very clean top end
handle a lot of power
go very loud

lacking bass

well iv'e had this pair of cm52's for a few years now and this is my view on them
let me start by saying there not a hifi speaker played flat they sound terrible compared to true hifi speakers but don's let that put you off.
i purchased these for one purpose and one purpose only to be used on my computer hooked up to a yamaha surround amp. when i first started to used them i was impressed but thought they lacked bass, the top end was nice and clean without distortion. i find that they need a little emphasis to make them sing.
i finally added an active sub to make up for the bass and bingo you'd would be suprised at how good they really do sound they go incredibly loud for such a compact speaker with no distortion or hardness that becomes apparent when overdriving speakers for the price and the amount of stick i give em the only thing that will beat them is better pair of jbl cm range speakers.
9 years downl the line i still have them and still use them the only thing that has happened to them is one of the woofers started to perish but was easily fixed with a bit of latex glue ( copydex )
they still sound as good as ever

A lot of output for their size, durable

Why aren't these more popular? Probably because people don't want to use what appear to be PA speakers besid all of their other expensive beautiful stuff.

I bought a pair of these because one of my Sony's packed it in, and Sony couldn't repair it. The flexible ring around the cone was brittle and cracked, probably because I was using it in a non-air conditioned room here in Thailand at quite high volume with the outside temperature about 100 degrees. The plastic veneer was peeling off the sides of the cabinets too. Obviously under these hot humid conditions, a pair of expensive beautiful speakers would not be a sensible choice. The CM'42's were too small for my needs, and I thought that the CM52's would be a good choice, because of the molded cabinets, and JBL's reputation for durability. Speakers like these are designed for rough handling, and I thought they would be able to handle the climate. Being able to easily wall mount was also a plus as it allowed me to put them out of reach of my three little monsters. Although now we've moved our furniture, one of them looks like it might become a replacement for a swinging chandelier...
What about the sound? In a room with mostly concrete walls, the sound is not overly bright. I normally do not use any DSP to color the sound from my CD's, and I can't adjust the tone otherwise. Sometimes I use bass enhancement for some kinds of music. And I listen to just about every kind of music except jazz. The CM52's go down to 50 Hz so the bass is there for dance music or Prince's funky beats. Yet on classical music such as string quartets playing Rossini, the sound is clear and satisfying to me also. For my listening situation, I feel I made the right choice. An audiophile would probably never consider these speakers, but then he would probably have a dedicated listening room. In that case, I'd probably choose a different model, but I'd probably still buy JBL's. With three kids to raise, I've got other things to spend my money on than esoteric brand names.

Similar Products Used:

AR, Technics, Sony

Just got a pair of these for $180. These puppies put out a lot of sound. Big bass for a tiny speaker and crisp titanium tweeter highs. They're 6 ohms and I'm using them with a 4 ohms 12" JBL dual voice coil car subwoofer at home. That combo rocks! Including a thread for tripod/hanging and a attenuation switch for the tweeter would have been perfection .

This is a great pair of little speakers with a whole lotta kick. They look small, but when you pick one up...they have got a serious amount of weight to them, and the sound is comparable to that of some floor models.

Great Sound!

I have 6 of these (3 pair) wired up in a Dolby Digital home theater set-up and they sound spectacular.

When I first bought these speakers, I used another (crap) JBL center channel speaker and it was really obvious. Since I was not able to find the CM-Center that was supposed to go with the this, I now use 2 CM-52 speakers for the center channel. Since my receiver won't drive 3 ohms, the center channel speakers are wired in series. This sounds great.

Before I got the sub-woofer for this system, the CM-52s in the front were driving all the bass and they did very well for little speakers. With the sub-woofer, these speakers sound awesome.

Why arn't these more popular?