I lucked into these bad boys at a garage sale for $3.00! (The speakers seem to be in reasonable shape, and during testing, did not show any signs of damage or neglect.) I'd guesstimate that they're from 2000 - this is the age of the CD player the couple was also selling.

They sound... OK. A bit tinny, and not much of a soundstage or very good imaging, but the highs were decent. From the review, it seems as if these speakers would be about a $200 speaker in a big-box store, and are suited for pairing with a cheaper integrated amp.

My basis of reference are two really good speakers in a similar class - Mark 1 Paradigm Titans and current-model Paradigm Atoms. I'd say that current Paradigm Atoms are a better speaker in bass response, and that they have a brighter midrange and a clearer upper end. Not too far off 'tho. Paradigm Titans are an even less-flattering comparison. Next to the Titans (which, in fairness, are bigger and have a 6-1/2" woofer and a great Vifa tweeter), the JBL's soundstage is very small, the mids are a bit muddy and there just doesn't seem to be anywhere near the space or imaging. Granted, the Mark 1 Titans are excellent speakers, were steal for $300-400 new in the early '90s, and were made in North America. (My two sets cost $100 and $120, both in great shape. I sold the Atoms - still good speakers - and kept the Titans.) The JBL's are are about on par with a set of Bose 301's, and are better than all-in-ones I've heard.

I was running a NAD 7220PE integrated amp, 14-ga cable, proper stands, and a mid-grade Technics '90s CD player. I was listening to Sleater-Kinney - The Hot Rock and Cocteau Twins - Victorialand.

Anyways, they're great for $3.00 and I'll use them for rear surrounds. If you're paying new price or fair used price, I'd look for the lower end of the Paradigm Monitor series, PSB Alphas or something else. Actually, the Polk RTi series is a step up from these too.

Small, and they match my JBL800 speakers. Nice little bookshelf speakers

Compared to the 800 series they do sound weaker, but I bought them for low volume casual listening.

I found these speakers to be a nice complement to my JBL 800's. They are by no means high powered speakers that can be driven at loud volumes, but I installed them in my bedroom to listen to quiet music at night or when someone is watching television and I would like to listen to tunes. For this work they perform just fine, and the sound reproduction for the size is quite pleasing to my ears anyway.

Similar Products Used:

JBL 800

Size

Sound Quality

I recently dicovered AUDIOREVIEW.com and I don't remember how much did I pay for this speakers maybe $70 , now they are being priced at $250 by etown, you must be insane to buy this equipment at such price, they are not worth more than $30 each.

Similar Products Used:

Atlantic Technology 151 LR

I am using these for my secondary set up in my basement.
For the size, they do just fine. I have the ARC JBL with Titanium Tweet upstairs with my Harmon Kardan avr55 and DSP-10 sub. They are outstanding.

But for casual listening, these hang in there.

Value price

For what I paid and use them for - None.

These speakers were purchased for surround use only. The small size and price made them perfect for the job. I might not think as much of them for main speaker use but then again they were less than $30.00 each. If you are going to use the speakers for stereo of bookshelf use - always try to listen before buying. The JBL800 would make more sence for non-surround use.

Similar Products Used:

Fisher ST-56B, Optimus pro LS-5

Good surround speakers

not very good for general music

I got these from Best Buy last summer. I need a good pair of surround speakers and they were currently out of the HLS 410s. For surround sound and movies these work great. I have no complaints in that area. But I do not recommend them as general speakers. I have seen them on sale for around $30 a pair, so if you need a cheap, decent pair of surround speakers these will work

Similar Products Used:

None

Value, appearance, warranty

Frequency response.

For the money, these are reasonable speakers. Those expecting to fill a large room with earth shattering bass and clean, clear, accurate highs.... get real. For a small dorm room or as surround speakers, they are perfectly adequate. They are now the surround speakers in my dolby digital setup and they work great.

Similar Products Used:

Infiniti RS1001, Yamaha NS-A638

These speakers didn't impress me much at all. There's not much distortion but the response isn't very clear. At the price I got them (149.99$ CDN), they weren't worth it. Maybe for 50 bucks it would be a different story.

I returned them about two weeks after I purchased them and got Infinity RS-1s instead. Much better!

They're not disaster speakers, but not very impressive either.

Small, inexpensive, looks OK, sounds pretty good given the modest cost

Lacks detail at the top end, ony modest bass output (but what did you expect for $100 Canadian?), spring clips on the back

First things first: if you're looking for hifi, high sound pressure levels, boasting rights and so on, look elsewhere. These little speakers will not satisfy any of the above requirements. But, if you're looking for something to put in the front room for casual music use, or possibly as surround speakers, as others have suggested, these may well do the trick nicely. I bought these to replace my Infinity Reference 30 full range towers which went downstairs into the basement to take on the role of fronts in my home theatre setup. Because of the layout of my house (a long front room underneath the main, guest and baby's bedrooms), it's just not possible to crank 'em up at night, and my main requirement for them is for casual listening in the evening while reading, studying, drinking tea, etc., or background music at modest volume while entertaining. (If I want to turn the noise up, watch movies, etc., it's down to the basement with me, where the extra floor and concrete walls on all sides insulates me from both family and neighbours.) I have the the 500s paired with a Marantz PM-80 stereo amp running in class A mode at 30W per channel and a Marantz CD-72, both oldies (circa '93) but goldies, and the speakers do a decent job of interpreting the high quality of the Marantz's output. On a pair of two foot stands, about a foot from the wall, and at modest volume, they have a mid-range clarity which might surprise you. Bass output is modest but what there is is firm and, especially when properly mounted on stands, the top end is brighter and more detailed than might be expected, though there is clearly a couple of decibels' roll-off starting somewhere around the mid-highs. The original score of "Blade Runner" by Vangelis I listened to this afternoon was actually pretty involving heard through them. Which is not to say that they sound fantastic; they don't. But they do the job I bought them for, and do it, within the self-evident limitations of a small, cheap, bookshelf speaker, pretty well. Will they shake the room? No, of course not. Will they put your $1000+ full tower speakers to shame? Refer to previous answer. But, depending on your requirements and circumstances, these little speakers may well work well for you. They do for me, and I would suggest you have a look and listen to them if your requirements are similar to mine. After all, how wrong can you go for $100 CAD?

Similar Products Used:

Infinity RS2s, Reference 30's, US-1s, various Tannoys.

Inexpensive, decent build-quality, fair sound

Poor imaging, need eq to get best out of them

I wanted some halfway-decent rear surround speakers for my home set up and listened to these and some similar priced Sony's. Performance was about the same but the JBL's looked better and were $10 cheaper. They're rather poor as main speakers, needing some EQ (especially in the high-end, probably due to the cheap cone tweeters) but fine as surrounds or upgrades for all-in-one systems. They're made in China of course, and for $50 a pair don't expect genuine JBL monitor-speaker quality, but if you accept their limitations they're fine little speakers.

Similar Products Used:

Sony Surrounds