Deep Bass, Clear highs

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I heard these speakers at Best Buy about 6 months ago, and was very impressed, but didnt have the cash at the time to buy them. I was very excited when i saw them at UBID.Com where i picked them up for $134.00 for the pair. They are in great shape and sound Super. I went and bought a pair of monster cables, that cleared them up even more. For the money i paid, this is definitely the best pair of speakers i could have got.

Sound pretty good for the price

cheap cabinets

Not bad for the price, the power rating is only 200 watts PEAK! I am assuming thats around 35 or so RMS. You hit them with a 100-200 watt amp and watch them explode. I am selling them for $250.

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upgraded to Boston Acoustics VR-975's

I must say that I am very pleased with these speakers, considering the incredible price I got on them ($350/pr. as opposed to their list, $600). They are versatile and work well with many kinds of music, as well as home theater applications. However, deep bass can become a little muddled at high volume. Perhaps this is due to the 10" passive radiator feature. It produces more bass, but is not as accurate as conventional configurations. Over all, an excellent pair of speakers for the audio enthusiast with a limited budget.

Good speakers, especially for the price you can get them for these days. The bass sounds a bit mudddy to me, but it could be due to the listening environment--I have a smallish room for these size speakers. So for rock music I am not that wild about them, but the titanium laminate tweeters really do an outstanding job on classical music. The highs are very melodic. Three and a half stars--half star extra for the great price.

Well, I got a pair of these speakers today, and I must say they are not bad at all. I had a choice between these and their siblings, the TLX 171's. My hesitation in buying these stemmed from the numerous reports of "muddy" bass at high volumes.
Well I had the sales rep. at the store hook them both up and I listened and compared, and truth be told I really did not hear any "muddy" bass at all. Perhaps it was the listening environment or something like that. Regardless these guys definitely gave out the bass a lot more then the 171's.

I chose to go with these and I got them on a nice open box special. Just the bottoms were scratched a bit. I took them home, set them up and played a few DVD's. They sound quite nice. Very crisp clear highs...smooth..and no complaints at all when it comes to bass.

I probably could have gotten them cheaper by mail order, but all in all I'm quite satisfied with them. And with no real negatives or downsides that I can truthfully come up with I see no reason why these do no deserve 5 stars as they are very nice speakers and a fine example of JBL's workmanship.

Well I've had these speakers for about 3 months now and I've got to tell you. They are a wonderful buy for $500.00 a pair. I had an old Optimus Subwoofer thatclaimed could go down to 28Hz with the 10 inch speaker and 120 watt amp inside. After introducing the JBL 181's in my theater, it blew the powered subwoofer away. I simply had no use for it. The JBL's played cleanly down to under 35 Hz with no strain at all. I supplanted the optimus subwoofer with a Velodyne CT-120. I tell you with the Velodyne and the JBL's also a JBL MR Center speaker and Minimus 77 surrounds. You have just about the best sound you can get for a combined total of $1200.00 for all 5.1 speakers!! It simply shakes everything. You cant go wrong for the price. The JBL TLX-181's are great...

I purchased the JBL TLX-181 speakers about a month ago, and I am very happy with them. For the price I paid, they can't be beat. Nice crisp, clear highs, and solid bass. I had been planning to purchase a subwoofer, but now I don't think I need one (the speakers are rated down to 30Hz. The cabinets and hardware(speaker binding posts, etc.) are constructed very well. I originally was going to buy the TLX-171's because of their bass-reflex design (although I didn't get to hear them in the store) as opposed to the 181's acoustic suspension arrangement, but from what I've read from other reviews here the 181's have superior bass response.
I'm using the speakers in a home theater setup, and am very pleased that I bought them.

Purchased the TLX-181's first from an online outfit (AudioDeals-very nice people and very good service) but they were referbs. After returning a few of them for defects (which AuidoDeals picked up the cost for all the shipments) I finally returned both speakers and purchased the same ones new at Montgomery Wards for $249.00 each.
I LOVE the sound of these speakers! They have great bass and very crisp highs. However I eventually realised that at least half of the returns I'd made on the mail order speakers were not because of defects, but because I was blowing the tweaters out! I was using a Sony 55 watt amp to drive them-the speakers are rated at 200 watts so I thought "no problem". Wrong. A tech at JBL told me that I was clipping the amp at high volume (I got the 55W amp up to about 6.5 when the tweaters went) and that the tweater was getting fried because of it. He said I needed more power. OK!

I went out and purchased (actually it was a gift) the Sony STR-DE835. At 100W I thought that would solve the problem. I was carefull with the new speakers while using the old Sony and they still sounded great with the new amp.

Time goes by and I end up disconnecting my system for awhile while I work on painting my living room. When I reconnect the speakers I notice that the sound sucks! I thought, having read many reviews about the Sony 835 that my 835 finally took a dump. I returned it to the Good Guys and got a Yamaha instead. Still the same problem, crummy sound.

I eventually determined it was the tweaters again. Crap! I keep blowing the tweaters and now my 181's are in the shop for repair. The Yamaha is only 70W but the tweets were blown by the Sony no doubt.

Overall: these speakers are great sounding! THE TWEATERS SUCK!! I can't believe JBL would put such low-quality crap in any unit. I'm stuck with these for awhile but I don't think I'll purchase JBL again simply because of this problem.

FYI: I listen the Propellerheads really loud so you can guess what kind of load I'm putting on the system.

3 stars 'cause when the work they are powerful, not 5 'cause the tweaters are weak.

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Grill

I ordered these off ubid for 77 dollars each. After waiting OVER a month for ubid to get them to me I received ONE speaker that was dammaged pretty bad. The idiots packed this huge speaker with about 4 peices of foam and a 5 year old card board box that looked like some homeless man had been living in it for a year. Needless to say the grill was broken off and the corners smashed in. When I called ubid they "didn't know" where the other speaker was and said I could either wait even longer, to get a 2nd one and the current one replaced, or get a refund. THe speaker sounds ok, nothing special. I'm sending it back tomarrow.

P.S
If this speaker had been shipped to me dammaged free at the same price and in an acceptable about of time it would of recieved a 4 star. Never order off ubid. They suck. Bad.

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I looked around for quite a while for the speakers that I wanted to get, and I am very pleased with the choice that I made. These sounded great at the store, but even better in my living room. I was going to get a subwoofer right away, but I am so happy with the sound right now that I am not in as big a hurry as I was. The JBLs have a great reputation, and I can see why. I looked at Bose, Cerwin Vega, Boston, Infinity and JBL, and I am delighted with the choice that I made. I agree with the previous poster that, for the cost, these can't be beat.