Why Crazy Prices paid for Pioneer 100 JBL L100 AR1 AR3 AR3A

What must be remembered is that for many of us, we first listened to music on portable or table-top AM radios, later on FM radios. Once you were able to hear music reproduced using a receiver and two speakers of whatever kind, you were hooked. I think that sound was imprinted in our brains and to a large extent accounts for much of the demand for gear from the early-to-mid 70s. I have many pieces from that era (just bought a pristine Sansui TU-517 tuner that looks brand-new and sounds great) and I use large Advents and a couple of pair of ADS speakers to bring back
that sound. With the right music, I enjoy that as much as listening to my Audio Research/Accuphase/Vandersteen system. I know I'm a dinosaur, but then they ruled the earth for millions of years, so I figure I'm in good company.

I asked where the market was of a guy who repairs and sells classic components and speakers.  His reply was that hipsters buy them because they are cool and classic. They want to impressed their hipster friends that they too can go retro. Hence the demand. Ahh, capitalism.

I have a pai of L100s that I bought in 1975 with an expensive crossover upgrade that made them sound really very good. I use them in the living room to impress my friends. :)

What does this stuff have in common with the pyramids?Its all ancient history.

I had a pair of HPM 100’s in college back in 80, I got rid of them in a few months. I bought them from a friend on the cheap. They didn’t sound good, nothing about them impressed. I was running them with GAS equipment and an SL 1500mk II with an Ortophon MC cart.  There were a few JBL’s that were decent but for the same money I thought there were better choices. 

Ive seen people pay stupid money for these speakers and can only surmise they are hearing nostalgia.  Same goes for Japanese receivers, people buy them because they look cool or maybe they couldn’t afford one back in the day. The sound quality of most of these is average mid-fi. There’s nothing wrong with that but when they go on about the great sound, etc., I lose interest. 

I sold hi end back then.  I heard a lot of theories on Japanese speakers but it was common knowledge there was maybe one good speaker at that time from Japan. And I believe it was designed by an American. 

YMMV

There are a lot of JBL speaker models that sound much better than L100s and are a relative bargain, including some truly great studio monitors home models featuring some of the best compression drivers ever made. I sometimes run across bargain JBLs that sound truly great but are relatively inexpensive because they are not one of the hot fan boy models. Keep your L100s. I'll take baby butt cheeks all day long.