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Have you ever heard a pair of Cornwalls? I first heard of Klipsch back in the early 80s when my uncle had what I believe were a pair of Cornwalls. They were big, literally pieces of furniture themselves. He too was an audiophile and had the full setup in an entertainment center that spanned an entire wall, separate amp, big long analog dial tuner, a BSR EQ with something like 15 bands and a spectrum analyzer that was as wide as the component itself and I believe even a 20 Hz band, and even a reel-to-reel. His house is where I first listened to a CD. I remember his system having room-filling sound, deep vocals and a clean bass "thump", along with seriously crisp highs from string plucks and cymbals. I wonder if what I'm looking for is some very low boost, like around 40 Hz or so. My Pontiac stock stereo has an EQ with a 40 Hz band, and seems to have the type of reinforcement I'm looking for. Do you know of any AVRs or pre/pros that have EQ band(s) below the typical 63 Hz? Thanks for your input, and anyone else who has input. I'm really looking to get the right sound. I have always absolutely loved music and nothing would make me happier than that right sound, that simultanious combination of power and finesse.

Yep, those are the exact same speakers I have. I actually went back to my DCMs, from my M70s, for about a month prior to getting the RF-83s. Even though the DCMs were 13 years old, the M70s were absolutely nothing compared to them. After rehooking up the DCMs, I turned on the radio and the first thing I noticed was the deepness of the male DJs voice, that was simply non-existant with the M70s, along with a the return of the highest frequencies. They also "fill" the room with sound. The reason I decided to upgrade from the DCMs in the first place wasn't that I was unhappy, I was just looking for even better, more precise sound. Ideally at least, I'm looking for powerful bass with ultra-detail and precision in the highs. When I hooked up my RF-83s to my current AVR, while I immediately noticed that there was passable bass, less than the DCMs, I also immediately noticed background sounds that I had never heard before, coming from CDs that I had listened to hundreds of times. For example, detailed background vocals and details in the lead singer's voice that make you feel as though you are in the studio with them, keyboards that sound much more live piano-like, precision background percussion instruments, and the like. I too also like the higher tweeter of the 83s.

It sounds like you and I have had some of the same speakers. I still have my Technics 3-way 10" woofer speakers, with the plastic-y composite woofer and midrange, which I think cost maybe $50 each in 1995 at Circuit City. They are surprisingly good sounding speakers. I also bought, in 1997, from Circuit City, DCM KX 12 Series II speakers for $199 each. These are some POWERFUL speakers that sound pretty good and are 99db efficient without any sort of amplifier-killing impedance dip. I still remember the day I got them, where they replaced a pair of circa 1987 Pioneer 3-way 12" woofer tower speakers whose drivers were failing, and how amazed I was at how they literally shook the house. About a year and a half ago, I bought a pair of Polk Monitor 70s on sale and was disappointed from the start. While they had somewhat better midrange accuracy, the bass and high treble could not even come close to the DCMs. I'm still surprised because M70s received great reviews. On the plus side, when used with the Polk CS2, they are pretty good HT speakers. This past summer I bought my current RF-83s at half of MSRP since they were being discontinued. While they are head-and-shoulders above the Polks, my current amp can't handle the impedance dip and, when listening to music, it shuts off at around -12db, which is not very loud (See my other post on RF-83s and amps). I don't think my current amp is bringing out the full potential of these speakers. So tell me, assuming you had the same DCMs I do, properly driven, how do the RF-83s compare to the DCMs, especially in terms of bass?

I have Comcast cable and, although I do not currently have an HD TV (still have my 1997 35-inch reduced-curvature Mitsubishi, which still has a better and clearer picture than a lot of HD TVs out there), my cable box is an HD DVR box, so I can tune both SD and HD channels. The box seems to down-convert an HD signal to 480i through the S-video cable, and I run audio, via HDMI, to my AVR. For some reason, if I am watching the SD channel of any network, which will always come out as standard stereo, when I switch to the network's HD channel, and the receiver goes into Dolby Digital, the sound level drops quite a bit and, especially with something like sports announcers, the highest and lowest parts of their voice seem to have less fidelity. Also, crowd noise becomes almost non-existant. The poor sound remains even if I force stereo mode while watching the HD channel. Does anyone else experience this?

My current amp, a Pioneer VSX-919ah-k, is not capable of handling the impedance dip of my RF-83s and shuts off at around -12db, so I'm looking into a new amp that can bring out the full potential of these speakers. I was considering an Emotiva UPA-7, but they stopped manufacturing them. Emo actually currently appears to be out of stock on almost everything. Is anyone running RF-83s with one of the above Elite amps? Will the SC's with ICEpower run them any better than the A/B VSX's. Thanks in advance.

