Digital amp, Price

Reliability

I purchased this in Jan 99 so I have had plenty of time to make an educated review. The first thing I noticed when I got it home was that the enclosure was damaged. Back to Circuit City I go, swap it for another one and all was well until just recently. It started re-producing sound all by itself! The stereo receiver was OFF! Boom...Boom...BOOM BOOM. So I disconnect the signal cable and its still makes this annoying thumping and booming sound. So its off to Circuit City again. Well a long story short, it needs an amp module and a capacitor. $153.00 is the estimate! The 1 year Electronics warranty has expired but the 5 year speaker warranty is still in effect. I have never pushed this sub really hard and find this defect in it to be a crock! It was never turned up more than 1/2 way on the level adjustment knob. So its the waiting game until its fixed. When it was working it sounded great. It did indeed bring the room to life. So as far as performing its role in my home theater set-up it did what was required. I just hope that this is not a reliability problem for all of you guys when its a year old or so. I did try using with speaker level inputs and then composite hook-ups. It sounded great both ways. In my opinion JBL has a good product, I just got the lemon of the bunch. Thats too bad because this was my first JBL product. I am a big Sony fan and 90% of my home audio componets are Sony ES line products. I am just disappointed that its costs half as much of a "new" JBL sub to get it fixed. Well I must admit that without the sub the home system lacks the umph!, that I have learned to love. Who stole my THUNDER?

Similar Products Used:

Kenwood

Strong tight base tones, Will crack foundation with little 10" woofer.

No auto shut off, light always stays on

I have not had the above nightmares occur with this sub yet...I have had it for 8 months. I was immediately concerned about the constant power flow through the amp even when reciever off so I took to unplugging it regularly. It seems that it needs a better auto off switch to protect the innards. The amp performs valiantly and fills my 25'x 20' room with deep rich bass. I wouldn't know why somebody would need more bass in this size room unless of course you have something against your neighbors. I got this one from CC with a display discount and paid 200 bucks. Hopefully it continues to perform. At this point I give this sub the highest marks.

Rec: Sony STRD635
Fronts: JBL S310
Rear: JBL S38
Center: JBL SCENTER
SUB: JBL PSW110

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AR

Great 5.1 sound

Blew up after 17 months. Scared the hell out of me.

Update of my 5/23/00 review. First, correct model year to 1998. Next, have had the sub repaired. A filter blew to pieces and allowed A/C directly into the speaker. Suspect this is similar to other reported failures. Repair cost $44.50 by JBL authorized repair shop. Reasonable. DVD 5.1 system again sounds great. Will advise of any future failures. This is second and last chance for this sub. Four stars. . . .if it doesn't fail again. However, will unplug before leaving for any significant period of time.

Similar Products Used:

None

Great bass, small size

This sub woofer really made my home theater complete. I'm very happy with the JBL it's 10" element gives great tight bass and the 150 watt digital amp provides plenty of punch. I have it in a pretty big room and it fills it with great lows and big explosions from DVDs. You can't go wrong with the PSW110 unless it's with the PSW112.

Great Bass, no rattles, good for even large rooms

None so far

This is a good subwoofer for any type of audio system. It's great in the basement because nothing really rattles much so it's nice for audio and for movies. I have it hooked up to a Sony-DE835 receiver with 6 speakers, so I know that the other speakers aren't overpowering it since the bass is strictly coming from the subwoofer. I got it for about $200 which was a great price from the retail value. I would recommend this for any person interested in a great bass sound.

Sound Good when not blowing up

Blows up

This is an indictment of Best Buy more than any thing else. Let me say that I've gone through two of these units in 18 months. The same reason as most of the other posts.
I tried to return this piece of crap to Best Buy for exchange or store credit. No way said the store manager. I said I don't want this any more. It was even suggested that had I spent more money at the store I might have gotten better service. The speaker is now out for repair (2 months now).
Check this out bestbuysuxs.org before you frequent this poor excuse for a retailer.

Sounded good at first

Blew up 4 months after the warrenty expired

It was a decent sub at first. I had some problems with the sub 'wakeing' - It took moderate volume levels to get it to power up.
One day, I came home to the sound of a motorboat - It was the sub. It just made this loud rumbling sound when it was plugged in. JBL offered to fix it for free, so I sent it off. It came back (2 months later) sounding better, but it was still screwed, and had cosmetic damage from shipping it back and fourth.
JBL then offered to send me a brand new PB10 as a replacement. The PB10 is a much better sub - By far.

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PB10 (which I now own - JBL gave this to me for free)

Good sound

Poor reliability.

I bought this thing from Circuit City back in December 1998. It worked fine until October 1999, when it just quit producing any output. Circuit City repaired for free because it was inside the manufacturer's warranty period. Said they replaced both electronics and speaker. Now, in October 2000, it has failed again. This time there is a constant buzzing noise when the speaker is plugged into AC power, regardless of connections to input terminals. Woke me up at 2:30 AM. I thought the buzzer on my clothes dryer was going off continuously or something. I'm guessing the repairs will be around $150. For another $150 or so, I think I'll buy a different subwoofer.

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none

VERY LOUD AND LOW. Nice set of features and adjustments for the price

OK, I read all of the reviews and now I am nervous....Low somtimes on music are a little boomy.Home theater is good

What? Me worried? Yes...but so far so good. I had no idea the amount of bass this thing puts out. I have a fairly big living room and this thing can crack the plaster. Try Lost in Space sometime. I did manage to blow a fuse one time while plugging it back into wall. A on off switch would have been nice. I usually leave it plugged in. Otherwise I love it. It is about one year old and has not blown up yet. Sounds kind of muddy on music CD's but not too bad. Movies are great. It really compliments my other JBL HLS Series speakers well. I will be the first to write back and give it a shi**y review if it blows up. So far so good.....

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1st sub

Good natural solid base
easy to use
good crossover and phase controls
front firing

Looks kind of funky

I have had this for a year now and it has worked very well. It sounds great. Adds alot to movies and music with low notes.

I find it provides plenty of tight high quality base and has worked reliably.

Other components of the system KSB 10.5 Klipsch mains, Klipsch center and surround speakers driven by Newcastle 925 reciever. DVD, CD, and Turntable sources.