mlmorrison

Up until now I used an assortment of medium and lower end speakers, 3way pioneers, advent bookshelf, etc. I recently decided to upgrade my speakers and receiver to Klipsch reference 52-ii for front&center and 42-ii for rear. The past several weeks have redefined the listening experience. Even though I am 40, I can still hear up to 18khz and am especially sensitive to picking out distortion. My experience with past speakers has been that when multiple notes,hits,events are hitting at the same time the result would be a a sonic distortion. On past speakers the very high frequencies (above 15K) this type of distortion would sound like clipped saturated jumbled mess which would literately hurt my ears even at medium volume. For years I thought this was just due to bad recordings or a limitation of 16bit/44khz. Now listening to all my music on my new R52 speakers I find the distortion I was hearing completely gone. With Klipsch, the sounds never crash together forming distortion. No matter how many instruments cymbals, things going on Each instrument ,indeed each Note, is now DISCRETE and discernable. It as if each instrument had it's own dedicated speaker. My question, this ability of clipsh to resolve each note in a busy piece-is this what is referred to as low distortion and Klipsch's claim to fame? Another thing I have noticed is the Absence of medium freq. resonance. My old speakers and most all speakers for that matter have a medium frequency "wet blanket" monotone resonance that envelops the midrange. It's was always there but not something I could identify until hearing the absence of this with Klipsch. I wonder is this resonance on other speakers the coloration or "warmness" that some refer to? I am hearing music so different now it is amazing. Not just the extra things I am hearing in the detail but equally noticeable is the LACK of things there are ubiquitously present in most other speakers like medium freq. resonance. In many respects, the experience has been the sonic equivelent of having major catarc surgery - the difference being I never had perfect eyesight untill after the surgery so didn't know what I was missing.

I just bought an RF-52-ii and RC-52-ii speakers to upgrade my system. This is for my modest size living room of 14'x24' and I am blown away at the sound quality. Currently for my soround I just using some small 2.5" HDT500 speakers. I want to replace those with a some refrence series speakers to round out my system. My question is, I am looking at the RS-42-ii as they are a smaller footprint and less expensive- is this ok to do instead of the RS-52-ii? And if anyone has any ideas as to why this IS ok or is NOT ok I would appreciate your input. Listening will be FULL range with a 52" TV to symphonic and rock music. Volume levels will be light to moderate.