Dynaco A-25, the Large Advent, and JBL Century L-100: which one nad the best sound??


A few members claimed they currently own or owned a pair of vintage speakers.  Of the following vintage speakers: Dynaco A-25,  Large Advent,  or JBL's L-100 Century which in your opinion had the best sound

*****SIDE NOTE****:.....: Does anyone know who manufactured the "orange fried egg"  tweeter   used in the Large Advent speaker??  Could it be replaced with something better, or much better?? I have a friend who wants to modify a pair of the Large Advents and give them to his son.......    Thank you

 

sunnyjim
The JBL L-100 Century was my first pair of real speakers.  IMHO, one the best rock-n-roll speakers ever made.

Wish I still  had them...
2 pairs of large Advents, stacked are even better  HP in TAS loved them.  The JBL's are great for rock but not so much for Jazz or Classical.  The JBL doesn't need too much power to drive them where the Advents and Dynaco do.  If you like all kinds of music, the large Advents would be the best bet.
The Dynaco A-25's were my first "hi-fi" speaker, with a PAS3x and a Stereo 70.  I went from there to Large Advents, then to stacked Advents.  A roommate during that last time had JBL L-100's; he put them in storage while we lived together (for about 9 mos).

Had the DYNACOS , then the ADVENTS, then EPIs, and then JBL-100s back in my young days at university.

JBLs reign supreme .... Not even close.

BUT .., couple qualifiers:

(1)  these were a "California" sound speaker ( Google the term ...) with heavily spiked frequency curve In the  treble and bass to accentuate a tailored pop and rock music presentation  of the era.

(2) none of the OPs suggestions will match up to current era standmounts with their improved design build,  and crossovers ... Full stop..Remember that all of these geezer-rock era speakers  have ultra-cheap basic spring-loaded speaker binding posts limited to 18-gauge zip cord cheap and crappy speaker cable posts that need replacement, and likely need speaker surround re-foaming and maybe even new caps .

if you favour nostalgia and favour 70s hard rock played loud, the JBLs will be your boomy bass party speaker... No problem.

If you are looking for a non-coloured balanced musical presentation especially with all the other music genres, look elsewhere .

Thanks to all for the responses so far.  The comments make good horse sense regarding the listed speakers of a bygone age. I have always been interested in whether some of these early classics of sound, if driven with newer and/or better electronics would provide the ultimate euphoric, or easy listening experience that you don't always find in today's.speakers  Yes, greater accuracy without a doubt, but does the listener really feel  the music is both engaging and listenable.  I owned a pair of Large Advents in 2005 and drove them with an Aragon 4004 MKII; the rest of the system was CJ PV-8 and Sonographe Beta one CD player.  There were moments when I said this is one greatest speakers I ever heard. The Advents flourished with 200 watts plus.  The problem that during their golden years approx. 1969 to 1985,  Advents were driven by 45-50 RMS Marantz, Pioneer, or Harmon Kardon receivers which were just adequate, but not if you wanted to play music loud whether rock or Beethoven.

The Advent tweeter that I mentioned in my :"side note" was a worthless compromise on Kloss's part regardless of the attenuation switch  on the back. It looks like hardware store vintage, and sounded like crap..

 Member....Akg-ca was on target when he noted the cheap caliber of the parts being used to hit a certain price point. All to often the frequency range of the media  available.at the time, (LP's and tape) dictated the quality short cuts taken by Henry Kloss and Dave Hafler.

Another factor, I believe, was often the social setting of the buyers. Young Couples with new homes seemed to be the perfect target for the Large Advent speaker. It is not really a rock speaker and sounds good on jazz folk, most light classical, and easy listening music.

However, old and inadequate these  "geezers" might be and sound by today's audiophile standards of musical satisfaction, there seems to be a ton of Advent, Dynaco, AR and KLH, etc  speakers being refoamed and retooled out on the market.  It might be just nostalgia driven, or just a desire by many listeners  to just lay back and listen to the music.