The E250P performs very well for the price range it sells at. The only advice I can give to everybody that owns it is this, DO NOT USE "the auto on" feature! That is what causes this sub as well as many others to burn up sooner or later. Simply shut the sub off when not in use, it will last a lot longer and be trouble free! The "auto on" circuit has been the problem with several different subwoofer amps over the last few years and has caused the same problem as the reviewer below experienced. Other than that, keep the frequency adjusted to below 80Hz for clean bass!

I bought this subwoofer 6 years ago and I have ran it with a Yamaha receiver and as far as sound quality goes it did sound good up untill yesterday when the crazy thing all of a sudden caught fire in the plate amp on the back panel and quit working all together plus stinking up the house with the smell of burnt capacitors and transisters. Up until that point it did do a good job and never distorted. I did take it apart and found a few things that JBL did skip or do wrong to save money and time. they did not line the cabinet walls with any kind of dampening material or use any sort of polly stuffing which the poly stuffing is optional to tune the box. And they used 5/8" thick MDF for the box construction instead of the normal 3/4 or even 1 inch thick matterial which would have been better. In fact I would tell anyone still using this subwoofer to at least take the woofer out and line the cabinets with a dampening material and possibly tune with poly stuffing for your use. I really think this would help an allready good for the money subwoofer. the woofer in mine is still good so most likely I will get a new plate amp from Parts Express and use this woofer and cabinet at least for now untill I want to completely change the woofer and cabinet. I have allready rated this product a few years ago as excellent and would still do so for the money spent if it would not have tried to burn my house down.

Clean, deep bass. Excellent in either stereo mode or surround. Very reasonably priced compared to the quality.

None.

I have owned this product for about 2 years. Hasn't disappointed me yet. I use it with a JVC RX-9010 5.1 surround sound receiver, JBL EC35 center channel, a couple of Polk Audio RT25 rears and Mirage Frx-seven in the front. All 6 produce a sound that can make it feel like Dave Matthews is in your living room. Used in either stereo or surround mode, it produces everything you need to hear from a subwoofer. A nice feature is that you can pump it up enough to make you sick of the bass and then draw back on it until you reach your preferred level of growl. I owned a couple of subs before buying this one and was never happy. I got lucky and waited until the price came down before buying it. Now I see them on eBay occasionally for less than $300. If you can buy it for that, I would highly recommend it. And unless you're trying to light up a concert hall, you won't need more wattage.

Customer Service

Haven't needed it.

Sounds good while it lasts!

It will die on you in less than 2 years!

Great subwoofer WHILE IT LASTS! I had a PB12, same subwoofer except it was a down-firing design. Exact same circuit board! I mostly used it for TV audio. It died 3 months after the 1 year warranty was up. I found out on the internet that was typical, and JBL would not repair them! It was a flawed design!

So I contacted the the Harman Consumer Group (JBL) and they sold me a replacement E250P for about $250. This one lasted almost 2 years! It has the exact same circuit board as the PB12, and the exact same fried componentsI Good luck with your JBL piece of junk!

Customer Service

They won't fix them!

Similar Products Used:

JBL PB12.

tight, clean loud bass. price.

wish it had front slot venting.. bass is directed away from infront on my HDTV.. dont know what happened there. other then that nothing

ok.. my system is as follows : receiver - Yamaha HTR-5890 Fronts - JBL E60 Center - EC35 rears yamaha's with 8" woofers.. dont know model..
all i can say is wow.. im constantly getting yelled at to turn it down.. long range loud tight nd clean sound.. for the price cant beat it.. i was looking at a velodyne but went with this.. sound alot better then the DSP-12 hey im 15 years old..and i know what im doing..

Similar Products Used:

DSP-12, a few infinity's and some stuff from local stores

Lots of Wattage
Gives you options on bass effects

This thing is huge and heavy
Really takes up alot of room
Not very attractive but you buy it for the sound

I bought a Yamaha Home theater system and was very discouraged on how much Bass the speakers and the sub put out. In fact, the Yamaha (can't remember the model #) sub would crack if I turned it up half way. I started researching different subs and even went to Best Buy to test some out. The E250 outperformed all the others I tested so I bought it online. The Yamaha sub had 90 watts of power and this sub maxes out at 550 so my heart literally skipped a beat when I turned the sub 3/4 of the way up and listend to the Matrix shooting scene. The sub not only has a ton of power but the bass doesn't sound cheap. The bass hits the real low sounds so you can sit back and feel T-REX walking. The sub allows you to adjust for different sounds if you don't have big speakers. It even allows you to send the bass out in a delay so it may sound better in the room you are in. I have owned this sub for three years and never once has it cracked or given me any problems.

Similar Products Used:

JBL
Yamaha
Sony

PRICE(you can get it around $200 somthin' online), 550W max handling, tight & accurate bass, 12inch.

Control panel is on the back and hard to reach!