Thanks for everyone's responses. It has taken me awhile to get back since, right after I posted this, my hot water heater started having problems, just as we got our first nighttime temperature down in the upper 30s. I never ran the Audyssey program. I checked the biwire jumpers and they are fine. I disconnected each channel individually, but the amp still cut out each time, with phase control blinking, at the same volume. I removed and restripped all of the speaker wires, but no change. Then I tried "bi amp"ing them using the receiver "bi amp" setting, and the additional speaker wires, thinking maybe more channels feeding the speaker would help, but there was no change (actually the receiver seemed to cut out a little earlier when set up this way). I un-bi-amped them and tried setting the speakers to small, 80 Hz crossover, and was able to go up to -7db. As soon as I went to -6db the amp cut out, again with the phase control light blinking. Somebody once said at 10ft the RF-83s could double as a hair dryer, and they were right, so maxing out at -7db normally would suffice but, for some reason, both these speakers and my M70s sound poor when set to small. Steve Guttenberg, in his Oct. 2007 review of the RF-83 system, noted something similar and said, when set to large, the speakers sounded "more together". For me, my amp, and my room, when listening with the system set to small, it's not a matter of sounding "more together", it is a matter of simply sounding poor. Even the high end detail is impaired. Switch to large and the speakers come to life with fullness and detail. The manual said to try the "digital safety feature" in some hidden menu. When I did, it did correct the problem of the receiver shutting off, but it harmed the audio quality in a weird way...it seemed to attenuate any "peaks" in the sound so when you would expect something to slam or hit hard, it was almost like the volume of that particular sound or instrument was digitally lowered. It was strange to listen to. I googled pioneer digital safety feature but could not come up with any explanation as to what it does exactly.

I recently bought my first 5.1 Klipsch setup but I'm having a problem - my receiver shuts off and the phase control light blinks whenever I turn the volume up to somewhere between -14dB and -12dB, which is really only a moderate to moderately loud volume, it's at the point where the bass just starts to "kick". I looked up this error in the manual and it says to check to make sure no individual strands from the speaker wires are crossed, or else there could be a "serious problem" with the receiver. No wires are crossed anywhere. When used with my previous speakers, Polk Monitor 70s (only 90dB efficient), I never had this problem, and I had turned them up as high as 1 or 2 dB above reference level, which was very loud even with only 90dB efficiency. Any idea on what might be wrong, or is it that my receiver cannot power the RF-83s. I would be surprised if this were the case as the Klipsch are so much more efficient than the Polks, and the Polks had 4 woofers each. Thanks.

It's been awhile and I will post more soon. I've been sick for almost two weeks and, while I am getting over it, my ears are plugged up, and I can hear almost nothing out of my left ear. Also I had to exchange my RC-64 since it had a flaw in the finish, and I have to build a special shelf for it above my TV since it's so heavy.

While clearly there was a difference with the tweeters (size), I also always wondered whether there was a difference between the woofers in the 83s and 82s, and the 63s and 62s, given the "high output" claim only listed with the 83/63 speakers. Amy or Prof. Thump, could you tell us whether there was a difference in the woofers and, if so, what the specific difference(s) are/were. Thanks.

Released on a Friday the 13th! LOL! I wonder if any members of the Klipsch crew noticed this, something like "Umm, are we sure about the release date? Don't you think we should wait one more day?"

TV Top

Front of TV

Hello. I am a relatively new member and in the process of setting up my RF-83, RC-64 and RS-52 setup. My current setup has my TV in the corner of the room. The TV top can only hold about 25 lbs, inside the stand is not big enough for a monster like the RC-64, and the center sounds best at a height that is just above the TV. So I'm thinking about putting two shelves above my TV in the corner, the lower shelf just above the TV for the RC-64, and the other shelf above the center for my amp and CD player which, as you can see, are currently in and on an old rack system stand next to my TV. I think the corner shelf setup will be much cleaner and attractive, and would be nice if it matched my mantle. I'm wondering if anyone has any experience with buying/building a corner shelf strong enough for the RC-64? Measuring, along the wall, out from the corner to a line parallel to the front edge of the TV is 48in along the wall. From the corner straight out to the center of the front of the TV is 36 in. Given the corner placement and the shape of the TV, I was considering buying/making shelves in a somewhat of a widened "home plate" shape. As for brackets, there's always "Ultimate L Shelf-brackets" but I was wondering if anyone knows of something that would work even better. Any ideas for shelving material strong enough? Any one with experience doing this, or any advice would be appreciated. Thanks.

