gullahisland Posted March 5, 2005 Share Posted March 5, 2005 I have a damn-near-close-to-perfect pair of JBL L200Bs for which I simply don't have any room. The cabinets are finished in some of the most beautiful walnut I've ever seen grace a speaker. These guys sold for $2,200 back in 1975 and it's clear that the craftsmanship is befitting such a high-end product. Don't compare these to the earlier L200. These are the later "B" version with a totally different woofer and crossover and are a far better speaker. They're also quite rare. Add an 077 tweeter (or similar) and these are virtually identical to the vererable L300 Summit. I have pictures, but with my dial-up connection, it might take all night to upload them. Rather than make this an exercise in futility, I thought I'd gauge your interest before attempting to post pics. Considering their collector-quality condition, these should be worth $800-1,200 pretty easily. They even still have the little JBL tags hanging from the frame behind the grill cloth. I couldn't bring myself to remove them. Anyway...Anybody care? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tigerwoodKhorns Posted March 6, 2005 Share Posted March 6, 2005 I'd be interested in seeing some low resolution pics. Where are you located? Chris Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnyholiday Posted March 6, 2005 Share Posted March 6, 2005 your in silicon valley an on dial up sshhhh yea a pic would be nice Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Audible Nectar Posted March 6, 2005 Share Posted March 6, 2005 I care.....but my wallet is ignoring you These are a brand of speakers that most certainly have me doubting my Klipsch Heritage loyalties......but my wallet has usually been less interested. If I could have any JBL I wanted, I would choose a Sovereign/Olympus S8R setup (that 375 midrange is DA BOMB). The 200B is very formidable - adding the 077 cat's eye tweeter and crossover makes an L300 equivalent, which are quite good too. Uhhh, let's check that - VERY GOOD. Usually, when I roam the cyberhalls of vintage JBL, my mind recalls the old college days, when I had friends who owned '60's era JBL stuff. Those guys couldn't get rid of us.......everyone listened to music in THIER dorm room. They also got tired of me asking if they wanted to sell thier speakers. If the big JBL's were more available (like the Klipsch still is), I would probably have a pair...but the collector market/relative rarity of the big JBL stuff makes it cost prohibitive (like S8R's - about $3500-5000). I soooooo want JBL's with compression driver midranges - the energy that comes from those is ridiculous! Anyhow, I can't buy these - but someone here should. Most certainly worth the trouble. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fini Posted March 6, 2005 Share Posted March 6, 2005 Click on the image to link to a Lansing Heritage page on the L200B. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fini Posted March 6, 2005 Share Posted March 6, 2005 Dan, How is the grille foam, or is it cloth (as you mention)? Have the foam (woofer) surrounds been replaced? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gullahisland Posted March 6, 2005 Author Share Posted March 6, 2005 The grills are black mesh grillcloth. The foam, I'm sure, rotted away years ago. The woofers need to be refoamed. I was planning on having this done, but decided to hold off once I determined that I couldn't keep 'em. JBL Authorized Service Centers don't DO a refoam. They only re-cone the drivers at a cost of around $250 EACH! I've spoken to some folks who insist that a proper refoam job by a skilled technician just as good - provided that the voice coils are still in good shape (which they are). Recently, there was a thread on the Lansing Heritage forum from a gentleman showing some pictures of the REALLY CRAPPY work performed by one of these JBL service centers. I called a few of the service centers around here and was not very impressed by what I heard. One guy wanted me to send him both speakers (in their cabinets!) because that was the only way to properly test them...Huh? I'm near the Bay Area, but live in a rural area where dial-up is my only option (other than satellite at $119/mo). To make matters worse, there is a lot of noise on the line and my maximum connect rate is 19.2K (read: S-L-O-W) I'll see if I can't resize the images and get them posted this morning. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fini Posted March 6, 2005 Share Posted March 6, 2005 These guys are in San Rafael, and are excellent. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marvel Posted March 6, 2005 Share Posted March 6, 2005 Those would be awesome. It is really too bad that so many companies switched to foam surrounds on their woofers. My 4311s have a cloth sirround that is treated with some kind of rubberish material. Still in very good shape after 30+ years. Do you know what model compression driver those use? Marvel Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gullahisland Posted March 6, 2005 Author Share Posted March 6, 2005 Okay...Here's the first one. Please excuse the background scenery. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Audible Nectar Posted March 6, 2005 Share Posted March 6, 2005 h my.......those cabinets are purdy....certainly worth the woofer work. Marvel, I think those are LE85 mids, but I'm not 100% on that.....funny thing that JBL doesn't have it published in the linked-to literature, JBL used to be all about the model numbers in the older literature... TBrennan would know...... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gullahisland Posted March 6, 2005 Author Share Posted March 6, 2005 The compression drivers are, indeed, LE85. I've tried uploading the other pics and keep getting the "server timeout" error. Any tips? I'll keep trying. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gullahisland Posted March 6, 2005 Author Share Posted March 6, 2005 Also...I can't figure out how to resize the images. Can it be done with Microsoft Imaging? I'm a bit of a dinosaur when it comes to digital imaging and .mp3s. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gullahisland Posted March 6, 2005 Author Share Posted March 6, 2005 After at least a DOZEN tries...Here's another one. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gullahisland Posted March 6, 2005 Author Share Posted March 6, 2005 Grills removed. See the little tags that I was referring to? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gullahisland Posted March 6, 2005 Author Share Posted March 6, 2005 I give up! There are more photos that I can email if you're interested. Hopefully these are enough to give you the general idea. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marvel Posted March 6, 2005 Share Posted March 6, 2005 Other than the obvious refoaming the woofers, they look GREAT! Very nice pair of speaks. What are you asking for them? I didn't see before that you said what you wanted for them. Marvel Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gullahisland Posted March 6, 2005 Author Share Posted March 6, 2005 I was thinking $1,000-ish. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
D0N Posted March 6, 2005 Share Posted March 6, 2005 I had a pair of the L300 summits for a while. They were very nice speakers. Quite a bit bigger than the L200B though. Those L200B's look nice. Too bad the original grill foam wastes away. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
richieb Posted March 6, 2005 Share Posted March 6, 2005 I had a pair of custom built cabinets that housed an LE-15A fifteen inch woofer and an LE-85 compression mid-driver. Buying those separate components along with their associated xover, LX-5 I think, was called an S7 system. The drivers alone are worth a mint now, very popular and trendy in Japan. As far as driver quality, there are none better than vintage JBL. Makes the drivers in our beloved Klipsch look rather meager. And in 1978 what did I sell the S7 for, you guessed it brand new LaScalas for about $725 each. Of course things happen and those are gone too, but my new Belles should take out some of that 25 year old sting. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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