JBL Northridge or Fluance??? (1 Viewer)

[Steve Smitty]

About to upgrade my cheesy jvc htib with some new speakers, a new receiver is soon to come too. I'm looking at the fluance sx-htb and the jbl northridge series with the e 60, ec35 and e10. I've heard mixed reviews on the jbl's and not much about the fluance other than they have been heard to be good for the money, the jbl system retails for about 800 but i can get it for about 400, so money is about the same for both 400 vs 300. some opinions would be well apreciated. BTW it will be primarily for home theatre.

 

[Brad_See]

I've only heard good reviews of the JBLs. I love mine. I was just noticing how great music sounds through my E30's today although I got them primarily for HT as most of my music listening occurs in my car.

I was considering Fluance at one time but ended up with the JBLs.

brad cook

 

[Eddie Horton]

Haven't heard Fluance, but have listened to several of the Northridge series. Good sound, good price. Do a search, and you'll see that the general consensus is that they are solid speakers for the money.

 

[Steve Smitty]

i like the look of the jbls, but i don't have any place nearby to listen to them. I've only seen a few good post when i search for them, most people think they look cool, but there is very little on sound, and those that do comment on sound seem to lean towards it having a harsh sound. these will be for home theatre 95% of the time. I will keep my 100watt 10" jvc sub -for now. It's a very difficult decision to make, conserdering i can't demo either brand. Has anyone heard both of these speakers?

 

[Brad_See]

I haven't seen these posts about harsh sounds. Most people I've seen talking about them have had positive things to say. Can you reference some links?

brad cook

 

[Greg-ST]

I've never seen JBL's sound critiqued as being harsh.

 

[Matt Sweeney]

Steve,
I've listened to the jbl northridge series at Best Buy (e10s, 20s, 30s, 50s, 60s, 80s, and center ec25) and there was a marked difference between the e60s and e80s, even on the cheesy yamaha pro-logic receiver they were hooked up to. The price difference between e60s and e80s is about $50/pr right now. It seems like much better value to get the e80s, in my opinion. Although I haven't heard them, I did a lot of searching to find people's perceptions of the e90s since I could not audition them, and it seemed that if people could afford them, they got the e90s or e100s over the e60s or e80s (although there were plenty of happy people with the e80s).

I have a bunch of links at home, but not handy right now. I read reviews on the sx-htb fluance set and the fluance sv-10s. The jbls seem to be a great value, solidly made, and really cheap right now. I really liked the sound of the e80s and they are less wide than the e60s because they have the 2x 6" drivers for the bass range instead of one 8" (I don't know what your space constraints are). Otherwise they have the same drivers, but the e80s are 1db more efficient.

After my search I ended up buying some AR hi-res speakers (ar-11s and ar4c center). I didn't get a chance to audition them, but I love the sound they produce with my hk avr520. I listen to about 50/50 music/home theater. I was about to buy a set of the jbls (e80s, e10s, and ec35) from onecall when they ran out of stock on the cherry center. One of my constraints from the wife was cherry colored speakers. Anyway, I'll try to post some links later on.

I would go for the jbls (e80s (maybe e90s or e100s), e10s, ec35) if you have the money to do so.

Matt

 

[Matt Sweeney]

sorry, double post.

 

[Steve Smitty]

Thanks for the replies! well i didn't realize the e 60 were priced PER speaker, so if i get JBL i'll be going with the e 30s.
As for the question about were i read about them sounding harsh, just do a search for jbl northridge, there are not that many post to go through. i found very few people raving about them, but i found nothing negative for fluance, even when i did searches and read reviews on shopping sites. i read stuff like "my friends swore it had to cost over a grand for the fluance speakers" etc. JBL actually had very little reviews. Has anyone heard the fluance speakers? I just want to make sure i get the best bank for my buck.

 

[Phil Iturralde]

For more JBL INFO - read my website "Why you should add JBL Speakers "N", "S" & "E"-Series to your audition list!"

