Is JL best sub for the money?

As a F112 owner I would suggest that the JL subs are fantastic and surely in the conversation of whats best. As for best for the money, I would guess no. THe bang for buck ratio is a non-linear one and the last 10% in performance costs 50% more money. Also I think the user needs to distinguish between HT and music. Mine is setup for HT where it shakes my house and is great. In a 2.1 music setup I think this results in a bit of boomyness. I am OK with this to get the theater the way I want it. I have tried it optimized for 2.1 and it was great, best I found.

so worth the money for HT - perhaps a bit expensive

worth it for 2.1 - I think maybe yes.

I've auditioned the better part of the JL line pretty extensively and - if carefully set-up - there's little doubt in my mind that they're terrific, probably among the best out there for most applications, music or HT. However, these products aren't designed for max value. They're luxury goods with beautifullly finished, compact cabinets.

If big, ugly (or at least, less pretty) cabinets are okay, you can get most of the performance for substantially less money. I use 12" Rythmiks which are about half the cost of the JL 12". They're bigger and won't hang with JL below 30hz or so, but for my music collection, they're awfully good performers. The SVS also appear to offer great value and will go very low in frequency.

Normally, I'd say that any of these will be between "enough" and "overkill" for music, but I'd say that about subwoofer-less Quattros, too.

Good Luck

Marty

Thanks for the kind words Albert.
I bought the F113 so should be here in a week, thanks for all replies!

The SVS line and the hSU line of subwoofers will give you the best bang for the buck. Axiom makes some excellent subwoofers over the $1,000 mark.

Greg