Home > Consumer Reviews > JBL N38 II 3-Way 8" Floor-Standing Speaker (Black Ash)

This was my upgrade over an Accoustic brand. The JBL was more balance between bass and treble. So, I did notice the treble tinging and more clarity in the sound, less cracking. The Accoustic provided more bass and was starting to crack. With more bass it had a more surreal ambient feeling. It was humming beautifully. The clearer JBL lack that touch of feeling, which I still had not gotten over with. But I did get a new reciever with my JBL so the comparision would not be just on the speckers alone. Overall I am Happy with it.

I purchased a pair of these speakers before they were available on Amazon, and the sound, for the bucks, is unbelievieble!!

I got a a couple of these speakers with an Onkyo TX-8211 receiver and they have been performing beautifully. The sound was obviously a huge upgrade from the cheapo $100 boombox I had before but more surprisingly was a significant upgrade from my Grado SR60 headphones which I used to use for serious listening earlier (even with the same receiver). Considering I paid only $175 including shipping for each speaker, that is very good value for money and these outperform other speakers twice their price. Of course, they are not as good as the Veritas speakers but then again they are one tenth or so their price.

Another thing to note is that the black ash finishing is actually very well done and this speaker should fit in well even in well-decorated houses (considering I am in a bachelor pad, it is easily the most beautiful piece of furniture in my living room :)

These babies make up for the lack of low end with pure clarity. All you need to suppliment these units with is a 12 powered sub with a crossover at 100Hz. Using measuring equipment, I found the response to be VERY flat for sub $5,000 speakers. You can always get better, but you run into diminishing returns on the price. I still can't get over how good they sound when I'm playing "Eagles: hell Freezes Over" and "Dire Straits: Brothers in Arms"

I picked mine up for a $100 each, and would have been willing to pay much more than that. I 4 star them as I find they don't have the sub 100Hz performance required for a 2.0 system. It plays it, but without authority.

Good sounds. Buy Two. Be Happy.