The harsh highs hurt, the lows don't kick, the mid doesn't sing. Come on, I know JBL is a great brand, and being cheap JBLs is the reason why I tried these speakers in the first place. But they are simply not competitive.
For the price, NHT superones come to mind. Oh yes, even less bass. But infinitely better. Or if you hate "edgy" or bright speakers at all, try Tannoys. Even the build quality of the HLS610's is behind the average in this price range.

I PURCHASED THESE SPEAKERS FOR A SURROUND SOUND SYSTEM IN MY REC ROOM. THIS ROOM WILL GET ONLY OCCASIONAL USE, AND DID NOT WANT TO SINK A LOT OF MONEY. WHAT ATTRACTED ME TO THIS MODEL WAS THE VALUE, EG SOUND QUALITY FOR THE MONEY. I AM VERY IMPRESSED. THE LOWS ARE NOT FANTASTIC, BUT FOR A 6 1/2 INCH WOOFER, THAT IS TO BE EXPECTED. THE HORN DOES DO A GOOD JOB WITH THE HIGHS. IN FACT, THESE SPEAKERS SOUND GOOD LISTENING TO ALTERNATIVE MUSIC AS WELL AS MOVIES. AGAIN KEEPING VALUE IN THE EQUATION, I WOULD HIGHLY RECOMMEND THESE SPEAKERS. OF COURSE, LISTEN TO THEM WITH YOUR OWN EARS BEFORE MAKING THE DECISION!

I liked these speakers when I first bought them, but now they impress even more, especially for the price. The secret seems to be in a careful setup. The horn blasts are very directional and there is a narrow sweet spot where the listener can perceive the best sound. But when they're positioned correctly and you find that sweet spot, wow! The 3D imaging effect is terrific, and very detailed. I think this speaker's bass is quite potent for it's size, although it seems a bit unruly at times. Very nice midrange - orchestral strings are excellent. Four and half stars.

Ah, yes, the JBL HLS series. The 610 offers amazing bass for what it has. Sometimes I can just sit right there, thinking about how a 6 1/2 inch woofer can produce such a clean, tight, amazing bass. The highs are somewhat natural, but the constant directivity horn enhances all the sound that is produced through the tweeter. For example, war movies, like Saving Private Ryan, and even Forest Gump truely come alive. The soundstage is much wider, and there are more than a few "sweetspots" with the horn driven technology. This speaker truely employs 3 of the 5 senses for movies, which let you expirience the life of the movie. You of course can see it, definitely hear it, but also feel it. In the pit of your stomach. The place where bass was meant to be felt.That is what the HLS is all about. Excelent for suround channels, or even as a stand alone.

...And then there is music. They are great for music, especially rap. I can compete with people who have 10s and 12s with my two 6 1/2s, all because of the woofer material...Co-Injection Polymer. It is molecularly boneded, so it is stronger, and it is a polymer which makes it lightweight, the ultimate woofer. Now, I can just wish that the people who run JBL can eventually make a 10, 12, 15 and 18 inch woofer. But no, they must be morons.
I'm sure for the price that you pay, usually $200 at your local Best Buy, you will be completly and thouroghly please with the performance of this loudspeaker. They really can move some air. If thats not enough for you, look into the CF or HP series. I would recomend the HLS series to anyone who wants cheap system, excelent JBL sound, and supurb looks. Every time you sit down in front of these speakers, you can always be sure someone is standing behind them. Blown tweeter? No problem. Within 5 years, you can ave them replaced FO FREE. It happened to me. I didnt play THEM too loud, it was my amp. My amp went into clipping, and probably sent a raw distortion signal to my tweeters, and they were gone. Circuit City gladly accepted them, repaired them for free, and in the mean time, i bought a higher power amp. Nice. I am sure that you will enjoy the long term reliablitiy, sonic performance and price of these loudspeakers.

