Customer Ratings & Reviews

I have done some extensive research trying to find the speakers set for my home theater (Pioneer AV Receiver, Internet Media Center, Cable box all connected via HDMI to the Reciver) I needed something compact with good frequency range, and these speakers met and exceeded all of my expectation for easiness of installation, frequency range, and components that came in the box. Subwoofer was much bigger and better than I expected, cables were long enough to connect rear surround speakers and have cable hidden under the carpet running against 3 walls of the pretty large living room. Be advised that center speaker DOES NOT come with the mount, so you will have to figure out your mounting options based on your TV setting. The only one down side so far, was that the speakers grills are not removable.

I was replacing old JBL surround speakers that were great and also economically priced in their day, so when it came time for new ones I went with a JBL package set again. After reading a number of reviews here and at other sites I saw a similar trend in rankings, high, and I bought them witrhouth listening to them, my mistake. Taking the issues by importance would put the sound first, I suspect this in a large degree is shaped by the very small size of the speakers and the inability to deliver a clean mid-range and no bass to speak of, while it is fine to rely on a sub-woofer for pounding lows, you still need reasonable base and mid-range from the surround speakers. Don't look to these speakers for rich sound, they sound like small speakers and they are." The next issue is the center, starting with voices, the center is supposed to be voice-cental in a surround however these JBL's took that to the extreme and the center is not well balanced with the front sides making the voice dominate everything, I had to set the center at -10dB lower than the left/right fronts to balance it. The issue is you have to compromise, for the best voice you will never hear the sides well and when the sides are ideal the center is out, the balance can be made fair with enough tuning, thus my fair rating on the sound, out of the box it is poor. L/R Front sides are also just fair on sound quality and in the form factor the last thing that will come to mind while listening to these is "big theater" . L/R Rear are the same speakers as the fronts but with a different job to do they actually perform at least above average, did not take much adjusting to bring them in nicely, and they are good on filler-sound and effects, like panning a room and hearing the sound move around you. Until you get the L/F Front and center adjusted this effect is more or less lost as the front center just over powers everything. Sub-Woofer was also OK, not great but ok, it did have a little trouble at very high volume on Top Gun and Saving Srg Ryan where the low bass got a little muddy but again not bad. I may have been jaded by the prior set of JBL's, these remind me if PC speakers, small, a tad tinny, and slightly muddy bass but can be made to have a fair sound overall. So on the Ratings: Overall -- Fair because at the price and with a reasonable receiver you can adjust them to sound fair. Value for Price -- This was a hard one, for me the value was 0 as I have replaced them already and am packing them up for return, but I gave fair since I have heard worse by folks that paid more. Sound Quality -- Also a fair taking into account the cost and again with enough tuning you can get a fair sound out of them. Ease of Set-Up -- I had to go with poor, not that they are hard to plug in or anything, but it takes a lot of patience to dial these in for a fair to below average surround experience. Appearance -- They do look good, even if they are plastic and not wood. My advice, listen first if you are accustomed to the sound of JBL's, if these are your first suppound speakers you could do a lot worse and pay more.

Purchased these along with a 550W Denon receiver and have found them to be an excellent choise at the $200 price point. This is my first surround sound system, but have heard plenty of other more expensive setups and to be honest, to the average listener, its hard to tell the difference (except for my stepdad's $10,000 set up - you would think you were in a movie theatre, but we're talking a mere $200 beans here). I can crank these speakers up and the basement booms with the subwoofer - I was pleasantly surprised with this. I'm not sure why the poor reviews on these - maybe those people didn't have a powerful enough reciever to run them perhaps. My basement is rectangular and dimensions are 13' x 21', plus an 8' drop tile ceiling. Maybe this is why I am so pleased with the purchase - I might have the perfect room size, but I think even rooms up to 25 x 25 or so would sound great too. Wires that came with it were plenty long enough. Had to get a subwoofer cable online, but it was only $5 at monoprice.com. Movies and XboX have really come to life with these!

easy to install if u know how to hook up speakers correctly already. if u don't ask a friend that does. make sure your receiver has a subwoofer plug area. most need a y adaptor. the manual is a lil confusing if u don't understand sound but thats what the internet is for. the speaker wires are included and they are super long. along with the speakers having the brackets to place on the wall you are pretty much set to enjoy right after you hook it all up. just check your receiver for needed adapters.

Coming from regular TV speakers, this set rocks my 18' x 18' room. I hooked it up to a rear wireless system and it sounds great. It's easy to set up, it looks nice and it's quite compact too. I use it for my karaoke mixer and my old 5.1 receiver and I have a commercial-worthy home made karaoke bar room for 20 people.

This system is a nice size for a small to medium size room. The base is strong and the front and rear speakers are small but fill in the sound well. I used them in our family room and it worked out well for just sitting on the couch and enjoying a movie. Probobly not the setup you would want for a loud large movie room, but great for what I needed.

I had a cheap surround system that was unable to clearly handle the background sound from the Blu-ray. These JBL's not only handle it, but handle it with ease. I cranked the sound all the way up and there was zero distortion. The sub woofer is excellent an I am very pleased with my purchase!

I bought this system as a system to go into my room for music and entertainment purposes, but mostly for music. I bought these because i am a huge fan of JBL and they have done good for me. And boy did they do a good job with these! As soon as I took the speakers out of the box I could tell that they were incredibly well constructed. They were completely set up in less than 30 minutes and i was shaking the house in 35! Sound: The Satellites have very crisp sound for being such small 2 way speakers, and they create an incredible surround effect when paired with the right reciever. The Subwoofer is by far the most powerful 8" woofer i've heard in a long time, pair it with a good bass conducting subwoofer cable and you'll have incredibly rich, deep sounding bass. Overall: This is a fantastic product for an amazing price! I gave the sound quality a 4/5 because these speakers, although they are incredible speakers, are no Bowers and Wilkins speakers. They are the best quality you can probably get for the price, and are the best sounding budget system i've heard in most of my audiophile life. But they are not the best speakers i've ever heard. If you're on a small budget, and want a nice home theater speaker system, this is the system for you.

I am pleasantly surprised! The surround is outstanding with my older Aiwa receiver and the sub provides more than enough booming bass. I have the sub level at about 65% and it's still more than enough. I highly recommend these speakers if you need excellent surround sound on a budget.

You want a really good sound system for your home this is probably the one you are looking for..

if you're willing to do what it takes to perfect a theater system, then this one is the one for you

I have great sound quality compared to my old set of speakers.

The system fit in with my LG55LH90 HDYV and good sound

I bought this product based on the price and the reviews I read online. It seemed like the best bang for my buck. If you are looking for a system that will shake your house/apartment, this is not it. It sounds like what you would expect for the price. They are good speakers for your first surround sound system. The main reason I gave it 1 star was because about two months after purchase, the subwoofer started emitting a very high pitched ringing that was unbearable. I am currently in the midst of dealing with JBL support to get things fixed. I was not looking for a headache like this when I bought it. I might just go back to Best Buy and buy a quality sub from some other brand. Notes: I'm using the speaker system with a Pioneer VSX-820-K receiver, maybe that's the issue!

This product is great and the price was very resonable