I have it set up with Klipsch La Scalas and the amp is very quiet and has plenty of power to drive these speakers. The stage is large and grand, the seperation is awsome and the bass sounds great even though it has been said that the La Scalas are bass weak. Overall for the price you cannot beat this amp. Aventura Towing Pros

None . .

Powerful, detailed and beautiful sound. Not critical to the installation in the room and without problems with amplifing. High quality drivers and cabinets. If you find s3100 just buy them !

I'm trying to find their weaknesses, but I can't!

after listening to many lo-fi speakers over the years i decided to go up market , for me anyway , celestion ditton 66,s , awful , bowers and wilkins , 802 series three , not good , bowers dm6 , also not good , i decided to buck the " british " trend , enter the jbl s2600 two way horn speakers , £1400 , i will never look further than these , they play almost all recordings beautifully but when putting really good material through them they simply engulf you , they sit in the corner on paving slabs and that is where they will stay , unless i stumble across a pair of the " big brother " s3100,s .
some Americans come across as " a bit brash " , but not these ones ...... five stars ..

I have own this set only for a short period. But I fell extremely impressed with how they sound. Incredible sound stage. On the top of soundstage, you will hear the soul of the music. I have been through some of the well known expensive speakers. B&W 801 MK III, Magnepan 3a, WATT PUPPY 3/2, Proac Response 4, Tannoy Turnberry (still), JBL 4435 (still), and many more.... I am not saying that this speaker is the best of all. They are all good in different aspects. But I would say, this S3100 is my most favorite spouse.

I will keep this speaker for quite a few years more, I am sure about that. Or until I can find the bigger model of JBL line. Find yourself the opportunity to meet this speaker. It is worth to try.

Dynamics, Bass, Pace

Can get snotty if pushed to hard

After reading numerous reviews, I''m amazed that anybody would review the JBL 3100''s with a NAD receiver. And supposedly owns Wilsons? My own story, this is the seconf time around I have spent any time with this speaker, having owned numerous old JBL''s and also 25 to 30 high end products and still have a few. I must say the 3100''s represent extremely well for what they do. That is true stereo reproduction and incredible dynamics. Pleasure to play with.

Similar Products Used:

Dahlquist, Kef, Vandies, Carver Amazings, Acustats, Maggies, etc.

VERY GOOD BASS WHITHOUT DISTORSION AT HIGH POWER
MEDIUM IS COMPLETLY ABSENT BELOW 1500 HZ
TREEBLE ARE TOO HIGH WHEN YOU CONNECT DIRECTLY BOTH INPUT
(low and high frequencies)
I THINK THE 2 WAYS FILTER IS NOT CORRECT AND YOU MUST USE
2 AMPLIFIERS WITH 15 DB MORE POWER ON THE BASS AND CORRECT THE MEDIUM BETWEEN 800 AND 1500 HZ WHITH +10DB ON THE HORN
I HAVE ASKED JBL ON THE WEB BUT NOBODY THEY DON'T KNOW. (they have nothing about this expensive loudspeakers .NO DATASHEET,NO DRAWING NO MANUAL NOTHING!!!! and you must wait the answer 1 month).

presence

none

A very good dynamic.To use with a class A system.

Similar Products Used:

Tannoy

Good performance for rock and jazz.

good bass

horrible treble and midrange

this speaker sounds like garbage compared to my wilson acoustics (THE MAXX) the jbl speakers make me diturbed and uncomfortable they suck. I wish i never wasted my time ever listening to them at the store. I know it was nt the reciever that was making the problem because i was using a Nad reciever.Dont waste your money time your life on these speakers

Similar Products Used:

polk rt800

Dynamics, imaging, presence and scale of reproduction.

none

This is meant as an update to my earlier posting. Why anyone would want to use inferior amplification with $5000.00 speakers is beyond me. I have not heard these with bad equipment so I cannot comment on several of these postings. I have used at least 10 diffrent amps and I can honestly say that the S/3100 is so revealing that they all sounded different but not one sounded downright bad. I used SE (Wavac,Kron,Audio Note,Golden) PP (Jadis DA30, Mesa Tigris) SS (Mietner, Pathos Classic One) SSSE (Pass Aleph)& Vintage (leak stereo 20, HK) Whew!! The single ended amps sounded very good in the mids - natch - but did not do bass well enough, in my opinion, to justify having such a large cabinet in the home. The highs were perhaps a little thin also. The SS just did not have the warmth of tubes - they were OK but just not vivid enough for my taste. I ended up being very pleased with the Jadis...gobs of power, real solid big time Bass vivid as technicolor in the mids and upper mids, no glare and quite neutral. Just goes to show that when dealing with a superior product that is revealing of source matching is all important although a real pain in the ass!!
As for the one "silly" review here let me say this. Someone in Europe I conferred with was auditioning the S/2800 at an audio shop and was less than impressed with the sound also. It turned out that when they removed the grill cloths it was discovered that the speakers were set up with the horns facing away from each other!! Who knows, maybe they were out of phase as well, and god only knows what the electronics were!! In closing I must say that I am still happy as ever and consider myself very lucky to have these fine loudspeakers. Best regards.

Similar Products Used:

Quad 57, Lowther TPI, Tannoy