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dllyons
11-25-2006, 08:17 AM
Forgive me for bringing this subject up on THIS website, but it is a JBL related thought ......
Please, someone save me before I buy my daughter a pair of Bose powered multimedia speakers for her laptop, and tell me their experience with JBL multimedia speakers. I know some of you have to have them. ;)

Her laptop is her only computer and her world revolves around it practically. She watches movies on it and plays her thousands of MP3's on it, so the speakers will have to be pretty decent performers. I actually considered the Klipsch ProMedia 3.1 cause I know they perform, but they're a 3 piece system, and more of a hassle when you move them around.

I have to admit I kinda liked the Bose two piece jobbies because they seemed to have pretty wide frequency range and seemed to have a fair amount of horsepower, but Bose ??!?!?! I have a tough time buying them ...

As a sidenote- before I auditioned and eventually bought my L300's back in '78, I was about to buy a pair of 901's ........... damned glad I didn't !

Titanium Dome
11-25-2006, 09:09 AM
So three piece systems are out? Most multimedia systems, including JBLs, are three piece, including the JBL Creature I have. Otherwise, there's not much bass.

Admittedly, I don't take them around all the time with my PowerBook, except when I need to do a presentation. They'll fill up a hotel meeting room or college classroom easily, but they're tough to just to pack up and go with that sub module.

(When I don't want the full 4430 experience in my office, I fire up the Creature and enjoy it just fine.)

The only two-speaker JBL unit is the Duet. It comes in white or Aluminum finish, and there's a bunch of JBL innovation in them (engineering or marketing innovation--you be the judge). They do sound pretty darn good, but they look a bit weird. The specs say 60Hz to 20kHz. I've no doubt about the 20kHz, but the 60Hz is probably down a few dB.

http://jbl.com/home/products/product_detail.aspx?prod=DUETAL&Language=ENG&Country=US&Region=USA&cat=MME&ser=HMM&featureid=12364

Reveiw:

http://playlistmag.com/products/complete/61-detail.php

dllyons
11-25-2006, 10:45 AM
Thanks Dome !! I wanted to rule 3 piece systems out, but I just can't do it ... You know what ? I think I'll order a set of red Creatures for my own computer to replace the 7 year old Altec 3 piece system that I have, and just see for myself. I've read the Creature reviews, and they do sound interesting, especially for the $$ Besides, my computer case appears to be an exact match color-wise for the red Creatures :bouncy:

I'll try and get her opinion of them, and if she likes them- that's what I'll surprise her with for Christmas. She has an iPod too, and although those docking system speakers for them are really neat, the Creature could fit the bill for her laptop and iPod.

hjames
11-25-2006, 10:52 AM
Thanks Dome !! I wanted to rule 3 piece systems out, but I just can't do it ... You know what ? I think I'll order a set of red Creatures for my own computer to replace the 7 year old Altec 3 piece system that I have, and just see for myself. I've read the Creature reviews, and they do sound interesting, especially for the $$ Besides, my computer case appears to be an exact match color-wise for the red Creatures :bouncy:

I'll try and get her opinion of them, and if she likes them- that's what I'll surprise her with for Christmas. She has an iPod too, and although those docking system speakers for them are really neat, the Creature could fit the bill for her laptop and iPod.

I don't know how much money you want to spend - but I was amazed at the performance of the Altec Lansing inMotion iM7 Portable Audio System. (http://www.amazon.com/Altec-Lansing-inMotion-iM7-Portable/dp/B0009VKJH4/sr=8-1/qid=1164476894/ref=pd_bbs_1/002-5245302-1680807?ie=UTF8&s=electronics)I got a used one recently from eBay - and we have used it for our iPods as well as fed it from the audio jack of an iBook (tho any computer would work) . It has a built in dock for the ipod - and also comes with a 3 pin mini cable for other uses. Runs off AC power or batteries (Its the round thing in the picture below, like a couple of big juice cans). Very amazing sound with big fat bass!
I even used it for sound at a small church event last month and fed it sound from a VCR and an iPod for the room ...
very sweet, room filling sound!

dllyons
11-25-2006, 02:13 PM
v-e-r-y interesting ........... and in the price range, I guess.

can ya plug a laptop in to it ? that is to say, can this device plug in to a headphone jack ? Obviously it'll fill the bill for her iPod....

does it have some kick butt bass ? :bouncy:

I'll look at the specs soon, I just happened to check my email between honey-do tasks today and saw your reply.
thanks !

hjames
11-25-2006, 02:25 PM
v-e-r-y interesting ........... and in the price range, I guess.

can ya plug a laptop in to it ? that is to say, can this device plug in to a headphone jack ? Obviously it'll fill the bill for her iPod....

does it have some kick butt bass ? :bouncy:

I'll look at the specs soon, I just happened to check my email between honey-do tasks today and saw your reply.
thanks !

Sure - its comes with a minijack to minijack cable (for the headphone jack in your ipod or in your laptop) - I put that in an adapter and fed L & R signals from a stereo VCR - and yes, its got some butt-kicking bass ... amazingly so. And - throw a set of batteries in and take it away from the house - its really portable!

Really - go audition one at a local store - then get it from one of the discounters. I got mine for well under $80 because the internal slot for the ipod was broken - so I always run ours off the 3 wire mini-cable.