I bought my JBL L-110 new in 1980 to go with some speakers that I built from a University Chemistry Professor that he called a boom box. I had a Dynaco SCA80Q Integrated amp that was way ahead of its time. The L-110s sounded great with my boom box speakers. I am now using them for my surround speakers in my theater. I would have used them for my front except I have Klipsch Forte II speakers that I got for $50 and restored them for $100. (check ebay for how much they sell for now) Anyway, the L-110 were restored with official JBL parts and they still sound great.

I think that the only weakness they may have is they are so good, it's hard to find a place for them.

bass surround on my L150 has gone so i need to get them repaired.thank goodness i kept the L110,s in the spare room .i bolted them up .they hav,nt been used for 5 years after 30 minutes the sound is awesome if you find someone foolish enought to want to sell a pair of these buy them and bolt them on the end of a valve amp. audio etopia mate

Listening to them hooked to a rejuvenated Sansui AU-9500. Handles alll types of music. Base so smooth and tight. Imaging soooo good,. These will be mine for a long time . Acquired these from a great guy. He was selling them for a descent price and had them in storage in original box's . I was goimg to buy them when he found the surrounds disolved . Said take them give them a new life. Had them redone and everything checked out by a highly regarded speaker GuRoo. As stated Will not let these go

A co-worker found this pair of L110 in the garbage on the way to work.
I already have a nice pair of c-38 so they sat until 07 when I started restoring them.
The 10's needed refoaming badly so I also added the alum center caps as my d130's also have.
Mids paper too badly damaged so a pair purchased from ebay.
The 033 tweeters come apart relatively easily and I was able to "pop" the dome back into position & resolder the connections.
Crossovers failed so I replaced the caps & chokes; put'em back same as they were.
Cabinets, sanded the scratches best I could, stained'em and put a coat of poly on them as a permanent protection they look great!!
Grills - they suck; maybe a master of fabric could fix this?

Overall they have better low note bass than my c-38's!
Very nice well balanced & neutral CLEAN sounding speakers.

I do like the titanium clarity in the 075 vs the "plastic" sound produced by the 033;
however thats probably just personal preference.
They are quite resilliant considering I have them in use with a yamaha r-1000 which definitely pushes these speakers to their limit. There is the sound of too much power vs clipping :-)
Sampled several other amps, this is nice clean combo.
Wish I had a setup like this when I was a kid, however around $500 each in 1978 money was quite a chunk to cough up!!!
I's post a pic; if I could?

Accurate, musical and efficient. Can be driven by modest power amps. Excellent bass (no need for subwoofer).

None

I purchased the 110s a couple of years ago after seeing a pristine pair listed on ebay. I remembered when I was a teenager and was just becoming interested in audio I had heard a pair of these at Tech Hifi and was immediatly impressed with their accuracy. Unfortunatly at the time I couldn't purchase them due to the fact that I had recently spent 500 bucks on a pair of Infinity Quantum Juniors. When purchasing the Infinitys a friend told me to listen to the JBLs, specifically the L 100s to make a comparison. Well I did and I initially believed that the Infinitys were better speakers in that they sounded a bit warmer than the JBLs. I later learned that I just liked the way the Infinitys COLORED the sound. This became evident when a friend purchased a pair of JBL L-50s at a similar price and every time I heard them they outperformed the Infinitys in that they were neutral sounding, and just sounded great no matter what style of music was being played. A couple of years later I sold the Infinitys and purchased a pair of JBL 4311Bs after seeing them as the monitors of choise in a number of recording studios. I loved those 4311s and still own them but I could never forget the way I remembered those JBL 110s sounding, so it was natural for me to jump on the pair being sold on ebay. Well that will always be one of the BEST purchases that I've ever made. When these things arrived fortunatly they were just as described by the seller on ebay (something that doesn't always happen ). I wanted to use them as a second pair in my living room. In the years past I've accquired a pair of 4312Cs sporting the titanium tweeter that I believed were not going to be unseated by the 110s. The first order of business was obviously to compare them to the 4312Cs, a monitor that even by my professional musician friend's standard sounded excellent. The 110s were then connected to my main music system which consists of an Adcom GFP 565 preamp and an Adcom GFA 5500 200 watt/chan mosfet power amp. The following result was amazing! I started off by playing some well engineered jazz ( Mike Stern ) to check out the imaging, tonal balance and just to hear if the instruments sounded true. WOW! These speakers manufactured more than a decade prior to the 4312Cs sounded almost like dead ringers. The 110s were ruler flat imposing absolutly no coloration of their own, and the imaging was superb. I moved on to different music styles, from classical to rock and the 110s maintained their musicality. I thought for sure that my memory of the Tech Hifi audition of 1978 were clouded and that my fond memories had run rampant with the passage of time, but this was just not so, these babies were OUTSTANDING! I kept the 110s downstairs, connected to my main system for a week before moving them upstairs to their intended location. Every day after work I'd listen to them for hours and the 110s would continue to impress. Finally they were moved upstairs into the living room, which is not as good a sounding room as my den, where the main system resides. The 110s were then connected to the seconday system consisting of an Adcom GFP 555 mark 2 preamp and a Carver 200 watt/ chan power amp. I fully expected the bass to take on some boomy qualities since the room has a hardwood floor, sparse furnishings and a big glass bow window. Suprisingly enough the bass was very tight and articulated and these guys actually souded better in a bad room than the 4312Cs (go figure). The only explanation that I could reach was that the woofs were extreemly well dampened ( due in part to the 3 inch voice coil, a huge alnico magnet and a special dampining coating applied the back side of the 10" woofer ). In short the JBL L-110s are an excellent loudspeaker system that has stood the test of time. Recent advances in speaker technology have not given any advantages to newer models over these older JBLs. Actually the newer consumer offerings from JBL are pale in comparison with these older models. One would have to accuire the professioal version of JBL speakers ( LSR series ) to rival the accuracy of the 110s, and those models run in the thousands of dollars. If you can find a pair in good condition and you are a Music lover, grab them, you'll be glad you did.

