Sam is absolutely correct! These are very good for the price.

Got these at Costco or $99 each because i just needed a pair of "cheap" speakers for the family room, and was blown away by the sound for the price. My only quibble is the tweeter, which is very tinny/harsh. JBL also manufactures Infinity speakers, which have the same problem. But then again, for $200/pr, I am more than satisfied.

Clear/crisp highs (to be expected from a HK product, more so for Infinity) Solid midrange.

At $99 each, it is hard to complain. Besides, I was also using the JBL Bass16 to help with the low-end. If you insist on a complaint, highs can sound slightly harsh when pushed.

To begin, the biggest mistake I have ever made was letting these little marvels go. For the price I spent, I do not believe that I will ever again find another product with similar sound quality. These speakers coupled with a JBL bass module completed an impressive little package. Unfortunately, about 1&1/2 years ago I decided to "upgrade" my system to Bose. I found a good deal for the 301's at a local distributor and had a friend looking to off-load his 701's. As part of the deal, I traded the 615's (Let the buyer beware). Years ago, I was impressed by the Bose 901's owned by a few friends. However, that was years ago and I since developed a more critical ear. Immediately, I began to notice differences. I still believe that the Bose has a great bass response. Also, they also had and extremely spacious sound. Other than that, the 701's do not have any other positive characteristics on which to comment. The highs...hmm...the best way to describe it is to compare it to listening to better speakers with wet cotton balls in your ears. I can't comment on the mids due to the fact that midrange was almost non-existent. I must admit that the sound did improve somewhat with a receiver upgrade (Yamaha 995) and positioning. However, they are far to sensitive to positioning. Additionally, environment is also a large factor. Such factors as open walls or sound absorbing walls really hurt the "direct reflecting" speaker. As for the 301's, I would still rate them a solid 4 stars. In many aspects, minus the bass, the 301 is a better speaker. Recently, I did an actual upgrade to Infinity RS-8 for the fronts and RS71 MKII for the rears. I am happy with the 71's, but can't help but feel that the 615 would make for a better package (both performance and aesthetics). If you can find a pair of the 615's, grab them. If you already posses a pair, hold on to them. I imagine you will have a diffifult time finding a speaker with a better price/performance ratio. I may gets some arguements for this, but I believe the 615's to be extremely comparable to the Infinity RS4s without the higher price tag. Considering the p/p ratio, I give this speaker a solid five stars.

Similar Products Used:

Boston Accoustics, Polk, Infinity & and the not so similar Bose.

Highs, Midrange, Timbre, Imaging

Bass, Cabinet

wow!
that's the one word to describe these speakers.
I just got them for $200. I un-hooked the Polks and
hooked up the JBL as the main. The bass was booming yet tight. The highs were screaming yet not screeching. The midrange was clear and intelligble. Although i'm not a very big classical music fan. For the past few months i've been listening to the imaging on this thing. Its GREAT!!

although in the beginning I had to move them to a larger room. They don't sound very good in small rooms, and I also had to wait a while for the speakers to break in. After listening to them for 4 months. I LOVE THEM !
For this price range. They can't be beat! no other model that i've heard has sounded as unique as the JBL's do.


My current system is :
Inkel Dolby Digital Integrated Amplifier
Sony DVP-S330 DVD Player
Samsung 40 inch widescreen TV
Panasonic Hi-Fi VCR
Sony CDP-D53
Sony STR-D450Z (used to power 2 unpowered subwoofers and act as the "EX" Decoder)
Polk CS220
JBL HLS615
Polk RT5 (surrounds against the wall)
Infinity RS-3 (surrounds in the middle)
Pioneer CS-G203 (used as the rear subwoofers)
Cerwin-Vega Subwoofer (2 set up in the front set next to the JBL's)

GREAT SPEAKERS! MUST BUY!

Similar Products Used:

Pioneer CS-G203, Polk RT5, Infinity RS-3, Cerwin-Vega Sub

I got these speakers for $249 from Consumer Direct.For the price, these speakers are great.
I got these speakers for the same price as my Polk Audio center speaker, n' these speakers kill it in all aspects.
They sound great, the bass is kind of weak, and the midrange and highs have alot of detail. I expected alot less from these speakers, which probably made me like them even more.

They sound different though, it doesn't exactly have the widest soundstage, but it has more depth. The sound is different from all other speakers i've heard.

And JBL does not make Infinity. JBL has nothing to do with Infinity, except the parent company. Harman International owns JBL, Infinity, Harman Kardon, Citation, and other audio companies.

Infinity only goes as low as 1/2" Tweeters, n' JBL goes as low as 3/8".
The small size of the JBL doesn't make a difference though, the horn compensates for its low output level.

The JBLs are a great choice for people with a low budget. It has great imaging, good depth, great timbre, and for the price, is unbeatable.

The only thing that bothers me is its poor construction. The bass port can be easily removed, since it only has a small amount of hot glue on it. If your listening to any material with alot of bass, chances are that the port will loosen slightly over time. Also the cabinet is poorly constructed. I presume that its made of LDF compared to most speakers MDF. MDF stands for Medium Density Fiberboard, and you should be able to figure out LDF. If you dropped it against a blunt object, the cabinet would probably dent.

Excellent music/movie speaker..good for 5.1
Great for those looking to build a home theater system for the first or even second time :-)

although JBL uses the "Constant Directivity Horn" in theaters (or they used to at least :-)) it doesn't quite cut it in the home theater dept. Tweeter is weak and muddled at times. Construction is a bit shoddy and I agree that is it made of LDF instead of MDF.

I recently went to Circuit City to purchase some side speakers for my Dolby AC-3 system at home. Having been a fan of Polk and B&S I decided to try these JBL's on a whim. You might ask why did I buy them when I could just buy some Polks or the like? Well I tell ya..they are pretty sweet speakers considering the price. They were shown side-by-side Infinity and Polk. Coupled with my Onkyo receiver (and the model number is lost to me..I wrote this at work :-) ) they just wound great. They could use some tweaking in the Tweeter dept. though. I bought these open box at CC..they were the last pair they had. Poor contruction keeps it from being #1 on my side speaker list but its still a great speaker..especially if you look at the PRice/Sound ratio!!

Running these speakers with a Denon AVR-2700 amp and Panasonic A110 DVD player (using optical out for DVD and coaxial for CD). Compared against the Cerwin-Vegas in the sound room at Circuit City. The high frequency clarity and precise imaging is fantastic for a speaker package at this price and easily beats or equals speakers at twice that price. (for the pair from Shop4.com). The bass effect is not very good but a good Velodyne sub ought to more than cover that deficiency.

it could've been better... the horn? i can't hear it's application... and the little feet on the bottom... serve no purpose... bass port gets loose... and bass port is poorly constructed...

but sound wise... it's awesome!! got them at a fairly good deal... and am still very pleased... haven't found a product with as good of a price/value ratio.. maybe i will somday tho!! =)