Hi All,
I am playing around with the idea of picking up some new speakers. I was demoing a silver faced BHK250 for a couple weeks while waiting on the black version to arrive. Out of box, sounds great!
So, has anyone heard the NEW JBL L100 Classic’s with the BHK250 amp? Wondering how they pair up as I am thinking of moving away from my Tannoy Precision 6.2 floor standers.
thanks-
I heard them at axpona last year. They sound like they did in the 70s. 
Personally - I find them over priced for the nostalgia factor. The BHK would drive them the best they could possibly sound.
i bought a pair in the '70’s for their looks…sold them within the month for their sound…
I had an older (second release) set for about a 1yr or so before selling them off-I did like they way they sounded hooked up to some of my vintage gear. I found them easy to listen to, at times the bass could be boomy, but overall they could handle anything I threw at them. My understanding is, the new classic version is nothing like the originals outside of the nostalgic look. Basically, I want a speaker that can handle every genre of music without issue. My current tannoy’s handle most with exception to heavy rock.
To equate the sound from the current L100 with the original is a silly endeavor. Other than looks, they are not at all the same loudspeaker. Manufacturing processes have come a long way in the past 40 years and loudspeaker manufacturing processes are no execution. I remember loving the Spica TC-50 in the day and had a chance to listen to a pair the other day… I do think the L100s (both original and classics) are overpriced and that you can get more for your money with other choices, but the current L100 is a fine speaker by any standard. It may just not be your flavor and that is fine. That is why so many other brands are available. Get what you like and don’t let others influence your choice. They are your ears.
My impressions of them after having heard them at Tampa’s audio show was that the resolving capabilities of the BHK250 would be far beyond those of the JBL L100’s. They aren’t bad speakers by any means but they also didn’t strike me as anything special or notable (other than their obvious mid century design which is pretty cool if you’re into that.)
thanks for your feedback.
You have to listen for yourself, preferably in your room. Basing your opinion on what you hear at a show is really not what you’ll hear at home.
They’ve been getting pretty good reviews.
agree 100% with you. I was putting it out there to find out if anyone has matched them with the BHK 250 amp as a general reference. I don’t see their being any real issue with the marriage. Ideally, I’d like to have a speaker that can easily adapt to any changes in genre. Jazz, Funk, rock and Heavier rock/Metal. I suspect these may be able to handle it all from what I’ve read. I’d like to ask my dealer to demo them for a week, may the only way to know for sure.
You can get a chance to hear them somewhere? Let us know what you think !
Have you heard them? What did you like about them?
My brother kind of liked them…but would never buy them. We were listening to them in quite a decent size room with nobody listening. I think yellow brick road was playing. I just thought they sounded pretty 2 dimensional.
If you want to try a large “fullish range” 3-way monitor speaker look at the new Wharfedale Linton 85th Anniversary model at Music Direct. $1500 including the stands and free shipping for four boxes that weighed in at 178 lbs. I have been pretty amazed at how good they sound and look for that price. I let them break-in in the Family Room system and then slipped them into the Main system a couple of weeks ago in place of the Verity Otello’s and they more than hold there own.
Ty for the recommendation. I’m quite pleased with my current Tannoy, but as stated above, a speaker that will work with all genres of music would be ideal. The tannoy’s sound great with Jazz, folk, acoustic, probably classical, some rock, but harder rock or metal is where it falls short. I gather most speakers may suffer the same with poorly recorded albums. How do the wharedale sound with various genres of music and media?
Can’t honestly tell you about metal as I don’t listen to it and never have but I have not found any shortcomings with any other genre of music so far. Have also paired it with two different integrated amps and two different preamp/amp combo’s and while I have a preference sometimes to one pairing or the other they seem to play well with any good front end gear. The two friends who recommended them to me both have Avantgarde Duo XD’s after both owning various Harbeth’s in the past. They both got them just as a change of pace knowing they could send them back and both loved them. According to both of them slightly more neutral than Harbeth’s with which I agree. Of the speakers I have owned over the years they remind me most of the ADS L-810/II’s I owned for many years but with more modern drivers.
interesting comparison to the ADS L810- I have a set of Braun (before ADS0 L1030 that sound really great. It may be interesting to hook them up again, however they’re down in NY and I’m up in Toronto at the moment.
@cocobean1: In your post 12 you say the Tannoys sound great with most music but suffer on hard rock and metal. You then say you gather most speakers suffer the same on poorly recorded albums. This seems to imply that the faults you perceive are with the recordings, not the speakers. Are you trying to find speakers that transform harsh, overly compressed, and poorly recorded music into something listenable while still maintaining accuracy with well recorded music?
No, I was trying to make a general point that harder rock/metal albums are not always have the finest recording, which makes things more difficult.
I have a friend who mostly listens to heavy metal and electronic stuff.
He has ZU Audio “Omen Dirty Weekend” speakers, powered by a BHK 250; a combination that he really loves.
thank you. I am going to experiment this weekend and bring up my AR3’s to see how things sound. These are completely restored with a fully recapped board. I was just blasting them in my basement with a restored Moscode 300 amp and upgraded Dynaco Pas2 Pre. that may be interesting, they love power.
Whether or not it’s foolish to compare them to the originals depends on JBL’s intent in bringing the speaker back. It’s obvious their visual appeal is nostalgic, but not having heard them, I can’t comment on their sound. If their intent was to achieve the same type of sound as the old speakers, but with newer, presumably better components, then I’m not sure I’d ever be convinced to audition them. I always found the originals to be too, well, everything - boom, sizzle and forward midrange. Like someone had an equalizer in the system and pushed all the sliders up. Given their ancestors were primarily used as studio monitors, that kind of response can be useful for analytical listening, for hearing details in a recording that might get lost otherwise. But that’s not the kind of speaker I like for listening to music at home, where it can be far too fatiguing. On the other hand, if this is an attempt at a more balanced and natural sounding speaker in the old cabinet for fun’s sake, well that might make them interesting to try. But since that price is way out of my budget in the first place, I’ll stick with what I have. The price when I first saw it actually reminded me of an old Corvette road test in Car & Driver, decades back, when Chevy first increased the car’s price into entry-level supercar territory. The test said they’d changed the price from something that could be afforded by the average blue-collar shift supervisor to something that could only be afforded by people who import their drinking water.