The JBL N-, S- & E-Series are based-on their TEC Award Winning JBL PRO LSR Studio Monitor's!

There is more to designing speakers than putting speaker components in a cabinet!

Phil

 

[Steve Smitty]

thanks for the link, I'll check it out, i'm leaning towards jbl. They will cost me about $415 bucks shippedfor the e30, e10, ec35 set up vs. the 300 fluance shipped. I just wish i could hear them both. i guess i want to be talked into the cheaper set, but the extra 115 bucks won't kill me. did a search for "jbl" and not "jbl northridge" got alot more threads giving them a big thumbs up!

 

[Elliott_P]

Ha! I've just ordered the identical setup (e30,ec35,e10) after reading here and givng them a listen at Best buy and CompUSA. I hope they sound as good in my quiet, controlled environment as they did in the dreadful retail setups that I listened to.

 

[Tony Stark]

I had a JBL-PWD115. A 15" monster. What a POS that thing was. It Boom-ed, it sounded like an out of tune 12" no matter what calibration or location tried. I hated it for years until, well, I got sick of it and bought something different.

Early on I had some techincal problems and JBL (Harmon?) was VERY unhelpful. They had the "you turned it up to 11 attitude and its your falt" - even though the problem I encountered was when the reciever wasnt on and the volume on the sub was at 25%. Anyway, I wish I could buy the company and liquidate all assets.

Don't rush and do your research. Plus, I hope you have better luck than me. Best wishes.

-T

 

[DorianBryant]

JBL's are a great speaker. Enjoy your purchase.

 

[Elliott_P]

Hopefully I'll avoid such issues. Sorry to hear you had such a bad experience though. I already have an SVS 20-39cs sub (I got to keep that part of my old HT after getting divorced) and so I'm hoping these bookshelves from JBL will match up pretty good with it. My old HT had Klipsch Heresy II's all the way around. I'll be interested to hear how these little guys compare to my memory of what the Heresy's sounded like. Gosh I miss my old HT.

:frowning:

 

[Brad_See]

Elliot,

They will definitely sound different than Klipsch. Klipsch speakers are usually more efficient than most speakers out there and they have their own distinct sound. Well, I'm talking about the modern Klipsch speakers in general I don't know about the older models.

brad cook

 

[Elliott_P]

Oh without question they'll sound different! Nothing sounds like my Heresy's. I've had those speakers for 15 years so I'm actually looking forward to having something a bit different. The JBL's are going to mainly be for Home theater stuff anyway. I don't listen to much music these days but I still have one pair of my Klipsch speakers for when I do feel like hearing some music. I just don't have room for them where the JBL's are going.

 

[Matt Sweeney]

I thought I had more links, but I only have links to Phil's site and this (add www to the front):

soundandvisionmag.com/article.asp?section_id=3&article_id=595&page_number=2&preview=

I know I was able to find more input by searching on this and other forums. If you have the time I would be picky. Deals always come around.

Matt

 

[Eddie Horton]

The only change I would make to the E30, EC35, E10 setup would be to drop the E10's and go with 20's or E30's all around. This is a very, very tiny speaker, and if you listen to any multi-channel music like I do, they wouldn't cut it for me. Just my .02. YMMV.

 

[Elliott_P]

I think that advice makes good sense and I seriously considered that path. In fact my finger was hovering over the "place order" button with 4 E30's in the cart. My thinking ended up going something like this. I figured I'd save $150 by going with the E10's for now. They were 60 bucks cheaper per pair plus I wouldn't have to buy stands for the surrounds since the E10's are wall mounts. That worked out to $150 which basically allowed me to buy the e35 center. I figure that, once my bank account recovers from this purchase (I also bought a Pioneer VSX-1014TX-k receiver and an Epson Home 10+ FP) I'll pick up the E30's and some stands and move the e10's into the rear surround role for a full 7.1 setup.

But like Eddie said, if one is doing a lot of multi-channel music (me not so much), the E30 in the surround position is definitely the smart move.