JBL GT1281

Price Paid:  $0.00 from Crunchfield

Year / Model Reviewed:
 2001 JBL GTO-1280

Strengths:
JBL quality sound, Great material, Accurate sound, Slaming bass, Plays even greater when the components are all JBL, Great Price, Put's Rockford Fosagte to shame anyday, Great SPL on these. It's JBL, baby.

Weaknesses:
Me, for owning Rockford Fosgate. As for the for GTO-1281's : NONE!!!!!!!!!!!

Summary:
To make a long story short. I needed some new 12's really fast (but at the right price). My Two 12 Inch Rockford Fosgate "Punch Hx2" were starting to get on my nerves, becuase nobody could hear them (except me). The "Punch Hx2" is a beautiful lookin' sub, but I traded beauty for quality when i got JBL. I really wanted to get Two 10 Inch JL Audio 10W3's, but i didn't have enough money, so i had to choose an alternative. I picked JBL because all my component's were JBL (4 1/2 in the front and 6 1/12 in the rear) plus JBL powers my living room as well with their home theater speakers, i couldn't go wrong. So I bought Two 12 Inch JBL "GTO-1281" 8 Ohms for $70.00 each from Crunchfield. I put these bad boys in the back of my 1991 Honda CRX and hooked my 1400 watt "Legacy Sapphire" amp up to it, and man i was crying. For once in my life i did something right and these subs were slaming, plus they hit 100% accurate on any type of music you play. I can be heard from up to a block away at loud volume. The real thing that i truly enjoy the most is when my brother's friend's come up to me and say "what do you got in your trunk?, man that sounds really tight" and when I tell them "JBL, man" they just look at me go "uhhh?". Kids, what do they know? (LOL).

Similar Products Used:
Pyramid and Rockford Fosgate

Price Paid:  $70.00

Strengths:
Really efficient, handle the juice, sound great.... on and on and on. I recently hit 156.9 on the SPL meter at a comp (really) with these two subs and two more mtx 5000's that were only getting 100 watts each. And that was without bumping up the bass or the gains on the amps. These are baaaad speakers. Definately worth your Dollar.

Weaknesses:
I did short out one of the tensel wires the other day, but that was my fault. My wire guage must have been too small, which put a strain on the sub. Running 12 guage now, and the sheer volume is frightening.

Summary:
Holy CRAP! These things are loud and proud. The good thing is that they have great sq as well as spl. These bad boys can really handle the power easily. I am putting 400 watts rms into each sub (have two) and they slam solid.

Similar Products Used:
MTX 3000, 5000.... neither really compare... and the occasional Rockford Fosgate, which cost waaay more than these.

Price Paid:  $75.00 from Crutchfield

Strengths:
Very high sensitivity, Great SQ. They can hit some notes that my MTX subs would sound bad at. They go very low, mostly because of their 24 hz free air resonant frequency. They have massive 80 oz magnets and a very large voice coil. The rubber surround is tough as nails too.

Weaknesses:
Haven''t run into any yet, but like I said, I am just breaking them in still. They won''t win any comps. up against DD, MMats, and MTX RFL''s, but they are plenty loud. I need to power them with my 600 watt amp to tell what they can do when you really crank them.

Summary:
Got these things for only $150 for the pair off of Crutchfield. REALLY GOOD DEAL! I am still breaking these things in (bridged them for a 4 ohm mono load) and they boom like crazy even with minimal amplifier power. I am breaking them in with my 200 watt MTX amp and they will pound like mad and have excellent SQ. They are louder than my other subs were with the bass set lower! I have each of them in a 1.6 cubic foot sealed box, which helps with the boomy sound. I can''t wait to hook them up to my 600 watt MTX amp to see what they can really do.

Similar Products Used:
MTX 3000 and 5000, JBL Loud+Clear, JBL Gti 1200, JL 10-w3, etc.