JBL L300 - true myth?

I own a pair of L300s. I drive them with a pair of CARY SE 300 monoblock amps, an Audio Research SP25 MKII, a Cary PH302 phono stage, Origin Live table and arm with a Shelter 90x. I have built a new, external crossover for the L300s with Duelund resistors, Duelund Cast inductors and Mundorf Silver\Gold\Oil caps in the signal path. I listen to Female vocals and old rock LPs. I also own a pair of stock JBL 250Ti’s and a pair of Alec 19s. The other speakers cannot touch the L300s! I am planning to update the 250Ti’s with the same quality parts that I used to upgrade the L300s. The 250s are at a higher starting point so they may beat the L300s.

For several years I had the pro 4 way JBL .ONE step up from the 300 Summit. I bought those at 1980 price of 2K for the pair. The speakers were called the 4343 JBL Studio Monitors. Back then that was alot of money for me to lay out.Actually my new Fiat wasn't to much more then that.LOL
The speakers just were to much for my small dwellings I had them in. I was getting ringing in the ears. These speakers would rock. The bass slam was unreal and the midbass was very powerful, and of course the midband with the horn compression driver was great. I used them mostly with my Marantz 4400 Receiver in 125 watt Stereo Mode.
Later after I finally departed with them I was told tube amps were nice with them as well. Some dj's used these with Phase Linear Amps. I think I even remember them using the L65s in the night clubs as well at ear shatering levels,
But the ig monitors would clip and sound nasty if u drove them to hard.

The L300's are all time classics, but jbl had plans for L400's. The Bean counters at Harmon Intl killed them .
They are available as the 4343's. they had 10" lower mids,
and were 4 ways. same woofers, mid drivers and tweeters, just the pro vertions. they also were biampable with the
optional jbl electronic xovers.They did have a much larger footprint, and they would play much louder.I use tube amps on the high end and a good quality 200+ watt Ss amp on the
woofers.
The 4343's although much rarer go for around the same $ on
ebay.If you can deal with the large size and 185+lb weight
look for them

I have lived with these JBL L300 speakers for the last 6+ months and have to say that I have become a real fan of the JBL sound of yore. Putting a 32 watt push-pull tube amp on them has made them sound fantastic (and play pretty loudly). In the next few weeks I'm going to put a high-powered solid state amp on them to see if I can really get the woofers moving.

Imaging is so-so, but overall tone and timbre seems very right. As somebody mentioned earlier, they have punchiness in spades. Incredibly good looking speakers too. Highly recommended, but be willing to pay a premium to get them in really nice condition. This is a beautiful speaker that even domestic partners will not balk at.

I had a pair of these speakers. I loved them, the looks, the design, and the name.

I have a very large family room and they did not do the room justice. Im 18 wide and 28 deep, 9 foot ceilings and fairly active room. These speakers did not do my room justice. Ultimately they were not in the same league as my late 80's Wilson Watt2/Puppy3's.

At he time, I had some world class electronics driving them (arc Ref 2Mk2, Krell KMA-100 Mk 2) and they just sounded confined and like they needed a larger room.

If you can get the L300's in to the right room then you can have something, but IMHO it has to be large.