Similar Products Used:

JBL 4312C

BASS "who needs a sub"

cobalt, how can you go wrong.........

What can I say, these have been with me since high school. I sold them out of neccessity, only to have them given back to me "cause they were dead". After a 75$ re-surroud job, they've been with me since. NO they don't compare to these 80,000$ pairs that are available today. I still remember when I saw the photo in the catalog, "perfect alignment"

Very well balanced - neither too bright nor too boomy. Made for music not movies.

NONE

I obtained a pair of JBL L110's five years ago from a friend who works in sound. When my amp recently died I decided to upgrade my system and considered newer speakers - these are from 1977. I have been listening to JBL's current Studio series, Infinity Alpha's, Polk RTi's, Klipsh, etc. Nothing has even come close in overall performance to my L110's. Their sound is rich without being muddy in the upper range. The only thing I've liked better are Boston Acoustics VRM90's which were $2700 a pair.

Similar Products Used:

Modern JBL, Infinity, Polk, Klipsh, Boston Acoustics

Power handling, tightness,musicality.

Heavy, nthing like this made anymore

I have recently come into a pair of JBL L-110 loudspeakers in terrific shape. All of the drivers are correct, and the woofer surrounds/gaskets were just done by JBL's vintage division. What a great speaker, I am driving them with Bryston 7B-ST amps, and a Melos SHA- Gold line pre. The JBL's do so many things correctly, I cannot imagine that any other speaker this size could match the musical aspects of this "old" monitor Kudos for a job well done, sadly the JBL name doesn't hold the same exclusivity it once did.

Similar Products Used:

Snell E/III, JBL L-40,100.

solid bass, very clear and open mid and highs, moderate size, very solid build quality

very few

These are 1978-79 vintage speakers. They are a commercialization of JBL's 4314 control monitor. It is a three way design with a ported 10", 5" midrange, and a 1" soft dome tweeter mounted in a vertical line in the cabinet and offset slightly to the right of center. Mine have been in the family for the last 12 years. Along the way they got foam rot in the 10" and this was repaired once. More recently the woofer was replaced with an Eclipse W1038R from Madisound which is a perfect match (after the woofer hole is opened up about 1/16") and uses a rubber surround to eliminate rot in the future.

The sound is very clear and open, highly detailed, and with a very good sense of depth. Imaging is precise and very wide. There are level controls for the mid and tweeter, and mine are set at 1 o'clock. Bass is deep, solid, and tight. The speakers have a complex crossover (unlike the L100 and 4310/4311 series) and probably as a result have an excellent ability to seperate groups of singers into individual voices. I have mine in a 12'x 15'room about 7' apart, on 16" stands. Since these speakers in their original professional form, the 4314, were intended to be wall mounted, they are very happy with their backs near the wall. But they do need to be elevated to ear level or above.

I just recently got these back from my sone because of the foam rot, and they have blown away my Paradigm Reference Studio/20s. It wasn't even close! Associated electronics are the Adcom GTP-450 tuner-preamp and GPA-535 Series II dual mono power amp, Sony CDP-XA1ES CD player, and an Onkyo TA-240R cassette deck.

Keep in mind, howver, that these speakers cost $820/pair in 1978, so you would be looking in the $2000/pair range for similar quality today.

Similar Products Used:

Advent, New Advent, AR-14, Advent Heritage, Boston A-150

the speaker for its size,has an outstanding presence at ALL volume.The clarity for the year these were constructed is truly an example of what jbl used to stand for

none

I found these at a local full service speaker shop,the previous owner had not wanted to pay the refoaming cost for the woofers..The speakers had sat in a rear room for ten years unused.The cabinets are show room conditon and the price was excellent.The ten inch woofers don't displace the air like a twelve or fifteen inch woofer but with a three inch voice coil,the sound is quite impressive.The overall units have raised the eyebrows of several friends.Todate the ar's are gone and iam one very happy vintage stereo user.

Similar Products Used:

century l-100 tsw ar-910