I just purchased a set of JBL HLS 610 speakers. Wow, they do indeed sound incredible for $200 clams! (Crutchfield, via mail order) My former speakers were quite a bit higher end - PSB Stratus Gold's ($2000/pr. new). So how do the little JBL's sound compared to one of the big boys, the Stratus Gold? Well, I didn't do a direct comparison, as I sold my PSB's about a year ago when I was in the process of moving, but I can tell you this: the JBL's sound open, clean, clear, very dynamic - and have the best imaging and soundstaging I have ever heard from such a small, inexpensive loudspeaker. Yes, the PSB's go much lower in the bass and have much more 'SLAM', are more precise overall, and ultimately are more musical - but they are $1800 MORE expensive than the 610's - they should be better!!! However, I do feel that the JBL's indeed keep up with the Stratus Gold's in these areas: soundstaging and imaging. When set up right, at the right height, toed in properly, on good quality stands, and driven by halfway decent electronics (I'm using an NAD C340 integrated amp and getting great results!), they are imaging champs! Like Corey Greenberg said in the Audio Magazine review of these speakers, they also did a "wrecking ball job" on my image of JBL as a high end loudspeaker manufacturer! I have heard many bookshelf loudspeakers in the $1000 and under range, and I can tell you, in all sincerity, I think that one would have to spend more than a grand on speakers to equal/better the overall sound presented by the 610's ..... highly recommended - 5 stars !!!!!

A while back I was shopping for a pair of replacement bookshelves speakers. I went everywhere and listened to anything of bookshelf size or smaller. Circuit City, Best Buy, Radio Shack, several specialty home audio dealers and even Sears! Probably listened to forty or fifty different brand names.
There were two "conventional" bookshelf speakers that really stood out from the crowd: the Paradigm Studio-20's ($650 USD) and the JBL HSL610's. (My deffinition of "conventional" bookshelf simply means a 6.5" woofer paired with a 0.5 to 1.0" tweeter in a rectangular wooden box...)

I first heard them at good ol' Sears while shopping with a freind. I was immediately impressed with their sound, but didn't really pay that much attention to them. (After all, they were JBL's... not to be taken seriously...)

The next time I listened to them was at Circuit City. I went there to listen to Polk's RT5, and used the JBL HSL810 & HLS610 as the "B" speakers in my "A/B" listening test. From the rave Stereophile reviews, I thought the Polk's would be just what the doctor ordered. Boy was I ever disppointed!

The Polk's were among the worst of the bookshelves I had bothered to listen to, but the JBL's really made an impression upon me. They have excellent highs and a very well defined midrange. The bass is lacking, as one would expect in a mass-market bookshelf, but enough bass information gets through to make for a pleasureful listening experince if Jazz and Classical are you're idea of music. Of course, mating these with a half-decent subwoofer would make an ideal sat-sub solution. I was impressed with the very natural sound it gave to a variety of music.

The most striking comarison with the Polk RT-5 was with the off-axis sound. As soon as one starts walking away from being DIRECTLY IN FRONT of the RT5, one notices a definate shift in frequency - a sort of Doppler effect! But I could stand at any angle or any distance from the HSL610, and not notice any difference in the sound of the music. I'm no audiophile, but even I can appreciate a speaker that sounds the same from a variety of angles!

Pairing these guys with the Paradigm Studio-20's is no small compliment! The Studio-20's are the best bookshelf's I've heard for under $1000 USD, and the JBL's, at their frequently discounted price of $200 USD a pair, are second.

I ended up buying Optimus LX5's for my HT needs, becuase at the time they were far less expensive than the JBL's, smaller, and were more detailed in their sound reproduction. (Size did matter in my case...) However, the HSL610 remains a winner in my book. Four stars for sound reproduction, Fourteen stars for an excellent value...

