wamerman

Sorry I haven't had much time for an update. The place I bought it from was over the internet. Which, as you can imagine, made me nervous. I bought from them originally because they had a good price on everything I wanted AND they claimed "factory authorized dealer." Yes. It dawned on me later that Klipsch's tight reign on its channel partners probably doesn't allow internet sales, but forgive me as I was on vacation and in the throes of a home theatre buying frenzy. Anyway, the web store (am I going to get in trouble for mentioning it here?), acousticsounddesign.com, was amazing. The guy emailed me back a couple hours after my email and said they'd send UPS to pick it up and would send me a new one as soon as they got confirmation that UPS had picked it up. All at no charge to me. Even though I was a couple days outside of the store's 30 day return period (they supposedly honor the 5 year warranty themselves...I found out after reading the fine print, but you have to pay for shipping and they do a repair not a replacement). Which is the only reason I'm mentioning that store here...it's easy to find good prices on the internet and reasonably easy to find good service if you just have questions about products, but to get outstanding service on a product return inspires gratitude and loyalty with me. Anyway. Got the new RC-35. Hooked it up. And voila, very, very nice! The wife was accusing me of wasting $2000 on an RF35 HT system, but even she now has to admit it's lightyears now beyond what it was with the faulty rc-35. Thanks for all the responses and suggestions. If I was out of warranty, I probably would have opened it up and tried to follow some of your suggestions to fix it myself. As it was, this was much easier.

Quick update - doing more trouble-shooting, I plugged it into the left mains output and voila! perfect sound. For about 10 seconds. Then it became muddy and muffled again. Well, at least I know it's definitely a speaker problem and am working on getting it fixed under warranty.

Hi All, I've read several posts where people found their RC-35 to sound muffled, like the voices were coming from behind cardboard. Some responses claimed there was a product defect that appeared in some RC-35s while others claimed you just needed to tweak the EQ settings. But I found no definitive answer to tell me if I've got a defective product or if I need to find a "mystery" setting to adjust (I call it "mystery" because I've tried all setting changesI can think of). The weird thing is that when I first set everything up, the RC-35 sounded sparkling clear. Exactly what I was looking for in a center speaker. After a day or two, though, I noticed the boxy sound and could not get back that perfect sound I first experienced. As it is, DVD sound comes through 100% better selecting "stereo" output from the receiver rather than trying for 5.1 surround sound. My system is: Receiver: Pioneer VSX-1015TXK 7.1 Mains: RF-35 Surround: RS-35 Center: RC-35 Sub: KSW-12 I'm very pleased with the whole set-up except for the center. Can anyone who has experienced this problem let me know how you resolved it? Many thanks!

Nice suggestion. Thank you. Amplifier? Oh boy, here is me being a novice! I was hoping that since the Pioneer receiver puts out a stated 120W/channel, I could drive the speakers directly from the receiver? Since the RF-35s state they handle 125W continuous, that seemed like a good match? I don't think I'll be going with Best Buy, though. Looks like their entire F3 lineup, including a slightly better receiver than the Pioneer I bought, runs about $2400, or $2580 with tax. If I price it out on eBay plus Vanns the breakdown seems to be (without the receiver): Total RF15= $1485 Total RF35= $1888 Total SF-3= $1514 That makes about a $375 difference between a system with all F-3 speakers and the others. Right now I'm leaning for the total SF-3 suggestion (thank you!) because: 1) all the speakers will be matched 2) it probably works better with my receiver. Thank you again for the suggestions.

Wow, lots of great info there. Thanks. I've noticed the Best Buy cable thing, too. They wanted to sell me an extended warranty of $400 for my $4500 TV, which I declined. They used to have a reasonable price for their extended warranties, but not anymore. So. Yeah. There goes my budget The wife has pointed out to me that whatever I get now is basically what we'll have for the next 5 years, so that's also what prompted the budget to go out the window. I upgrade my computer every 6 months, buy new software every 2 months, etc...but the TV and audio will stay the same for a long time. This stuff is freaking addictive, though. Am on vacation from work today and tomorrow. I've got the living room cleared with one entire wall and this massive glass Bell'o TV stand waiting for the 73" tv to arrive on Thursday. DirecTV guy is coming today with the HD Tivo. New 500GB hard drive on the way so I can do my upgrade to make it 90 hours instead of 30 hours. New Pioneer receiver on the way. Now about to do some serious speaker buying. God, does life get any better than this???

Thanks for all the advice, everyone. After reading more, I couldn't keep to the $850 budget. I read a lot more online and read through the forums and allowed myself to be brainwashed and convinced that my soul would be more at peace with floor-standing RF-35s as mains, and that basically I would be a better human being Which, of course, means building out the rest of it with higher quality components as well! Bought a Pioneer VSX-1015TXK 7.1 receiver last night for around $400. So, the new setup I have in mind (any advice would be great...my goal is not volume, just clarity and presence and nice overall sound) RF-35 main speakers, RC-25 or RC-35 center and RS-25 for surround. Am I going to notice a mismatch with using RF-35 mains coupled with 25 series speakers for center and surround? Also, for subwoofer....I'm not intending to violate any forum rules here by mentioning non-Klipsch products so correct me if I'm doing that...anyone have any experience with Hsu STF-2 subwoofers? looking at online reviews, it seems that they come out ahead of the KSW-10 or 12 in subjective testing? One last question, I understand buying the stuff on eBay puts me in an iffy situation regarding authorized dealers and factory warranty. Anyone have any nightmare tales about buying online? For the difference in price between new from someplace around here and "new" on eBay, I'm probably looking at a $600 difference, which would cover any repairs anyway. Thanks again for all the advice.

The $850 is for speakers and receiver. I was investigating further and the Cinema series looked promising. Specifically, the Cinema 8, but I'm having trouble finding it online.

Hi, This is my first post. I need some advice. I've read through over 100 posts but am not getting a solid idea on how to proceed. Any help would be much appreciated. My goal: best-sounding HT setup w/surround sound for under $850 (includes everything) My audio experience: Novice Why Klipsch for me? I fell in love with my ProMedia v.2-400 system. Seriously, in love. My (soon to be) setup: Room size: 14'x15' but opens into both the kitchen and the dining room with no doors TV: MitsubishiWS-73907 73 16x9 TV Main audio sources: 1) DIRECTV HR10-250 with HDMI output (which includes an audio signal) and separate Optical audio output. 2) laptop stereo soundcard connection for providing sound to support the s-video output of home movies 3) No DVD player...I don't watch DVDs For the past 4 years I've used my ProMedia speakers with my 42" sony TV and been very pleased. After allowing the wife to talk me into buying a 73" tv yesterday, though, I'm afraid these won't do the job anymore. I'm not a serious audiophile. I just want surround sound with a speaker/receiver setup that makes me feel grin like an idiot, like the first time I turned up the ProMedia speakers. In other words, reasonable clarity, good spatial definition and of course the ability to put out reasonably serious volume. I'll be using my system 80% of the time to watch HD tv, sports, movies from the directv Tivo unit. The other 20% will be home movies and other content piped in from the laptop. Again, I watch almost no DVDs and any DVDs would be piped in from the laptop. The $850 should cover receiver + speakers. Cables can be extra. Thanks to anyone out there who can give their opinions on this.