Peter P.

Switch the tweeter between each speaker and see if the muffled sound follows the tweeter to remains with the cabinet. Pay attention to which wire connects to which terminal on the tweeter because it matters. Mark one wire and one terminal with a magic marker or tape. What your trying to do is determine whether it's the tweeter or the crossover. If you have a voltmeter you could also measure resistance across the tweeter's terminals after disconnecting at least one lead. Compare the two numbers and post back here.

Standard speaker wire is just fine. 16ga. wire will be able to carry all the current and voltage your system will ever need, for the distances of virtually all home theater systems. Yeah, you could crimp on spade terminals or banana plugs but they're hardly necessary. Have a handy wire stripper to make it easy. The practical difference between speaker wire and "lamp cord" is speaker wire is more supple but you could use lamp cord, available from your local hardware store, if you choose. All speaker wire is coded so you can tell at both ends whether you've wired things correctly. The + side at your electronics output (usually coded red) should be connected to the speaker's red terminal. You'll find one side of the two conductors has a rib or other shape to differentiate it from the other conductor ( minus or -) which is usually smooth shaped. Oftentimes it's hard to tell the difference in dark rooms so I prefer using red/black colored wire such as sold by Parts Express.

Get the largest Klipsch subwoofer you have room for. It's that simple. Bonus: All Klipsch subwoofers are ported, which is the preferred design for movie applications.

What's a "Detroit"?

That funky red clip lead, with the capacitor and what looks like a wire wound resistor resting on top of the squawker-that's definitely not stock. Also, the initial attack of a kick drum is actually a high frequency. But in your case I don't believe that has anything to do with your problem. Are both speakers wired like that?

Call me crazy, but I'd set the high pass frequency for all your speakers to the low pass frequency of the subwoofer. Then experiment with varying that 120Hz setpoint. Let the subwoofer do the heavy lifting. Doing so will protect your speaker array from damage if you play loud.

Good grief, somebody talk the OP off the ledge!

Yes-keep what you've got and add a subwoofer. If it's a truly SMALL home theater then replacing your RB-5s with much larger floorstanding speakers just swallows up space and you're still missing the home theater low end. You can even purchase COMPACT subwoofers that will fill the frequency spectrum void nicely such as the SVS SB-1000 or 3000 Micro.

I agree. I paid roughly $165 maybe five years ago including shipping. The seller is asking more than the retail pricing of the speaker when it was new. I might pay $200 if I was in the market for one but his price is unreasonable. Eh; it's whatever the market will bear. They are open to offers but I think offering $200 would be too much of a shock to them.

I would open up the speaker by removing the drivers, leaving just one of them connected. Be sure to mark which wire connected to which terminal before disconnecting. Play some music and see which driver is causing the rattlle. My guesses: Some loose debris inside the cabinet. The spider on the woofer came unglued. This can be proven by playing music softly. If it sounds okay at low volume but the problem increases with volume, it's the spider. A loose component on the crossover. Report back and tell us what you find.

Recently posted to eBay. The seller appears to know what he has, acknowledges the price is "a little high" and is open to offers. I own one and I approve!

eBay is a place where people have stripped the cabinets for drivers. Be patient and what you need will usually appear there. If you need to re-foam the woofers then try simplyspeakers.com for a re-foam kit or have them do the service for you.

You don't say what kind of noise you heard. If it's a hum, you have a ground issue between the amp and the outlet.

Looking at the manual, there does not appear to be any way to connect the satellites without the subwoofer. Klipsch did sell a 2.0 version (no subwoofer) and they come up pretty regularly on eBay, which is where I picked up the pair I have. One speaker is plugged into the headset jack on my iMac, and the second speaker plugs in to the first, which also plugs into power. Sure beats the built-in iMac speakers, has a bass control, volume control, and mic and headset jacks on the front.

Virtually any stereo amp will do for your application. Concerned about price-check craigslist and facebook marketplace. Madfusker has it right about how to wire it up-I recommend writing down what is currently connected to the amp, which input plugs, colors, etc. (taking photos helps!) and make sure any new amp you purchase has the same inputs available. If you go the new route, I'd recommend your local stereo shop (bring the bad unit with you and they can set you up with something similar. No local shop- try the big box store like Best Buy. Wanna buy on line- try Crutchfield. Tell us the make and model of the your bad unit and we can recommend something similar. You could also tell us where you live and we can scour the second hand web sites above for you and make a recommendation.