After a short hiatus while I sorted out some tech issues with automation that helps me create these posts, we’re back! The Speaker Spotter is a recurring feature curating interesting speakers for sale on Craigslist from around the Pacific Northwest. Links to Craigslist postings might go down at any time if they’re sold or pulled from sale.
JBL L65 Jubal Stereo Loudspeakers Work & Sound GREAT!
$1,400 · Bellingham
The L65 Jubal (1975–79) is the three-way in JBL’s mid-1970s lineup that sits between the L36 and L100 in size but above both in price, with a 12-inch woofer, the LE5 midrange and the 066 dome tweeter under a smoked-glass top — one of the more coveted seventies JBLs. The seller reports the woofers were recently professionally refoamed, all drivers are original, and the veneer is mostly very good apart from some storage wear.
JBL L100 Stereo Speakers
$1,600 · Lake Stevens (Seattle)
Near-perfect drivers, updated binding posts and original grille frames with the buyer’s choice of Quadrex foam or fabric inserts; the seller candidly notes the customary planter stain and cigarette burn. The L100 Century is the consumer version of JBL’s 4310/4311 studio monitor and arguably the best-selling speaker of the 1970s, its punchy 12-inch three-way sound and orange Quadrex grilles now firmly iconic.
INFINITY – BEAUTIFUL NEAR MINT PAIR OF RS 4b SPEAKERS
$2,000 · Boise
Seller describes a near-mint pair that looks freshly unboxed. The Reference Standard 4b is an early-1980s Infinity tower built around the company’s EMIT planar-magnetic tweeter and polypropylene-cone woofers, and that EMIT top end is what keeps the RS series on collectors’ lists. This seller is taking only phone calls to keep the noise down to seriously interested parties only.
Klipsch chorus II
$1,250 · Rathdrum (Spokane)
One-owner pair in great shape, lightly used over the last 13 years and now stored in a shop. The Chorus II (1990–96) is the biggest of Klipsch’s non-Heritage horn designs — 15-inch woofer, horn-loaded midrange and tweeter, and a 15-inch passive radiator on the back — delivering La Scala-style dynamics in a cabinet that fits a normal living room. It’s a real shame Klipsch isn’t making anything like this anymore.
2 Used B&W CDM 7NT Floor-Standing Loudspeakers
$1,000 · Portland
Very good, fully functional condition per the seller. The CDM 7NT (circa 2000) sits just below B&W’s Nautilus 800 series and borrows its metal-dome tweeter, Kevlar midrange and Flowport, which makes it one of the more affordable ways into Nautilus-era B&W sound.
(PRICE REDUCED) JBL L36 DECADE SPEAKERS (EXCEPTIONAL)
$480 · Port Townsend (Seattle)
Restored circa-1974 pair the seller has owned for eight years and calls stunning; the price was recently reduced. The L36 was the three-way of JBL’s Decade series, pairing a 10-inch woofer with the LE5 midrange and a dome tweeter in a compact walnut cabinet — essentially a scaled-down L100.
Vintage pair of Pioneer Speakers CS-99A
$495 · West Seattle (Seattle)
Described as excellent condition. The CS-99A was Pioneer’s early-1970s flagship, a six-driver system with a 15-inch woofer, dual midranges, horn tweeters and a super-tweeter behind the elaborate lattice grilles that make it one of the most visually distinctive Japanese speakers of the era. A little kabuki, but you’ll get decent sound out of it and it’d look good in an MCM living room.
Vintage Bose 901 Speakers with Bose Equalizer
$425 · Philomath (Corvallis)
Vintage pair in great shape with only minor scratches, closet-stored for a decade, and including the essential active equalizer. Amar Bose’s 901 (1968) is the original Direct/Reflecting design, firing eight of its nine 4½-inch full-range drivers at the wall behind it — polarizing then and now, but a landmark of audio history. I have a detailed write-up about these speakers here on Retrovoltage:
Polk audio speakers SDA CRS
$300 · Bellingham
Good working condition with the SDA interconnect cable and stands included; the seller notes a big, spatial sound. The CRS (Compact Reference System) is the smallest of Polk’s Stereo Dimensional Array speakers, which feed a second driver an inverted crossfed signal to cancel interaural crosstalk — one of the more unusual and effective stereo-widening designs of the 1980s. I haven’t seen these before, would be curious to hear how they sound.
Polk Audio Monitor 10B Stereo Loudspeakers
$300 · Bellingham
Good cosmetic shape, functioning flawlessly, and about 28 by 16 by 11.5 inches. The Monitor 10 was Polk’s flagship through the late 1970s and much of the 1980s — dual 6½-inch drivers, a 10-inch passive radiator and a silk dome tweeter — and remains a favorite budget vintage tower.
Cerwin Vega D-1E Stereo Loudspeakers
$180 · Bellingham
Seller says this military-exchange variant of the D-1 is considerably rarer, with beefier components and a slightly larger cabinet; 8-inch woofer, 1-inch horn tweeter, 92 dB sensitivity, roughly 20 by 11 by 10 inches. The D-series was Cerwin-Vega’s 1980s bread and butter, and the small D-1 is the entry point to that red-surround, high-efficiency house sound.
Vintage Sears LXI 15” Speaker System – Pair – Original Boxes & Manuals
$200 · Bonners Ferry (Spokane)
Still in the original Sears boxes with the Styrofoam, plastic and manuals — sold untested since the seller hasn’t unpacked the 53-pound cabinets. LXI was Sears’ house hi-fi brand, and a 15-inch three-way with dual 5-inch midranges is classic late-1970s catalog big-box fare; sealed-in-box examples of anything from this era are rare.