Thanks for all your responses. For 2-channel with your sub, do you run your fronts as small with a low crossover like 50 Hz, or as large (full range) with the sub in "plus" mode? My sub is an ED A3-300. ED recommends a crossover of 50-60 Hz. My receiver only has 50, 80, 100, 150 and 200 for crossovers. Running the fronts small with a sub and the lowest crossover always seemed to make the most sense, but my sub always seems much more audible and powerful (vibrating the floor) at 80 Hz than 50 Hz. With my current speakers, Polk Monitor 70s, strangely, running them small at any crossover seemed to diminish the overall sound quality, so I always ran them large and sub on plus at 80 Hz for maximum effect. Has anyone else found the same to be true with their speakers? Also, just how pleased do you think I am going to be on Friday when I replace my Monitor 70s with RF-83s? I was never entirely happy with the M70s. My biggest complaint was always their inefficiency - 90dB. Also the "laid back" quality just didn't make the sound, especially cymbals, as "alive" as I would like.

Excellent setup and integration of old and new Davis419b. To put the cherry on top, all you need is a vintage edition of Playboy next to your reel-to-reel [A][6][]

I'm new to the forums and just ordered a pair of RF-83s to be delievered on Friday. I'm a big 2-channel listener and it is important to me to have audible low bass (mid and upper 20 Hz's) for the deepest portions of "chestiness" of male vocals and low bass guitar, along with accurate and precise high treble for cymbals. I also wanted to avoid using a subwoofer while listening to 2 channel. While I was looking over the specs for all Klipsch speakers I was surprised that the biggest speakers, with respect to both driver and cabinet size, were not the ones with the lowest frequency response. In fact the RF-83s, at 29 Hz, had the lowest frequency response of any speaker currently on the website, while behemoths like the Cornwall III, La Scala II, Klipshorn are each 34 Hz, 51 Hz, 33Hz respectively. I looked up the old Chorus II and found that, while it has a 15 in active and passive driver, its response is only 39 Hz. The RF-7 is listed at 32 Hz. I thought it might have something to do with the newer woofer designs but even the uber-speaker P-39F, with the most expensive and largest total woofer area, and apparently the largest cabinet volume, is only 39 Hz. The P39-f does list a low frequency extension of 28 Hz, and, while it doesn't say, I assume this is +/- 9dB. "Low frequency extension" is not listed for any of the other floorstanders I listed above. I wonder why? I understand that, ignoring individual room conditions, bass response has a lot to do driver area and cabinet engineering/size. Simply put, larger driver and bigger (if properly sized) cabinet=lower bass, but there seems to be no pattern, no rhyme nor reason to the low frequency responses here. Any thoughts?

This is my first post to the community. I just ordered a pair of RF-83s, RC-64 and RS-52s at a serious discount. I was told by my local authorized dealer that the "RF-7 Mark II" was taking the place of the RF-83 and RF-63 and that an "RC-64 Mark II" is also due in later this month. I didn't ask but assumed it would match the new RF-7. I was also told that all of the stuff "below" the current RF-83, RF-63 and RF-64 was going to remain the same. I guess you could call these new ones the Reference 4.5 series, as any changes appear to be limited only to the high end of the Reference 4 series and is not a complete overhaul like the Ref 4 was with some 20+ new models if I remember correctly. That everything else is reportedly remaining the same seems a little strange though, as you can now get anything from the current Reference line at a significant discount. My new speakers are scheduled to arrive Friday afternoon. My current amp is a Pioneer 919ah-k and my sub is an ED A3-300. I listen to as much if not more 2 channel than HT, and wanted something that would simply excel at both. My ears have become more and more critical to what I hear and I hope these speakers really deliver. From previous listening I know my ears prefer horns to silk dome tweeters. It unfortunate that many of the recent "advances" in audio and video have been compromised by too much digital compression. My ears clearly detect too much compression and I did not renew the XM subscription that came with my car. My eyes have become critical of digital artifacts and I can't stand compressed HD, and thus find most HD and their associated TVs blurry and unwatchable. I still have my 1997 35" Mitsubishi reduced-curvature Diamondvision and I assure you that, even in SD, it has a window-clear picture very similar to that of the Pioneer 6020. I'll take pics and give first impressions this weekend.