I came of age in the late 60's and early 70's which means that the music I and my friends listened to was likely mixed and listened to on JBL speakers. I remember serious cases of lust upon hearing and seeing L 300's and L 200's pumping out Pink Floyd, David Bowie, Steely Dan, etc., etc. and how much I loved that so-called "West Coast" sound and never really thought any other speakers reproduced rock music as well as JBL's. Now I'm in my 50's and I still love the sound of vintage JBL's but am not so flush with money that I can drop $5k on a Paragon system or even $2-$3 k on a pristine set of L 300's (someday though!), so what is a JBL addict to do? Well there are deals to be had on eBay on vintage JBL speakers, just not the big systems. I have transitioned completely over to early 70's era JBL's for my Home Theater set-up (which is considerable, 14 speakers and 4 subs) and all have been purchased for very reasonable prices, with the only caveat being that they all needed a little work to be put back into shape. I have had or still have 1 set each of L 15's, L 19's, 2 sets each of L 16's, L 26's, and L 36's, and one set each of L 88's, 4312 Control Monitors (the professional version of the popular L 100's) and 4425 Studio Monitors. All were purchased on eBay and all had "issues". Many vintage "L" series JBLs have the foam surround rotted out on the woofers. This is not a reason to get the driver reconed! Reconing is expensive and with the refoaming kits available on eBay and a little patience you can do a fine refoam job yourself. I recommend the kits from eBay seller looneytune2001 as he provides a CD for aligning the voice coil correctly. I have done 5 pairs of woofers with no problems. Of course the woofers have to be viable other than the foam rot. Be careful of sellers parting out woofers that they advertise as needing a refoam and when you get them end up needing a recone instead (the voice of experience here). Ask questions regarding whether they work. Sometimes you have to bite the bullet and buy replacement drivers and you should always make sure that you are purchasing working units. The next issue most common with these 30 plus year old speakers is the cabinetry. Fortunately the quality of the real wood veneer on these is excellent so with a little effort the cabs can be brought back to better than new. I mask off the baffle board (the front where the drivers are mounted) and start by using a palm sander with 320 grit sandpaper, 3 passes and I switch to 600 grit, 3 passes with that and I switch to 1000 or 1200 grit. By now you have an almost mirror smooth finish. I have used both DEFT spray matte finish with a pass with the 1000 grit in between 3 coats and tung oil hand-applied with the passes in between with good results. Some "purists" pooh-pooh the use of a spray finish, but use what you want, they both look good in the end. I will also spot spray the black baffle board and/or the backs with black matte spray paint to dress those surfaces up a bit. The other thing that is often an issue is the grill cloth or the absence of the grills altogether. I have reclothed grills with good results and the speakers look good, sometimes I use a color cloth other than the original, which makes "purists" cringe, but I don't really care. I do save the old grill cloth for future use. Sometimes the grill cloth is just really filthy and I have found the foaming upholstery cleaners with integral brushes to work really well in getting out stains, watermarks and other dirt. You can usually find replacement grills or grill frames for your model speaker on eBay if you are patient. The crossovers on these old speakers are often "scratchy", that is, they make a noise when adjusted with a sound drop-out in some cases. Just get a can of spray electronics cleaner from Radio Shack and clean the potentiometers, with the knobs removed if you can get them off, a very easy solution. Other issues include missing or broken connector posts, missing "JBL" badges and pushed in dust caps on the drivers. Pushed in dust caps do not affect the sound so I have never done anything about that, though I read that some guys push a hooked pin into the dust cap and gently pull it out and seal the hole with glue. I always have the grills on my speakers so you can't see the drivers anyway and this seems more effort than it's worth. Badges and terminals can be had on eBay. Sometimes you might be able to get a good deal by buying separate components and putting together a set of speakers from multiple auctions of cabs, drivers, etc. I have done this once and, for me,  the costs did not end up being worth the end result. Remember, sellers part out speakers for a reason, that being they get more money than they might have if they left the speakers intact. I personally am disappointed when I see a perfectly good pair of speakers parted out, but I'm not the seller and they can do what they like with them. I have paid as little as $19.95 for a pair of trashed L 26's with non-original woofers and a maximum of $299.99 for the 4425's (a real deal when you see them listed at $1000.00 normally) with the 4312's being had for $102.50 and a pair of L 36's for $59.95! Shipping is steep for most of these model speakers with the weight of the bigger models hovering around 50 lbs unboxed, but if you want them they are out there. A little effort and some savvy buying can get you some of the nicest sounding and best looking speakers ever put out by an American manufacturer. All these techniques will work with other vintage speaker brands as well, but being a JBL snob, I can't think of any other brands deserving of the effort (ha-ha).