Bitterhops

Kinda late to the discussion, but I have two quintets set up in series as my center. They don't really do the trick. They sound OK for some 5.1 channel music, but on DVD's the dialogue is usually lost in the output from the pair of rf-3's used as the fronts. I'm probably going to go with the rc-25 or rc-35. The going price for the rc-25 is about $200. I have a 20X15' room, so the rc-25 will probably do. Might make the jump and go with the rc-7 if I find it for a good price though!

Haven't checked the forum for quite a while, but when I saw the title of this the first thing that came to mind was "I hope they cut Magnolia out!" Yay! Tried to buy Klipsch speakers in December of 2001 from one of their stores here in Oregon, and needless to say it was less than satisfying! I didn't think that Klipsch was being well-represented at all. I ended up buying from Good-Guys. There are no "indy" dealers that I could find in my area. Kind of sad to see the smaller places go away. Buying equipment now is more like buying a car. I hate salesmen that have to wear ties! Now the Synergy series will be sold by Best Buy. Hey, at least those guys don't wear ties! Yeah, it will too bad not to be able to listen to both Synergy and Reference in the same room and compare. You have to go with the Ref even if it means you'll have to send your kids to public school next year! It will be interesting though to see how the Klipsch fare against the Sony, Yamaha, Warfedale and Boso speakers. Best Buy is probably the worst place to try and listen to speakers with the HT area louder than crap, people cranking the car systems, and others stress testing the boom boxes and bookshelf systems in the cavernous, big box building. It will be a bold new market. I say good luck to Klipsch. Hopefully the BB shoppers will recognize the quality!

As someone who "got educated" about Klipsch from my Dubuque, Ia dealer back in '79, I can tell you that the ONE thing he stressed when I bought the Heresy's, was that they had to go in the corner. He said they needed to use the room as an "extension" of their cabinet. Of coarse, did I listen? Noooooo. I didn't have any corners available either at the time. They still sounded good though. All my friends had Bozo 901's and Pioneer speakers, and they liked the Heresy's better than theirs. That surprised me, egos being wht there were(are). But then I put them in the corners of the living room of my first apartment. I had some friends helping me move and a little party after. Put Hendix's Electric Ladyland on and Oh My Freaking God what a difference! I still remember(and believe me, it is amazing I remember much from those days, especially that night!) the difference the placement made on the sound of those speakers. We couldn't even make it through the whole alblum that night. It was just a little too intense on side 3. Had to play some Brian Eno just to get everybody off of the floor and stop the moaning. So as soon as possible, get them speakers to a corner! This message has been edited by Bitterhops on 02-01-2002 at 04:16 PM

There is an article in the Feb issue of Home Theater Mag that compares the SACD, DVD-A, and regular, plain old CD formats. I just gave it a cursory read last night, but they seemed to favor SACD a bit. The specs comparisons are interesting. It looked like a good, decent depth article dealing with specs, cost, sound, and the risks potential for "forgotten formats". There was something else that seemed important to me at the time I read it, but I fell asleep and can't remember now. They don't have the Feb issue up on their web page yet(http://www.hometheatermag.com/). There was a letter to the editor or something in the article about someone wanting to wait for firewire interconnects before upgrading to a new format too. I put a firewire card in my PC to copy over video from a Sony cam. I still haven't figured out how to get "noise free" transfers either. It might be the crappy software that came with the card too. I'm waiting for fibre interconnects. No EM interference, just don't kink the orange wires! It would be interesting to see how Monster would market fiber!

If anyone knows the RF series of speakers, it would be TheEAR(s)! I have had the RF-3's for about a month now, and have never had the chance to hear the RF-7's. The RF-7's would be the logical step as far as an upgrade is concerned. I thought the 3' and the 5's were very close in sound. The 3's actually have a slightly larger cabinet volume/size. Deeper than the 5's. I'm not even using a sub with mine. I've got an old pair of Yamaha NS-9393's as rears. They are a four way with a 15" woofer, 6" low mid, 3x8" horn upper mid, and two 3" tweeters. I've got four Quintets scattered around for effects. Pretty low grade compared to most, but damn if I'm not satisfied with the HT and 2-channel sound. If I ever have the huevos to try for a speaker upgrade, it would be the RF-7's today. But while they might "deliver a Tyson like punch", they also would take a Tyson like "bite" out of my finances right now!

