RaymondHayter

Overall Rating
 4 of 5

Value Rating
 4 of 5

Used product for
More than 1 year

Visitors rate this review
3.00 of 5, 2.00 votes

Price Paid:  $0.00

Summary:
A very good subwoofer. A little underpowered by today's standards (100W RMS amp) but goes deep and sounds very musical. Good features including auto shutoff, line in and speaker in/out connectors.

Strengths:
Musical. Sounds just as good for music as it does for movies/HT. Goes very deep - excellent low frequency extension.

Weaknesses:
I wish the amplifier was more powerful. It really needs a 250W amp since the rest of my HT setup is 110W RMS per channel.

Similar Products Used:
Primary comparison is a relative's Polk Audio sub. The Polk Audio sub definitely has more "slam" than the JBL.

Price Paid:  $375.00 from Sound City

Summary:
I have enjoyed these speakers over the years without ever having any problems. The bass is GREAT! Especially in home theater. I use it with a Onkyo 6.1 amp and all JBL speakers and sound quality is hard to beat without busting one's budget.

Strengths:
good quality construction, dependable, and great bass.

Weaknesses:
none

Similar Products Used:
none

Price Paid:  $0.00

Summary:
not positive about the model year, but that's what everyone else put. Anyway, picked this up on audiogon for $60 AFTER shipping. I use this sub almost solely for music, as I think my JBL S312s have enough bass for my music and is much cleaner, so I will rate this as a sub for home theater. If you want to use this sub for music, it is really not all that clean sounding, so depending on the music you like it might be ok, but I think this makes it even better for movies. When there's a large explosion or something on screen, you don't need a tight sound, you need an explosion. It goes down deep and loud, and I have never been dissappointed with it for movies. If you can find one of these used, I highly recommend it. Another important aspect: I haven't heard stories about the amp dying after a year or two, a definate plus when buying a 4 or 5 year old sub.

Strengths:
great sound for movies. goes very deep, and obviously the price. A hundred or less for a decent powered sub is a steal.

Weaknesses:
sounds a little dirty for my personal music tastes, but that's just me.

Price Paid:  $100.00 from college

Summary:
Hip Hop: Produces tight clean bass for "everyone who is livin it up" Classical Music: smart enough to turn itself off when low frequencies are not received = save electricity

Strengths:
-instruction manuel is on the JBL website -auto on-off -LED indicator -slim size -both speaker level and subwoofer input

Weaknesses:
-grille is glued shut -grille collects dust that can''t be removed (see above) -Hard to plug in thick cable (recommended)

Price Paid:  $100.00 from Ebay Auction

Summary:
This is easy...I bought a bunch of audio items in a poorly done Ebay listing. Kept this sub and sold all the other stuff back on Ebay (well listed!!). Got all my money back + a few bucks and this sub.

I have a Bose AM-7 system (the dual cube speakers) with the included bass module that I thought was pretty good....til I added this sub to my home theater system. WOW!!!

This sub has added a whole new dimension to my system. If I turn off the sub now, the audio sounds lame. I like that it is always in standby and ready to switch itself on when the audio starts...and that it turns itself off when no audio is detected. To think I basically got this for free. What makes the difference is the 12" cone and the fact that it is an ACTIVE (powered) subwoofer. If you have one of the BOSE Acoustimas systems...they sound great but you NEED an active sub.

Gig 'em, Aggies

Strengths:
Tremendous impact on the overall sound for music and video soundtracks. Small. Nice looking.

Weaknesses:
Red "subwoofer OFF" light is a little big and bright (not a big deal)

Similar Products Used:
Bose AM-7 bass module