Customer Ratings & Reviews

Great center speaker excellent sound. Wouldn’t by at full price as on sale enough

Great quality, good sound. I honestly cant notice a huge difference with them

Awesome speakers. I haven’t had any issues with the speaker. Been using as intended.

Excellent for atmos or surrounds. I really like these speakers.

The speaker is quite big, but worth the space. Speaker is priced well and great quality.

I recently updated my Surround Sound system to Dolby Atmos Heigh Surround Sound. The sound is wider and bold. It makes my TV Screen look bigger. I love that I made the update. LeoN FL

Pair of these speakers with brand new front speakers from JBL and the sound is amazing very happy with the purchase

Work as expected. Wish that they were wireless. The product is much better than the service at the store. Probably worst customer service experience that I have ever had.

Natural sound and enhanced the dialogue; specifically the sound tv

Sounds great and easy to set up and use. I love my new setup

The MA310 powers my JBL stage 2 surround speaker with ease and great clarity

Sounds Great!!! Would recommend JBL sound system to all

I have these paired in a 7.1 all JBL system that I am really enjoying at the moment. These particular speakers are good-looking, dark brown with black, sleek, small, and rather nondescript. They would fit in and look great in just about any home setup. Some may call them “plain,” but that is perfect for me and exactly what I was looking for. Further, I think they even look better with the grills removed, but that is obviously a personal thing. They have a good weight, and frankly were a bit heavier (a good thing to me) than they looked as well as than I was expecting. You can feel the quality. You can also see it. The connections are designed well and thought out. As were the mounting options. These are designed to either be used as Atmos speakers on top of floor standing speakers or as overhead surround speakers mounted to a wall or into a ceiling (there is an easy bypass switch). While no mounting hardware is included here, they are set up to do so with industry standard mounting options (JBL or third party) on the units themselves. Since I (at least for right now) was not putting them into my ceiling or even mounting them there (I wanted to explore the Atmos as well), I was very pleased to see the included sticky/grippy anti-slip pad. I am not certain of the materials involved here, but it secured the speakers nicely and I imagine does a little for vibrations as well. It takes a bit to get everything dialed in (position, angles, calibration…etc...), but once done, it is very much worth the effort. Honestly, it has been some time since I upgraded my setup, and this was my first experience with a full channel complement, and Atmos. I didn’t really realize how much I have been missing and how under-utilized my system has been before adding these. It’s just another level of depth and immersion that I have really liked. As always, Blade Runner made an appearance, as did Dune Part 2, and it definitely made them both even better for me. In the end, I like these speakers, and they were a great add for me. I think for where they sit in the market, they are a great value, and I definitely recommend them for anyone looking to add some more depth and texture to your movie sessions, and even more so if you are an avid film watcher.

I really got the whole sound system because my surround sound system went out

Makes syncing the entire house much easier. Love the ease of setup.

The sound was flat, lacking clarity even after upgrading the wire, and generally underwhelming. Center channels in general are not quality under a pretty high price point. I recommend using a bookshelf speaker (in place of center)

I am writing this review on the JBL Stage2 245C, 2.5 Way Quad 4.5’ Center Channel Loudspeaker. I have had the very distinct privilege of testing out all the other speakers in the Stage2 lineup. Every single one of them are true ambassadors of JBL’s (Harman-Kardon) decades-long standing as the producers of extraordinary sound equipment. The 245C is another example of JBL’s commitment to providing the listener with the ability to experience sound, not just hear it. Reading the specs you will notice that the 245C comes packed with quad 4.5” polycellulose ribbed cone woofers, and a 1’ anodized aluminum tweeter in a Next Generation HDI waveguide. The speaker also boasts a precision 2.5-way crossover, a wonderfully designed magnetically attached grille, and a dual rear-firing tuned port. I have come to realize that it is important to understand a lot of these specs, especially when making a decision on which speaker to buy. The 245C (as well as all the other speakers in the Stage2 lineup) utilizes a polycellulose ribbed cone woofer. As I did my research, I realized that this particular marriage of material and design came about to ensure that the listener can “feel” the sounds as well as hear them. In other words, to become immersed in the experience. The polycellulose “proprietary” mixture improve the rigidity of the design, as well as the ribs echo. So when you look at the speaker itself, just know those ribs aren’t there for looks. They prevent warping at higher volumes, they increase stiffness which allows for accurate detail and frequencies without distortion (like you might experience in speakers made from inferior materials), and they improve stability, delivering deep, clear and resonant bass. I have said all that to say that there isn’t anything at all about the 245C that is accidental. JBL has gone to extraordinary lengths to make sure our listening experience is as amazing as possible. The cabinet and other components of the 245C are top-notch in design, build and appearance. I have the Espresso model, and the woodgrain finish is beautiful. It exudes an air of superiority. Adding to the visual appeal is the magnetic grille which not only snaps the grille precisely into place. But hey, it has just as much visual appeal without the grille in place! The speaker weighs in at a fairly hefty 26.4 pounds. And, at W29” x D8.5” x H6.1” it is an impressive and significant addition to the overall atmosphere of your listening room. Okay, so enough about all that. The real issue here is how does it perform? Although the JBL 245C is not really designed as a standalone speaker, I have to give it its props. I was super impressed by the clarity and range with which it delivered sound. It has a low-end frequency response of 80 Hz which allows for a lot of deep resonant bass, and a high-end frequency response of 25 kHz, which allows a great delivery of upper range audio sound. For just the average person not interested in more than simply listening to music or video, the 245C would be perfect. But for an audiophile, the 245C is a worthy addition, capable of working in unity with almost any full-fledged audio system. After incorporating it with all the other speakers, it helped to create a multi-dimensional listening experience. I was transported into a different world, hearing and feeling sounds unable to be discerned in the soundbars I had once thought sufficient. It is exactly as the proverb states, “Once you have tasted the honey, it will always and forever be impossible to be satisfied with sugar.” And now that JBL has allowed me the privilege of tasting the sound-experience honey, I will never be wholly satisfied by simply listening to music or videos ever again. I am hooked by the high of immersive experience. If you are truly looking for something more than mediocrity, the 245C center speaker coupled with the other Stage2 offerings is where you need to look. I know that for myself, I will not have to look anywhere else. And I wont have to try and convince my friends and family to invest in the 245C… I’ll just let them experience it…that will be all the convincing they need.

