Very transparent sound reproduction. Great imaging.

Cheap parts in crossover.

In looking for a bookshelf speaker, I went all out and listened to the NHT SuperOne's, the Mini Monitors, PSB Alpha's, and B&W 602's. All of these speakers sound great, what sold me on the JBL's were there ability to cast a wider soundstage, greater low-end extension, magnetic shielding, and cost.

They are a little bigger than most bookshelves, but they make up for that with more bass. The bass was more than most subwoofers from multimedia systems. Go find yourself a pair of these before they are all sold out.

The newer JBL's that replaced these speakers are much inferior. The new speakers, which cost much more, sound much muddier, with looser bass. A subwoofer would help these speakers out in a home theater, but for a music only setup in a small room, these are very much full range speakers.

What I really like about these speakers is that it makes all my music sound better.

Similar Products Used:

NHT SuperOne, Paradigm Mini Monitor, PSB Alpha, B&W 602

Got these for $200. Liked them a lot a first. Easy to listen to right away. Great highs, bass good but not very tight. Now, two weeks later lows seem a little muddy, mids sometime disappear, strangely dead on some tracks, but overall still very good sound.
I would listen to superones and paradigms before purchase, though.

Also a little bigger size-wise than bookshelfs usually are.

3 stars.

The sound is great for hearing classical and soft music, even for home theatre. The bass reflex is good enough without using Sub-Woofer.
The outlook / model is cute when the cover is off, you can see the amazing horn speakers.

None

The product I am using is AC-310 (made in USA), the model is similar to HLS-610 when I looked to JBL Homepage. I am thinking they are the same with different product no.

I recommend this speaker to anyone who want to hear classical and soft music, because the sound was bright and detail, and also soft to your ear.

The price performance is the best compare to others brand like B&W.

Similar Products Used:

JBL AC-3 Center, JBL AC-Surround, JBL Digital-12 Sub-Woofer, Harman Kardon AVR-7000 Amps, and Pioneer DVD-525-K.

Everything, and then some! They present music so well balanced for an inexpensive speaker, it is hard to believe they cost less than $200 the pair! You think you are listening to $1000 monitors.

Get real.

I too, did some extensive research for a good budget system for my office studio (I am a digital artist who works out of my home), since I spend so much time there. This was to be a 'secondary' system, but I have been enjoying these JBL's so much, that they sound just as good as my 3A monitors and Odyssey Stratos system in my living room! The sound is so balanced and timbrally accurate, I cannot believe I am hearing an inexpensive JBL speaker. Instruments are focused with very impressive detail and warmth, and imaging is killer. I truly believe that JBL discontinued these because a 'best buy' speaker like this can help put a company out of business when it sounds better than it's more expensive product line!!!

My budget office system consists of:

JBL 610's
AudioSource AMP TWO
Denon DCM-370 HDCD player
Straightwire interconnects and speaker cabling

Similar Products Used:

B&W, 3A, Polk, NHT, JM Labs Tantal

Very very very nice sound for the money. Are you sure this isn't a $1000 pair of speakers??

Fit and finish could be a bit tighter.

This is one nice speaker for less than $200 a pair! I was immediately struck with the detail, ample bass, and imaging that these little wonders provide. And the horn sounds so sweet! These must have been designed with the critical ear in mind, because they are a well balanced speaker for a small bookshelf, and on good stands with good electronics, are even capable of filling a fairly large living room area with glorious, bull bodied sound (I even tried them in our living room with a large cathedral ceiling, and man do they project!). Kudos are in order here for JBL in building an affordable speaker with true hi-end sound! Don't even think about discontinuing this model!! This is truly a 'best buy'.

Similar Products Used:

Paradigm, Polk

Great imaging and soundstage

for the price, none

I first read about these in several magazines and then chose a set (4) for a home theater installation I was doing. I got to listen to them in my set up before the installation and thought I must have been doing something wrong. Take down the B&W's, put up the JBL's... Swap them again, again. Same results. Each speaker had it's strong points but for my use, I sold the B&W's and bought 610's all the way around with an HLS Center to go with my existing sub and pocketed about $700. Haven't regretted it a second.

