JBL SCS135 Home Theater Speaker Systems

JBL SCS135 Home Theater Speaker Systems 

DESCRIPTION

6-Piece Home Theater Speaker System

USER REVIEWS

Showing 1-10 of 38  
[Nov 08, 2014]
jason
Casual Listener

A friend of mine called me said he found the sub 135 at a yard sale for practically nothing and brought it to me and I hooked it up with existing stereo consisting of two sony 10 inch subwoofers I let the jbl stand by it self and since then this the only sub I use and it sounds tighter and clean and more deep than the two sony subs combined. it also is as heavy as both of them put together so as far build quality it is top notch don't expect it to go too deep but for what I'm using it for is just right for my budget sounding 7.1 sony system I also tried comparing the two subs on a oneon one comparison and hands down at least in my book the jbl sub135 took that battle hands downas far as a budget minded person you cant go wrong for an apartment or small living room in a small to medium house I would love a 12 inch version of this amazing little sub with that much noise coming out of an 8 inch speaker truly that good!

OVERALL
RATING
5
VALUE
RATING
5
[Sep 07, 2003]
Randy
Audio Enthusiast

Strength:

Clarity, range and overall abiliy to handle all types of music and sound tracks. Their size permits easy placement so that your room is not dominated by large phallus symbols rather; your room is dominated by tasteful decorating and furniture. The marriage of the two keeps both spouse and you happy.

Weakness:

Bass can feel boomy at times.

These speakers are real ear pleasers. The size does cause some concern on first glance, however, when the system is turned on in a listening environment you soon realize they are capable and worthy performers. Most of the reviews I read and checked were positive with a few expected exceptions. I already had a set of JBL fronts and this system was a quick and easy integration into the "home theatre" As practising musician I have always been facinated by the audiophiles quest for perfection in the imperfect world of sound and music. If you are a self-proclaimed audiophile then don't buy these speakers because nothing short of the "audiophile recommended" and notably more expensive speakers will do it for you. If you are a music lover and love movies, I am sure these speakers will move you sufficently to do what they are designed to do, without complaint or criticism; make your movie experience FANTASTIC!!

Similar Products Used:

Yamaha. The YST system probably makes for a better sub, but then again most of the subs cost as much as this system.

OVERALL
RATING
4
VALUE
RATING
3
[Aug 29, 2003]
Ross
Audio Enthusiast

Strength:

Great bass and high sounds. Small. Brackets mount easily on the wall and speakers sit solidly on them. The price

Weakness:

Probably could mix the midground sound between the subwoofer and the mini speakers a little better

Reviewed the product on this website and then located the last set in a large local electrical shop chain. Very impressed with the combination of sounds

OVERALL
RATING
4
VALUE
RATING
5
[Apr 17, 2003]
sberamji
Audio Enthusiast

Strength:

Price (havent found anything better in the price,) Build quality is good especially of the sub, decent ENTRY level system

Weakness:

Incapable satellites, boomy woofer, poor integration between sub and sat, poor enter channel

The system is very poor when catering to someone with a ear for music. Its pretty exciting for someone who just bought a home theatre setup hence the good reviews, but try to push these babies into the audiophile range and they suck big time. The sattelites are too small and as said before dont produce enough lower mids. Thus the sub has to be crossed over high which spoils the imaging completely. The sub is too boomy when turned up but I must say it does put out decent bass for an 8" woofer. The center channel is devoid of life and often makes you stress to hear the dialouges clearly. The sats have a bright nature as well and on turning up the volume will over power you with a bright sound. Do not buy this system if your an audiophile on a budget. Save up and buy your speakers set by set.

Similar Products Used:

Polk, JBL, Sony

OVERALL
RATING
3
VALUE
RATING
4
[Feb 20, 2003]
RodneyMunch
Casual Listener

Strength:

Clarity, Accuracy, Bass responsiveness and speaker Size (Small)

Weakness:

Obviously this system doesn't sound like a great $1K system, but I would say the difference is within %25. So if you're willing to shell out up to four times more $ for that negligble difference you're making a good choice. No weakness with the price consideration. None.

This is my first dive into any sort of audio equipment other than the speaker that is built into a TV. I discovered this wonderful website, and in just a few months have learned massive amounts of information and even now consider myself somewhat educated when it comes to Middle to Low end audio equipment. Now, from what you've read above you can conclude that I was going into this with no pre conceived notions about any particular brand. I wanted to spend as little as possible and get the best 'bang' for the buck. I mainly focused on three systems. My first choice was Polk RM6600 or the newly released Polk RM7200. The first one is now in the upper $600 range which after I figured in price I'd pay for cables and receiver would leave me with over $1K less in my bank account. Although I could afford this amount, I'm not sure I would appreciate this type of system to it's fullest extent considering it would be my first. After giving Polk many serious considerations I finally convinced myself to take one step down and look at some lower priced products. I must say that from all the research I've done on the net JBL SCS135 stood out like no other. Virtually every opinion I had read was a positive one. Finally, I decided to take the plunge and bought this tight little package at Etronics.com which I thought was an online outlet only, but turned out to have a retail location in the city I live (NYC) so I was able to pick it up and save myself a cool $40. I hooked this system up to a Yamaha HTR 5565 receiver mainly for movie and video game experience and may I say that so far I think the system sounds fantastic. I can compare it to a few people's systems that cost significantly more and actually there is no comparison. The bass is very tight and very deep, so far the system has been able to reproduce every type of sound I've thrown at it at a very accurate rate. Currently I have it running with the wires it came with. Hence, the sound will be improved once I update the wires thsi weekend, however, if the system sounds this good with generic wires I can only imagine what it'll sound with Monsters. I'm using Digital out from my XBOX and my video games never sounded so amazing. The precision on Base is really what impresses me the most. I think it's critical to pair up this system with a decent receiver, such as Yamaha HTR models since they pocess an individual amp per speaker, and at only 450watts they produce a stronger and better sound than most 700w model receivers. In terms of looks, the system in my opinion is very cosmetic. The subwoofer looks prettier than most and speaker size is desirable for a small room such as mine. Also, do not let the small speaker size fool you, it is capable of producing an extremely loud reproduction with hardly detectible distrotion. In terms of price I think this package is a no brainer. As said above I was able to get this for $219 and I can honestly say that it's on par if not better with some systems I've encounterd for up to triple that cost. If you are a casual audio listener who'd like to make a step into a low end but sound like middle end audio this is the right choice for you.

