leelpc04

Overall Rating
 4 of 5

Value Rating
 4 of 5

Used product for
3 Months to 1 year

Visitors rate this review
5.00 of 5, 2.00 votes

Price Paid:  $350.00 from best buy

Summary:
paired this sat/sub system with a yamaha HTR 5840 reciever at 100wx6. Movies are great, very loud with no distortion. The sub is more than adequate and solidly built. However, the sub lacks crossover or phase settings. My reciever has these settings built in so I was able to fine tune the sub quite well. All the sats are solid and produce more sound than their size would suggest. The center channel does a fine job in my medium sized room. I would get a larger center if a larger room was used. Mounting options are limited due to the supplied brakets. I've not encountered any problems with the mounts as reported on other sites and reviews. Overall the sound is very clean and accurate. Music can sound bright at times so try to pair this system with a very adjustable reciever as I did and you can overcome most situations. Remember these are promoted as in home cinema speakers and were never intended as stand alone stereo/music speakers.

Strengths:
Big sound for the size Solid Sub construction Very balanced for movies Value if you do your homework

Weaknesses:
Sub lacks phase and crossover settings. Limited mounting options can sound bright playing music

Similar Products Used:
Philips HTIB, KLH

Licenseduser

Overall Rating
 4 of 5

Value Rating
 5 of 5

Used product for
Less than 1 month

Visitors rate this review
4.80 of 5, 5.00 votes

Price Paid:  $199.00 from Clearanced at Sears

Summary:
I bought the SCS160 because I wanted the subwoofer and the price was simply gravy. This is the best subwoofer I could find which was quality built. I use the JBL SCS160 subwoofer to compliment my 2 Polk Audio RTi38 speakers. Will find out how the speakers sound as soon as I get a DVD player.

Strengths:
Solid construction and solid bass. Minimal controls, only volume, and one simple connection to my amplifier.

Weaknesses:
Subwoof is quite heavy, though this is a good thing.

Similar Products Used:
Cerwin Vega, Velodyne, Infinity, Sony, MTX, Polk Audio

Price Paid:  $499.00 from Best Buy

Summary:
After researching several different brands i went with the complete JBL SCS160SI package and am very happy both with the price and performance. I hooked them up to my JVC RX-7030VBK 5.1 receiver that puts out 110 watts on all channels. This is 10 watts more than the rated 100 watt RMS rating of the JBL's but they take it in stride! For movies and television they are excellent. I was concerned that the center would be too small but it does put out a big sound! While there are surely better sounding and more expensive models out there these are a great bang for the buck. It took me all of about 30 minutes to have all the speakers setup. JBL provides plenty of wire to hook everything up and five wall mounts for the sattelites. The center has rubber feet so it doesn't slide around on top of your TV and is also sheilded very well. I have it sitting directly on top of my TV and have no problems at all with the picture. The sub is a little large, but with a 10" woofer it will produces enough base to wake my 1 year old daughter sleeping on the other side of the house. Some fine tuning needs to be done so the sub does not sound too boomy but it all depends on your taste i guess. I don't like an over abundancy of low frequency rumble. For music they are fair to good. I have been using a set of Advent Legacy's for several years now and will switch to them for listening to music. The JBL's just don't have the clarity the Advent's do in the high frequency range, sounding flat, but that is not what i bought this set for and am not concerned. Overall i would recomend this set to anyone looking for a solid, cost effective, and unobtrusive set of surround speakers for a small to medium sized room. My room is appx. 18'x22' and the 160's fill the entire room with great sound.

Strengths:
Small size and big sound. Complete package, everything you need for 5.1 in 30 minutes!

Weaknesses:
Flat for listening to music, would reccomend a separate set of speakers for music sources. The rear center should be able to be wall mounted on it's side for more flexibility in mounting locations.

Price Paid:  $550.00 from Vann's

Summary:
Overall this package was a disappointment. The price I paid was out of line, my fault for doing such little research.Twice I have found a surround speaker lying on the floor from a broken speaker mount. JBL apparently would like to blame the consumer for these breaking,turning them down will break them and is not covered under warranty. I was careful and could plainly see they were not meant to turn down.Be careful in placing anything valuable underneath these. The subwoofer is rather large for its output and lacking in definition. This system is not the greatest for music, I switch to my old Bose Interaudio speakers for CD's.The 5.1 sound is good.If I had bought these for $200 less perhaps I would enjoy them more.My Cambridge Soundworks Ensemble 4 system is actually more enjoyable to listen to.

Strengths:
5.1 sound, decent bass.

Weaknesses:
Music,large subwoofer, and cheap, poorly designed speaker mounts.

Similar Products Used:
Cambridge Soundworks Ensemble 4, CSW powered Subwoofer 3, Bose Interaudio 3000