Audiophiles: JBL L100/L100 Century Q's

Factual Questions
1

I’ve got two pair of JBL L100 speakers. Since I’ve never owned quad (boy, am I dating myself) I seem to have two too many speakers in my small living space, and so am going to sell a pair.

The newer ones are JBL (orange logo) L100’s, without any mention of “Century” on the ID plate. The older ones are my brother’s speakers with black logo, L100 and “Century” on the ID plate. They’re both walnut cabs and in terrific shape for their ages.

I Googled around to see what’s what with these babies but found myslef wallowing in the mire. I saw wildly varying prices from $180 to $1000. Along with these were wlidly varying reviews re their relative audio worth. Apparently, this tends to focus on mid-range response and strength.

I’m going to side-by-side test drive them both on my system before I sell them but I have a few questions that I need answered.

Any idea what these are worth?

Did JBL just drop the “Century” designation during production? The two models look identical to me and I don’t want to open the cabs to check driver specs.

Does the deterioration of foam on the tweeter wreck sound quality? The older pair have foam surrounding the tweeter that is starting to take on that “chunky” look. And no, I didn’t pole it with my finger.

Any suggestions on how to re-grill them both without losing the look of the walnut frame on the grill. I don’t want to hide the edge of the walnut grill frame, but both pair need re-grilling.

Thanks in advance

MonkeyBoy

2

The L100’s were great little rock n roll speakers. I had a buddy with a set.

The grills on my L- series JBL speakers are a particle board frame covered with brown burlap on one set and a synthetic weave material on the others. They attach to the cabinet with expansion dowels (just guessing on what they are called…they are a slotted dowel that presses into a socket).

There is a company in Dallas called Freeman-Tuell that specializes in re-coning JBL speakers. I don’t think they have a website

Freeman-Tuell Speaker
7911 Ferguson Rd
Dallas 75228
(214) 324-1132
I am still running a pair of L-220’s

and a pair of L-250 Ti’s (Bottom speaker on the page)
Lots of the “Good Ol’ Days” JBL speakers on This Page