JBL Northridge E80 3-Way Dual 6" Floor Standing Speaker, Single (Black Ash)

Rating:
Summary: Compared with Klipsch/Polk in store, liked these best
Review: At our local BB store, we could compare the JBL speakers hooked up to the identical receiver model (older yamaha) and the same content source. These sounded better. The sound was richer, had better separation in the high end, and just wasn't muddied/or off color in the low end.

For listening to music, floor standing speakers are the way to go, much better than any of those wall mountable little speakers prevalent on home theater systems. We watch quite a few music DVDs (concerts, videos) and the sound these speakers produce is almost like being there, and sometimes better than being there live.

Now compared to Klipsch, the Klipsch sounded muddy and could not provide as much separation on high sounds. The JBLs sounded more 3-d than Klipsch - same receiver models & sound source.

Compared to Polk, the JBLs just seemed to sound more energetic, again same receiver models & sound source. It might be that the JBLs were pushing more on the high end than the Polks did. At least that was my subjective impression.

We've had these now for a few months, and are so happy we got them (part of my bday present, see review for Yamaha 5760). We had an old partially functioning 10-year old Panasonic receiver with 4-ohm Advent speakers. I loved those Advents but they can't match the sound from these speakers.

One caution:
These speakers are heavy, so you want to watch out if you have little toddlers, I would recommend using a furniture tie kit to tie them to a wall. Otherwise a toddler or pulling up baby could tip them over onto themselves and end up very hurt.

Rating:
Summary: Great floorstanding speakers
Review: These speakers are fantastic. I spent a lot of time sampling all of the speaker setups at the national electronics stores, and these sound far better than anything else in the price range with great high and low frequency response and sound definition. They are good for anyone looking to buy a pair of stereo speakers or as the centerpieces (front right and left channels) of a great home theatre setup for under $1000 (JBL has an array of matching center and surround speakers). They also look good with the covers off. Unfortunately they take up a lot of space in a small apartment.