One person on this board says these speakers 'suck'. I emphasize the word 'ONE'. He must be doing something wrong. Of course, perceived sound quality is very subjective, for the most part. Placement matters, quality of electronics or cables matters, objectivity matters, etc. But suck, these speakers definitely do NOT!! I fancy myself as having a good ear for quality, detail, and balance insofar as sound goes, and the HLS610's are one helluva great sounding speaker for about $185 (what I paid for a pair)!! In fact, they are a STEAL!!! I kid you not. Anytime a manufacturer can deliver excellence for less money, they are to be commended. So JBL, I am singing your praises in this case. My 610's were purchased for a 'secondary' music setup for my bedroom, and I bought them on the strength of an A-B comparison with several brands at Best Buy. They sounded VERY impressive at the store, regardless of price, and even given the limited and constrictive listening environment typical of a Best Buy or Circuit City. The fun started when I got home though. I just wanted an inexpensive but good sounding secondary pair for my bedroom, since I enjoy listening to music in bed when falling asleep. I now find myself listening to these speakers almost as much as my much more expensive main setup in our family room! After hooking them up to my Onkyo M-508 amplifier and Sound Valves SV-100 JFET preamp, I was totally blown away by the detail, imaging, punch/transient response, and well balanced mids and highs!! Like I just told my wife, there aren't many good inexpensive speakers that can put a smile on my face. These have put a 'bleep'-grinning chesire cat smile on my mug for sure! Everything from Alan Parsons to Zebra sounds natural and fairly detailed (including classical, jazz, new age, world music, etc.). I find myself drawn and surprisingly addicted to the high quality sound emanating from these babies. If yours don't sound great, it could be that your electronics are subpar, or placement needs to be reconsidered (this includes perhaps changing listening rooms, as excessive room furnishings, or a lack thereof, can produce unatural or boomy sound). In my 20 years as an audiophile, I have never heard such awesome sounding speakers FOR UNDER $200!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Kudos to JBL.

Great Sound from a small speakerm espically in a small room enviornment

none that I have seen so far

I bought these as my rear speakers but temporarily I am using them up front because my JBL HLS820's are back ordered tell end of December. I picked these up at Best Buy for like $180. was not to impressed with they way they sounded at Best Buy but i went with everyones reviews and the mags, and these things ROCK in a small room (10' x 12' about) I was surprised how much sound these were putting out, there was enough Bass to even shake the floor a little bit. These speakers sounded awesome when listening to Sara Mclachlan or Tool, or anything in between. I cant wait to here what the HLS820's sound like in my room. I recomend these to anyone on a budget the price can not be neat.

Great Imaging, bass, price

nothing significant

Great speakers for the money. I've heard most of the speakers in the same price range and these are the best overall. I currently use 5 HLS610's, 2 NHT SuperOnes (on the B switch), and a Yamaha HTR5140 receiver. The 610's compare very well with the SuperOnes (also a very fine speaker). The 610's have vastly superior imaging and deeper bass, but the SuperOnes have a much wider sweet spot and might be slightly clearer, perhaps due its better tweeter (although it's very, very close to the 610). For this reason, the 610's are much better as main speakers. They have a resonating mid-to-high bass that is just excellent when set up properly.

The 610's also blend in better as surround speakers when used with 610 mains (maybe due to the same crossover frequency?), even though the SuperOnes have better dispersion.

The 610 was also a slightly better choice for a center speaker (for me), since it blended in better and had a fuller sound (although I thought the SuperOne was slightly better on center vocals).

However, I found that placing SuperOnes on the 'B' switch (between the center and mains) deepened the bass and made the highs sparkle a little more. I now have a system that cost me only about $1200 which sounds like a >$3000 system. With 5 HLS610's, the imaging is absolutely superb. There is also plenty bass - no subwoofer needed.

-J

Similar Products Used:

NHT SuperOnes

Price vs. Performance; incredible sound for a small bookshelf; that nice, ever so present 'horn sound'

I hope you only like black; too bad it is not available in other colors

I bought this speaker on account of all the positive reviews here, and I am thrilled with the product! I had to search far and wide, though, because I understand it is being discontinued? However, I was able to locate it at JandR.com in NY. Upon setting them up, I was amazed at their detail, and pleasantly biting midrange (probably due to the horn loaded tweeters). With decent electronics, everything sounds so neutral and pleasant with these units. They kind of remind me of hihger end bookshelf units like a 3A or Mirage I had listened to but didn't want to spend big bucks on. So I saved myself $800 and picked these up for $170 the pair. These are great sounding speakers for the money, no question. If you want higher end sound without spending a lot, go for these. They are a great value!

Similar Products Used:

Wharfedale, Polk Audio, Boston, etc.