Similar Products Used:

Polk, JVC, Some lower end Bose Products.

OVERALL
RATING
5
VALUE
RATING
5
[Jan 27, 2003]
geochacon
Casual Listener

Strength:

the size, crystal clear sound and base

Weakness:

speaker stands, and they speakers suck without the sub. The center is also a bit weak for my taste

I had just had this system for a few days now. I have to say that i love the size of the speakers and the AWESOME that comes out of the. The base that the Subwoofer puts out it's really impressive b/c it's tight and deep, which is something i really like. My wife loves the speakers and know she is more into sound, whichi is good for me. I would recommend this to any one that is looking for a system that is totally complete. I have this pupies plugged in to my Onkyo Tx600 and my house is a MT.

Similar Products Used:

Infinity and Bose

OVERALL
RATING
4
VALUE
RATING
5
[Sep 26, 2002]
samr
AudioPhile

Strength:

Price, smallest decent sounding speakers I found...

Weakness:

Won't play loud, sub in box system isn't so good, missing lower midrange/midbass

This review is for the satellites only as I purchased the SCS 135 TRIO which is just the front 3 satellites. I listened to the whole package and I must agree with some of the other reviewers that the sub is terribly boomy and not well defined. It emits from a port, which is not the ideal format to blend with the small satellites, but does increase output which seems to be what they had in mind. I bought these for my bedroom just for listening to music and watching the occasional DVD, mostly my wife's system, and she mandated micro speakers since I already have my main system that dominates our family room. I got the TRIO 135 for $60 online, and bought a Velodyne CHT-80 for $170 online as well, I think this setup clearly outperforms the full JBL setup, I am planning to add some very inexpensive rears as this is not a high end setup by any means. The satellites do an admirable job for their size and price, and on certain music they sound very good. They do struggle with male voices, acoustic bass, and saxophones, as they have almost no output below 200hz. The Velodyne does a better job of blending than the JBL sub in my opinion while also giving more forceful and musical low bass. Overall if you want a system that takes up minimal space and sounds better than the terrible Bose Sub/Sat systems for half the money or less, give these a try. One word of advice though, do not put these in a large room, they are rated at 86db sensitivity and will not handle much power, so they sound much better in a smaller setting like where I have them.

Similar Products Used:

Polk Sub/Sats, numerous other bookshelf and floorstanding speakers.

OVERALL
RATING
4
VALUE
RATING
5
[Jun 16, 2002]
Alfred
Audio Enthusiast

Strength:

Fool-proof all in one kit.

Weakness:

Doesn't give you the goose flesh feeling in listening to musics. I am to get another bookshielf speaker for music only. But unless you are ready to spend 1G or more, you won't get too much from a home theatre package anyway.

Great package for a small entry level home theatre. Ctr speaker has 2 mid drivers. I noticed the cone material is also different from the rest 4 satellites. Evolved from scs125, which has 5 identical sat, the modification on the ctr sat should be for better reproducing voice sound. But if you need to play dolby music DVDs, this could be a draw back as it won't give you the same tone as the rest 4.

OVERALL
RATING
4
VALUE
RATING
5
[Apr 18, 2002]
samuare
Audio Enthusiast

Strength:

Excellent sound for such a small package. The satellites virtually disappear in the room. The wall-mount brackets make placement very easy. The sub is very flexible in terms of hookup and adjustability.

Weakness:

Center channel IS NOT tonally balanced with the surrounds. It is close, but you can hear a sonic difference. The sub is a little mushy at the bottom of it’s range, and it can’t reproduce that bottom half-octave. The auto turn-on for the sub is also set too high. There are times when it would not turn on until the volume was turned up. It’s a simple solution to flip the switch to constant on, but why waste electricity?

I originally bought this speakers when I upgraded to Dolby Digital. I wanted to have a tonally matched for my surround speakers. In addition, small speaker size was critical. I didn’t have much room to squeeze the center channel into my existing entertainment center. When I bought them, my intention was to use them only for video application, and still use my Polk 10B’s for stereo. As it turns out, they replaced my Polks. It’s not that they sound better (although they do sound very good), but the space savings is too great to ignore in a small room.So while I do miss my old speakers, especially in the bottom end, I don’t miss them enough to hook them up again. For the price they''re hard to beat, especially if size is an issue.

OVERALL
RATING
4
VALUE
RATING
5
[Apr 04, 2002]
Derrick Lobo
Casual Listener

Strength:

Clear sound

Weakness:

The optional speaker stands are costly.

For the price I feel the sound clarity is great. I hooked up the speakers to a Technics reciever.

OVERALL
RATING
5
VALUE
RATING
5
Showing 1-10 of 38  

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