Im a college student and was looking for a sound system and stumbled across these babies. I bought a pair off of craigslist about 4 months ago for $50 and we use them as party speakers at our house. The room we have these in is pretty large its roughly 30'x25'x12' and it opens up to the dining room and kitchen and man, I did not expect to feel the bass from these. I threw a kegger and ...........................lets just say it was a great night.

Excellent Bass
solid construction

needs a 6" woofer to fill in gaps between powered subs and 4.5" woofer

At list of $1100/pair, I would avoid. However, I purchased these for $77/each refurbished at UBID. They are in great shape outside of broken Grill pegs. I believe that JBL would cover this under warranty, but I am going to send them back to UBID for a refund. Although at the price they are excellent speakers, I would prefer to purchase Infinity RS-8 or RS-10 to match my rear infinity speakers. Further, the infinity line fill sin the mid range sounds beter than this JBL. The midrange is not bad, but I would prefer more fullness.
Nevertheless, if you can find these speakers for $300/pair or less, I recommend buying them. You will not be dissapointed by the bass and the mid range is very workable, I'm just picky.
Thus, for value at $300 or less i give a 5 star rating. But for overall, I give a 4 because one can find more complete 4-way speakers for under this model's MSRP/

Accurate bass, above average highs, solid construction, and built in amplification

Weak in the midrange, but other than that nothing

I now have 2 pairs of these speakers and to clear something up if you do find a pair don't have them shipped by UPS they like to see how rough they can be on stuff. My 1st pair was sent UPS and both had several of the grill pegs broke, all the foam in the box was broken to pieces, and the boxes looked like they were rolled to my house. The next set I got (BTW both were purchased from Ubid) I decided to opt for Fedex (it cost a bit more but the speakers arrived with out a scratch).

Overall the speakers are not actually too bad. The bass is par with speakers cost 5x-10x more than I paid for these. Nothing in the price range can compare. The mid range is a little weak, but can be brought out some with an equalizer for music. The highs are good, but can be bright at times.

These are excellent speakers for music listening and not too bad for home theater. The only problem is finding a center channel that is closely timbre matched. If anyone has any suggestions or knows where I can find any more of these speakers let me know.

Overall 5 stars
5 Stars for music
4.5 for home theater

Similar Products Used:

A little of everything from low end to high end

Separate powered subwoofer, cabinet construction

Grille attachment design

I'm in line with most of what I've read here. I got these reconditioned at a severe discount a uBid and for what I paid they are fabulous. The subwoofers can be decoupled and run from a preamp/receiver subwoofer output, and I retired both my ARC Sub-8's to help the rear channels because the integrated subwoofers, hooked up this way, were all I need to torture pets and rattle things on shelves. These speakers have no cabinet resonance because they weigh more than my car. I like the high end of the plastic/titanium tweeters, clean but not brittle on a variety of music. I don't have a problem with the mid-bass, but maybe that is because I have the subwoofers decoupled (i.e., use the crossover of an AC-3 receiver) and adjusted everything above that with a graphic equalizer and tone generator. They are a good compromise for both home theater and critical music listening, and when my teenage daughter had a party at our house, I also found they can play extremely, incredibly, painfully loud without any indication of breakup.

The grilles were damaged in shipment, as I understand has happened to others here, despite the factory styrofoam packing etc. They are plastic moldings with fabric covers, and have little plastic pegs about 3/16" that stick into rubber-sleeved holes in the cabinet faces, and the pegs break off. I was not as successful with super glue as some others have reported here and in other reviews of TLS series JBL's. However, when they break off you will find the casting is hollow. Put a metal peg of some sort (I cut the heads off #8 wood screws) into the grille frame, and cover it with a 1/2" piece of appropriately-sized rubber or plastic tubing (if you have an aquarium you probably have the right stuff) and you have a permanent, durable, non-buzzy fix.

Whatever stock is left of these out there can from time to time be found refurbed (5-year factory warranty)on internet auctions for less than $100, and next time I find that I will buy another pair for my rear channels, just for complete overkill. Be cautioned, though, that shipping via UPS standard was $60 each to my house, so I ended up with a $300 investment in a pair. I'm still thrilled and consider them the deal of the century, though. Four stars for sound when biamped and equalized, five stars for value if you can find them for anywhere near the price I paid.

Similar Products Used:

Advent "New," Advent Prodigy, JBL TLX-151 and 121

Nice Bass

Not alot for the price I paid, they are definitely not bp200s

I picked these up for 67$ each on ubid and have 0 complaints at that price. The internal amp feeds well off of the direct line. Compliments my powered sub i had b4, giving a more spacious room filled bass, seemingly with out direction. Using the speaker feed for the base did not do a lot for me, but running them off my line outs of my powered sub, was definitely worth the purchase of 2 more monster subwoofer cables. I dont really have a yea or nay comment on the highs, other than the fact that they dont sound unpleasing.....and who can tell over the base anyhow. These are actually slated to be my rears when i pick up studio series, with powered subs to use as fronts. It did not take much adjustment to match them up to the S center.

I have to give 5 stars, because if you can pick them up for even close to the price i paid...how can you go wrong..

Lots of clear, powerful bass. well contructed enclosure.

Heavy for size. Poor mid-bass performance.

