There are some very good speakers for $129 a pair and these should not be terrible. A Pioneer model for the same price is a Stereophile recommended component and they are awesome for the money. AVHub has detailed bench tests on those JBLs and other than some softness in the highs and a relative absence of bass, there is nothing wrong with them. The softness in high is typically a perk among inexpensive speakers since there tends to be a harshness to high pitches, especially in horns and strings. The lack of bass should be entirely expected given the small stature of the speakers.

I normally try and be more tactful but the real bit of garbage in the system is the receiver. I had a similar model that was slightly higher end as part of a very cheap surround system I vultured when Circuit City went out of business. I paid $79 for it. Should have been my first clue. It was mediocre to bad as a 5 channel receiver and I replaced it with a Denon AVR1912. The sound improved like 9000% even without a speaker upgrade. I used it for about two weeks in a 2 channel system powering a pair of B&W M-1s and just couldn't take it anymore. In 2 channel it just oozes awful and might be the worst sound 2 channel system I have ever hear. Not so shockingly, I stepped up to a Rega integrated amp and the sound improved like 900,000%. I have since moved the M-1s in to be powered by the Denon and they sound fabulous. It really was that receiver.

I am not saying that getting a new amp or receiver is going to make those speakers sound amazing, but I am certain they can sound a lot better than they do. Adding a subwoofer will also help, as you really aren't hearing all of the music since those JBLs only go to 60hz.

sf5512 wrote:

I got a pair of these recently, mostly for living room speakers to be used for talk radio ala XM..
I drive them with an Onkyo 5.1 receiver SR309..it was cheap on Ebay for 35$.
It didnt take long for me to want to try them with music CDs played on an OPPO DV980H
DVD player.Not a great music set up but...
I was really surprised how lousy thet sounded with music. My old pair of Dalquists amped with a car radio sounded better. My dusty lowgrade car` CD player sounds better. I got them recommended by some chump on another forum.
Anyone know anything about these speakers???? What do you think??
Its hard to describe how they sound but CDs like Jean Luc Ponty and other jazz
folks dont have the right sound emphasis... missing some aspects and including others that are less desirable... I dont expect audiophile for 130 a pair but I was still surprised>>>
I should have bought the hi end system I was looking at a few years ago with a NAD
core and Deneon player ,but didnt..

The 980H does not sound very good with CDs (I have one).

The Onkyo receivers are typically very bright and somewhat harsh.

The speakers are not very good.

Lets see, garbage in, amplified badly, fed to lousy speakers.

How could this sound good?

For openers, spend $35 on a pair of Dayton B652 speakers at Parts Express. They are pretty good speakers; much better than the price would lead you to expect.

Then get some kind of a decent CD player. The Marantz CD5004 is not too expensive and is pretty good.

Eventually you will need a better amplifier, but that will cost a fair amount of money. It is also not the worst of your problems.

When it comes to budget, compromises are necessary. You can get factory refurbs, discounted cables, B stock and all that good stuff from accessories4less for a few major manufacturers including Denon.

If you can deal with "minor cosmetic imperfections" you could pick up a Kef C4 for $229 from accessories4less. It is a darn good sounding, $400 sub that you are getting a pretty steep discount on. There are cheaper options, but none I think are great. If you can't deal with a defect in the finish, consider an Infinity Primus PS38 for $199. It will be less musical than the Kef, but it will have no flaws.

Other notes, you could get a refurbed Denon AVR1513 from them for $109 that will blow that Onkyo out of the water. You could also troll ebay or audiogon and probably get a better price but without a warranty. The refurb comes with a 1 year warranty.

Check out "bargain basement" and they will likely have some cables that you can use. Again, Monster isn't the best but at least you aren't going to pay the stupid retail level markups that you see typically and it is acceptable.

For a CD player, if you want high quality audio at rock bottom prices, consider a Playstation 1. It is a stereophile recommended component and you can pick it up for $20 to $25 used at a gamestop or a used gamestore. Frankly, all of the Playstations are excellent quality disc players that get a bad rap because they have a fan to cool the processor.

Finally, if you are still unhappy with those JBLs, the Pioneer SP-B22 is a freaking amazing speaker that you can get new for $127 on Amazon or used for $80. They should not sound as good as they do at this price point. I have listened to them next to much higher end speakers from Def Tech and Peachtree and was floored at how good they sound. I would take the any day over DefTech Studio Monitor line which is 3x more expensive.