I'll share my recent experiences, fwiw.
I started out looking for a "entry-level" pair
of Klipsch front speakers because one of my 10-year
old NHT speakers died. I looked a Klipsch mostly because
of how impressed I was by their ProMedia line, which I
had gotten to hear a couple of times.
I plan on holding on to my NHT center and subwoofer speakers
until I could afford to purchase rest of the matching
klipsch. I planned on only using these for home theater,
and using the 2 new klipsch on their own for straight
music listening. I'm forgoing surrounds until I find
a way to include them in my room that satisfies the wife. : )
I first started with they Klipsch speakers at Best Buy,
(a hard place to demo, for sure, but I was only looking
for relative differences between the klipsch models)
There I decided the SF-2 was the best speakers. I just
didn't want them in black, because of the wood floors in
our famliy room, and thought it would look better. Which
brought me to the Reference series, because of their cherry
wood finish. I found an authorized Klipsch in my area, and
they had a nice demo room to sample the RF-15/25/35
The RF-15 seems to match the SF-2 the most. They sounded
incredibly bright to me. Yeah, they were very clear, but
I found it on the edge of annoying. The rf-25's filled
things out, at a loss of some clarity, but felt more
warm, at least. So neither were an immediate 'Yeah, thats it'
So I bring the wife back, who knows nothing about tech,
but has a music degree and knows what she wants in a speakers
performance. She didn't care for anything except for the
RF-35's, of course. : ) But that was pushing our budget.
I really didn't want to go over $600 for a pair.
So that left klipsch as a dead end. I forget where, but I
saw some mention of B&W, so I start to do a little research,
and it all looks wayt o pricey, but it turns out there is
a high-end store a couple of miles away, so I figured what
the heck, drag the wife there, and we'll check it out,
just for reference. This store is a custom-install store
kind of place, so we felt a little out of place knowing our
budget. The sales guy was pretty haughty at first, also, which
didn't help, but he warmed up after he could tell we had been
doing some research and hunting around.
He sampled the 604's for us, and then the 601's. The 604's
sound great, and comparable the the RF-35's, my wife thought.
The 601's didn't sound too good. Then I spotted the 600's
and asked to hear those.
Bingo! We had a winner. An amazing sound for the size of the
package. Even the bass. Came in a wood finish, small size, which
was really our preferred, but I had convinced myself floor-standing
was needed for the full sound. All for $300 for the pair.
Half the price of the RF-15's. I think a previous poster mentioned
"too laid back" which I could see. I found the klipsch "too in your face",
also know as 'bright', I think. I think they both had the same clarity.
I expect someday, when the budget increases, the 600's
will be relegated to surrounds or bedroom speakers. So they
fit well in a 'grow your system' view for me.
So there is our 2cents. The speakers with the wood finish
we wanted weren't in stock and are on order, so I can't tell
you for certain how it will all ho until I get them installed
and listen to them for a while.
I'll be buying a reciever too, my Nakamichi AV-1 is nice, but
doesn't have Dolby Digital or optical connects.
I think I've setteled on a Yamaha, but not sure what.
I may take the $300 saved and put it towards a higher end receiver,
in (vain?) hopes to future proof that purchase. So I'm looking
at the Yamaha 5660 or the RX-V1400, perhaps. I'm not in a
rush for the receiver upgrade, I think the Nak will do for a while.
I'm no audiophile, more of a techie 'bang-for-the-buck', so make
of the above what you will. Which means, to me, the return on
my money for audio quality drops off pretty quickly. I can
hear the difference, sure, but can't convince myself that
its worth $1000 or more.
I'm still browsing these Klipsch forum's more out of reflex than
anything else. Klipsch just didn't do it for us in the end, although
I will be getting the Promedia5.1 when the budget allows for
my PC gaming. Half-Life2 is around the corner. : )
I could even see promoting the Promedia 5.1 to replace the B&W/NHT
mix. Have to see which way shakes out as more often used,
Home Theater vs Music.
