“Cinema 8” speaker set, part 2: RCX-4 center channel
Written: Feb 12 '05 (Updated Feb 14 '05)
Product Rating:
Ease of Use:
Durability:
Pros: Excellent reproduction of vocal and mid-range frequencies
Cons: Small base relative to size of main body
The Bottom Line: This center channel speaker collaborates extremely well with the rest of Klipsch's "Cinema 8" and "Cinema 10" speaker sets. Movie sound effects are superb.
towwang's Full Review: Klipsch RCX-4 Center Speaker
In this review: specifications, installation, sound performance with movies, comparison with competing products.
This is part 2 of a 3-part review covering the Klipsch "Cinema 8" speaker set, which consists of:
1) Klipsch RSX-4 satellite speaker
2) Klipsch RCX-4 center speaker (this review)
3) Klipsch RW-8 sub-woofer with 2-channel stereo amplifier
Please click on the above links to read the other parts of this review.
The RCX-4 is a speaker optimized for the "center channel" of home theater sound formats such as Dolby Digital and Digital Theater Sound. It is best suited for dialogue and other sounds in mid-range frequencies. Its enclosure houses two woofers and one tweeters; it would be otherwise identical to the RSX-4 satellite speaker except for the extra woofer in the RCX-4.
[Packaging and specifications]
The RCX-4 arrived in a 12*10*14 inch box, with good Styrofoam protecting the product against shocks. The box contained:
1) RCX-4 satellite speaker with detachable face-plate
2) Tilt-swivel base (detachable if desired) with nut-driver bar on its foot-plate
3) Owner’s manual inside a stylish black portfolio
The RCX-4 is available in both black and silver finish. I opted for the black ones to match the color of the RW-8 sub-woofer. The RCX-4 comes in a wide enclosure with a oval-shaped face of soft rounded curves. (Amusingly I noticed that if you were to remove the face-plate, the front of the speaker resembles the face of a well-known ExtraTerrestrial movie character, with the woofers as two big eyes.) The face-plate attaches to the enclosure via 8 magnetized contacts, and is easily removable. DO NOT try to lift the speaker by the face plate, the main body may fall off!
Brochures, specifications and even the user’s manual can be downloaded from:
http://klipsch.com/product/product.aspx?cid=711
Standard warranty for the speaker is 5 years, from the manufacturer.
[Installation]
All the installation notes in my review of the RSX-4 (regarding the tilt-swivel base, mounting holes, possible orientation and speaker terminals) apply to the RCX-4 as well. The main caveat is that, because the main enclosure is so disproportionately wider and heavier than the tilt-swivel base, extra care must be taken to place the RCX-4 on a flat and steady surface, and for certain angles of tilt, you will have no choice but to secure the tilt-swivel base to a fixed surface.
Complicating matters is the fact that the center channel of movie audio carries dialogue, which as we know is highly directional. This means that the center speaker must be placed very near the television set, preferrably right on top or below it, and dead center. In my case, the top surface of my CRT TV set is not that big, and any inadvertent push or tug could send the center speaker tumbling down to the floor. I would have preferred that Klipsch had designed a bigger (at least wider) tilt-swivel base for the RCX-4 to reduce such a risk.
[Sonic performance with movies]
I do not have much to say about the RCX-4's sonic performance by itself, except that it does indeed reproduce vocal performances and dialogue clearly. Its treble response is identical to that of the RSX-4 when playing isolated passages of high-pitched sounds (which in any case are pretty rare in the center channel of any movie, except maybe for some blood-curdling scream whose pitch was bent by the magic of audio engineering). In most other circumstances, dialogue and lower pitched sounds take over precedence, as they should.
For a better assessment of sonic performance, I played a few DVD movies and evaluated the "Cinema 8" set as a whole; below are my impressions. Granted, speaker sets at half the price of the "Cinema 8" could probably reproduce all the effects I describe next; it is more the question of "how good is good enough" that needs to be answered when buying a home-theater speaker set. Hopefully some of the following effects and criteria will be useful to the reader as things to listen carefully to in order to make a good purchase decision.
1) "24" season 2 (a TV series originally aired by Fox in the U.S.) Lots of atmospheric sounds emphasizing reverberating bass, impressively reproduced by the RW-8 sub-woofer. This DVD set distributes vocal effects between the center and the left+right channels, to create the mood of extreme urgency at the beginning of various chapters, which was conveyed superbly by the RSX-4s and the RCX-4 working in harmony.
2) "From hell" (starring Johnny Depp) Again, the sub-woofer produces realistically the loud thumps of furniture tumbling against the floor, right after the object moves off the screen. The sound effect adds an imaginary dimension of depth to the screen. Plenty of creepy atmospheric sounds surround the silhouette of the killer, and the satellite speakers produce those noises with the proper intensity.
