Bought these in a thrift store for like $10, used but in great shape, decided these will be my punk rock speakers, meaning they will get touched by art, stickers, etc... I love these and they sound great!!! I have them hooked up to my amp on a a/b switch with Elac UB5 which cost $500 , don't get me wrong, the Elac are awesome speakers, but often find my self listening to these, so ya go figure!!! If you see them, grab them and be happy!!

I love these, I can't think of any weaknesses...

Hey just read some of the reviews on these jbl speakers, and just had to add my input. I bought these jbl arc 30 with what i think are 5 inch woofers. I have these hooked up to a pro audio amp, and have really turned up the volume. I will tell you that they have impressed me very much. The highs are clear and for being small woofer they are hitting harder than i would ever have expected from them. Also the fact that i have not blown them up.

price, finish

no midrange; boomy, lacking bass

I picked up a pair of these speakers from UBid for $54 + shipping. A good deal, considering the speaker size. They sound great on surround, but I couldn't use these as main speakers. They have a severe lack of midrange. The bass is boomy, due to the porting. They distort fairly quickly as well, even with the clean power of my amp. They don't have much extended bass range either (50hz is lowest). On surround, these speakers bring the room to life. The highs are very crisp - the tweeters are excellent. The bass is somewhat surprising for these speakers, but it is peaky and boomy with the port. For the price, I can't argue with them as surround speakers. I'd be disappointed if I paid $100 or more I think.

Sweet high end. Cost.

None considering the price.

These speakers sound great. They sound best reproducing guitars, vocals, most string instruments, and cymbals. They have a low frequency range that gives them a very full sound.

Price

Well... I picked these up on ubid for under $60/pair. Yeah they were refurbished but you can't tell at all they look brand spankin new. For the price no speaker can touch them. I'm currently using them for rear surrounds and i didn't really want to spend too much for them. Also i have used them as computer speakers to play mp3s. At this price range you would expect them to sound like crap with music, but they don't. The highs are very crisp. Sure they lack bass but if i don't care when i'm using them as pc speakers and when i use them in my HT i have a sub anyway. Another thing is that these speakers look great with their grill off. Sure that is prolly pointless info but they do. If you can get them for under $100 definately grab them because they work great in small rooms or as surrounds.

I purchased this set of bookshelf speakers without knowing much more than the good name, and the basic specs on them, but I must say that they are VERY good for the money. Although they are 2 way architecture, the mid-low range seems to come through well enough, and the highs are phenomenal. The Operatic Diva scene in the DVD version of the Fifth Element is not a problem for these speakers in the least, and Bach & Bethoven never sounded better. If you are in the market for a good set of Bookshelf's, I certainly reccomend the ARC 30's

Best of the JBL's I have known

That is not saying much

To me, all the JBL speakers I have had sounded like they were suffed with cotton. These tho, had the least cotton.
They sounded like the Denon receiver was set on double
Dolby. Paid 60 bucks for a pair landed from U-Bid. I believe if the rest of the people who reviewed this speaker heard the Wharfdale MFM-1, they would all lower their ratings a full point.

Similar Products Used:

TLX-121, TLX-151, Bic52, Wharfdale MFM-1

Folks, most reviewers will tell you that metal tweeters are the best. And they are. And these puppies have
a 1" titanium tweeter.

In addition they carry an 8" woofer.

This two-way design reproduces frequencies from 50hz = 20khz
handling up to 125 watts.

Mated with a good subwoofer you have true full range performance.

These can now be had in the $100/pr. - $150/pr. range.

For the price they can't be beat.

Any radio shack fans should take a listen.

Don't know why JBL killed the ARC line and went with the HLS.
The 1" titanium tweeter mounted in the "Acoustic Reflection
Cancellation" faceplate beats the hell out of the HLS series
horn tweeter.

The HLS series is now getting decent reviews from some audiophile
mag.s (e.g., Corey Greenberg in Stereo Review).

Check out the ARC series if you get a chance. It trounces the
HLS.

Considering the value ....

Got the pair from Price club at an unbvelievable $99 USD new in the box! There is not much of an audition you can do in a warehouse store so I just bought it and brought it home counting on PCs return policy if I did not like the product.I hooked it up with both my Technics and an old Hitachi reciever both 100W power using my Sony DVD player to play my tester CDs which are compilation of music from deep bass to male/female vocals and the tingling highs I just created from my CD burner. This bookshelf excelled very well in its midrange. The voice comes out really warm on this bookshelfs. Solo instruments sound excellent too with the combo of this woofer and titanium tweeter. The bass was sufficient for a bookshelf. I have TLX 171 towers of the same manufacturer and I was planning to use this as rears but after listening to my repertoire of not so bass demanding music, i decided to keep it in front as my "B" speakers. It just sounded better and so enjoyable with vocals compared to the more expensive 171. The 171s are very good speakers too but I prefer this bookshelf for certain music.
Also, the build quality is very good with about 7-8 fasteners to hold the titanium tweeters and the rubber or foam material used for the face for resonance roll-offs just tells you about the care in the design and manufacturing. I forgot to mention the cast frame of the woofers and not stamped metal sheets all for 99 bucks. This is absolutely a good value!
No wonder another guy was buying the same speakers from PC and told me it was his 3rd pair.
Until I can find a new pair of Paradigm titans for $150, these speakers stay in front as the secondary pair in my HT system .
I give it 4 for its performance but its value factor pushes me to give it 5.