Nice natural sound.

Heavy, big? I don''''t mind.

Just got these last Monday (2/11/02) and now it''''s only Friday. However, I''''ve been going around and listens to comparable price speakers for a while. Those others that I looked at were Bose, Infinity and Polk. I''''m using these for my stereo setup. It''''s hooked to a Denon DRA-685 and I''''ve got a nice but inexpensive Kenwood CD-206 cd changer. To me, the Bose 701 II look good but the way they try to enhance the bass causes the sound to be muddy. You could not hear anything else clearly except for the thump, thump, thump. Then it was down to the Polk RT800i and the Infinity IL40. The Polk sounded good. Solid, but then on certain music, the bass was too much. And almost like the Bose, the sound became too muddy. So, it was just the JBL and the Infility IL40. Both have nice clear sounds. You could hear the little details in the music that are lost in the Bose and the Polk. Both have good solid bass that don''''t cloud up the music. However, I felt that the Infinity produced a bit too much of the high notes for my preference. The over all sound produced was not mellow. So, I went with the JBL. I feel that, of all these speakers that I looked at, the JBL can produce the most realistic sounds. No note is killing off the other. The sounds you hear are as natural as possible. I read that some people complain that the bass is too tiny. I guess that''''s a matter of preference. To me, I feel that you should hear the music the way the people who produce it want you to hear. If the drummer softly tap his drum, I want it to come out softly. I think these speakers do just that. Overall, I feel that these are nice pair of speakers. Sure, there are better. But for this price range, the S312 is a good choice. And yes, I could have paid less if I were to get them from the internet. Oh, and I''''m giving it a 4-Stars on value because I paid basically full price for it. And the 4-Stars on the Overall Rating because there sure are better speakers out there (heck but I probably can''''t afford them).

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Tried out the Bose 701 II, Infinity IL40 and Polk RT800i.

above average sound. build is rock solid very detailed high end sound

lacking the bass youde expect from a woofer of this diameter.. this may also be one of the reasons that the midrange is lacking in detail. I have tried an EQ to get it set in and it just isnt there I had these for s312s for about 3 months before I decided to sell them.

Better than average sound.. not spectacular.(I know everyone now hates the bose sound but the 901 does sound better than the s312). most speakers that you pay more than $300.00 will sound decent. Im disapointed with the appearance. You need to have the grills on them, with the grills off they look like big toy speakers.. brushed aluminum around the smaller driver elements look cheap (the pictures dont really help) The cabinet is unreal looking. Does not fit in any modern environment. BUT... it is a solid cabinet with no vibrations. If you really want to shell out over $400 for speakers...keep looking... besides the other detractors others have mentioned.. they are better than average for speakers in this price range.. (list at $800) look into acoustic research, acoustic energy, and polk audio.. for the same price youll get an equal to / better sounding speaker.. wont take up so much living space.. and will probably better fit your living environment.

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Utah, Infinity, bose 901

Amazing sound reproduction

Weak bass at low volume levels

I auditioned quite a few speakers at local retailers before actually buying these at uBid. For the price range, I don''t think they can be beat. I thought these sounded great in the showroom, but when I got them they weren''t too impressive. After about a week, they sounded awesome. I guess these really need that break in time. The spacial clarity is excellent, as the sound fills the room really well. The highs are sweet, but not glaring, and the mids are perfect. The bass sounds good at moderate to high volume levels, but they are kinda weak at low volume levels. Contrary to some of the other opinions, I think these sound great in my home theater. I do think though, you must have a decent subwoofer to think so. They are quite big, but that''s the way I like them. I don''t really like the beech color either, but at $375 I didn''t really care.

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Klipsch, Polk, Boston Acoustics, Energy

Amazing sound reproduction

Weak bass at low volume levels

I auditioned quite a few speakers at local retailers before actually buying these at uBid. For the price range, I don''t think they can be beat. I thought these sounded great in the showroom, but when I got them they weren''t too impressive. After about a week, they sounded awesome. I guess these really need that break in time. The spacial clarity is excellent, as the sound fills the room really well. The highs are sweet, but not glaring, and the mids are perfect. The bass sounds good at moderate to high volume levels, but they are kinda weak at low volume levels. Contrary to some of the other opinions, I think these sound great in my home theater. I do think though, you must have a decent subwoofer to think so. They are quite big, but that''s the way I like them. I don''t really like the beech color either, but at $375 I didn''t really care.

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Klipsch, Polk, Boston Acoustics, Energy

Excellent midrange and tweeter construction. Power handling capacity. Sleek looks.

Weak bass for such a large speaker

I am powering these JBLs with a Denon 2801. Every type of sound that I throw at these are reproduced with crystal clear clarity. You will hear even the most subtle sounds in music and movies that you most likely have never heard before (if you have a lower quality speaker of course). You can play these extremely loud without any degradation in sound. In order to really feel the bass from these speakers you must crank up the volume. This poses a problem for me because, in my opinion, for such a large speaker, you should not have to do this. I expected the 12 inch woofer to give punchy bass at lower volumes. But then again, if you have a subwoofer, this problem goes away because that takes care of the lows and much much more. All in all, I am satisfied with these speakers because of their power handling and extremely good clarity, but if you are looking for great bass in a tower unit, listen to other towers first.