3) Battle scenes of "Pearl Harbor" and "Enemy at the gates" brought out the best of this speaker set. The sound of bullets flying around the scene, planes swooping down to strafe unfortunate ground victims, it is all played with great definition and location. You can unmistakeably hear in what direction the projectiles are flying! (See further below about this aspect, as I compare Klipsch with Bose.)
[Comparing with competing products]
The information in this section is highly subjective, and highly dependent on my personal criteria. I set out to find the best set of home-theater speakers that would be well-suited for both music and movies, without taking up too much floor-space (or wall-space if you will). The set has to be perfectly balanced, as both the audio formats and my STR-DE997 receiver/amplifier could deliver equal amounts of power to each speaker channel. I listen to all kinds of music: classical, jazz, rock, metal, techno; the speakers (especially the sub-woofer) should not be biased towards any particular genre. The speaker sets I was able to audition were:
a) JBL "SCS160SI": a very well balanced set, clear and crisp sound, with a compact sub-woofer that delivers enough power to make you believe the T-Rex from "Jurassic park" is coming near. Price was attractive at below $500.
b) Bose "AM15 II". When I first attended one of those Bose demonstration films inside a dedicated theater room of a local super-store, I was blown away by the realistic and powerful sound produced by such small speakers. However soon enough lots of people on the InterNet started screaming "Bose sucks, that's why they never let you compare their speakers right next to competitors". Well, at this particular store, I walked from one set to the next, and did compare Bose with the competition, listening to the same DVD the salesperson provided, and a music CD I had brought along. My impression? Bose speakers are exceptionally good at atmospheric sounds; their sonic characteristic seems to add an extra amount of spaciousness to whatever surround sound effect you apply to your movie or music. They also seem very well suited for classical music, where strings and pianos, not cymbals and drums, dominate. Upon side-by-side comparisons however, I did notice that treble was not as clear as that of KLHs and Klipschs. I could not justify paying $1299 for this set.
c) Klipsch "Quintet", supposedly a low-end home-theater set. This is where I began to discover the higher clarity of sound in Klipsh's design; I played some rock music and definitely liked what I heard. The sub-woofer seemed slightly under-powered, once I heard the bigger RW-8 that came with the "Cinema 8" package. Nevertheless, on sale at $600 it was definitely a contender for my money.
d) KLH "HTA6108". The satellite tweeters were even crisper than the Quintet or the SCS160SI's, but unfortunately the subwoofer was way too weak. This $150 set could have been a great buy if they had been able to demo a better sub-woofer for me, but on that day it simply served to strengthen my conviction that Bose sets were overpriced. (It was probably due to revenue considerations that the salesperson tried to steer me away from this inexpensive set; in truth I did not see the price tag until after I listened to it.)
e) Anthony Gallo "Nucleus Micro": very good ambiance characteristics (as good as the Bose AM15) and clearer on the treble, but pricey as the Bose systems. The subwoofer was excellent, producing well-defined bass effects.
f) Energy "Act 6": sounded terrible to my ears; totally void of definition, very weak treble (worse than the Polks below), bass was average.
g) Polk R15, R30, R50: I may be completely at odds with Polk's designers, but I found the same problem across their entire product line showcased: sound was very diffuse, and mid-range over-emphasized (strings and synthesizers drowned out other instruments). It seemed that every speaker was trying to fill the room with the sound from its own channel, thereby muddling all stereo effects from movies. The tweeters were only slightly better than the Energy set, but still way below everybody else. Prices were not attractive.
h) Cambridge Soundworks MCx00 series bookshelf speakers: tweeters were weak at all models below the MC200, and mid-range frequencies were somewhat lacking unless you go up to the MC300, and even then were less crisp and clear than the lower-priced JBL set. The subwoofers on the other hand were quite powerful and filled the demo room with clean bass. Could not get decent sound for anything less than $1300, so I passed up.
As compared to all the above offerings, I found that the Klipsch "Cinema 8" speaker set has:
- RSX-4's tweeters as good as the KLH and JBL products (though the Klipschs may be slightly more aggressive in this area), and better than all the other products.
- Mid-range frequencies and vocals very clear but having somewhat less presence than Bose's design; the Klipsch RCX-4 takes second place along with Anthony Gallo, leaving the rest behind.
- RW-8 sub-woofer that is powerful yet clear, and does not overwhelm the rest of the speaker set, a considerable advantage of buying a balanced set of speakers. Cambridge, Bose, and Anthony Gallo are in this league too.
Back to part 1 of this review: RSX-4 satellite speaker.
Proceed to part 3 of this review: RW-8 subwoofer.
[Revision history]
2005 02 07 Written by and copyright Tow Wang.
2005 02 12 Review published and linked.
To meet the demand for speakers that fit almost anywhere and still deliver excellent sound, Klipsch has developed a new compact center channel for its...More at Buy.com Marketplaces
The RCX-4 delivers incredibly dynamic and accurate performances by utilizing a 1-inch titanium-dome compression driver coupled to Klipsch's new round ...More at J&R Music and Computer World
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