

[Slare]

I had that same 3808 for awhile in use with L5/L7's. It's a great amp very well matched to the L5's as-is... something like a true, clean, 180wpc into 2 channels with good headroom jumps into 4ohms and somewhere around 120wpc into 5 channels. A good deal better than most any midrange AVR will do today. All the newer Denon models afterwards started skimping on the amplifier section but the 3808/4308 were extremely solid and the 5308 was a complete monster. You could very well get away with storing the XPA2 unless you a running 7 channel full range getup.

Regarding setup with the Denon when I had the L5's I used two different configurations for music and home theater.

For music I ran the L5's full range, no Audyssey, no sub. Just a very slight eq tweak using the manual 7-band eq to trim the upper midrange down by ~1db as I typically prefer. If your sub mixes well, then another option would be to run the L5's crossed low, say 40-50Hz. That way the sub will take the beating of any of the real low content, making life easier on your L5's and most certainly eliminating any need for an external amp over the 3808. Personally I could never get my subs mixed in quite right and just stuck with pure 2.0.

For HT use let Audyssey do its thing. I found the biggest key to getting good results from Audyssey is to use a tripod to put the mic at ear height, and weigh the measurement points towards your sweet spot. The normal directions say to pick 8 seating locations in your room, but if you think about it, that is a bit daft if you are selfish and want to calibrate your system to your seat. So when running Audyssey I would do something like picking 4 locations very close to my main seat, and having the other 4 locations relatively close by, like where your girlfriend would be sitting. It is also very important to avoid picking any measurement spot that outside of the perimeter formed by your speaker arrangement. Following this I was able to get a EC35 center channel to match up acceptably well, though a L1 or another L5 would certainly be better. Audyssey XT in that box really did a smashing job with speaker matching and sub eq for me.

Following those tips I was extremely satisfied with the 3808 / L5 combination. It was really a lovely setup, and I'd still have it if not for moving to the Performance Series. Honestly the L5 is one of my favorite speakers out there, regardless of price.

My replacement driver should be here in a couple hours and rather than fixating on the diminished state of my Scott Trade account I figured this dilemma much more pleasant to consider. Currently Running a Denon 3808 CI tied into a Super Cube1 and have a Emotiva XPA 2 amp driving very reticent Ert 8.3 fronts, which I a selling. I accumulated all these "modern" items because I was frustrated by my inability to locate a replacement driver in a timely manner. Four grand later and, the circle has closed.

As the L5's I recall have a dynamic low end I'm wondering about a few things.


How low shall I go?

Audyssey or no

Liquidate & Start Over

Embrace the addiction- go retro.

Man I am excited-ED

[Sonance'84]

FWIW, the L5's in my setup could not create low bass and if called upon to do so, the bottom 8" woofer would make chuffing/fart-like noises even at 1 foot from the back wall. I have a pretty high vaulted ceiling in a fairly large room as well. Under normal listening conditions they sounded great but if I felt like turning it up a bit, they just couldn't hang with my other speakers. I know he drivers aren't damaged either.

For example, the 1812 Overture even at moderate volume sounded like it was overworking the 8" woofer when the cannons go off. On other music, such as pop and rock, the woofer would do the same thing on drum kicks and bass at higher volumes. This makes you listen to the music at a level that the speakers can handle and not what my ears would like, for certain passages. For this reason, they only lasted about 1 week in my setup. (Yamaha M-60, Rotel RC-850, Marantz SA8003, Kimber Kables)

The L7's sound much better in the low end and would be the only speaker from this series I would look at if wanting a close to full-range speaker. (going down to 30Hz does not qualify a speaker as full-range to me...this would require bass extension down to 20Hz) The L7's can reproduce ample bass though and would be more than enough for most people. I could live with them if I had to. The pair I heard was a friends, but they were replaced by 240Ti's since then.

Never heard the L1's or L3's. This is just my 2 pennies.