beertender

Do you remember when the RP name in the Klipsch line referred to Reference Powered speakers, and not Reference Premium? I've been away from the Klipsch website and forum for a long time, and was surprised to see the RP series 'once again' in production, only to see that there was nothing about these speakers having internally mounted subwoofer amps. I'm still using (and loving) my RP-3s after all these years (often in conjunction with my Heresys). From all of the 'sold out' notices on the website, it appears that the new RP line is selling well. EDIT: And don't you love it when the new forum refers to a very long standing member as a NEW member? LOL!

I just installed Windows 10 on the computer that had been handling my music server duties. Once that an my preferred audio program were installed, I tried it out. I was aghast! There was so much audio compression being used that all of my music sounded terrible. I went through all the settings on my audio program, but none of them were set to add extra compression. I googled Windows 10 and audio compression, but didn't get a lot of suggestions. So for a while, I inserted an older computer into the system to serve the music from the network drive. Later I found the Windows 10 sound panel and discovered that if I right click on my speakers (which is actually the audio out to my stereo system), and clicked 'properties', it brought up a new panel with four tabs. One of those tabs says 'Enhancements'. Clicking on that tab, I am presented with a list. On that list, only 'Loudness Equalization' was checked. I could also click 'Disable all sound effects'. I finally did the last option ('Disable all sound effects). WHAT A DIFFERENCE!!! From un-listenable, to the music only slightly reconfigured by an equalizer. Anyhow, I thought I would present this info here in case others have had issues with Windows 10 making their music collection unlistenable.

Sorry I'm so late to this thread. (haven't visited in so long, Klipsch had reset my password and of course... the e-mail it sends resets to is no longer valid). I purchased new, my first set of Klipsch speakers in 1981. Unfinished Heresy's. I've always been unsatisfied with the bass in these speakers, but the volume of sound that came from them always impressed where the lack of bass did not. Fast forward a few years, I was making good money, and descided to remedy the lack of bass situation with my speakers. I first bought the impressive B&W 602s. An incredible little speaker with very good bass, highly detailed treble, and a silky smooth midrange. Several months passed until I finally decided that I missed the horn sound. For a while i tried combining the B&Ws with my Heresy's. Then I bought a small klipsch sub. All failed to meet my expectations. FInally I decided to head to the store and buy a horn loaded speaker with good bass. I'll spare you the rest of the detail in selection except to say that I made a trip to that and other stores to heard the same speakers in different settings a total of six times over a period of almost six months. The only two speakers in contention during those six visits were the RP3 and RP5. The RF5 had just come out during my final two visits, but was on display in another room where the distortion of their speaker and source switching device made the RF5s sound terrible. I still have my RP3s and the Heresy's (also the B&Ws). My impressions of the RP3 vs RP5: Nearly identical, except in the bass section. I believe the RP-5 has a slightly more powerful amp and a larger diameter woofer. While the RP-5 had a ported bass (bass reflex), the RP-3 used a sealed 10" bass (exact same driver as the KSW-10 sub). I have never liked the bass reflex sound (as there are usually some frequencies that are accentuated, some that are not augmented, and several transitions where the port creates bass nodes that I hear as distortions). I think the literature at the time, and even later called the bass in the RP-3 a ported bass. I've never found a port on my speakers, so I assume this was an error. My impression was that the bass of the RP3 was smoother and better. When the amp is turned up, the bass can rock the house and is very colored. But when the boost and the crossover are properly modulated, the bass blends very well with the entire system. If memory serves me well, the RP5 also had an 8" mid driver, while the RP3 had the 6.5" mid driver. I think there was also some annoying characteristic I heard from that 8" driver that i didn't hear in the 6.5" driver, but this only happened when the speaker was being driven very hard. The RP3s vs the Heresys: Well I think you already know that I love the bass in the RP3s over the Heresy. The midrange of the RP3 is of a totally different character than the midrange horn of this older Heresy. The tweeter unit of the Heresy is absolute gold, while the tractrix horn in the RP3 has done a lot to eliminate that 'harsh' horn sound. The overall sound of the RP3 is warmer and quite even over its entire sonic spectrum. However, the Heresy is able to project sound in a way that the RP3 (and I believe the RP5) could never do with any amount of amplification. While the RP3s can put ouf a fair amount of sound, they cannot match the Heresy's. It is my belief that the RP series never won acceptance amongst Klipsch fans because they could not make your clothes vibrate through not just bass, but also by the volume of sound from the midrange units. The introduction of the RF5 & etc helped the average Klipsch fan turn the corner with the square horn system by allowing rediculous levels of sound (not just huge levels of well balanced sound) in the home setting. In the years since my RP3 purchase, I have taken to running my Heresy's together with my RP3s using an external crossover that feeds the bass to the RP3's bass speaker inputs (not the LFE input), and routing the treble/midrange to both the Heresy's and the midrange/treble input of the RP3s. The result seems to add the 'reflective' sound of the Heresy, but warms up the sound of the midrange, and of course makes a huge difference with the bass. The RP3s are silky smooth, but it can't be denied: they will not rock the whole house like a good pair of RF5s would. I haven't listened to many new Klipsch models since the 2009 downturn took out many retail outlets specializing in full range speakers systems. Even the local Best Buy keeps only a bare minimum of base models in setups that would be embarrassed by the home systems of most audiophiles.