Your Favorate JBL's from the 70's

I had L-88's with the wood veneer fronts, with cutouts for the grill cloth in front of the woofer and the top 6 inches for the tweeter.

As a high school senior in 1974, I had an after-school job and used my savings to buy a Pioneer SX-838 receiver (50 wpc), a Dual 1229 TT, a Wollensak 4765 (what a great cassette deck that was!) and a pair of EPI tower speakers. After a while, I decided to replace the EPI's, sold them to a friend and bought the JBL 88's from an on older guy who was the son of a friend of my parents. Man, they rocked! 12" woofer, bass port in front and a tweeter with an adjustable "tone control" knob to raise/lower treble output.

One time, I raised that treble knob all the way, turned the receiver's treble tone control all the way up, put on ELP's "Tarkus" (there is this cool, phasey drum thing on it) and destroyed the tweeters. I didn't know that there was a covering on the outside ring of the tweeter that had to be removed to expose the screws to remove the tweeters, so I removed the whole piece of wood that the tweeters were mounted to, sent them to JBL for repair/replacement. When I got them back, (replaced at no charge), the new tweeters were mounted in the wood, just as I had sent the old ones.

I guess the blowout occurred during the summer, because I remember going back to college with the L88's, and their not having any tweeters in them. I compensated by placing my old pair of dept. store stereo speakers (I think he brand was "Columbia") on top of the JBL's, and connecting both pairs of speakers to the two sets of speaker outputs in the Pioneer receiver. It worked great.

I had them 'til I got married, and then some. When I needed to downsize, I bought JBL 18ti's (much smaller, but with the JBL house sound). I recently replaced the 18ti's with GMA Europas, but the negative WAF forced them out. Now everyone is happy with Von Schweikert VR-1's, which have a very full sound for their size, but don't thrill the way the JBL's could.

I love this thread. My dad was one of the largest JBL dealers on the west coast. I worked for him as a kid, part time while in school. I used my money to buy JBL L100's, a Marantz 2270 receiver and a Marantz 6300 Turntable with an Empire Cartridge, I also had a Teac (can't remember the model) cassette deck.

I listened to tons of records with great joy. I wanted the JBL Jubal L65's but could never afford them.

Those were great days! I loved that sound, the blue lights, the knobs and switches. I had hours of fun and all of my friends wanted me to bring MY system to THEIR party. It stayed parked in my bedroom.

I had a friend who had a set of L212s. Listening to those speakers is what got me interested in hi-fi.

Cool thread. My dream system in the 70's which I never could afford was a Marantz 2325 Receiver and a pair of JBL L-100's. I was able to afford later my dream of owning the Dual TT. Similar to what Emailists had posted.Of course my system is much better now. Oh those teenage years revisited.

I still have a pair of L-65s which I bought new at the beginning of 1978. I've had them re-foamed (probably due for another within a few years) and have auditioned more than a few speakers which I was "probably sure sounded a little bit better.....maybe.....or which probably had better specs" but I've never been able to part with these. Back at the time I bought them, they were sort of my own consolation prize to myself for not being able to afford Infinity QLS 1's (or the municipal power stations necessary to run them!). Over the long haul, they've suited my lifestyle to a tee -- neither overly temperamental as to power requirements, placement, or the "eeek!...It's outdated!...trade it for something more trendy, quick!" factor, and they've weathered the ups and downs of my fortunes as a freelance visual artist/illustrator perhaps better than any other speaker that could've been custom designed for me! They've been powered by a Pioneer SX-1250, Then a Denon 100 watt per side integrated amp, and now a Sony ES series HT reciever. They've been connected up with reverb amps and equalizers and other sources whose brand names and model numbers I no longer remember. Some ones I do remember were a 1975 Teac 450 cassette deck (A-450??) which was my first venture into stereo equipment up and above all in one AM/FM/8 track/phonograph type things, a Teac X-7R reel to reel, and a Pioneer "Centrex" 8 track tape deck. Presently, I'm back into vinyl and my workhorse source component playing thru the '65s is a Music Hall MMF-5 turntable. I have daydreams of maybe going back to 2 channel at some point but who knows? Only thing halfway certain is that my L-65's will remain my speakers-of-choice unless Infinity comes out with a 100db efficient retro re-issue of the QLS-1s with ten times better than original specs for under $500 a pair...