These are good, but not great speakers.I used to sell them so I have an idea of what they can, and can not do.
The sound staging and imaging is sub par for the price.
As a matter of fact, the also discontinued JBL SVA-1500 was much better in this regard, although it had an octave less bass.
The SVA-1800 will play loud, but at a price.
It hardens up and loses detail.
This series is also a bit dry on top and only average in transparancy for $1,500 floor speakers.
I am shocked by all the 5 star ratings.
I am tempted to give the SVA-1800 1 star to balance things out.
However, these are not bad speakers and deserve 3 stars.
For anyone who can get these for $500/pair new, they deserve 4 stars.

These are the absolute best "kick ass" speakers I've heard for the price. A friend of mine and I discovered these speakers on a closeout sale at Best Buy for $500. We both ended up buying a pair each when we left. I set my speakers up with my home theater and music system and was blown away. For the price I feel like I've gotten a gift. Several of my friends were over the other night to watch DVD movies and listen to music. The next day, I found out that 3 of my buddies "ran" to buy a pair of these speakers for themselves. That should speak volumes.

As for Mr. Warshay - has anyone noticed that he has been the only person posting a review of these speakers that did not give them 5 stars?

If you have the chance, just buy these speakers. You won't regret it.

VERY POWERFUL, CLEAR, FULL SOUND STAGE PRESENCE

NOT ENOUGH CASH TO GET THE CENTER, YET!

I HAVE HAD THESE SPEAKERS FOR TWO MONTHS & I CAN'T GET ENOUGH OF THEM!!! I HAVE AN OLDER SYSTEM TO WORK WITH FOR NOW, BUT I JUST GOT MY NEW TOSHIBA SD-4109x DVD CAROSEL. I THOUGHT THESE SPEAKERS SOUNDED GREAT WITH MY 13 YR. OLD SONY CD PLAYER. WRONG!!!
I AM JUST BLOWN AWAY BY THE OVERALL SOUND QUALITY OF THESE BAD BOYS. THE 20 YR OLD PIONEER AMP. A FRIEND GAVE ME HAS GREAT SOUND FOR WHAT IT COST ME ($120 FOR REPAIRS). THIS HAS PUT ME ON A QUEST FOR A WHOLE NEW SYSTEM. I CAN NOT SEE HOW SOMEONE COULD GIVE THEM ANYTHING BELOW 4 STARS & THAT WOULD ONLY BE FOR THIER OWN OPION AS TO HOW THEY SOUND TO THEM, NOT SOUND FOR MONEY LAID OUT. ALL I CAN FIGURE IS THAT HE PAID MUCH MORE FOR THEM THAN EVERYONE ELSE, OR HE JUST HATES "JBL".
AS TO THESE SPEAKERS OVERALL AWSOME,OUTSTANDING,TRUE HIGH-FIDELITY,I GOT MINE AT BEST BUY FOR UNDER $500 TAX INCL. NOTHING ELSE EVEN CAME CLOSE FOR THE MONEY! I DID TWO THINGS I DON'T USUALLY DO FOR THESE SPEAKERS, 1)WENT INTO DEBT TO GET THEM 2)TALKED TO MY WIFE ABOUT IT TO GET HER OPINION THEN WENT OUT & BOUGHT THEM ANYWAYS!
IF YOU CAN STILL FIND, BUY THEM (CYBERTERIA)!I FEEL THESE SPEAKERS HAVE TRUE TIGHT BASS BUT NEXT IS THE CENTER TO GO WITH THESE OR A SUB. I BOUGHT THEM BECAUSE OF THE REVIEWS HERE CAN SOMEONE TELL ME IS IT CRITICAL TO MATCH THE CENTER TO THE MAINS? THANKS TO THIS SITE & THE REVIEWERS!

