bugman53

Not yet, I bought a pair of infinity for the garage and I am defiantly keeping those, I am planning on taking the klipschs back but I am just playing with them because they are intriguing to me. I have until after Christmas to return them. Heck as cheap as they were if I see where a new crossover and some mods would help them I might mod them and use them in my gun room or something. I have not decided yet. I also figured it might help someone out to get some data on them and such or anyone that was just interested in them. PS. My wife is home on bed rest due to pregnecy and its also an excuse to get out of the house, she hates loud noise so it keeps her away...LOL

The engineer in me can’t just leave them alone, Now I’m am just playing with then to see what is going on with them. If anyone is curious I can pull the drivers and post pics and check out the crossover to see what’s in them. I have a frequency generator that is supposed to run a pair of speakers although I have never tried to (a GW-instek SFG-1003), everyone is correct that is not very scientific because the room has a lot of effect. I think I have everything I need to get a true frequency response graph of the speakers. I have never done it. What would be the best makeshift way to take a room out of the equation to test them? Test them outside?

I already bought a set of infinity primus p163's and they came in today, I have been listening to them back to back an i have decided to take the klipsch's back to best buy. The infinities sound much better to my ears..

UPDATE. I got the Denon receiver in yesterday. With the Denon I ran the auto adussey setup in several different rooms in my house from a small room with heavy carpet and drapes and to a den with Harwood floors and cathedral ceilings. I was just curious how "flat" they played. I was using audussey and then looking at the EQ setting just to see what the curve looked like to get an idea of how "flat" the speakers played. I know it’s not very scientific but I did get consistence result that gave me an idea of the frequency response curve. Here is an average of what I came up with. Also note that the max range is 6db so it is maxed out at some frequencies, This is the change so where it is positive the speakers have a dip in response and vice versa. 63hz: -1.5 dB 125hz: -1.0 dB 250hz: +2db 500hz: +1 db 1k hz:-2.5 db 2k HZ: +6 db 4k HZ: +5.5 db 8k hz: +6db 16k hz +6 db This is right in line with what I was seeing when I was playing them on the Adcom\marantz and using manual eq setting. So the response curve of these are far from flat and they do in fact need a lot of EQ to get a flat response curve. IE an 8 decibel swing from 1 to 2 k hz. It seems these could really benefit from some crossover mods. But this will vary per your room also so everyone setup will be different. NOW after I got them playing a flat response curve I haft to say they sound better. The tweeter is nice and bright (I like bright tweeters). The tweeter sound does have a different timber compared to most dome tweeters I have heard. I can say I prefer the dome tweeter sound over these though but not too bad. The midrange, it sound average for the price range. To me it just does not reproduce the fine detail in the recording. The sound seems to be lacking the most in the upper midrange region. I would say slightly muddy but overall not bad. My overall opinion, with lots of eq to flatten out the frequency response they do not sound bad (Not outstanding, not great, but not bad). They sound like a $125 pair of speakers I don’t think I would pay $250 for them as there are better speakers in that price range. So if you buy these make sure you have an equalizer for your setup.

No problem man! No apology needed. I probably did come across that way out of frustration but that was not my intent. Speakers seem to be a hot topic of debate because sound is subjective, what sounds good to one person my sound repulsive to another and who is to say who is right. In example my favorite speakers for listening in a large room where lots of volume is needed (ie playing saxophone and playing backup tracks through them) are infinity SM-225’s which a lot of people flat out despise, Granted I have a velodyne ULD-18 sub with them crossed over at 80hz (they do have a weak low end for there size) and I have modified the midranges with a thicker heavier surround to smooth out the mid rand and done a few other little mods. But I LOVE them. I can play sax recorded it and play it back and there the only ones I have tried that sound Just like it did when I recorded it. But I’m sure a ton of people would tell me I don’t know what I am talking about (which is probably true..LOL). But I have no illusion that they are even “High End” they just fit a role for me and sound great to my ears. But back to these speakers, I was just outside listening to them and what I think what is bothering me the most are they just sound like there is a lack of detail in the music. Some subtle parts of different tracks that I am used to hearing are just not there. IE From the Piano Guys we 3 kings, you can hear his fingers on the fret board and subtle string noise of the cello with my other speakers with these it’s just not there they almost sounds slightly muffled. Equalization can take care of any tone issues I have with them I hope but I don’t know about the clarity and detail. I am not giving up on them yet. That is my main reason for the post to see if I am just crazy or if anyone else had noticed the same thing and maybe had some mods for them or something like that.

