JBL L300 Summit

What are you talking about, the 20 some odd year olds ones?
If so, it is more about the "romance" of owning a pair of speakers you could not even think about affording in high school or college. They are decent on most tube gear and are very efficient, or mosfets, they kinda need those types of amps to smooth out the midrange, which can be nasal. I geniunely never had much problem with the highs, its strongest feature, in my humble opinion. Where they sound like they have bass, its not as much as a woofer that size would lead you to believe. One of the truly best built speakers ever, JBL drivers of that era have few peers when it comes to build quality and finish quality, it was and is incredible. I recently got into a huge written argument on one of the other web sites about the sonics(?)of a pair of these being driven by 3 older SAE amps with an SAE pre amp and marchand 3 way xver's. Needless the say the person that had this setup and I have different opinions on what it must have sounded like.
It is a great system if you want a classic. And like most other classics, if you are waxing nostalgic about a time in your life, it will sound and look wonderful to you, and in a lot of ways is still impressive. But up against many of its modern equivilants, I don't think it holds up.
I have bought and sold a few pair in the last couple of years, Nashville has its fair share of them. There are better speakers sonicly for the money spent, usally 1500 to 2000 dollars. A more impressive speaker build wise, probably none.

I'm wondering what characteristics of these speakers would change? Lets assume the surrounds are mantained and all the drivers are functioning properly. That being said is it unreasonible to see a pair sell for as high as $3K on Ebay. I was looking at a pair of L220As that look beautiful and the seller claims the drivers are near mint and the surrounds have been replaced. Street price in 79 is $2100 a pair, yet his starting bid is $1750. I loved the JBL sound back then and would love to recapture it, but I just can't see getting sentimental and releasing what speaker replacement funds I have only to perhaps get screwed! So Tell me old wise ones out there.......Can a 20 year old JBL speaker if well care for still have the same characteristics after 20 years of service?

I have a pair of JBL L112s I still use as my main speakers. The foams went out about 2 years ago and I had them reconed by an authorized JBL repair shop. He did a little work on the grills and said he would check everything else and set to factory specs. They sound great! I bought this pair in 1983 while in the army in Germany. Please keep in mind this recone cost over $300.00. I was told and saw on the web JBL does not accept simple refoaming as the proper fix for deteoriating foam surrounds. I'm sure there are those who disagree with this. However, on at least two occasions I emailed ebay sellers of vintage JBL who claimed to have refoamed the surrounds instead of reconing, and asked them if simple refoaming was proper. Neither one responded. I guess you can interpret that any way you want. To answer your question, yea they can sound great after 20 years if you have someone like me taking care of them.

The L222's or L220's the same,
can't hold a candle to the L300's
only a 4 1/2" cone midrange can't compare
to the large horn driver in the L300;s
bass is not bad in the L220's,
If you want the jbl horn sound but can't
afford the L300's look for the L200's and add a tweeter.
another option is an older jbl system with the S7 components.Oh yea they have one of the best woofers ever made ! the LE15. Good luck. Nyjblbob