Similar Products Used:

D C M TIME WINDOWS

Dynamics,Punch,The louder the better it
sounds!Tight deep bass

Not much soundstage or detail

This is a message to SVA 1800 owners.My home theatre speaker set-up was,Fronts L&R SVA1800,Center SVA center,Rears SVA 1500's.sounded great but,the SVA center didn't match the fronts exactly.I happened to be at a Circuit City and saw demo SVA1800's on sale.Bought one and threw it on its side on top of my 60' TV to use as a center!HOLY COW!!!!What a difference!I urge all others to do the same.There's no comparsion to the wimpy center speakers out there.I can now listen to the Full Widescreen Mode(no center channel bass limit)It's almost scary!RUN,DON'T WALK! To find any SVA 1800'sleft you don't know what your missing!I cannot stress enough how critical that the center speaker match the fronts.Its amazing,that 90 percent of home theater owners have mismatched speakers! For those who are curious,here's the rest of my HT-setup,Pioneer 60in.Widescreen,Denon5700receiver,Denon DVD Sony Laserdisk & JBL pswD115 sub.In closing,let me say I'm in Home Theater HEAVEN!!!!!!

Similar Products Used:

JBL L-100's

Good high end bass, nice mids, and highs. Nice heavily built. They weigh a freakin ton

Too big, and heavy, but really worth the size and weight for the sound and harmony they reporduce.

These speakers are very good I still haven't had the chance to audiotion them at my own home but I will soon, I had them delieverd to my g/friends house since I'm hardly ever home to receive any packages but I had them hooked up to her Aiwa mini system receiver which is about 50 watts per channel ,and they sounded spectacular there. Can't wait to here them on my HK AVR 65. I brought them home yesterday and hadn't had the chance to hook them up. Since I'm only 14 years old I did need some help bringing these massive speakers inside. I'm planning on buying a 2 channel amplifier for just the mains. My old setup are 2 Advent 25th Anniversery Limited Edition speakers which are pretty good they have a 1" inch dome polymer tweeter which puts out some nice highs, then I have a 10" woofer in them which reproduces pretty good bass. But the woofers and bi-radial horn tweeter in the SVA 1800's produces some sound I've never heard. As I said before my setup is a H/K AVR 65, a Toshiba SD3109, 2 Advents for rears, the SVA center, and the SVA fronts. I then have a very very very high end 20Bit Digital Coaxile, and Optical output JVC Single Disc CD Player. I then have a 35" JVC TV, a Panansonic PV9451 VCR, a nice high end 3 head Yamaha cassete deck, and hopefully I'll soon have a 2 channel amplifier either from Krell, Nakamichi, or Bryston. Please don't really consider my other post as I still hadn't received them then. But if you want these speakers you can get them for an extremely cheap price from UBID.com who seem to have them about every week you'll probably get them for 107-112 each and depending on the area you live in they'll charge pretty high shipping charges the cheaperst one starting at $50, I paid about $55 for my shipping since the location that the ship the 1800's from is Memphis TENN. and I live in Jersey City, NJ so I received them pretty fast. Like I said before I still haven't really audiotioned them with my equipment, but I had audiotioned them with a cheap -in 1 amplifier from Aiwa. I'll post a more solid review later on today. Good luck and happy hunting.

Similar Products Used:

Infinity Overture's, JBL HLS series, Atlantic Technology, Advent speakers (high end)

Clarity, Imaging, and Tight Crisp Bass

Quite heavy (about 80 lbs.) and therefore difficult to move into position (the retractable, cast-metal spiked front feet gouged my hardwood floor as I wrestled this big tower into place).

These tough-looking, handsome towers exceeded my highest expectations. Within the first hour of auditioning them at home, I was hearing musical details that I hadn't noticed on my HT1F's. The clarity comes from the proprietary bi-radial horn design and that is also used in JBL's professional line for movie theatres. The overpowering presence that these heavyweights generate when cranked with only a moderate receiver (Harman Kardon AVR 45) is still hard for me to believe. My advice is to snap up a pair of these if you can find them. Excluding the professional line, these may be the last speakers that JBL will make with true, compression-driven horns: The new HLS and AC series that JBL now makes come with a cheap-looking and sounding plasticky horn and still cost a pretty penny. The SVA's offer jaw-dropping punch with great value and are an impressive showpiece for your living room.

