JBL L82 Classic

What if you want some of the JBL L100 Classics’ extrovert retro character, but can’t stretch to their £3995 price or accommodate something with the frontal area of a small fridge? The new L82 Classics would seem to be the ideal solution.

These two-way standmounters get off to a great start. Despite being around half the size of, and a driver down on, their illustrious siblings, they still look every inch a JBL Classic speaker.

It starts with the traditional wide yet shallow cabinet proportions, and extends to the distinctive white paper pulp cone of the 20cm mid/bass driver. As with the L100s, there’s a nod to the past with a front panel dial that lets the user adjust the high-frequency output level. We leave this on the 0db default setting for the bulk of our listening, but it could well have uses in rooms where the sound is skewed tonally.

There’s nothing retro about the L82’s engineering. The mid/bass driver is a bang-up-to-date unit with a carefully optimised chassis and a motor system designed with some of the most sophisticated facilities around. It’s tuned with a front-firing reflex port and crosses over to the 25mm titanium tweeter at 1.7khz. As before, there’s a dished waveguide around the dome to help with dispersion.

We don’t have any real grumbles when it comes to build. The enclosure feels suitably solid and the cabinet edges are nice and crisp. There isn’t the slickness of finish that we’re used to seeing from the likes of KEF, Dynaudio or Bowers & Wilkins, but the walnut veneer option looks nice enough.

Retro clothing

While we rarely write much about speaker grilles, they’re a bigger deal here because their geometric design is a clear link back to the original 70s L100s. There’s a choice of three colours – black, dark blue or the iconic orange.

The company makes dedicated stands to suit the L82’s distinctive appearance. The £175 JS-80 are neatly welded supports that lift and angle the speakers appropriately for most listening situations. While they may be the obvious choice, we’re not convinced they’re the best one sonically. We find that the L82s speakers sound considerably cleaner and punchier in the bass when sat on the similarly priced Custom Designs FS104 Signatures.

Room positioning plays a large part too. After playing around, we end up with the speakers around 40cm from the rear wall, well away from the sides and slightly angled in to the listening position.

Inside/outside

These standmounters are made in mirror image pairs with the tweeters offset. There’s no indication from the manual as to whether they should be on the inside or outside edge, so we try both ways. Having them on the outside gives us a broader soundstage, but we gain a more solid presentation when they’re on the inside edge, so that’s how we leave it.

If you’re looking for sonic neutrality, finesse or the last word in resolution these aren’t the boxes for you. But that doesn’t stop the L82 Classics from having appeal. They’re full of character, fun and sometimes charming, as long as you listen to the right kind of music.

That kind of music is anything that benefits from an upfront, wall-of-sound approach to replay. Play Nirvana’s Nevermind and the L82s respond with enthusiasm, pounding out the beats with purpose and an impressive sense of power. Cobain’s vocals come through with clarity, each word cutting like a buzzsaw through the instrumental backdrop.

You’ll have to be careful about system matching. That titanium-dome tweeter sounds less refined here than in the L100s, probably because it has a wider frequency band to cover. Partner the L82s with smooth, controlled electronics and there shouldn’t be an issue.

These are relatively big standmounters with a correspondingly large mid/bass unit that provides a pretty impressive bass reach. These speakers are relatively fast and controlled at low frequencies, though perhaps not the most tuneful.

If you like listening to music loud then these boxes are happy to oblige. But the surprising thing is that they stay interesting even when volume levels drop to a whisper, which is something that can’t be said about many rivals.

But, when a bit of delicacy is required, the L82 Classics are less convincing. Feed them something low-key such as Found Songs by Ólafur Arnalds and they’ll shrug metaphorically, smooth the dynamic nuances and blur the timing subtleties that make this album so emotionally affecting. Low-level details aren’t ignored, but they are marginalised for something more forceful.

Despite our reservations, the L82 Classics remain entertaining performers in the right circumstances. If you find that they align with your musical and aesthetic tastes, dive right in. There are more capable alternatives at this level, but few with such a distinctive flavour.