I've always been a fan of the Yamaha/Klipsch combo. I recently picked up the RX-V800 after comparing it with the Denon 1802, 2803, and 3802 models. Price (open box) on the Yamaha probably clouded my hearing though! I also have RF-3's, and I suppose they might have sounded a little "bright" when hooked up to the Yamaha at first. But then I bi-wired them, and hooked up the main preouts on the receiver to my old Yamaha M-60 amp, and tied the RF-3's to the amp. The sound was certainly "warm" after that. I like the build of the new RX-V series of receivers better than most of all the other brands I've researched also. They seem to have very low distortion also. This is the first receiver I've owned. But like I've said, I've always liked Yamaha/Klipsch ever since I first hooked a CA610II integrated amp to a pair of Heresy speakers back in 1980.

I've had a mix of experiences at both places. I went into one Good Guys about an hour before closing one night to try and finally decide on which set of speakers. The sales guy disappeared about 5 minutes into me playing my King Crimson test CD. About 45 minutes later I went to the register and told them to get me a pair of the RF-3's. As the person from the register and I were back getting the sku# for the speakers, the original sales guy came scurrying up and took over. I had been in the same place the day before and one of the guys who seemed to do all the manual labor around there(the ones in the Good Guys "casual" shirts) had actually spent about half an hour with me talking about the stuff he had and about music in general. I was kicking myself when the sales guy asked me if I had gotten that person's card or name. A couple of weeks later (last week) I stopped in the same store to check on the price of the Yamaha RX-V800 receiver. I saw an ad with that receiver bundled with the RF-3's, the RC-3's, and I think the matching surrounds and sub, with a big screen TV. There were not any breakouts in price for the indivdual items. Lo and behold, they had the receiver marked down to $375 as an open box item. There was only one left in the store, and someone else was trying to decide between that and the Sony. The salesman was just telling him that they couldn't find the manual or anything else for it. I piped in and said that the manual is available on-line as a .pdf file at the Yamaha site, and started giving him compare and contrast no the Sony and Yamaha stats. Another guy came up and asked if he could help. I said I wanted the Yamaha receiver, but I was waiting for the first person to make up his mind. This sales rep actually stood with me and talked about the receivers. When the guy decided to take the Yamaha receiver, I asked the sales rep that I was talking to if he could find another "open box" deal anywhere in the Portland area. He got right on the keyboard and found one at the next closest store. He called over there to have someone actually go over to the receiver and inspect it for condition. We had them hold it, and then he asked them to check for the box and manual. They found the manual, remote, and antennas for it, and I paid for it at the store I was at. Another guy came up to look at the one on the shelf, and he was trying to be critical about a few cosmetic items with the sales rep that was with him. I mosied over and said that it was sold already anyway. The sales rep with that guy got a little pissed, and then got even more upset when he found out there weren't any more in the metro area. I had the receiver hooked up that night. I finally got it hooked up "correctly" yesterday. D'oh! The only other store in the area that carries Klipsch is Magnolia. I went into one nearest to home, and really didn't like the "feel" of the place or the sales "team". I was demoing my CD on the only Klipsch speakers they had set up, a closeout run of the KG3.5's, and a rep came in and EJECTED my CD and tossed it aside while he took a CD from his pack to demo a set of speakers for his pidgeon. I flew away.

