dcisive

As I mentioned in another post I opted out of the Loki equalizer for now and will give the Bellari "Exciter" a try to recapture the midrange clarity and high end air. We shall see.

As I mentioned in another post I still have that DAC on order and in this case will first pair it with a Bellari Exciter unit. They tend to add the "air" missing at the higher end and clean up that pesky muffled midrange vocal area which is without a doubt the MOST annoying for my ears. Instead of an all out equalizer I'm hoping the exciter is a better answer. I had them when I was a recording engineer in my studio and indeed they sure to bring up the excitement in the source adding harmonic content to the high end enhancing what the ear hears and cleans up that midrange making it more present without the pillow over the speaker effect that is typical of most speakers without EQ in so many rooms. I'll let you all know what the results are once I've gotten all the gear in over this next week.

So today while I still have that Shiit DAC on order and hope to see it by the weekend, I changed it out on the EQ and ordered a Bellari "Exciter" which in my past recording experience was capable of eliminating the veiled or muffled midrange tendencies and the lack of "air" in the recordings. In my room currently the "Fives" tend to do just that. The mids are a bit muffled sounding on many sources be it Youtube, Netflix and TV, and the high end is certainly not up to snuff at revealing fine detail. I know it's not the speakers fault per se as I've engaged my smartphone with music and a EQ app it has into the Fives via bluetooth. By lowering the 500hz range and upping the 10k and 12k range it cleans up the voice range and adds that air that is missing. So that just confirmed to me that that EQ App Klipsch is working on to kick the DSP in the butt is what these speakers truly NEED! But I'm not patient enough to wait for them to release it which in all probability won't be till later in the year. In the mean time I sure hope this Bellari Exciter does the trick. I have to feed the DAC with the Optical from my TV and from there into the RCA inputs of the speakers. We'll see how that all works out.

I'm about to embark on a entirely different approach. Having functioned as a recording engineer owning 2 studio's, and having been a musician for over 50 years I was also blessed with "perfect pitch" along with becoming very familiar with tonal natures of various instruments. For example I could tell you a Bosendorfer vs. a Steinway vs. a Yamaha piano in a recording. Also a Martin, vs. a Taylor, vs. a Gibson acoustic and so on. That said I am very critical of the output of a given speaker. My monitors (Adam 7's) were extremely accurate and didn't have a dip in any area of the spectrum so I knew what to mix accordingly. The Five's I just got have some interesting characters. They are literally dependent upon the source for their quality overall. Most sources however will render a midrange that screams for a drop in the 500hz range to clean it up and make it more intelligible with definition. The low end is flat out amazing so no complaints in that department. The vocal range in particular really needs help in most cases with manipulation (eq) in the 250-800hz range overall to open it up. The higher end needs to also be opened up to allow for the fine detail in instruments and orchestral types of details. They are missing in most cases. I easily determined this by hooking up via bluetooth, my phone which has some music on it. I also have a EQ App on my phone. When played back I dropped the 500hz slider on the EQ about 3db and oh baby the voices were then clear and defined without the mud/fluff/cloudy sound they typically have. Then I slowly upped the 6k and 8k range and voila' the highs reappeared in all their glory. The "air" and sparkle were once again revealed which were not there before the EQ. I then listened to a half dozen pieces of music (one of which was Simon And Garfunkel's Bookends album). in which I heard things I'd NEVER heard before even on high end systems. So the speakers can do it........but they have to have their DSP crossovers and overall output balance freed by a EQ App which I understand Klipsch is working on but may not be seen till later 2021. I 'm not that patient. So I've ordered the Shiit brand out of California, their DAC unit and their 4 band EQ that I saw was very highly rated for just this purpose. I know I'll have to give up the HDMI way of doing things and use the Optical output of my Sony Bravia into the DAC then from there into the EQ and then onto the dual RCA input of the speakers and switch it on via the Klipsch remote each time I fire up my Sony Bravia. But I can easily live with that if the EQ brings me to the place it NEEDS to be with those Five's. They need equalization to be sure and I hope Klipsch realizes this and releases that EQ App. But in the mean time I'll be sure to report back when I get it in a few weeks to let you all know how it works. It either is the answer to the problem and reveals the truly amazing sound that is currently locked up in the Fives, OR it isn't the answer I'd hoped for. Let's hope for the latter to be the case. I'll let you know. DSP is a wonderful thing IF you use it fully

I've also run into mine when turned on goes to the USB input NOT the TV. So I'm throwing in the towel and I have on order a DAC and will couple it with a small EQ unit from Shiit in California very highly rated. This way I'll use the Optical input altogether into the DAC and then through the EQ unit of theirs and on to the RCA input of the speaker. I don't care that much I guess, in the end, about the TV triggering the speakers. Since it doesn't work rather well. At least the sound will be superb especially with that EQ. It had better be as there is a 15 day return policy, so I'll let you know how it works out.