I don't have any complaint about the sound quality but as I mentioned above, the control panel needs to be somewhere easy-reaching area like on top or something. This monster is pretty HEAVY and hard for me to tilt it to reach for the back control panel...but who cares?(I do...) Since this sub is POWERFUL(250w RMS),some people worries that this might overpowers your room but you know what?? Almost any sub has a VOLUME CONTROL and all you have to do is just turn it down a little that's all. Oh yeah, one thing this MONSTER amazes me is how ACCURATE & TIGHT sound it can produce EVEN IN LOW VOLUME LEVEL! A lot of sub woofers(include high ends) get muddy if you turn the bass way down...Not on this sub! I would recommend this sub to anyone who wants a good quality sub but don't want to spend $1000. In my(and experts) opinion for sub, BIGGER is BETTER, so forget the less expensive E150P(10inch)and go for this MONSTER E250(12inch) You will not be disappointed!

Low cost, solid construction, deep powerful sound.

Anything loose in the room will rattle, be prepared to add a few drywall screws and trim nails to mouldings.

Review: JBL E-250 Subwoofer. I purchased this subwoofer to complement my home theater system consisting of: Main’s: JBL E100’s (three way using dual 10 inch woofers, 4 inch midrange and .75 inch titanium dome tweeter). Center channel: JBL E35 (three way using two 5 woofers 3 inch midrange and .75 titanium dome tweeter). Surrounds: JBL E10’s (2 way using one 4 inch woofer and one .75 inch titanium dome tweeter). Although quite satisfied with the bass response of my main speakers I wanted to add that extra kick only a subwoofer can provide. Naturally since the rest of the system was all JBL Northridge I first considered the JBL E250. Doing some research and comparison shopping on the JBL and for other brands and considering price and specifications I ordered the E250. Hookup was easy using the LFE (subwoofer) output on my receiver and setting the E250 mode switch to LFE, only one RCA type connection was required. Plug in AC power to subwoofer and you are ready to rock. First impressions: The unit is a lot bigger than it looks in the pictures online, the construction looks solid and the finish of high quality. Also the input section is quite flexible; you can use the RCA connection or connect parallel left and right speaker connections. The RCA type LFE connection is superior if your receiver is so equipped. With just a few minutes break in started listing to various sources, this sub definitely adds a deep solid boost of bass to the system and can play really loud! I would characterize the bass as being smooth and tight, bass guitars and kick drums sounding natural with lifelike dynamics. Also the normal 2 db bass boost used on the receiver was now unnecessary, freeing up some power for the rest of the system. The sub blends well with the rest of the system and doesn’t draw attention away from the center channel and mains. Watching DVD’s with DTS 5.1 audio is quite an experience, the deep guttural rumble previously heard through the mains takes on a new dimension. The room is suddenly in motion and everything not tied down starts to rattle, at first this is disconcerting but after making some level adjustments and moving loose objects from the room it certainly adds the home theater experience. Conclusion: Considering the price this sub is quite a bargain and its performance is very good. Bigger more expensive subwoofers will go lower and bang harder but I found the performance of the E250 more than adequate. Reliability so far is unknown; warrantee on speaker is 5 years only 1 year on electronics.

Similar Products Used:

Axiom, Velodyne, Klipsch, Infinity

LOUD. Deep and quick. Recommended for a sound system that you are trying to keep under $1000.

Big Not the most attractive. Not as tight as others in its price range (at full retail).

I just picked this up from Best Buy and played with it listening to various sources. I'm quite impressed! Bass isn't as tight as some that I've heard... but its fast and deep (goes down steady to 30hz then drops off quickly... but I can't hear much below 30hz anyway). At full msrp its not a great deal... you could get an SVS or HSU for this price that would knock its socks off. But if you can get it for under $250 (many online resellers can offer this) then it'd be a great buy.

Similar Products Used:

Hsu, Yamaha, Klipsch, etc

Economical bottom end enhansement to my "Not Quite Audiophile" set up. Tight deep bass.

Construction leaves a little to be desired.

After reading the reviews, I decided to give the E250P a shot. I was looking for re-inforcement at the "Deep End" for my Polk RTi-100 speakers. They are bi-amped towers that give a nice overall response (a little peaky in the mids) but go soft once the bass goes deep. You can only got so much from a small driver, no matter how fancy the porting and design. The E250P was wired in using the "B" speaker connects, as the Luxman LV-105 does not offer pre-outs sor a sub. At first, base was deep, but a little muddy. Not much definition. I had also dicided to re-tube the pre amp section as well. When the new, matched tubes showed up from Ultimate Audio, I installed them, and the bass definition tightened right up! Now I was hearing tremendous detail, from an admittedly "budget" set up. The bass from some vinyl, such as "Simply Red's" "Sad Old Red" was remarkable. After a few weeks though, I began to hear a rattle during strident bass passages, fearing that the woofer was damaged, I listened closely and found that the floor firing port was the culprit. It is mounted using hot melt glue, poorly applied. I removed the driver, and used West Systems Epoxy to secure it, along with re-sealing the rest of the enclosure from the inside with epoxy. No more rattles! Overall, I am quite pleased with this addtition to my system. A resounding "Not Bad!" for the money spent at B&H in NYC.