JBL L Series (1990s)

[penny2cp]

I am a newbie. I have scan through this whole thread. I think I have got enough info there to see I can get the pair of L7 selling on Audiogon right now.

I have a pair of L112 and enjoy them every much. Have them for about 10 years. I always like JBL but don't know enough which one to buy especially the newer models. Too bad JBL don't get much respect in USA and Canada. I can get more useful info by reading Stereo Sounds then anything I can find in North America. Does anyone know where can I listen to some newer JBL in Toronto area?

Thanks

[JonJeffman]

Sorry if this answer is somewhere in this thread, but I haven't been able to see it, but what type of power do you need to effectively drive the L5's or L7's?

I'm still in the early stages of building my new system and am keeping my eyes open for some L5/L7's in my area. I'm also looking at picking up a Rotel amp. I was looking at the RB-1070 or RB-981 which are 130 watts/ch, and I've heard they are conservatively rated. Would this be enough or should I be looking at the 200 W/ch amps? Has anyone paired these speakers up with Rotel equipment and did you like how they worked together?

Thanks for the advice.

[Titanium Dome]

Sorry if this answer is somewhere in this thread, but I haven't been able to see it, but what type of power do you need to effectively drive the L5's or L7's?

I'm still in the early stages of building my new system and am keeping my eyes open for some L5/L7's in my area. I'm also looking at picking up a Rotel amp. I was looking at the RB-1070 or RB-981 which are 130 watts/ch, and I've heard they are conservatively rated. Would this be enough or should I be looking at the 200 W/ch amps? Has anyone paired these speakers up with Rotel equipment and did you like how they worked together?

Thanks for the advice.

I don't have a lot of experience with Rotel, so hopefully someone who has will step in.

As for power, I notice an improvement in both the L5 and the L7 when driven by 200w/ch amps. When I paired some L7s with 600W/ch Haflers, they wore out of this world, but I had to be careful with the volume control. The L7s would probably sound pretty good right up to the time they shredded themselves from too much power.

A 160W/ch Soundcraftsmen amp sounded pretty good with the L7s, but the 216W/ch Souncraftsmen with the same design sounded better.

[JonJeffman]

Thanks for the reply Titanium Dome.

Would you say it's a fair assumption that the L7 sucks up a lot more power with that 12" woofer than the L5? Therefore if I do get the 130 W/ch amp (due to limited $) I should stick to looking for L5's and forget the L7's? (Although I'm sure if I saw a deal on L7's I'd buy them and then have an excuse to upgrade the amp)

And I know this next question is difficult to answer/quantify, but you say they sound better with 216 W/ch over 160 W/ch, but that's almost a given, so I guess the question is how much better? Did the 160 W/ch still put a smile on your face and would be good (if you didn't know what you were missing) or did it leave you wanting more right from the get-go?

Thanks again

[Titanium Dome]

When I paired some L7s with 600W/ch Haflers, they wore out of this world,

Wow that's a lot of power if it "wore out of this world." Shoulda been "were."

[Titanium Dome]

Thanks for the reply Titanium Dome.

Would you say it's a fair assumption that the L7 sucks up a lot more power with that 12" woofer than the L5? Therefore if I do get the 130 W/ch amp (due to limited $) I should stick to looking for L5's and forget the L7's? (Although I'm sure if I saw a deal on L7's I'd buy them and then have an excuse to upgrade the amp)

And I know this next question is difficult to answer/quantify, but you say they sound better with 216 W/ch over 160 W/ch, but that's almost a given, so I guess the question is how much better? Did the 160 W/ch still put a smile on your face and would be good (if you didn't know what you were missing) or did it leave you wanting more right from the get-go?

Thanks again

If you think at some point you're going to get L7s, then just get them now.

It's like the difference between making out and having sex. Making out is great until you finally have sex, then making out isn't as satisfying as it used to be.

Same goes for the amp. Of course it's not just the power output; it's the sound output, too. I had a 250W/ch Carver amp that made the L7s scream in constricted agony. I dumped it fast.

The two Soundcraftsmen amps I mentioned are from the same line and basically have the same sonic fingerprint. But the more powerful amp gives the L7 more headroom and a bit more in reserve. An extra 50-60 Watts is not going to make it play any louder, but it makes it play better.

My grin upon discovering the improvement with the bigger amp could be described as "shit-eating," a sort of oxymoron when thought about logically, but it comes from the behavior centuries ago (and even today) of insane people delighting in eating feces to the great horror of their caretakers. It's a really, really crazy grin.

[JonJeffman]

It's like the difference between making out and having sex. Making out is great until you finally have sex, then making out isn't as satisfying as it used to be.

Well that quote definitely gets a 'tip of the hat'

Shit-eating grin is what I'm going for, so I guess my budget for my new system just got adjusted upwards (again )

[evans224]

I'm using a Hafler 9505 with 250 watts/channel with L5's. They LOVE the power, and sound wonderful! I have listened to quite a few three way studio monitors in the past few years, 4311A and B, L112, 4410,4412. Also floorstanders L100T,L150A, 240Ti and Jubal (my LEAST favorite). 2 way 18Ti and L1. The 4-way L5's, to me, have the sound I have been looking for. The midrange has backed off and smoothed out, the highs don't hurt when played loud, and the bass is much better than expected. I can't wait to "have sex"! Keeping my eyes out for L7's in the SF Bay Area.