Similar Products Used:

lots of speakers

Clean, unequaled sound in their size group.

Maybe too clean for Metal Music.

These speakers are incredibly clean Very little frequency coloration according to the dynamic analyser. I recently purchased 4 of these speakers to replace 4 studio monitors(JBL 4412) that were no longer acceptable decor accents (the infamous wife factor). I was blown away by their prescence and clarity in my 16'x16'living room. When properly positioned they actually present a better soundstage then the 4412s probably due to their higher sensitivity. They also punch out enough of the mid bass (when placed in their proper distance in corners,rear firing bass ports) that an average powered subwoofer can pick up the extreme low frequency slack for an even well balanced sound. The speakers pull all musical and theatre sound duty without a flinch. Except when it comes to metal. They're so clean that they tend to dissect Metallica and expose some of the sounds underneath the distortion. So a little warning for metal fans you may want stick with the Cerwin Vega's etc.. But at a price of under $200 they are a great sound value.

Similar Products Used:

Bose 301

great sound at the cheapest of prices

lack clarity in real low frequencies

I don't really have much to say concerning the acutal review itself since all the qualities of these speakers have been stated, besides the fact that I agree with the last poster on the fact that they will make superb surround speakers for his hls 820's (although, he should have bought the 620's and a 12 inch sub ;>) because 620's aren't over kill on bass but actually very well balanced. Secondly , he also touched on "the speakers didn't sound that good on display at best buy..." I am a prod specialist for the corporation, and I'll tell you why (sorry for those of you who already know...) Our speakers are routed through a VERY mediocre switching system inorder to allow gp use. Besides that, they are of course NOT wired with anything even approaching decent cable. If you ever saw the amount of cheap 38 gauge cable behind the jbl display--your eyes would pop out--it's even more difficult trying to find proper cables when hooking up new speakers. So this means that in the proccess of the BB corporation saving money wiring mmiles and miles of speaker cable, they have also done a great favor to all the ignorant sob's who come in and argue with me that BOSE is better or sometimes even that they don't hear a difference between the flatness of a yamaha and the crispness of a jbl: ALL THANKS TO THESE CHEAP SYSTEMS, so cheap that we might as well not even be runninng yamaha receivers because you'd get the same end result running a freaking sony. So what you DO end up getting is this: There is enough of an audible difference between jbl and bose but not as much as you would ACTUALLY HEAR in your home. Do yourself another favor, when you go back to best buy for the 820's if you REALLY want to hear your speakers shine, do yourself a favor: Don't buy the MONSTER cable(yes I could get fired for saying this), but rather, buy 50ft of the acoustice research 12 gauge to run your rears along with their banan plugs, BUT please go by a decent set of MIT terminators form a high end audio store to really get the soundstage shining through, unshielded cable jsut doesn't do it.--I'd say do MIT for surrounds too, but getting it for the fronts will cost you enough and you probably don't have a budget as high as the stratosphere. But I will now get off of my soapbox. (For the record, my sytem which is nearly complete consists of HLS 620's, 610's, HLS center, JBL 12 INCH HLS SUB, YAMAHA 1105 receiver, YAM EQ 70, YAM CDC 905, and PIoneer DVD 515, all patched with Monster REference 2 coax and rca's along with MIT terminator 6 Speaker Cable in front(Well I'll have it Tuesday) and the AR stuff in back. You never thought a non-commissioned Best Buy employee would be so honest did you? ;>)

Similar Products Used:

all speakers in equivalent price range

I was in the market to buy new speakers for my computer, but i stumbled across these at the store and fell in love. If I had a few more bucks i woulda got the 810, but for under 200 bucks, these simply are awesome. On top of that, they blend nicely with the JBL Media 4 Multimedia speakers i have. The Multimedia speakers were 199.99 alone, plus 99.99 for the sub that came with it, but these 610s sound 100 folds better than any speakers i have seen for under 200 bucks.BR>
Dan

Everything the previous reviewer said is true. These are extremely revealing loudspeakers at an unbelievable price. With the exception of the very lowest octave, whatever is on the recording will be heard. Carefully matched to a good sub, you'll get high end sound for a bargain price provided the rest of the setup is up to par.