I like the new JBL's quite a bit, but I would compare them more to the Northridge stuff of yesteryear than the Studio stuff. The cabinet construction is notch better than the Northridge, although, especially in the cherry woodgrain.
Driver construction and overall sound quality is not quite on par w/ the Studio stuff but they are still impressive performers.
I'd call cabinet construction a step down from the N Series. All the floorstanding E models seem to have very poorly braced cabinets and very thin walls. When you knock on the cabinet there is a largely noticable amount of resonence and vibration that's just not there in the N Series cabinets. Drivers seem to be identical as those used in the N series, especially the tweeter. My guess is similar speakers from both series would sound nearly identical. The N Series was a very good bang-for-buck speaker and I'm guessing the E series will be too once it's available at more reasonable prices online.
Folks. Please look at my post yesterday on the (older) JBL PSW D115. Before you buy, see if someone can show you the actual Power Amp. electronics board in a sample.
I don't know what the discontinuance of the s-series will bring, but I do think that possibly the best $100 speaker ever made is going to be no longer available.
I tested out the e series last night while christmas shopping
I found that the highs were slightly clearer but there was a funny slight lower mid boost that didn't sit right with me. The cabinets seemed to be of cheaper construction than the "N" series as well...
I was listening to the two-way 6.5" bookshelves and I discovered that while the midbass driver had a significant amount of excursion on rap music and managed to kick out some surprisingly low stuff, the midrange sounded like it was almost a little distorted when that woofer got hopping.