Jbl L8400p

[Packetloss]

I can't find anything on this sub, it's priced exactly right for my budget but would love if anyone got any experience of it?

[avaserfi]

I did some looking online and can't really find much on this sub. You just seem to find the ones I have never heard of ! I will say that the few JBL subwoofers I have seen measurements on or have heard have not been impressive for the money.

Hopefully someone else of the forum has and can help you out, but just in case if you told us your room size, budget and listening habits I am sure we could get some great subwoofer recommendations out there for you. Just a thought...

[Packetloss]

I found a German review and it got excellent marks.

http://www.areadvd.de/index3.html

I live in Sweden and all i read are the SVS subs are great but the Norweigan importer is almost twice as expensive as taking it directly from the USA so can't say what prices my budget is because the prices are so much lower in the U.S

My room is 8x5m and i will use it 60% for music and 40% for movies.

[avaserfi]

Well, sadly I can't read German and the online translators are not working well enough for me to really understand whats going on...Would it be possible for you to audition this subwoofer at home for a couple days? This would be another way to test the sub and see how you like it.

Your room looks to be fairly large and if you are looking for visceral impact for movies you will want a very capable sub. Since it seems SVS is out of the question due to your overseas situation (correct me if I am wrong with this) there would be a couple options as I see it:

1) Find another commercial subwoofer
2) Build one yourself

Option one will be easier and quicker, but might be harder due to your situation of being overseas. What commercial brands of subwoofer are available to you? Knowing all the brands you have access to and are willing to invest your money in will be helpful here as I live in the states and am not fully aware of the trade limitations etc...

Option two will give you the best bang for your buck, but only if you have previous woodworking experience, the time and willingness and lastly the tools to do this. Building a subwoofer wouldn't be too hard or complicated, but can still be an intimidating task for many. If you are interested there are great resources on this forum.

[eugovector]

avaserfi wrote:

I will say that the few JBL subwoofers I have seen measurements on or have heard have not been impressive for the money.

I'm a JBL person, and this has always been my impression also. I love their speakers, love their pro subs, but stay away from their home subs (unless they are on the cheap).

[mayhem13]

soundandvision mag did a review of the whole studio series and they were inpressed with it's performance and build quality. Harmon was blowing these out on ebay a few weeks ago-maybe they still have some listed.

[Kuma]

Just bought one. I would not pay full msrp - but would pay less than $400 delivered from the seller mentioned in the above post. They seem to have lots of them. Also, you could try a pair of jbl 8400's. I should mention that IMO this is more of a music sub than a HT sub. Its tight, clean sounding, not boomy and fairly deep, mid 20's perhaps even lower - but not a lot of impact and spl like a ported sub...

I bought this because its forte is music, its sealed, so placement is less critical than a ported sub, its small considering it has a 12" driver and looks great! If placement nor size of the sub was an issue, and if I were looking for some HT thump and boom, and less concerned about musical capabalities, I would pass on this sub. In fact, I would have probably bought a Cadence csx-15. Its getting great reviews and is only ~$400.

[bone215]

There doesn't seem to be a lot of dedicated reviews about this sub. There is a thread at another forum. Supposedly the sub is clean and relatively distortion free. I guess it will depend on room, set up, etc on how it sounds in your room. I use two of the similar but ported JBL S120pII subs. I use them as bottoms to my bookshelf speakers and they hit to about 22 -24 hz. I use a separate sub for LFE which hits lower.
They sound pretty good when set up correctly. I imagine the sealed version does sound at least as good as the ported. JBL puts lots of research into their products and in general I think they don't get a lot of respect on various forums.
Good Luck.