High and mid rang

Weak grill

Just got S-38's and S-Center to replace my HLS system. Much better than I expected. I used them maily for movies so cant say what they will do with music.

Similar Products Used:

JBL HLS, Polk Audio

- Extremely clean sounding
- Very reasonable
- Surprisingly good bass response
- Looks!

- Can sound a tad bright at times. Fortunately, they are powered by a Nak receiver, which is not very harsh at all

Extremely satisfied with my purchase. I never tire of listening to these speakers; they sound extremely clean, and as someone else pointed out, they seem to bring to life every pluck on a string, every crash of the cymbal. Great value for money! Only complaint is that they can sound slightly bright at times (esp. with higher pitched vocals).

Similar Products Used:

Polk Audio, Bose

Highs and mids, price, looks

Size, bass isn't too strong

At first I wasn't very pleased with these speakers. Their bass was muddy and their highs and mids weren't clear. After rearranging my room however I placed the speakers at a higher elevation and on a shelf without and walls around them. What a difference it made. The speakers sound great now. I still think the bass isn't great but it improved greatly. With a good subwoofer these speakers sounds excellent. I purchased them recently for only $265 from Consumer Direct while Amazon was still selling them for 500. Their size is a little too big for bookshelf but its a small sacrifice for their great sound. They look great in beech which is what I got and for 265 I highly recommend them.

Similar Products Used:

Polk Audio
Bose
Klipch
Pioneer

Beyond words

Are you crazy? None at all.

After listenning to these speakers at the first time, as I remember, I couldn't do anythings much except just standing and listenning to them for hours. Believe me or not? I bought more than 150 CD's in 3 weeks after I had these speakers. They sound so great, awesome, tremendous, warm and wonderful. How could the company who produced ask for this kind of speakers for just $599 (List price). The only thing I can tell you is that these speakers are absolutely one of the worth things a person should own for a good life.

Similar Products Used:

Don't want to know.

Great highs and midrange, very acceptable bass for a "bookshelf" speaker, efficient, good power handling, lots of bang for the buck (even at retail price).

Flimsy grilles, size and intended horizontal position make the speakers somewhat difficult to place, tends to sound more "in place" when used with other JBL S-Series speakers.

A couple of months ago, I decided to give these speakers a try because they even sounded good in the showroom at work, which was using cheap "zipcord" speaker wire. I took a pair home and all I can say is WOW! While these speakers don't necessarily hold a candle to some of the higher-end brands, they sure give you a lot for around $350 (if purchased online). Very clean highs and midrange, and very respectable bass for a bookshelf speaker. I'm not a listener of rap, so it doesn't really bother me that I don't own a sub yet.

Currently, I'm using S38s as my fronts, matched with an S-Center and a pair of N24s for the rear surrounds. They all seem to work well together, although it is very apparent that the S38s are outclassing my rears by a large margin. So, I'm considering getting a second pair to use as rears. All are connected to a Yamaha HTR5250 DD/dts receiver.

I only have two complaints about these speakers, although very minor. One is that their awkward horizontal position takes up a lot of room on a shelf. These speakers are larger than your average bookshelf and are not suited well to mounting. I'm probably going to end up purchasing stands for them because of this. The other thing is that grilles are kind of flimsy. It's a good thing that these speakers are nowhere near my pets because they'd eat those grilles alive.

I give these speakers a 5 star value rating. It's rare that we have more than a pair of these speakers in stock at any one time. It's mainly because every person I sell these speakers to are crazy if they return them. They're really that good. A pleasant surprise from engineers at JBL.

Similar Products Used:

Yamaha, Bose, Polk, Infinity, Klipsch

Clarity, look, bass

Price. Great sounding speakers. I use these as my main fronts. Very clear, good bass for its single 8" driver. Must Buy!!

Incredible sound field, precise sound placement and vocals are amazing for this pair's price.

Decent, but not earth-shattering base. But c'mon, they're only eights!

I purchased these speakers based primarily on the reviews herein and a "test-drive" at Best Buy. I had not upgraded my HT in almost 10 years (using some Techniques receiver and speakers, don't recall models) and began to research possible products. A lot of people had some bad feelings about JBL products over the past decade or so which made me somewhat skeptical. However, these speakers are phenomenal for the price.

Trusting the reviews, knowing that I wasn't really interested in a couple of towers for the front at this point and anticipating that I may upgrade to 6.1 and beyond down the road, I purchased two pair for front and rear. My HT system consists of the following:

Denon 2801
Front & Rear S38s
JBL S-center
Velodyne CT150
Panasonic A110 DVD(next on upgrade list)

I also went with a JBL S-center to match the mid/tweeter combination on the S38s. I can tell you that you would be hard-pressed to find a more accurate soundstage with this set up at this price range. I sampled BAs, Polk and a few others that were WAY more expensive. I decided to pump a few more dollars into the subwoofer (the real soul of HT) than stress over slight advantages with the other set ups that my wife couldn't even hear. Hell, I had a hard enough time convincing my wife we needed to replace the HT system than to argue the finer points of phase adjustment and an extra $1200.

At any rate, these speakers are first-class. As stated below, they could use a bit more bass but that's for the sub. I tested the 5 channel stereo without the sub and its pretty good for eights, you just do not get below about 40-45 hz with the S38s alone. Add the Velodyne and viola! The house shakes, the mids and highs are clear and accurate and I can't recommend these speakers enough. Good job JBL.


Oh, btw, the horizontal placement works just fine for me. I bought a couple of speaker stands at Circuit City that work great.

very clear,great bass,smooth highs

a bit large for a bookshelf speaker

i wanted a ht system sold my old denon amp and polk speakers,got a yamaha 5250 receiver [great]then got a good deal on ar15 that i was going to use for mains,after reading all the good reviews for the s38 here,i purchase a pair on line for 290 dollars,i figure i can always get my money back [you have 30 days with etronics.com ] to me the ar15s sounded real good for their size and price [200 dollars ] however went i compared then side by side the jbls38 totally blew then away,they sound much cleaner better bass,much nicer highs,and totally more open,i have friends that have much larger and more expensive speakers ar9s polks rt800s to me the s38s sound as good as those speakers at less than half the price, in a word do yourself a favor and listen to then, you will not find a better pair of speakers for the money

Similar Products Used:

polks 10b ar15

They are very good looking speakers. The highs and mids are clear.

If I would pick a weakness it would be the bass but for a bookself speaker it has plenty of bass. Thats why I have a subwoofer.

I bought the s38 because of the reviews on this site. I am not disappointed in my decision. I have been looking for a good set of speakers to compliment my yamaha reciever. The sound is crisp and clear and for the price of these speakers ( I bought mine at the bigstore.com for $312 and the service was great. I recieved them right away ) Best buy wants $499. I will never buy from a store again. I would highly recommend these to anyone. The s center will compliment these speakers for great movie sound.

Similar Products Used:

Bose, Infinity

Crispy clean highs, Very warm midrange, Impressibly strong but smooth bass

None

JBL has not been on my best speaker list since after the L100t series came out around 1985.

I must say, when I took the JBL S-38s home, the first thing I did was put on the Eagles, Hell Freezes over on dvd. I just could not beleive the awsome sound comming from these little speakers. Even my son inlaw was very impressed with them.
The sound stage was incedible. I never heard acoustic guitars sound so warm and crisp. the seperation was incredable plus Having a Harmon Kardon AVR-65 receiver really showed how clean these speakers are.

JBL, You did it agian!!!!!!! That's the JBL I know.

Similar Products Used:

JBL110s, JBL96, JBLPro3 JBL-P10, JBL HLS Series, JBL PW Sub