Review by Christine Holzmann:

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!!!

Review by Peter V. Giansante:

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.

Review by P. Robinson:

Let me start by saying that I couldn’t be happier with these speakers. I did my homework when it was time to take my 6 year old HK SAT-TS2 5.1 system off the wall and make the next step toward turning my living room into a true cinema. Although I have the 6.1 capable Sony receiver and Blueray player (AKA PS3), I decided to stick with a 5.1 system due to the size limitation of my living room (13×16). My room was already wired, but the system does come with speaker wires and subwoofer cable. Another bonus are the two sets of speaker brackets. This system includes fixed (uni-directional swivel) and pivoting brackets for all the speakers. I also liked the departure from the spring clip connectors. These speakers have quality screw terminals that can handle a 10 gauge wire. The only issue I discovered was that the fixed bracket for the center speaker may create a short between the speaker wire terminals. A little electrical tape solved the problem and I was finally off to the races. HD TV, Dolby Digital 5.1 movies, and PS3 games have been raised to a new level with this system. Zero buyer’s remorse!

Review by J. Lindal:

We just have this system set up, paired with Denon AVR 787 receiver and Monster cables. Not sure how much cable adds to it, but definitely a good receiver is a must for this speaker system to playback perfectly. The sound is pheonomonal. The sound is deep and rich, with layers and details. It is not overtaking the movie if the movie is not loaded with sound effects. We have tested with Movies: Shrek, Chicago, Matrix, Nemo. Each one of them is played very nicely. It is definitely cinema quality sound, much better than the bose 5.1 system I listened to in the store. It also enhances your movie experience by so much that you feel like watching a new movie discovering scenes you never discovered before. For example, I never noticed the water was so clear in Nemo, now I feel it, all because the vast calm water sound of the ocean.

Excellent! I would recommend this system to anyone!

p.s. To listen to music, make sure to connect with a CD player (not a DVD player), and use 5 channel stereo, otherwise, the sound will not come out right.

Review by Rocky PrincipeJr:

WOW! This was a real steal! I am very cautious about things that are to good to be true. This is very true! For the cost of this product, there is no better value. I like my speakers big and loud, and these exceeded all my expectations. I’ve played music most all of my life for people at all different occations and I was very impressed. I would reccomend these to anyone who needs more bang for their buck!

Review by Kyle:

I was very cautious buying these as I’ve learned the hard way in the past the deal with cheap electronics. As well as hearing nothing but bad things about Pyle, I decided at ( shipped, used) + one from Provantage (7 shipped, new), I couldn’t really go wrong with them. I have to say they look very impressive, and even with my temporary Yamaha HTR-5280, (100w x5), they get REALLY loud. I would not consider the two woofers subwoofers as they do produce high frequency sounds to help out the horn and tweeters. I don’t know if this can be changed by messing with the crossover, but I’m not going to dig around in the speakers quite yet. The listing says they have dual 1/4 and dual speakon, however mine both came with dual binding posts as well, which is exactly what I needed and ended up not having to build my own cables or spend more money. I have looked into replacing the woofers, however I’m not sure I want to take any chances and I’m not experienced to know if changing the woofers from (16ohms each), to at least 8ohms each would not only increase the load and lower the ohms for the receiver, but do damage or put extra stress on the board inside the speaker, (unless that is only the crossover). Cabinets look great from the outside, but when you open them up they are very cheaply made, and you may need to vaccum out the inside the first time you get it as pieces of the cheap wood actually fall off inside during shipping and I had some small wood chunks that were rattling around in the woofers. For the price, they are really great and get very loud. They don’t sound hollow or anything, but unless you don’t like thumping, stomach shaking bass, you will need a subwoofer. The two 12′s really don’t give you that much bass. I am currently using them as the right and left front channels in my room and they are great. Makes me wonder if the 15′ woofer version of these would be much better, however there was a large price difference between the two when I bought them.

Review by Animal Eater:

This wont replace your 0 gaming speaker setup, but for its intended use, it’s EXCELLENT. Test #1: Pantera Strength Beyond Strength at full blast. Great highs and mids. Bass distorts. At almost full blast, the highs and mids are still awesome, and the bass doesn’t distort nearly as much. Considering the speaker is literally under two feet from my face, it’s plenty loud. I can easily rock to this when I’m working in an empty office at 4:00 AM. Test #2: Megadeth Kill the King at the same volume level as the lowered Pantera. Sounds awesome. I mean, this wouldn’t fill the house with quality rockage like a Bose Acoustic Wave, but it still sounds great. A completely different level of sound from the Dell speakers that came with my PC. Test #3: Metallica Of Wolf and Man. Same volume level, still sounds great. Now, for its intended use, which is office stuff, like conference calls, instructional videos, etc…it’s more than sufficient. Sounds great, fill the room with quality sound, non-directional so it can be placed in the center of a conference room table and look & sound good from any angle. So, for work, I give it a 10/10. For play, I give it an 8/10. Again, it is a completely different level than cheapo speakers. Very easy to rock with this sucker! If you’re looking for an excuse to get some better rocking speakers in your office, this is it. “Look, boss, non-directional, looks professional, great for conferences, etc…” This thing is a metal-heads trojan horse. (Rocking to Pantera I’m Broken right now…couldn’t be happier.)