Over the years I have gone from a partial AV setup, to sound bars, and now back to a more complete AV setup. Some of that was ease of use, moving, space, etc…but through it all, this is my first experience with a true center channel in a full setup. I never knew what I was missing (well, besides clear dialogue) and I could not be happier with what this speaker has added to my system. Design-wise, the speaker has a clean, modern and minimalist look. Dark brown with a black grille/front. I really like the look. It is fairly “plain,” but that is exactly what I was looking for. Build-wise, it has some weight to it, and is put together well. It is not small. It sports quad 4.5 inch woofers and a single 1 inch tweeter. There is some nice tech here which blends the frequencies for a more balanced natural sound while still providing a full low end. I have already mentioned it a couple of times, but i never truly realized what I was missing by not having a quality, dedicated center channel. I could not have imagined thinking this beforehand, but it very well may be the most important speaker in one’s setup. This speaker delivers, for sure, but it doesn’t overpower any of the other channels. It is there when needed but sits back when that is needed as well. It performed well with music, but what I was really interested in was what it did for me in movies. I was nearly floored. I have always struggled with dialogue in films, be it without a setup, using a sound bar, just in every way. I am sure this has to do with the mix of the source, on some level, but I never really understood what a difference a center channel could make. It has presence. It is forward. Dialogue is clear, crisp, and has a power behind it. I always tout what a sub can do for adding immersion into a film, but I think this has a similar effect. All in all, despite perhaps not expecting it, I am very pleased. It gave me a real life improvement. I will add, definitely take the time for proper calibration, spacing and equalizer tweaking to dial everything in to your liking. It is hands down worth the time and effort. You will get the sound you are looking for while making the most of your equipment. In the end, I feel this is a quality speaker. It looks good and performs very well. For what it provides and where it sits in the market, I think it is a great value. Further, as I have found, it may be the piece that brings your whole system together and really unlocks what it can do and what you can get out of it.

Best Buy, sold these to me on sale ! Then waited 35 days and refunded my money. Never Shipped me the item. Used as BAIT. !

There is no way these speakers should sound good. They're small, weird shape, and designed for surround / effects or Atmos elevation speakers. But darn it, I tested them all alone, just like a bookshelf speaker and they sound far better than I ever expected. Way better. OK, there is not a lot of bass, that's to be expected given the size of the woofer. The woofer was working very hard, the excursion distance is surprisingly long, but physics just says there won't be a lot of low end. They are designed to be used with a subwoofer. I'm now convinced after testing several of these Stage2 speakers, the magic sauce is the tweeter. Midrange and highs are super clear and well defined. Honestly, if they didn't have that silly angled designed, these would make fantastic bookshelf speakers. I really hate the binding posts. They're in the wrong place and angled weird. It is impossible to use banana plugs if the speaker is tight against a wall. And if the speaker is mounted on top of a floor standing speaker, the back side has to hang out over the rear. There is a cross shaped keyhole for wall mounting. And a threaded hole for mounting brackets. Next to the binding post is a switch to set the speaker as Atmos or Surround. I couldn't hear any difference when the switch was thrown. An anti-slip mat is included to place the speaker on top of a floor standing speaker.