Originally Posted by
Regis
Dhatcher, you didn't mention a couple of things. First, how much are you willing to spend? From what I gather, you're looking at the L-96, which is a vintage bookshelf speaker with a 10" woofer. Correct me if I'm wrong, but you're looking at getting pretty good sound from a vintage speaker and not spending a whole lot of money.
Nothing wrong with that. The vintage JBL bookshelf speakers, like the L-96, 4310's, 4311's, L-100's, L-110's and others are great speakers. They called them bookshelf back in the day, but they are at least 45 pounds apeice. From the selection, you'll get decent enough bass down to 45 hz, but don't expect anything lower than that, unless you bump up the speaker size.
If you want a large speaker for a decent price, the L-100T's can be had for $300 to $400. The construction quality is not what it was in the 70's, but the components are decent enough, especially with the 2214H woofer. Other bargain floorstanders are the L-5 and the L-7 (bargains in that they are underappreciated, they are great speakers). Typical price is $400-$600 a pair.
Do the research. There are certain 'consumer' JBL's that you'd be wise to pass up on. Also, most of the bigger floorstanders require some pretty good wattage to go through them, so a good high powered amp or reciever is worth the money.