This review is for the Jbl ls40 speaker. Currently I'm looking to replace my 30 year old Bose 301 series 1 speakers that are working perfectly. I've had the chance to audition Dynaudio focus 140s after the JBLs. In my opinion, the JBL leave the dynaudios for dead.

The JBLs gave me much of what I would have wanted in a speaker. They were beautifully clear and detailed. In my room which is a very difficult room to get good sound, they were very good good. My issue is that my front and rear speakers have to go on the walls. My fronts are on Vogel tv shelves about 2 feet from the wall. For the Bose this poses no issue at all. For the JBLs it worked very well as well. The Bass was very nice, if sometimes a tad understated. For me understated is much better than over stated as the dynaudios were. If there is a need for it I can always turn my sub on. The JBLs rarely needed the sub.

Piano on them was absolutely stunningly rich, deep, acoustic and alive. A wonderful experience. All instruments came to life and i really loved this about them. They were a very exciting speaker, overall.

In my room, I listen quite closely to the speakers. They are about 6 feet off the floor, slightly pointing downwards towards the couch. One sits slightly below the overall axis of the speaker, thus possibly missing a little bit of the imaging. They dyns gave huge spacial sound which I loved. The JBLs were much more controlled and contained to their boxes. Every speaker I listen to gets put on it's side. My Bose 301 series 1 love it, they dyns love it, the JBLs didn't respond give much attention to this, in that they didn't really widen the overall experience.

The JBLs are called a 3 way speaker but I would believe they area mid/bass, tweater and super tweater setup. It's the high end that in my situation caused them to go back to the shop that loaned them to me. They reproduce drums beautifully, but it's the cymbals that really dominated, especially the hi hats. They weren't piercing, just dominant, all the time. I got very sick of hearing a hi hat right out the front of every recording. This is the one main draw back that caused me to stop listening to this speaker. Possibly I could have muted the tweeters somehow and this would have laid them back a bit. Maybe they weren't run in and they would have settled down, but due to the fact there is absolutely nothing on the net about them, I didn't consider the run in time. I have the feeling they may remained hi hat dominant for ever. I couldn't live with this. In a much larger setup , where someone has the luxury of moving them around a big room, I think they would be absolutely fabulous. They seemed to handle jazz and rock really well. Vocals sounded fabulous, male and female. These may not be an audiophile's choice but if you're just a hardened rock fan, or even jazz, I think these could really excite.