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None.

Highs, Mids, Lows.

These puppies are huge.

Just got my set, for about a week now. These speakers sound great, moved my N 38's to the rear. I can 't say enough about them that hasn't been said. My wife came home from work after I had them all hooked up, asked what are those two big black refrigerators doing in the other room lol? If you want a great sounding speaker a great price go for it. Thanks to all reviews before me you are right,SUPER.

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Jbl N38

Huge sound with detail

OH_BOY These are big speakers that produce huge sound. Super highs ...Super lows and Super Mid-range. A big speaker that works hard.I have heard notes that I have not heard before. HomeTheater with JBL S-Series is a wonderful experience. Yes, they play music just as well. Construction is solid, the finish is perfect. James B. Lansing should be proud.

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Infinity and Bose

Great Sound ! Tight Bass! Crystal Clear Highs!

None So Far !

First I would like to thank all the fellow reviewers for their replys to my questions I E-mailed them about concerning these speakers. You guys were a great help! I finnally recieved these today.Took a while to ship out cause of the holidays.I hooked them up,and they sound great! I have no complaints about the Bass being weak. The more you crank them up, the tighter the bass gets. No rumble from the woofer at all. I have a 7 band/channel EQ that I will no longer need. The receiver I have has a "loudness" button,and simple Bass and Treble adjustments, and these are the only speakers I have owned that I have not had to do any EQ adjustments with. The sound is very clear and balanced. Now I need a better receiver to do them justice. I have a Pioneer VSX-509S hooked up to them now.These speakers get very loud and clean at higher volumes, but what scares me is my receiver is rated at 0.8% THD. I'm affraid at high volumes this kind of distortion will damage the tweeters.If any of you guys that own these speakers have a recommendation for a good "stereo" only receiver that will do these speakers justice, E-me and let me know.Something in the $400 range. I been looking at the Harmon Kardon HK 3470, and Onkyo TX8511. It's hard to find a receiver with all the features I'm looking for. Bass,Treble,Loudness, and a learning remote. Also, some features don't work with the remotes either,like the Bass and Treble adjustments.Thats not really a problem, but would like a "loudness" button. I might just get an older Pioneer SX-1280, or older Marantz, or Sansui.No remote controls, but pure clean DC power.I no longer have a "home theater" setup, so I'm looking for just a nice clean stereo receiver.
Thanks

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Old Pioneer 15" 3-ways
KLH 15" 3-ways
Bose AM 10 System (not good for music at all !)

Nice deep bass, not boomy or overpowering, pretty even output, nice treble, massive power handling.

Heavy.. but this is really quite necessary to make good sound I think. Treble is harsh sometimes but I think it is the recording rather than the speakers.

I bought these speakers because they have a 12" woofer and I liked the idea of not needing a subwoofer (for several reasons - no problems getting it to match with the speakers, bass is in stereo etc). I'm very happy with them, my only wish could be that there was a driver larger than the 4"/10cm and smaller than the 12"/30cm. However I'm quite impressed with the midrange despite it being split between these two. People who complain that these don't put out enough bass need to turn up the "bass" knob on their equipment. Normally these speakers output a pretty appropriate amount of bass but they certainly can handle making more.

I have these hooked up to an Odyssey Stratos amp (150W per channel) and they really do a marvellous job. Playing some cinematic scores (by Danny Elfman) makes me feel like I've never heard music sound as good as this at any theatre. I have no doubt that this combination would be able to belt out enough sound to have a party.

I compared these to the Infinity RS-5s with the same setup and was surprised that the RS-5s with their much smaller (8"/20cm) drivers were able to keep up in the bass department and prehaps put out a little more midrange, but the JBL's titanium tweeters were definately a little better than the silk dome tweeters in the Infinitys, and the bass definately gets a little more deep with the JBLs.

Overall these speakers are great value for the price. They're pretty big, but so is the sound. I can't really fault these; I have nothing significantly better to compare them to. I think they would be great as the front speakers in a home theatre setup (I wouldn't bother with a centre speaker if I had these in that situation). Make sure your amplifier is powerful enough to put out the bass that these deserve.

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Infinity RS-5

Remarkable transients, speed, and dynamics. Superb clarity and bass.

Imagery not totally coherent; slight steeliness in upper mids.

At their price these are an unparalleled bargain in my experience. A genuine full-range speaker, these make far more expensive high-end speakers like the ones mentioned above sound toylike by comparison in terms of weight and scale. Rock bands have lifelike drive and power and drums sound as though they're really being hit.
They have remarkable clarity with monitor-like ability to resolve the different instruments in a mix; superb bass with both weight and exceptional pitch-definition; fine variation in tone-colours; and generally a vivid sense of the instruments and vocals being right there in the room with you.
Imagery however while having lifelike scale and palpability doesn't have the coherence of a minimonitor like the Electrocompaniet Qube (although this is only noticeable in direct comparison).
And on classical music they have some minor metallic colourations and some small response irregularities that may make them less attractive to chamber-music aficionados. On big orchestral works, however, the sense of musical involvement is such as to override these minor considerations.

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ProAc Response 2; Electrocompaniet Qube; Apogee Stage.