JBL Arena 130s?

[MrMario]

Thinking about buying the JBL Arena 130s.
They're on sale for $140. What do you think? Insta-buy at that price? How good are they? What's a good and/or relatively inexpensive amp to pair with them? Any sub suggestions?

Thanks for your thoughts.

 

[americanaudiophile]

Certainly at that price you won't go wrong. They are 8 ohms so easy to drive. You want about 100 watts per channel. Most cheap digital amps have exaggerated power specs so be careful. You can easily get a used 100 watts x 2 stereo amp or a stereo receiver or integrated amp with that kind of power.
https://www.bestbuy.com/site/yamaha-200w-2-ch-stereo-receiver-black/5037100.p?skuId=5037100&ref=212&loc=1&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIw_OMzIfy3AIVDRgMCh17BwZREAQYASABEgJ2kvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds
Sub will depend on the price range. You want a forward firing subwoofer. The bandpass subs where all the sound comes from the port are bad sounding. If you don't get a surround sound receiver you will want it to have a subwoofer or preamp output to connect the sub too. Some subwoofers have speaker level inputs that can be use with any system.

 

[MrMario]

Thanks a bunch, that's super helpful. Hopefully the store still has 'em. Once my setup is finished I'll post some pics and my thoughts.

 

[MrMario]

Oh another question, what gauge speaker wire should I go with?

 

[MrMario]

Certainly at that price you won't go wrong. They are 8 ohms so easy to drive. You want about 100 watts per channel. Most cheap digital amps have exaggerated power specs so be careful. You can easily get a used 100 watts x 2 stereo amp or a stereo receiver or integrated amp with that kind of power.
https://www.bestbuy.com/site/yamaha-200w-2-ch-stereo-receiver-black/5037100.p?skuId=5037100&ref=212&loc=1&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIw_OMzIfy3AIVDRgMCh17BwZREAQYASABEgJ2kvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds
Sub will depend on the price range. You want a forward firing subwoofer. The bandpass subs where all the sound comes from the port are bad sounding. If you don't get a surround sound receiver you will want it to have a subwoofer or preamp output to connect the sub too. Some subwoofers have speaker level inputs that can be use with any system.

Ok, here's the set-up.

My JBL Arena 130’s are hooked up via banana cables to my Dayton APA150. My PC (primary audio source) is connected to my amp via a 3.5mm to RCA cable (monoprice cable). My headphones (Sennheiser HD 439) are plugged into the aux port on my monitor, and the monitor to PC via displayport.

My secondary audio source is an old Haier HD TV. My PS2 is connected via a mini a/v converter cable that came with my TV. My Roku is connected to that TV via HDMI, and finally the TV is connected to my Line-In port at the back of my PC via 3.5mm (also HDMI to GPU). There is a ground loop noise isolator (MPOW adapter) between the TV and PC at the PC end.

What a journey it's been. The initial installation of my wall mounts was a nightmare mainly due to the irregularity of my wall studs (and took several trips to the hardware store). Then I ended up taking even more trips to my local Fry's trying to get my TV’s audio to come through my JBL’s. First I tried using an RCA switch with a couple 3.5mm to RCA adapters to connect my PC, TV, and headphones to the amp, which “worked” but I got significant audio feedback at higher amp volumes (the noise got exceedingly worse when I ran a couple video games).
So I ended up returning all of that, and now I've got the set-up that I described earlier. The noise grounder is fantastic, I've got no more feedback (except at very high amp volumes, and even then it's not nearly as bad) and all my audio sounds great no matter the source or what application I'm running. Switching audio sources is easy and works like it should. I'm very happy with the way it turned out.

Yes I could've avoided a lot of hassle by buying a proper receiver (and then it'd be a proper solution). However, as you can see from the picture of my set up, I'm very limited on space. There were plenty of good quality and affordable used receivers online, but none in the dimensions I needed. There are a couple of receivers that could've fit my space requirements, but I could only find them expensive and new. I also felt weird spending more on an amp/receiver than my speakers (I got them new at a great price on sale).

Feel free to share your thoughts. At some point I'll add a sub, but I don't have the space for it right now.