Customer Reviews

JBL L8400P 600-watt High Performance 12-Inch Powered Subwoofer with Digital Amplifier (Black)

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

This subwoofer is made to produce QUALITY sound. Some reviews here and elsewhere complain that it does not pump out high amounts of booming base.
This is not a car sub. It is a home theater sub. It produces very clean and tight base, at respectable levels, even when playing action movies.
I much rather have realistic base than simply a big box that pumps out low frequency vibration.
I've tested many subs, and for this price point, you cannot get better quality.
That said, if you have a very large room, you may have to turn the volume up high to get the same level that cheaper subs put out.
Also, placement within the room is everything when it comes to subs.
Don't hesitate: If you can get this for 350-450, buy it.

We got two of these to go with our new surround sound system. All of the others are bookshelf speakers so we needed more bass for both music and movies. For me these speakers do an excellent job covering the low end. After some adjustments and fine-tuning they are working perfectly with the rest of the system. The bass is clean and crisp without overwhelming the rest of the system. I think you will find the bass from these more refined like at a movie theatre then some of the weaker subs out there that strain to keep up with the rest of the system. It does drop down to 22hz so you can feel it as well as hear it but it's not going to shake your pictures off the wall. I'm sure we didn't need two but....

They have a lot of power with the built in 600-watt amp. Be careful when comparing powered subs. Most manufacturers list the peak power for their subs so when you see 400 watts you may think it's comparable but if you look close that is peak with maybe 200 watts nominal. The L8400 shows 600 watts and that is nominal with 1200 watts peak. It is hard to find another sub with this power for the price from a company that is known for quality speakers. Kudos to JBL for giving us honest numbers and not trying to mislead us.

The sub is always plugged in and will turn on when it receives a signal from the AV receiver. At this point a blue light comes on, on the top of the sub. This lets you know that it is up and running. One quirk that I have noticed is that one of our subs will chirp when this happens and the other does not. They both work and sound the same except for the power on chirp. The chirp is a good audio reminder that it is activated.

Like the entire JBL Studio L series this is a beautiful piece of furniture and will look good in any room. Though the speaker itself is an impressive 12" the actual housing is not much bigger at about a 15" cube so it will fit very well in a limited space. The Studio L series speakers come in 3 color options of black, cherry and beach. Though all of the other speakers we have are cherry I went with black for the subs. It was a little cheaper and the general rule is subs are OK black even if the rest of the system is not.

I purchased this sub along with four new Def Tech Pro 1000 monitors and a Pro2000 center. I did not like the sound, and weak aesthetics of the Def Tech 1000 sub, thus I turned to JBL. Have owned many of their products over the years and have been quite please, though they have gone a little mainstream, and would support only their high end offering.

Customer Service: Couldn't believe it, but my first one that came was dead on arrival. Nothing, cables, receiver setting, just one big heavy dead black box. Contacted JBL, they had me try an analog run through the DVD output to be sure, but again nothing. They told me to return it as it was obviously defective. They even offered to replace itself themselves if I had any trouble through the retailer! I'll take that kind of service and caring any day!

Customer service, part 2: Called Amazon and explained the situation, they sent a new one at no charge, overnight and sending a call tag to return the bad one. I could not ask for better customer service, my hat's off to you, and empowering your customer service rep's to rectify the situation. No haggling, complaining, or needing to talk your way up the ladder to get something done. This is the makings of a customer for life.

Performance: Sounds wonderful. Sealed sub's like this are very musical, and very very tight. I love this type of sound. Ported subs are a cheap way to get the specs better, IMO, and requires alot less power. This sub has power to spare. It might not get all the way down like some people like, but this baby is low and super tight, not woofy just to vibrate the walls. Try some DTS or DD 5.1 concert videos, and you will know exactly what I mean. At +/- $400 bucks or so, unbelievable value, and as bonus, has a nice small footprint to easily position.

I have no complaints with the sound quality. This will provide booming, btu accurate bass that will frighten your cat if she falls asleep in front of it. My complaints are usability. The stand-by mode doesn't really save power. The sub gets quite warm if left on, even if when it has no signal. The only way to save your electric bill is to turn it off, which requires reaching behind the sub, which may be impractical in your set-up. Also, when it wakes up from stand-by, it chirps. When my little brother used my system unattended, he wasted a good deal of time trying to find the frog he thought must have gotten into the living room. If your material goes a long time without any bass in the soundtrack, it can chirp in the middle of the movie. This is rather irritating.