Similar Products Used:

JBL HT1F fronts (3), JBL HT1S subs (2), and JBL S50 rears.

Excellent mids and highs. base is nice and tight also. So clear, its unbeleivable.

Base seems to lack a little bit. Could be my receiver, though, since I don't see anybody else noticing it. Heavier than my aunt.

Awesome peice of work. Some of the best sounds. Mids and highs are nice and clear (thanks in large to the horned tweeter). Nice Design too. I think they sound better with music than in a HT setup. If you add a nice sub, then you're all set. These babies are a freekin bargain. Good luck trying to find them. The only place I know that sells them now is Ubid.com. The prices are excellent. Shipping costs an arm and a leg, though, (literally). If you can get 4 of them, do it!! These are some of the best sounds I've ever heard.

Similar Products Used:

JBL TLX181 (very good also) for some reason gives me more base than the sva1800s. perhaps because has 2 10" as oppose to 2 8.5".

Just another enthusiastic vote for the SVA-1800's. I had been looking around town for a while when I wandered into Best Buy to try out their sound lounge. The JBL display was not working, so I asked a sales associate to see if he could get it up and running while I auditioned the Sony, Bose, Yamaha and Cerwin Vega offerings. Nothing there had the tightness, clarity and imagery that I was looking for, but then he got the JBL's working, and the SVA-1800's just blew me away. I had to repeat the back-to-back comparison several times to convince myself that these speakers were THAT MUCH better than anything else I'd heard, but nothing could change my mind. And to top it off, the display pair were their last pair in stock - and in perfect condition - for a further 15% off!
Safely installed in my home, they sound every bit as good as I knew they would. Awesome clarity, imaging, and tight punchy response from top to bottom. I'm one very happy camper, though the neighbours might hate me now.

I was looking at several models of somewhat older speakers, including the Infinity Overature, etc... I hear these at Best Buy and was absolutely floored. I even went back 2 or 3 times just to make sure I wasn't in an odd mood that day, and I was still amazed! I managed to get a slightly dinged floor model (sonically perfect) and got it home. I hooked them to my 120 watt/channel receiver and my 15 inch sub (which REALLY helped) and listened to my favorite music. These things could handle anything I threw at them with ease. The bass is very good at the fast transient, but doesn't get too much below about 35 hz. With a good sub (everyone should own one anyways in my opinion) these speakers are just about unbeatable in ANY price range. I also like the style, and to top it off I am the envy of every guy in my fraternity house! Nice job, JBL. 5+++ stars!!!!!

I am quite happy with my current music reference system:
Linn Sondek CD12 CD Player
Conrad Johnson ART Preamplifier
Conrad Johnson Premier Eight A monoblocks
Dunlavy VI speakers
Synergistic Designer Reference cables


However, there are times when I hear certain audio equipment that makes an impression on me. I feel that I have an extremely good ear, having played in the London Symphony for 10 years (cello) and being surrounded with professional musicians on a daily basis..

Sometimes I get an incredible kick out of finding speakers, amplifiers, etc., which offer what you call "bang for the buck" and I believe that the JBL SVA-1800 speakers belong in that category.

I have many friends who are quite satisfied with their mid-fi gear. Two years ago at Christmas time, I purchased several pairs of these speakers for friends of mine who were thrilled with the sound. I actually bought a pair myself and still have them. I love them.

With respect to Russell who claims to be an audiophile:

What is your point by posting 3 times to this review board? Your comments seem very thin now, especially the third time around (did someone say "boring?") You have said that you listen to high-end equipment all the time, but look at what equipment you own and listen to at home. Definitely not something I would brag about (or even disclose), especially after making your comments on this board.

I'm just curious Russell? Do you make it a habit to go around to all of the review boards and add your comments to them either favorable or unfavorable, or are you stuck in the JBL critique mode? Should we all await your 4th, 5th, 6th and so on and so on replies? Please bore us no further. Find another playground for your idle mind.

To everyone else - I say enjoy these speakers! They are remarkable for their price and I wouldn't hesitate buying them again!! Enough said!!