It's fixed! And yeah, the interconnect from the receiver to the amp must have been loose before. Running the mains through the M-60 DOES make a noticable difference. I think I'm doomed. My ears are starting to pick up those subtle elements of sound quality again. Damn! I'm really VERY satisfied with the sound coming out of the system now. In a few months I'll probably sample a sub, but I want to wait until I can afford a good one like the ksw-12. We're going to run Pearl Harbor through the sysrem later today. So far we've played Mellencamp's latest, Creed, and Zappa's Yellow Shark this morning. The best sounding system I've ever heard, if I do say so! Again, thanks for responding. I've seen you participating in several threads while I've been lurking around this forum. This is my absolute favorite forum for audio/video equipment info and entertainment. I've learned a lot in the past couple of months. Now the knowledge is starting topay off! Happy New Year!

Thanks for the reply, I did have one of the interconnect cables come loose a couple weeks back, and had the circuit kick in, but I checked the interconnect this time and all was tight. It is pretty odd, because the system sounds OK up to a point, and then the amplifier circuit kicks in and I loose the main speakers. The receiver stays on OK so the rear and center speakers keep pumping. I've been reading about interconnects all day, so I'm going to give it a few more trys and check all connections again. I fired off an email to Yamaha, so I'll see if they respond. BTW, how big a difference do you notice with the sub on or off. I'm running the RF-3's without a sub, and the lows seem plenty to me. I tried sampling some subs at Good Guys, but they didn't have the Klipsch hooked up right. The Energy and Boston subs I heard didn't do much for me. I ran the 35Hz LF test from the receiver through the RF-3's, and my son came running out of the downstairs bathroom in a panic. Something about the toilet shaking and water splashing. I'm afraid for structural integrity with the addition of a sub!

I recently purchased RF-3's and four Quintet speakers. I was driving them with a Yamaha M-60 amp and an Adcom GFP-555II pre. All was well until I decided that I wanted to get into home theater! I recently puchased the Yamaha RX-V800. I had intended to connect my old M-60 amp to the main preout of the receiver and drive my front main speakers with the amp(the RF-3's). The protection circuit on the amp activates at what seems to be low to moderate volume, only pushing about 1-5watts according to the display meter of the amp. I checked the gain setting on the main level from the set menu, and tried both "normal" and "-10db", but there was little difference. I also double checked the ohm setting on the back of the receiver and tried input from phono, tape, dvd, and tuner. All had the same result. The 5channel DSP setting produced the most volume, but still not as much as when I had the amp connected to the Adcom pre. The speakers are bi-wired. I connected the mains(RF-3's) straight to the receiver, and more than enough volume for my section of the city is generated. It's just the tweaker in me that thought it would be cool to have the M-60 still be a part of the system. Just wondering if I'm missing something before the amp gets sold down the river along with the pre, equalizer, and tuner? One other thing that I thought of - I was using the old (10 years) interconnect cable that I either bought or it came with the Adcom pre. It says "Adcom" right on the cable and the RCA plugs. It is a big, heavy sucker! Hmmm... Anyway, the RF-3's seem to be a great match to the Yamaha equipment. I've read other comments surfing around about the combo being too bright, no decent bass, no warmth. I like it a lot! I had a Yamaha integrated amp(CA-610II I think) hooked up to a pair of Heresy's back in '80, and it really opened my eyes(ears) to what good music reproduction is.

Klipsch-daddy has the answer. The "II" designation on some of the Reference series indicates that the speaker are wired internally with Monster Cable. As some have mentioned on this forum, it might be for quality improvement, it might be for marketing. If you compare the stats of two versions of the RF-3's, you will see there is no difference in performance. There was also a change in cosmetics and the interior foam. I just took a pair of the RF-3's home last week from Goodguys. I spent a couple of hours comparing these to other Klipsch, Boston, and Energy speakers, and liked these the best. The RF-5's are awesome, but not worth twice the price to me and for my listening area. Do a search in the forums with "RF-3 wiring" and you'll get more info. Some are talking about rewiring their speakers themselves. Personally I'm not that much of a tweaker. Anyway, I wouldn't have the time right now as I'm hand-braiding cat5e for speaker wire for a bi-wire connection to the RF-3's. ;~)