Be prepared to hear things you may not have heard before
Written: Jan 13 '06 (Updated Jan 19 '06)
Product Rating:
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Pros: Good sound reproduction, instrument differentiation, wide sound field, excellent mids and highs, 5 year warranty
Cons: Sometimes muddled low-end bass, pricey
The Bottom Line: Excellent mids and highs, not too bright, sometimes muddled low-end bass, pricey; be prepared to hear things you may not have heard before.
robcfoster's Full Review: Klipsch RF25 Main / Stereo Speaker
My old reliable vintage Sony SS-U601AV speakers literally disintegrated a few weeks ago - the rubber edges of the speaker cones turned to crumbs and dust. I purchased these units new for $159/pair in 1990, and considered them quite a bargain. Each contained 2-10" woofers, a 5" midrange, and a 1" tweeter, and provided plenty of what I thought was good quality sound. After 15 years of use, I am happy to report I feel like I got my money's worth.
Of course, I had to find something to replace them with. So I made several forays into the world of retail, high-end audiophile, and pawn shops in my area.
Over a period of several days I auditioned speakers from Infinity, Bose, Sony, JBL, Klipsch (retail Synergy and high-end Reference Series), and others.
I work for a living, so budget and value are important considerations for all my purchase decisions. As I age, I have determined that sound quality is now more important to me than sound quantity. I finally found some speakers that provide an impressive quality and quantity sound, and the price was right.
I purchased a pair of Klipsch Reference Series floor-standing speakers model RF25. I based my purchase decision on my subjective perception of the quality of sound reproduction for the price.
These floor-standing speakers ship with interchangeable carpet spikes or rubber feet for smooth floors. Klipsch warranties their product to the original purchaser for 5 years. FYI: The serial number stickers on these speakers indicate that they are designed and engineered in USA, and made in China, and list the maximum input power at 125w.
I could use a lot of space here copying and pasting the product description and tech spec numbers from the manufacturer's website, but why?
Product Description from Klipsch:
http://www.klipsch.com/product/product.aspx?cid=632&dmore=True&rmore=False
For those of you that are numbers-oriented, the Klipsch website has all you need:
http://www.klipsch.com/product/comparison.aspx?line=ref&type=f
We have this pair of Klipsch RF25s located at one end (center of a 16' wall) of a carpeted room that is 16' x 20'. These speakers are placed nearly 6 feet apart, facing nearly straight forward, only slightly pointed inward, with an unobstructed view all the way across the center of the room to the opposing wall.. Both 20' walls have seating, and the corners on the other 16' wall are filled with LazyBoy recliners facing the middle of the room. This is where my wife and I enjoy some "downtime" for listening to music. In this configuration the entire room is filled with sound, and we are both able to close our eyes and picture where the various instruments are positioned in front of us. The "sweet spot" fills nearly the entire unoccupied floor space surrounded by various furnishings.
The Reference Series RF25 speakers have the drivers mounted high in the boxes, which are raised off the floor by the included carpet spikes. This helps eliminate sound muffling from speakers that sit too near the floor, and improves the volume of sound that actually fills the room and reaches the listener.
In my opinion, the true test of a speaker is the quality of sound reproduction. Mated to my 1995-vintage Pioneer VSX-454 AV receiver, I put these speakers through their paces with a variety of music from tuner, CD and DVD.
Note: All CDs listed in this review are factory originals in perfect shape with no bothersome scratches, etc. My wife and I own hundreds of CDs from various musical genres. For our initial playbacks, we chose a variety of artists, including: Norah Jones, Blues Traveler, Boston, Celine Dion, David & David, Def Leppard, Dire Straits, Enya, Enigma, Eagles, Lori Morgan, Rush, Shania Twain, ACDC, George Strait, and Whitney Houston. Quite eclectic to say the least.
In a nutshell: the RF25s deliver - sometimes too much, we quickly learned.
The quality of the audio source material, and lack thereof, became quite apparent during our testing. Some older CDs actually sounded better than some newer ones. When playing good quality CDs, the RF25s reproduced quality sound with excellent clarity and definition. On poorly recorded CDs, the RF25s are not forgiving; they faithfully (irritatingly) reproduce all the garbage that we never realized was there with our other speakers. Be prepared to hear things you have never heard before from your audio, some good, some bad.
The RF25s reproduce excellent mid range and highs, and excel on vocals. I expected the horns to be too bright for my tastes; however, I have found that they march right up there, then stop "just short" of too bright for me. For female vocals, these speakers impressed me with their painless clarity even at fairly high volume levels, especially for powerful vocals from the likes of Celine Dion and Whitney Houston. No screeching cats here! On Norah Jones' debut CD, the listener can easily discern breathing, and her sighs and emotions in her whispered voices are startling. Ever been startled by a whisper? It's eerie. And when she "tickles the ivories", you can almost hear her fingers striking the keys, and the keys reaching full stop on her piano. One Word: Clarity.
The dual 6.5-inch woofers output a surprising amount of bass for their size. The lower-frequencies of bass seem to be a little muddled at times, especially during a busy musical segment, almost as if the speakers are too "busy" to keep up. Moderate bass frequencies sound much clearer and more defined.
The RF25s are more efficient than the Sony speakers they replaced. In my testing, I noticed that the quantity of sound produced nearly doubled at the same volume setting from my amp. To my ears, these speakers sound best and provide noticeably better instrumental and vocal reproduction when playing classical, blues, high vocals, etc. at low to mid volume levels.
I am suitably impressed with the ability of the RF25s to differentiate and separate the various instruments being reproduced, instead of muddling them all together. The sound field emanating from the horns is diffused in such a way that even the higher highs are heard from various listening positions, angles, and attitudes.
Low-end bass, although "adequate", may leave some people wanting more, and could be augmented by addition of a subwoofer.
Conclusion: These speakers sound great for most of my listening tastes. The price is a little high, but worth it to the mature discerning listener.
After auditioning speakers of this caliber, I have since found myself "disappointed" when listening to most other main-stream retail speaker offerings.
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