Edit: I had this for about 2 years and it worked great. Then, about a week after I wrote this review, it quit working. It would still power up, but made no sound whatsover. I took it in for repair and found I had a melted voice coil. I have a 15'x13'x10' room, have my system equalized & never have turned it above -12. It should be able to handle a lot more than this. This seems to be a rare problem, and the repair was covered by warranty (though labor wasn't and I was without my sub for almost a month), so I won't deduct any points from the review, but keep in mind reliability varies.

this sub just like any you buy has to be adjusted to your unit and speakers. this may a few days to get it right to your personal liking....but once u do u will love this best i owned and this is my forth different one over the last 25 years......jbl knows there stuff....

brand new this subwoofer is great for small to medium sized rooms. medium meaning around 13' by 18'. Low end base is good but could be a slight bit heavier for a sub this size. Its worth the amazon price of $450.00 for the size room or smaller that i stated at the beginning.

This is my first home sub so with my 5 star rating I might be a little happy and giddy about it, but the results cannot be understated. I WAS missing the bottom octave and what a difference a sub makes for low end reinforcement! I have 2 pairs of JBL LX600`s as home speakers and this sub main role is for music. My main speakers are 3 way with a 10in woofers. They by themselves can get somewhat low (at least for music) so I wanted the JBL sub to just help out the main speakers and not be overpowering, let alone overbearing. A sub should compliment the sound and be balanced and in check.

This JBL sub is awesome if ya ask me. For just a 1x12 in a sealed box it performs very well with ample 'ooomph' if you want it ...plenty of power for me, it`s no lightweight in that department. Sure there`s bigger woofers with more watts behind them in a ported enclosure made just for the boom boom factor. But those designs usually have slower reaction times because of the size of the woofer as well as not very tight bass. I prefer to have a more accurate sub, and this falls in that catagory. 600 watts RMS (1200 peak) is nothing to scoff at either, it`s not 300 watts with 600 max. I hate some manufacturers that give you only max ratings just to try and impress, it`s misleading if nothing else.

This JBL sub is made pretty well quality wise imo. The woofer is strong and rigid and has a thick rubber surround that is capable of high excursions. The cabinet quality is beautiful if ya ask me. It doesn`t take up a lot of real estate in it`s 'footprint' so ease of placement might surprise you. It has feet on it that you can put screw in spikes- if ya want. I didn`t as I didn`t want to scratch the wood floors if I wanted to slide it around. Mine doesn`t go chirp when coming out of standby mode, it`s quiet. Out of one of my Onkyo Integra preamp out`s, I run a line to my other preamp and then to the sub. I dedicated one of the preamps just so I can have a volume control for this sub, which works out great. Every band/artist has a different mix and bottom end, so it`s nice to be able to turn it up or down as needed. I use the crossover on the JBL sub at around 80 because if set to 40 (say), out of nowhere comes a big overpowering resonant bass note. Might be fine for home theater, but not for music imo. I want all the lows to blend in with the other speakers preferably and not sound out of balance.

I highly recommend this sub, it`s a great sub. I paid about $450 (after shipping) for mine used and feel it`s worth more than that. I feel JBL has a big winner here with this sub.

I was tryin to debate whether to get this $450 600 watts RMS subwoofer or the $175 JBL SUB12 with 300 watts RMS. I decided to go all out and get this one received it very quickley(3 days) thanks to PRIME shipping. Hooked it up and the clarity was amazing. Its actually not as powerful as I thought it was going to be but still very clear. If I had the choice to do it again I would just get the $175 SUB12 but its not worth the shipping to send it back so Im keeping it and very pleased with it. Had to play around with the positioning for about two weeks. I have a small room and tried 2 different positions in my walk in closet and it was louder in the next room than it was in my room so I eventually placed it at the front near the TV(only option). Big difference...It was alot louder in my room from the listening positions once i got it to the front I was very pleased.

I looked at twenty different subwoofers, I went with the jbl because i have jbl speakers,what a great choose .I am so very happy with the sub,for its build quality,sound and looks.THE JBL L8400P brought my home theather alive,some people say it cherps when you turn it on,i have not had that problem.

I've had my sub for about two month and i think its fantastic!!! well once its on, as other people have commented it chirps when it powers on which just an annoyance, even more so because i have it in a small space so it is very noticeable. Also if your already getting sound complants dont buy this sub because they will only continue. it easily get glasses rattling.

Also because of the complaints i have plug the sub into a grounded timer which has helped with sounds complaints and with not hear the chirp and with people power complaints. it would have been a very nice feature if it was built in