[Titanium Dome]

I'm using a Hafler 9505 with 250 watts/channel with L5's. They LOVE the power, and sound wonderful! I have listened to quite a few three way studio monitors in the past few years, 4311A and B, L112, 4410,4412. Also floorstanders L100T,L150A, 240Ti and Jubal (my LEAST favorite). 2 way 18Ti and L1. The 4-way L5's, to me, have the sound I have been looking for. The midrange has backed off and smoothed out, the highs don't hurt when played loud, and the bass is much better than expected. I can't wait to "have sex"! Keeping my eyes out for L7's in the SF Bay Area.

That's a great amp and speaker combo. You're already to "third base."

[evans224]

That's a great amp and speaker combo. You're already to "third base."

I have an Adcom GFP-750 preamp to go with it. I've got a good lead from third.......

[SWIN]

Please note, there is a huge improvement in the quality of sound, if you biamp the L7.

A nice tubeamp for the top, and some solid state muscle for the side mounted woofer.

After trying some different D/A chips, I have found, that the old Philips TDA-1541A really suits the L7.

Wide open sound, with lots of detail everywhere.

/SWIN

[BMWCCA]

Please note, there is a huge improvement in the quality of sound, if you biamp the L7.

I don't doubt it. Are you truly bi-amping yours or are you simply losing the bus straps and using one amp for the HF input and another on the LF without decoupling the two passive crossovers? If so, JBL calls that dual-amp bi-wiring and they describe several bi-wire configurations in the L7 manual supplement.

To truly bi-amp the L7s requires moving the blue jumper inside the cabinet on the crossover and using a separate active crossover to separate the signal prior to the two amps that will feed the decoupled inputs on the L7s. I haven't really found there's much difference at all in using two Crown PS-400s to dual-amp bi-wire my L7s and I've not felt the need to try true bi-amping with them. Maybe some day, just for fun, when I have the Ashly crossover out of the bi-amped 4345 system.

The L7s are great speakers either way. I just haven't been blown away by what I hear bi-wiring them versus just using a single 250wpc Crown with them. :dont-know

[JBLAddict]

I don't doubt it. Are you truly bi-amping yours or are you simply losing the bus straps and using one amp for the HF input and another on the LF without decoupling the two passive crossovers? If so, JBL calls that dual-amp bi-wiring and they describe several bi-wire configurations in the L7 manual supplement.

To truly bi-amp the L7s requires moving the blue jumper inside the cabinet on the crossover and using a separate active crossover to separate the signal prior to the two amps that will feed the decoupled inputs on the L7s. I haven't really found there's much difference at all in using two Crown PS-400s to dual-amp bi-wire my L7s and I've not felt the need to try true bi-amping with them. Maybe some day, just for fun, when I have the Ashly crossover out of the bi-amped 4345 system.

The L7s are great speakers either way. I just haven't been blown away by what I hear bi-wiring them versus just using a single 250wpc Crown with them. :dont-know

sooo strange this was the most recent thread, as I logged on specifically to post a "how to bi-amp/wire" question for my L7 in another section. My long awaited Soundcraftsmen should be here Tu/We and I've been trying to figure out how to do a two amp hookup when they have different power?

If the HF amp is 75WPC and the LF 200WPC, and the amps don't have a gain control, how do you get everything in balance if they're both fed from a Y-connector out of the preamp?

[BMWCCA]

If the HF amp is 75WPC and the LF 200WPC, and the amps don't have a gain control, how do you get everything in balance if they're both fed from a Y-connector out of the preamp?

Well, you can't, really. Or at least not easily. But then if they have no attenuators, they're both running BTTW so if they're similar they could have similar input sensitivity and impedance. If you're truly bi-amping, you should have some level control on your active crossover. But that's why I'm using two Crowns in my bi-amp system (not bothering on the L7s).

Do you have a copy of the owner's manual supplement? It's got all the bi-wire information you'll need: http://manuals.harman.com/JBL/HOM/Ow...Supplement.pdf

What amps are you going to be using? What's the Soundcraftsmen model? Those two odd-balls that recently sold on Ebay have level pots on the back.

[HCSGuy]

If your amplifiers have different gain structures, your sound will either be bass heavy or bass shy. You can correct this by adding an attenuator to the higher gain amplifier. If you know the gain difference you can get passive fixed value RCA attenuators (Harris Labs makes them, they're $20-30/pr). Otherwise you can get a passive preamplifier and put it in line with the higher gain amplifier. I used to have a PS Audio preamp you could run passive that I kept for this purpose. Otherwise, look for a Creek Audio preamp on Audiogon or Ebay, or build your own. Unfortunately, if you have to buy a passive preamp, it will be very similar in cost to the going rate for a JBL M552 or Ashly active crossover, which have gain controls already and add lots of flexibility.
Hope this helps...