It’s always an excitement for me to listen to an iconic audio product, especially one that can withstand the test of time. The brand JBL have quite a few of such products, namely their loudspeakers; Paragon, Everest, Hardfield, K2, 4000 series, L100, etc…that still command a very healthy followings.
Here, the nice folks at AV DESIGNS SDN BHD (MALAYSIA) invited me to the unboxing of their newly arrived JBL L100 CLASSIC 75 ANNIVERSARY EDITION loudspeakers. At hand, we have Joseph Ki (also known as Joki) a partner there and, an avid international influencer at the BBC LS3/5a community. Enthusiastically, he headed the placement and positioning of the said loudspeakers at the shop floor for the auditioning.
“I must say that the available space there may not accommodate an optimum performance for them”…with that thought in mind and cheek, my expectation of their performance was ‘tuned’ to that circumstance.
After a short time of running in and some minor adjustments at the positioning of the said loudspeakers, I found their performance to be involving, engaging, resolving and at the same time, pleasant. Given the circumstance and my usual expectation of the ‘JBL sound‘ (I used to own the JBL K2 S9800 for some years, and other JBL speakers in my home theater set up), I was pleasantly surprised by their performance (my ‘tuned’ expectation was not needed after all). Here, I hear not the ‘heavy bottom sound‘ and the ‘disjointed sound‘ that have became synonymous with the brand JBL (or some of their loudspeakers). But I did hear the ‘JBL sound‘ that made the brand, the ‘generous sound‘ that akin to a ‘live performance’.
We played multiple genres of music, from vocal to opera, jazz to classical, pop to techno and finally the Big Bang orchestra. Each track was treated with good precision, timing, articulation and, a hint of refinement that is usually available at high end transducers only.
Even though I was not seated in an optimum distance from the said loudspeakers, I still found good coherency among the three (3) drivers in them. I believed that resulted in the good depth, space and separation within an aired soundscape.
I was so convinced by the JBL L100 CLASSIC 75 ANNIVERSARY EDITION loudspeakers’ high end performances that there and then…I bought them!