I got these for an unbelievable price of $200 for the pair, although they were refurbs (retail is $1100). One of the Speakers was in immaculate condition. However the other one had a few problems. I think it got damaged in shipping, b/c all 6 grill pegs were shered off, and the voice coil cover on the 4" driver was caved in a little. The speaker still perfored great, and a little super glue fixed the grill, and also allowed me to pull the dent out of the VC cover by taking a pencil eraser and glueing it onto the dent when the glue dried, the dent just poped out when i pulled on the pencil. Bass is this units strongest point. the 8" powered subs are ample to rattle walls. The bass produced is so not only deep, but accurate as well, and goes very loud w/o distortion or peaking. I no longer use my old sub woofer, as it cannot be heard over the tlx271p's built in subs. the tweater is loud and clear, although can be a little too bright, due to the high frequency that the titanium lamniate domes can produce. the only disapointment in this speaker is the mid-bass drivers. they are a little flimsy and murky sounding. the midrange is acceptable. Over all with all four speakers playing, it is hard to notice the short coming of the midbass driver. The cabinet is also very well made. a large heat sink is on the back for the sub's amp and quality crafsmenship is evident on these speakers. Although not audiophile speakers, these should definetly please all but the most critcal of listenrs. for the price i got i have to give 5 stars. for performance, in this price range it cannot be beat. i am tempted to give 4 stars because of the midbass drivers, but i feel that the awesome bass makes up for this short coming...

Similar Products Used:

JBL ARC1000, klipch, cerwin vega, fosgate

I agree that $1000 could get a better pair of speakers than these, but since Costco sells them for $200 each, the 4-way becomes amazingly affordable. In combination with my 12" 100W powered sub, the 8" powered subs in these truly do provide a wonderful bass environment. I had hoped for a little better mid range performance out of the 4" and 6 1/2" speakers, but allowing the receiver to account for this shortfall produced wonderful sound. Combined with a TLX Center 1 these speakers produce great front surround speakers. Good box construction with a port for the 8" in the back. They also have subwoofer inputs for receivers with sub outs but no dedicated subwoofer.
I have to give the JBL's 5 stars, simply because $200 per speaker will often net only a 2-way speaker, and this is 4-way with powered sub.

These speaker send a mixed message. When I first listened to them, I thought they sounded awfull. I've owned several high end speakers, such as Vandersteen, and Kef's, and now realize the difference between the high end and general consumer speakers. However, I bought these cheap during the Future Shop closeout, and I was planning to use them as rear speakers in my home theater because they have a powered subwoofer; you can never have too much bass for home theater. After I broke the speakers in, I noticed the tweeter and mid range sound fair. The tweeter is a little bright and sounds constrained. The mid range is a little pale and thin. However, the bass is the best sounding bass I've ever heard in a full range loudpeaker. These speakers have a 100 watt, 8 inch powered subwoofer that is very musical. The electric and acoustic bass is very tight and punchy. It adds new life to some of my music. I had no idea how important great sounding bass is to music listening. Now I'm stuck between choosing my current main speakers, Sound Dynamics 300ti, which blow these speakers away in the treble and midrange, or the JBL speakers which have better sounding bass.
I am going to give these speakers 3.5 stars. For $1,000 dollars, you can find better speakers, but if you want QUALITY bass, then you should listen to these. I'm almost tempted to use these as my main speakers if the tweeter breaks in a little more. I hope they will. Give them a listen, or buy them cheap if you can find them.

These speaker send a mixed message. When I first listened to them, I thought they sounded awfull. I've owned several high end speakers, such as Vandersteen, and Kef's, and now realize the difference between the high end and general consumer speakers. However, I bought these cheap during the Future Shop closeout, and I was planning to use them as rear speakers in my home theater because they have a powered subwoofer; you can never have too much bass for home theater. After I broke the speakers in, I noticed the tweeter and mid range sound fair. The tweeter is a little bright and sounds constrained. The mid range is a little pale and thin. However, the bass is the best sounding bass I've ever heard in a full range loudpeaker. These speakers have a 100 watt, 8 inch powered subwoofer that is very musical. The electric and acoustic bass is very tight and punchy. It adds new life to some of my music. I had no idea how important great sounding bass is to music listening. Now I'm stuck between choosing my current main speakers, Sound Dynamics 300ti, which blow these speakers away in the treble and midrange, or the JBL speakers which have better sounding bass.
I am going to give these speakers 3.5 stars. For $1,000 dollars, you can find better speakers, but if you want QUALITY bass, then you should listen to these. I'm almost tempted to use these as my main speakers if the tweeter breaks in a little more. I hope they will. Give them a listen, or buy them cheap if you can find them.

Definately the BASS.
ALso very flexible design. The Subs can use the LFE channel on your reciever or can use the internal speaker crossovers.

The mid ranges are nothing special. But I would in no way call them bad.

These speakers are an incredible deal from www.ubid.com. I got them for $87 each. This is my first real speaker set that I have purchased, although I consider myself a fairly experienced listener.

I was somewhat skeptical about 8 in subwoofer performance in general but after reading previous reviews at this site I decided to give them a try.

Boy, was I not disappointed. The subwoofers in these speakers are incredible. Bass is punchy, accurate, and DEEP.

On the other hand the midrange is average. I wish JBL had gone with an 8in woofer and 6in midrange instead. Overall the midranges are nothing special, but certainly not inadequate.

These speakers are also LOUD. I was able to turn my JVC reciever up to 85 out of 90 with no distortion.

Build quality is excellent. The speakers are good looking. They sound great. 5 stars on Value. 4 and a half rounded up to 5 because of the excellent bass for overall rating.