Reports of a few failed JBL On Stage portable speakers have filtered across the web during the past few days. While we haven’t encountered any problems with our speakers, we checked with JBL to see how extensive the problem was and what customers with affected speakers could do. A JBL representative responded to our query this way:
JBL On Stage was manufactured, for a time, with chips from two different suppliers. One chip turned out to be less reliable than JBL’s stringent specifications. Under certain conditions this chip could fail, causing a volume control malfunction. JBL On Stage with potentially defective chips have been identified by serial number.
As our JBL On Stage Support Site explains, very few customers (currently less than 1%) have experienced a problem with this product.
The problem presents itself in one of two ways: either the unit no longer works or the volume can’t be controlled. These problems may occur only if certain conditions (which are detailed on our site) are present.
We want to emphasize that this failure presents no safety issues, and that there is no risk of damage to customer’s iPods.
Harman Multimedia will replace any customer’s qualified JBL On Stage whether or not it has failed. All they have to do is contact us directly, by logging onto www.onstagesupport.com, (or through the www.jbl.com site) and enter their serial number to determine if they have a potentially defective JBL On Stage. If a customer has a JBL On Stage that contains a potentially defective chip, we will replace it.
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