Custom L 100 Professional Speakers - Recreating and Upgrading a Classic JBL Speaker
This project was all about scratch building a pair of JBL L 100 Classic speakers, a famous JBL design that combined great sound quality and vintage 60's style. I wanted to build a pair of L100's but put my own spin on them, which means upgrading them as much as possible while staying true to the original design. The finished product was just what I was hoping it would be. My "L100 Custom" speakers managed to capture the retro feel, stayed true to the original design, but took the speakers to a higher level thanks to a few key changes. First the cabinets are made entirely from solid oak hardwood, as opposed to veneers. Next passive crossovers were omitted in favor of an active crossover approach, enabling much better frequency response and truer audio reproduction. Including direct connections to each of the individual drivers allows for a wide variety of applications (from live shows, to DJ/MC performances, to critical listening, or even just typical home theater use), as opposed to one connection per speaker which limits the speaker's ability to function in any arena. Finally, a substantial woofer upgrade both enables much higher overall listening volumes, and means these can be both standard speakers, or dedicated subwoofers depending on the owner's specific needs. I hope this video is informative and entertaining. I tried to make it informative without getting overly technical. And of course because I built these as an academic project, they are available for sale to the right customer. If you are interested in purchasing them, feel free to message me at ethan@zimmerlabs.com.
This project was all about scratch building a pair of JBL L 100 Classic speakers, a famous JBL design that combined great sound quality and vintage 60's style. I wanted to build a pair of L100's but put my own spin on them, which means upgrading them as much as possible while staying true to the original design. The finished product was just what I was hoping it would be. My "L100 Custom" speakers managed to capture the retro feel, stayed true to the original design, but took the speakers to a higher level thanks to a few key changes. First the cabinets are made entirely from solid oak hardwood, as opposed to veneers. Next passive crossovers were omitted in favor of an active crossover approach, enabling much better frequency response and truer audio reproduction. Including direct connections to each of the individual drivers allows for a wide variety of applications (from live shows, to DJ/MC performances, to critical listening, or even just typical home theater use), as opposed to one connection per speaker which limits the speaker's ability to function in any arena. Finally, a substantial woofer upgrade both enables much higher overall listening volumes, and means these can be both standard speakers, or dedicated subwoofers depending on the owner's specific needs. I hope this video is informative and entertaining. I tried to make it informative without getting overly technical. And of course because I built these as an academic project, they are available for sale to the right customer. If you are interested in purchasing them, feel free to message me at ethan@zimmerlabs.com.