Home > Consumer Reviews > JBL Duet PC Speakers (2-SpeakerS, Aluminum)

Let me start by saying I am REALLY REALLY REALLY picky about the quality of sound. I needed a pair of speakers for my office (I have an older pair of speakers that I hook my iPod up to that I wanted to replace.) Well, I came across these and then searched for as many reviews as I could about them...most of the reviews turned out to be very good as a matter of fact! After doing a search for them, I saw they were available at Office Depot so decided to purchase them in-store...however, when I went there I did not see them and was told by a sales associate they were only available at their online store. The (very nice) gentleman then convinced me to rather go for some Logitech x-230 speakers with a sub-woofer. Very hesitantly, I decided to take a chance. Well, after plugging them in and listening to a sample of music, I unplugged them 1/2 a minute later and returned them the next day. I then decided to go ahead an purchase these JBL Duet speakers. They have just arrived, I just plugged them in...am listening to them right this very moment after sampling a variety of music (classical, heavy rock, etc.) and I must say...***WOW***...they are EXCEPTIONAL!!!!!!!!! Super crisp high notes & midtones with all the background instruments clearly coming through...listening to classical music is simply a pleasure!! On the other end of the scale, the rich, deep, full-bodied bass & undertones effortlessly carry the heavy rock & deep classical sounds giving the sound the true depth it needs to really appreciate the music for what it is. I highly highly HIGHLY recommend these!!!

I'm an audio engineer, and I'm NOT easily impressed, but these little speakers are the best-sounding personal speakers I've ever heard. In fact, they're better than many larger, pricier systems.
The bass response is the biggest surprise. It's natural-sounding and open, not stuffy or forced, yet it has a surprising amount of punch for such small speakers, without being the slightest bit "boomy". To my ears in my listening environment, they have an amazingly smooth frequency response across the entire audible range.
In case you think I'm kidding, I usually mix on a pair of Genelec tri-amped studio monitors whose price tag was more than 100 times that of the JBL Duet speakers. On several occasions, I've opened GarageBand or Logic Pro 7 to record a musical idea and ended up doing a rough mix, forgetting that I was listening to the Duet speakers rather than the big monitors. At low levels in a near-field application (...sorry, that's audio geekspeak -- for all you normal humanoids who don't have the audiogeek mutant gene, that means the speakers are close to you...like on your desktop), these little speakers are surprisingly accurate.
I've owned my Duets for almost one year. I loved them so much that I immediately bought extra sets for my kids to use with their iPods. For the money, I've never heard anything better. My thanks to the folks at JBL for creating such a terrific speaker at such a reasonable price.

If you have to run the power cable next to other power cables, which you likely will, you may find that you get a loud buzz when there is no music playing. I believe this is due to improper or inadequate shielding of the power cable.

When the speakers are playing audio, the sound is great, but when they're not, the buzz is fairly nerve-wracking.

So, if your speakers can be wired away from other computer cables, these are good speakers. But if you need to run the power cable near the other cables, you may get a buzzing sound.

These speakers are stylish and sound great--until you use them in the same room as a GSM phone (i.e. AT&T or T-Mobile). The amplifier and cables are completely unshielded, and they make the loudest, most obnoxious buzzing around a cell phone that I have ever heard out of a pair of speakers. My phone makes most speakers chirp a little, but these things belch out the interference at heretofore unheard volumes. Completely unusable if you plan to charge your iPhone next to your iMac.

I bought a pair of these for my iPod. They work perfectly for a bedroom, office, etc. These speakers put out some great sound. I ordered two more sets as gifts.