Price Paid:  $0.00 from ADI

Summary:
Won this thing in a sales contest a few years ago at the office. Gave it to the in-laws for their rec room. Got it back recently when they upgraded to a full-on AC3 system. Am currently using it as a speaker system for my home office pc. Sounds much better than the tiny speakers in my notebook. Agree with other reviewers regarding tweeters. Great low-buck system for a small apartment or something. Best with not-quite high-fi signals like VHS audio or MP3s and internet radio. If you find one at a good price it is also a great PC sound system.

Strengths:
low cost good mids and bass for a small room flexible configuration

Price Paid:  $0.00 from ADI

Summary:
Won this thing in a sales contest a few years ago at the office. Gave it to the in-laws for their rec room. Got it back recently when they upgraded to a full-on AC3 system. Am currently using it as a speaker system for my home office pc. Sounds much better than the tiny speakers in my notebook. Agree with other reviewers regarding tweeters. Great low-buck system for a small apartment or something. Best with not-quite high-fi signals like VHS audio or MP3s and internet radio. If you find one at a good price it is also a great PC sound system.

Strengths:
low cost good mids and bass for a small room flexible configuration

Price Paid:  $0.00 from ADI

Summary:
Won this thing in a sales contest a few years ago at the office. Gave it to the in-laws for their rec room. Got it back recently when they upgraded to a full-on AC3 system. Am currently using it as a speaker system for my home office pc. Sounds much better than the tiny speakers in my notebook. Agree with other reviewers regarding tweeters. Great low-buck system for a small apartment or something. Best with not-quite high-fi signals like VHS audio or MP3s and internet radio. If you find one at a good price it is also a great PC sound system.

Strengths:
low cost good mids and bass for a small room flexible configuration

Summary:
I've started my Home Audio/Cinema "saga" with this cute system on December 1999, I used it primarly for music... here's my story of being an entry-level Audophile:

I was using a Sony MK-II minisystem with a Sony CD Player (I don't remember the model but it was an 8 year-old 5 disk changer), the ESC200 sounded very good and clear with the Sony CD Player, but... after a month or so... the CD Player stopped working (after 8 years of hard work it was time to retire...).

After the Sony CD Player's "defunct" I looked for an upgade (as for the ESC200 vs. the MK-II) and finally got a Harman Kardon FL8300 5 disk CD Changer for my "brand new" JBL system... here goes the 'real' story...

The HK CD Player is a better (much!) performer than the Sony's so when playing music there was too much detail I was missing with my old Sony and some "extras"...

When playing some of my favorite music (celtic) the highs where very neat and clear but the lows... lack of bass on the sub... on the satellites they produced some "cricks" on the low-deep tunes, at first I thought It was a problem of blown speakers but it wasn't, the speakers sounded very well on other systems, so I tried using another CD Player (this time an ONKYO unit) with the ESC200... the problem still there...

I tried decreasing the Bass balance on the amplifier, not using the "bass boost", using better RCA cables, etc. even at low volumes there was the "cricks" annoying problem...

What I learned: Don't use this system with an almost-Hi-Fi CD Player... stay with the Very Low End (kenwood, aiwa, pioneer, sony, fisher or so) or a DiscMan... that'll work fine.

The JBL speakers with another amplifier/receiver are very clean, detailed and easy to hide, no more "cricks" with any kind of music. Now I use the ESC200 amplifier just for powering the JBL sub.

My current Audio System configuration:
RECEIVER: Yamaha RX-V495
SPEAKERS:
- 2 JBL ESC200 satellite speakers for Front A
- 2 AudioResearch AR-216PS speakers for Front B
- 2 JBL ESC200 satellite speakers for Rears
- 1 JBL ESC200 satellite speaker for center
SUBWOOFERS:
- 1 JBL ESC200 subwoofer (the ESC200 amplifier pluged into the 'sub-out' of the RX-V495) on the rear part of the room
- 1 PolkAudio PSW 140 Powered subwoofer (pluged into the 'output' RCA of the ESC200 amplifier) on the front left corner of the room.
CD PLAYER: Harman Kardon FL8300 (pluged into the digital coaxial input of the RX-V495).

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The value and overall ratings are for the nice little speakers.
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Thank You for reading all the way...
=)

Strengths:
Very Nice Home Cinema System for the entry-level casual music listener, nice and discrete easy-to-hide speakers, nice price

Weaknesses:
Lack of 5.1 inputs from a Dolby Digital/DTS decoder, passive subwoofer, lack of bass on low volumes, bass "clicks" on satellites

Similar Products Used:
Yamaha RX-V495 (not so similar...)

Summary:
I noticed a slight sqeak in the tweeters when at a high volume. Over all they sound good. I like the sub that is included.If the tweeter was fixed this would be a great product.

Strengths:
Nice sub,price

Weaknesses:
Sqeaky tweeters

Similar Products Used:
none