Your Favorate JBL's from the 70's

I like JBL a lot more these days than back then.

JBLs in teh 70's were never my cup of tea. Most receivers and many integrated amps even of the day were not up to bringing out their best. I much preferred OHM over JBL in the 70's at Tech HiFi, though the JBLs were popular as well. I think a lot had to do with the OHMs being designed to perform better off of lesser amplifiers than JBL and some others back then in general. I think many of the older JBLs (and many other popular lines from back then) if in good operating order these days would do much better off of better home audio amplifiers available these days.

I still run my old OHM Ls that I refurbished a few years back and these sound better than ever off my current system which is leaps and bounds beyond anything I had back in the 1970s. I did many A/B comparisons between the OHM Ls, the much larger Advents that they were designed to compete with, various JBLs and others back then and the general character of each line remains pretty fresh in my mind as a result even all these years later.

My father owned the paragon.

I am the original owner of a pair of L19's that I bought in 79 for $460 and $5 for the stands!   No idea how I came up with the money back then.  After a woofer refoam they sound pretty darn good.   They image well with a decent sized soundstage.   To my ears a little shy in the base- perhaps the x-over needs a recap.   I remember a pair of 220's playing at Tech Hifi that left me in awe!

In the late 70's (high school), I had a pair of L56s driven by a Sherwood receiver.  Those speakers sure did sound sweet especially when I hauled them out of my basement set-up to the living room for some wild/loud parties while my parents were away.  I'm surprised they lasted as long as they did and am sorry that I sold them about 7 years ago.  At least I still have the great memories ...

LE65 jubal