The grague is around 3600ft^3. You might be on to something also with the reflections. I think you are right it is just a combination of all the above and that cheap receiver is not helping one bit. I figured with modern technology even the cheap amps should at least put out clean power with a flat frequency response but I guess I was wrong. And who knows what kind of cheap A/D converters are in that thing. I think over all the speakers are just average speakers built down for a price for best buy and I guess they had to cut corners somewhere, maybe I was expecting too much out of a $125 pair of speakers. I looked up that UMC-1 it looks like a sold budget preamp. If I don’t stop now this is going to get out of hand and ill end up with a 2k in stereo gear in the garage and I’m giving the wife your guy’s names and blame it on you when she sees the bill...LOL PS, Thanks for the welcome and the feedback guys, I am going to keep playing with these and I’ll keep the thread updated with what I find.

That was me sure enough. That Adcom was actually given to me by a good friend, I have seen them from 1500-3000 from different websites I’m not sure what they sold for new that was just a reference for people that did not know what that amp is to understand that it is not a amp problem. That is my favorite amp and if it won’t drive the speakers well noting will in my experience. Just interjected that to eliminate the amp or that cheap insignia receiver as the problem. And I’m sure that Insignia receiver is at least half the problem. To the EQ question, I hooked them up to my Marantz/ Adcom combo in my den, it is a fairly large room with high ceilings, it is fairly well dampened but not optimum by any means. And I have to say they did not sound bad with that setup and a lot of EQ, I just ordered the Denon yesterday from accessories for less on sale for $149.99 I figured it has to be a ton better than that insignia and that was a killer price. I should get it next week so we will see how it sounds with that receiver. I am currently in Mississippi ( My wife is a captain in the air force and we are stationed at CAFB). And it goes for 110* at 95% humidity to freezing and i just don’t want to put anything to expensive out there so if it gets damaged I won’t be upset. I did not mean to offend you by my review of the speakers but that was my honest first impression. I may have been a little harsh on them but that is my opinion.

I was looking for a set of speakers to put in the garage to replace the crappy computer speakers i have in there now. I noticed the R15M's on black Friday for $125 a pair. I though why not they are cheap so I won’t mind them being in the elements. I have a pair of carver TFM-25 amps that i am not currently using, I was planning on using one, but it seems that good stereo preamps are impossible to find for less than 500+ dollars. And most low buck receivers do not have pre outs. So I just picked up a cheap insignia stereo receiver. Being just a garage and not wanting to much high end gear out there to get covered in grinding dust ect and I don’t need much power. So I get home hook everything up and my first impression was YUCK. The best way I can describe the sound was muffled midrange and an almost pezio electric sounding tweeter. Overly bearing mid bass it sounds like there is a dip in the frequency response from 800 - 2-3k hz. Noting scientific just a guess. I am convinced something can’t be right. So I hook up the new receiver to my oscilloscope to see what the sign wave looks like and that both outputs were in phase. Everything looked ok and in phase. The crappy tone controls on that cheap receiver could not do much to help the sound. I took the speakers in and hooked them up to my Marantz receiver running through a Adcom GFA-5500 AMP. And they did sound noticeably better but still not what I could consider "good" passable for garage speakers yes but not great at all. With lots of help from an EQ they sound better. I just can’t put my finger on it but something about the tweeter sounds almost repulsing with some music but pretty good with others. But that tells me that some of the problem is with that cheap receiver. So I am going to take that receiver back to best buy and I just ordered a Denon AVR-E300 to replace it. It has audussy setup and user adjustable EQ's so i hope i can tune them in to a acceptable sound with it. It is a much nicer receiver also that will let me stream music from pandora ect without using my cell phone as a source. Has anyone else had any experience with the R15M's? Even with a $1500 amp and $800 reciver they are marginal at best to my ears. The just sound undetailed and muddy and a piezo sounding tweeter and no clarity.