These JBL 230's are sitting on my desk next to my laptop using JMedia player They are sitting on Isoacaustic stands. I am driving them with Parasound Zdac, Zpre, and Zamp. If I had to describe these speakers with one word I would choose "integrity". Every instrument is held in it's own acoustic space and I feel I am getting all of the information that was present in the recording space that these speakers are capable of presenting within their frequency range. The amount of detail they retrieve may make them seem a little bright. Playing dance and techno music the bass is very tight and fast, even at loud volumes which is impressive from 6 inch drivers. Listening to Ella Fitzgerald sing Georgia on My Mind backed by Nelson Riddle the horn section just leaps from the speakers at the beginning and then when Ella begins singing her voice is so delicate but so strongly enveloped by the orchestra it just seems "right". Now book shelf speakers don't have the dynamics of floorstanders but I didn't hear any type of tinny compression. What I do hear is a soundstage that extends about 3 feet outside of the speakers and a sweet spot that stays locked in even while I am moving around in my chair while I am working. The Parasound Z components are great and I am sure that driving these speakers with high quality separates helps them sound their best. The other thought that occurred to me while listening to these is I'll bet some of the recordings I listened to were mastered on JBL Pro speakers so of course the home speakers would likely give me that "integrity" of what the mastering engineer created.