"Musical" subwoofers? Advice please on comparing JL subs

You might want to try 2 of the HSU ULS-15 MK2 subs at $729.00 each

Either JL would be overpowering in your room, especially two.
The most musical subs I have owned are the RELT9is, easy to integrate as well. I was skeptical but people who love them are right. The bass has a fast, high quality sound, the cabinets are heavy and do not resonate or color the midrange.
I have owned JLs in the past and after years of integration they never sounded as good as the RELs did after two weeks. Just make sure to keep them 12" from wall surfaces and follow their break in procedure.
Keep a log book of the no. of clicks on the controls too as you adjust level and crossover as they settle in. 

Go with the F110, one will be fine. I have a single F110 in a smallish listening room and it's more than enough bass. I know you said you wanted to set aside DARO but let me tell you that the room correction in the F110 is one of the primary reasons why it will work better for your specific listening space because it will correct any nulls or room nodes you might hear in the sweet spot, which IMO is all you should care about. Of course, you'll hear a lot of tubbiness if you get up and walk around the room, but in all seriousness, who cares what it sounds like outside the listening space? Once you run the auto-calibration off the F110 with the mic in the listening spot, the bass will sound perfect. Trust me, I've done it over a dozen times after changing listening rooms and room configurations. The F110 does a fantastic job of EQing the room from the listening space. I don't have the acoustic theories that a lot of other people rely on, but I agree with @jetter in the sense that people overcomplicate this subject a lot. What I do have is actual experience setting up the F110 in several different rooms and I can definitely vouch for its attributes. In fact, I've finally upgraded my stand-mount speakers because, for the longest time, I wanted speakers that could complement the performance of the F110. 

Now let me answer the original question you asked, which is which sub would be more "musical," the E110 or the F110. I think that boils down to how you define "musical." Let me just establish that I consider the description musical to be the opposite of, say, clinical. When I hear the word musical, people are often using it to contrast it with a sound that's fast, dry, grippy and detailed. Some people don't like those characteristics in gear but I quite like it. And it's actually what I like most about the F110. It's a very fast, grippy sub, but at the same time, it will convey warmth and musicality IF it's inherent in the recording. For example, one of the great recordings for showing off the F110 is an album by Brian Bromberg called Wood. Bromberg plays an 18th-century double bass but he uses a lot of very percussive fingering and plucking techniques that saturate the soundstage with minute transient detail, all of which is picked up marvelously by the F110. But, at the same time, because of the bass he's playing with, there's a tremendous amount of warmth to go along with it, which the F110 also conveys exceptionally. Another recording where the F110 plays very warm and musical is Schubert, Die Nacht played by Anja Lechner and Pablo Márquez. So, basically, I'm saying that the F110 will be warm and musical if it's inherent in the source material. But if you asked me to describe the sub as "musical," I wouldn't use that word because it's a very fast, grippy and detailed sub, which IMO is just what you want in a sub. 

Finally, I will also highly recommend an active crossover. I saw you mentioned the CR-1, which is the one that I also have my eye on. But before pulling the trigger on it, I tried a much cheaper active crossover, the MiniDSP.  In a previous post, @erik_squires and others were very helpful in explaining to me the effects of driving too low frequencies to the 7" woofer on my stand-mounts. I've since incorporated the MiniDSP to roll off the frequencies below 90hz from the stand-mounts so the JL is handling all of those and the results have been very satisfactory. The amp is working more efficiently for frequencies above 90hz and the overall tonal quality of the soundstage is more finely detailed.

So definitely go with the F110, one will be fine. And definitely use an active crossover. I hope this answers your question. 

Hi Northman, the F110s with the CR 1 crossover will be phenomenal. There are several issues you should be aware of.
As Duke noted, the bass response will vary throughout the room quite dramatically. The easy but expensive way to deal with this is to use 4 subs, otherwise you have to be careful how you set the room up. To start position all your speakers equidistant from the listening position. The best is to put the subs perhaps 3 feet apart against the wall in the center flanked buy the main speakers all on the radius of a circle with the center at the listening position. Hopefully, this will automatically phase the speakers. 
Now, the big problem is that if the listening position is at a "Null" point in the room DARO is going to try to correct this. If the null is bad enough DARO will clip the subwoofer amps. The way to deal with this is to move the listening position forwards or backwards to a point in the room where the bass is loudest. It may only take a couple of feet to do this! The way you tell is play a 50 Hz test tone and walk back and forth along the center radius. You will hear very obvious changes in the loudness of the tone. Mark the floor where it is loudest. If you do not trust your ears you can use a sound pressure meter. Given the circumstances of your room you may not be able to place the listening position at the peak but at least you can avoid the null taking some of the stress off the subs. After this run Daro. With the subs in the center do not be afraid of running the crossover up as high as 125 Hz. If you are using mini monitors like LS3 5As you drop the distortion of the little woofer quite dramatically. 

Please tell us how you make out!!

Strongly suggest Vandersteen Model 3 Subs if you want the most musical result.  I did that with my Apogee Scintillas, One Ohm and its a marvelous solution.  Got his best High Pass Crossover.  Talk to John Rutan an Audio Connection, he knows his stuff, and is a very knowledgeable Vandersteen dealer.