Mid, high, price

Bass, cheap looking, front heavy

Very very good speaker at this price range! I think other review already said a lot about it. Highly recommended!
If you want to spend a little more money, S310 can also be considered. I own them too.

Price, sound, decent cabinet construction.

Standard gripes- They are built to tip over and the grills are a little annoying to install and don't like to stay flush to the front.

It's hard to give the N38 a reliable evaluation since my gear is cheap and my living room setup has them stuffed into a corner. Up close they have nice full sound but at 10 feet and beyond, the low frequencies have strange hot and cold spots. The tweeters come through a little strong at times but I kind of like that. If you want to literally rock the house or upend the couch in your home theater, the N38's bass output won't satisfy you. Those who don't measure their speaker's performance with a Richter scale will find the N38 to be ample in the low frequency department. Overall- great sounding speakers.

Similar Products Used:

Low end and homemade stuff, nothing worth mentioning.

Clear Midrange

Lower end

Although the pair of JBL is made in Mexico (has anybody noticed this? ), it has a superior clarity of midrange, while the lower end is just a jerk, I have to purchase a sub to make it sound better. The speaker lacks clarity in all the range.

Similar Products Used:

AR ps2262

Great Sound, relativly low price

Tips on any rug!

I couldn't be more pleased with the preformance of this product. For the price, it is the best you can get. The only flaw i have found with these speakers is that they have a tendancy to tip over on a rug. There is an easy solution to this problem, which is to put a small strip of wood or plastic under the front of the speaker. This completly solves the problem, and they don't tip anymore. These speaker work great with my Denon AVR-2801 Reciever. I would recomend these to anyone who who wants a great sounding speaker, without paying an arm and a leg for it.

Similar Products Used:

B&W Products

amazing high, lows, mids, very clear sound, great to listen to music, and films both,

i have yet to hook up all my 5.1 speakers, but these alone produce amazing sound quality

Very Attractive looks, exceptional bass for an 8" woofer. Sounds good.

front heavy when placed on carpet

same as stenghts. decided to build a very noce stereo system for my oun room, nothing with home theater or anything. I have them though a technics 500W head and they sound amazing. I got a great deal off bestpriceaudiovideo.com. I am also going to buy the JBL PB10 subwoofer just because i want a subwoofer. This woofer is not needed with the bass on the N38.

Similar Products Used:

none

Great mids and high end...
Small speaker cabinet and relativly light weight

Bass isn't really great for home theater, some loud music etc...

These are great speakers, especially if you are using them for music. All of the drivers are made of high quality material (not paper)and they deliver the goods.

Similar Products Used:

fisher, cerwin-vega, aiwa, sony

Excellent build/design: nice, heavy weight for an 8" cabinet; great frontal styling; nice and slim.

Sound is excellent for price: doesn't distort at high-levels; bass is very good for an 8" sub; works well with just about any genre of sound.

Pretty good warranty (@ 5 years)

If the N38s have one major design flaw, it is that they tip forward on carpet, hard or soft. Everyone else seemed to have the same complaint and JBL should remedy it fast. I put some mouse pads under mine and it helped, but no one should have to do that.

You get great bass, but is is definitely 8" bass. For truly booming bass, you'll need a subwoofer to hit those deliciously low frequencies.

My set up:

Yamaha 5240 A/V receiver
JBL N38s
10" Soundstream subwoofer (yes, it's 4 Ohm)
Denon CD Player
Techniques turntable

Overall, I'm very pleased with the price/performance of the N38s, but that pesky design flaw does not merit 5 stars.

Similar Products Used:

Cerwin Vega E712

Satisfying bass, super appearance

Based on the reviews I read here, I went ahead and bought a pair. They were $119 each at consumer-direct.com (highly recommended - my 2nd purchase there), plus tax (I'm in NC, so are they) and shipping. About $300 total for the pair. These do very well for general audio: rock, classical, jazz, whatever. I don't have an HT setup, so can't offer an opinion on what they're like for movies and TV. For general listening, there's no need for a subwoofer. At soft volumes, I turn on the Loudness on my receiver, and life is bliss.

Similar Products Used:

My first tower speakers; replacing one-way bookshelf style

Clean strong bass, much better than the mushy-sounding 10-inch N310 model.

Highs a little too hot and sizzly from CDs.

Excellent range and clean bass. Look great, not too big. Better than any other speaker in this price range. Bought them Feb 2001 for $287/pair from Yahoo/dynadirect -- but a month later the price is $398 (same price as Best Buy). Higher price lowers my Value Rating, but still the best.

Similar Products Used:

Tested Yamaha and Cerwin-Vega in same price range.