My experience in playing DVD movies with these S36's as front speakers, and an S series center channel speaker (and a couple generic rear speakers), has been entirely positive; a very natural soundstage is presented when a DVD is pumping out information to all the different channels. I am less impressed by how they perform solo (as a pair that is, without any center channel or surrounds) so will limit my reccomendation to only those who are buying them as part of a multi speaker set up.

Does this mean you should not get these? Depends on how you tend to play back stereo music (from CDs): If you are a purist who chooses to play stereo music through only 2 speakers, these are not the speakers for you (indeed, avoid shelf speakers altogether and get some good floor speakers!). If you're a modern person who tends to engage your receiver's surround processing to force a stereo signal into all the center speaker and surrounds too, then you've got no worries - this seems to be what they are made for. Needless to say, but I'll say it anyway: these shelf speakers are better than shelf speakers that use a remote woofer. However, this still doesn't mean they have great bass. They have moderate bass - better than those, but still not competing with floor speakers. Indeed, despite these being great for shelf speakers, after several years of trying different kinds of shelf speakers I've come to the conclusion that there's simply no replacement for good old fashioned floor speakers with huge woofers - if you can afford it, and if you have a large enough room.

But if you are in a smaller apartment and don't have space to waste on floor speakers, and are looking for speakers to be part of a surround system, then these S36 are definately worth considering - particularly at the $... to $... price range they are most often available for. They are remarkably flush - only 5 inches deep, meaning they can even fit on shallow DVD shelves - you don't need actual bookshelves for these, which is why I chose them over JBL's other similarly-prices speakers. I wanted speakers that would not be competing for space. They can also be mounted to the wall - either hung, or on a mount (useful for people intending to use these as rears).

In short these are probably perfect for students-through-thirties who want to build an excellent surround system that doesn't waste space, and want a moderate amount of bass (more than many shelf units, but not as much as floor units).