I'd take a Devialet Phantom over this. Better dispersion, more bass extension. Not sure I agree with the value conclusions for $4000, but it's not quite as terrible as I expected. For the size, I'd be expecting more bass extension, and with JBL I'd except a waveguide, though I understand they are trying to make it like the old one.
For the aesthetic, great. This would pair well with vinyl. For a modern speaker, too many compromises with the driver slapped on boxes design, parallel cabinet walls, diffraction causing sharp edged, legacy crossover, no DSP driver correction, etc.
So, I really liked these speakers -- still one of the most enjoyable speakers I've reviewed for my tastes despite some obvious flaws. Like, maybe my favorite after the D&D 8C. That's just my personal tastes though.
That said, they
do have a waveguide, but it's kept shallow for wide directivity, and I personally appreciate that variety within the brand. The directivity appears uneven in part because of the asymmetrical tweeter, but it evens out extremely smoothly, especially for the horizontals:
(PIR is a very rough estimate as I didn't have full rear hemisphere data but this
usually works out okay).
The JBL L82 which has the same tweeter and waveguide performs very similarly (full spin data in this case):
So I think directivity performance was obviously taken well into account.
By comparison, the HDI-1600 is actually a bit less even in this regard:
Not really saying the L100 Classic is a great value or that anyone should buy it over something with more pristine measurements, just providing some measurement-based perspective on some things it actually does well.
Personally, I have so far definitely preferred the wide-directivity JBLs (L100, L82) to the Horn/big waveguide JBLs (HDI-1600/4349) I've heard so far, (that's arguably because they are bigger driver speakers, but I don't tend to listen very loud). But many of you know my preference for wider directivity.