Thanks for all the quick replies folks. After reading the reviews at Amazon I’ll pass. It seems the sub is not trustworthy, and these are no longer made / supported. Guess I have to hurry up and wait for another woot! speaker system offer…
I can’t speak to exacts but I would imagine you have to have something running from an amp. Whether that be a/v cables or speaker wire, something has to provide signal to both the sub and the speakers. I had a very similar set up to this when I was younger (dad was an audiophile) where the sub was powered but instead of using a dedicated sub out from the receiver, because most people don’t have dedicated sub outs, you ran the front speaker outs from the receiver to the sub AND THEN to the front satellites. I suspect that this is what is happening here as well. I can’t say I’ve ever seen a decent (JBL) speaker set where you ran directly from the tv (out) to the sub (in) that operated as an amp.
In any case why would you want to do that?
FYI for those folks only looking for a Sub-woofer - Woot has a nice deal on a Klipsch SW-350 8-Inch 350 Watt Subwoofer for about half-price @ $179.99. It is closer to list price at Bestbuy & Newegg.
It is Amazon’s Deal of the Day. A couple benefits to getting that Woot item via Amazon - 1) Free shipping, and 2) It is eligible for Amazon Smile.
If you don’t know what smile is, check it out. Google ‘Amazon Smile’. It is free and donates a small % of your purchase for eligible items (most in my experience) to the charity of your choice! Tip: once you’ve signed up, if you don’t notice the Smile logo at the top of the screen, simply manually insert ‘smile.’ in the link in front of ‘amazon’. No logo, no donation!
@gak0090, really getting off track - but not many musical experiences can match cranking Dark Side of the Moon on a really clean sound system with crisp highs and tight, full bass. (Please, leave the contemporary thumpy, distorted bass in the irritating car next to you on the street.)
James B. Lansing. Also one of the originators of Altec-Lansing.
Amazon reviews of this system suggest the sub will die on you. Think I will pass on this one too.
And you would be right!
Not suitable for a big room.
I got this set for my parents (who had never had a home theater system, and kept their CRT TV until 2012…) - and it’s very very good for a smallish (10x12) room with average ceilings. When we tried moving it into their larger family room - it worked, but you’d be maxing out the volume to fill the space… and the impact of it wasn’t nearly as nice. Not to put this set down - it actually sounds very very nice and balanced, but really meant for a smaller room/apartment
so the subwoofer will only power the front satellite speakers. you definitely need the receiver to power the surround sound speakers. it looks like, correct?
Here’s the deal. Real simple. This is a killer deal if you are looking for a starter home theater speaker set. It’s a no-brainer.
My review.
I bought these in a previous Woot, for $50 more, for my in-laws as a Christmas gift. Paired them with a Pioneer VSX-8231 receiver that was on sale around the same time. They had an old Sony speaker system from the 90s that was on its legs.
The in-laws have a giant living room area (maybe 30’x20’) with a vaulted ceiling. Like a lot of people would be, I was concerned that this setup might be underpowered.
Bottom line, I have watched many movies at their house since Christmas and the speakers sound very good, particularly after the initial seasoning period.
The sound is present, dialog is crisp, music score is warm, bass f/x are full and tight and the end credit pop songs sound full. The speakers were well worth the money I spent.
Being a bit of an audiophile, my personal home theater system has larger speaker drivers, but I would put these JBLs in a second room without hesitation (I’m actually considering it right now).
For people who are not audio obsessive (or suffer from driver envy) these will do the job and more, period.
The Yamaha RX-V577 receiver is actually cheaper at Fry’s this week. I just bought one there for $300. It’s this week’s “Trusted Brand Name” Mystery Receiver.
Again…the subwoofer will NOT power the front speakers. The input / output for speaker wires is for the subwoofer to draw signal from for non-dolby digital systems. If you don’t believe me, go to the JBL support page and look it up in the user manual.
what would it take to hook these up to a computer to have boss speakers?
What it is ,is the Sub woofer is powered meaning that it needs to be pluged in inorder to work, the other four two front speakers, the center speaker, and the two rear speakers all require a powered ampifier, which woot should maybe meantion that to for those out there not familer whit recevicers ,stero sound systems,this JBL surround spearkes set is intened to be use with a ARV Entertainment sound system, and all you need now is to purchase on sale a nice receiver ,some HDMI Cables , Optical fiber Cable connect all this gear to your HMDI flat screen TV and get ready to rock and roll, Blue ray Movies , CD Music , your TV viewing well just put this way welcome to the future on now you viewing and listing will never be the sound. I purchased a Harman Kardon AV 700 ARV for $179.00 surround receiver then purchased some reconditon surround speakers for hardon Kardon factory for $499.00 that cost $1200.00 the best money I’ve every spent, weather radio, CD, or Music now i’m in entertainment Heaven, you’ev committed to the speakers your half way to building your entertainmen system I if I were you be patient and complete the mission you won’t be sorry.Your half way there.
would these be compatible with a Mac?
You need to purchase an ARV Receiver with and usb port , in order to drive this system the you will be able to hook up much more than a computer, you need power to drive this spearker set AVR receiver will do it, please referr to the speaker operating manual so you purchase a powerful enough receiver ok , hope this helps you out , rock on.
Actually the mystery receiver appears to be a 7.1 system vs a 7.2 making them comparable but not the same. They are very similar though and still see this as a great deal if you don’t need an option for a second subwoofer.
Are the “Trusted Name Brand” sales prices only available in-stores at Frys?