Problem solved. I did a ton of research and just ordered a Modi 3+ DAC and a Loki Mini+ multi band EQ. That combo I will run off the Optical output from my Sony Bravia 75" flat screen and from there into the DAC and out to their EQ and from there to the RCA Line inputs of the "Fives". NOW finally I'll have EQ control over the sound most likely superior to what the supposed EQ in the app will ever provide. I'm not a patient person and it could be quite some time before they'd release such an app. Either way I like having the manual control over it. My HDMI switching hasn't worked thus far as when I fire up the TV it goes to the USB input of the speakers for some strange reason. Oh well not such a big deal really. I'll just be turning on the speaker manually to the TV input for sound and adjusting it from there. I can't wait to hook that setup together. Hope to have it in a week or so. I'll be sure to report back to ya'll on my impressions. I already know EQ for the "FIVE's is going to reinvent them. I've already used my phone with music via bluetooth and a loaded EQ app. to see what it would do and that confirmed the sound is unreal perfection with the EQ. Without it.......it's meh...with some sources. So can't wait to have that control.

Sounds like a DAC coupled with a decent 7-12 band EQ would be quite the answer to the potentially muddy mids and lacking high end in some sources. I'll have to think about that.

OK so all is well. I figured out the issues. So now the Five's sound excellent and when a sub is plugged in indeed you DO year the LPF kick in. The sub works well except I not that in the Auto setting for power it tends to go off after a while when still watching a show. The firmware update did in fact not load a 3rd setting for the bass. There is NO "Bass Cut" added via the new firmware update. Oh well. Not a deal breaker. My stands arrive today so I'm stoked to get rid of the boxes they are sitting on.

I just picked up a pair of the "Fives" along with a SW100 to eliminate a top line soundbar I'd been using. First let me say since I semi retired and moved to a custom home that has a fairly good sized living room and a 45 degree wall in one corner where a top Sony 75" flat screen resides I thought I'd do away with the usual speaker setup and go for a soundbar. I was a audiophile since the late 60's and a musician since 63. In the mid 80's assembled a state of the art recording studio that was analog only switching to digital late that decade. I then went all digital in the 2000's to finish off a album. So I KNOW the frequency spectrum and what it takes to tame it so it is presented correctly. That said..... I noted this pair of Fives had some interesting characteristics along with some "issues" I'm running into. I'll try to condense this to make some sense. First of all, the midrange or vocal range to be specific, is as if someone threw a towel over the speaker. The words I'd use to describe it is "Mushy", "Muddy", "Veiled" and "Dark" for starters. The bass is unreal and tight I'll give them that. The high end is actually quite smooth and by no means exaggerated or hard, quite accurate. But the midrange is driving me nuts. I'm awaiting some nice stands for them (22" high) to match up with the height of our cabinet in the center below the TV panel. 2nd I understood, from several reviewers of the Five's on Youtube that when you plug in the Sub output of the Fives it senses you've done so intending to use a Subwoofer, and then enacts a LPF which will steeply roll off the lows (I believe it's factory set to 80hz) which the reviewers stated "Opened up the midrange increasing it's detail". Mine on the other hand did NOT have this effect whatsoever. it's still mushy. The effect of the sub is minimal and quite discrete so not boomy which I suppose is good. But the mushy midrange is troublesome. So I wanted to prove something to myself. I took my smartphone which has some music on it I'm familiar with, along with a downloaded Equalizer app for Android on it too. I connected to Bluetooth of course, opened up the song, and the Equalizer adjusting what I've always known to be the MOST offensive frequency to cause mushiness in the midrange area, the 500hz slider, which I took down several DB. I upped the 12k and 16k range as well to add more detail. Man oh man did those speakers SING! If I had closed my eyes I'd have sworn they were some $3000 monitors I used to own. Take the EQ off and mushy came right back. So I called Klipsch tech support and spoke to Liam there. We had a long conversation about the midrange issues and the sub not taking the mushiness away by dropping out the bass from the main speakers driver. he said that result was odd as it should work. He did say that they are working on the Klipsch Connect app intending to add a Equalizer function to it. I was emphatic that this would literally transform the "Fives" and turn them into the Reference speaker they could only hope to be. He agreed and said he'd hoped this would happen in the next 6 months but was stated to be in 2021 anyway. I'm hoping for now that at least, once I get the speaker stands tomorrow and put them together and get as much space from the wall as possible and higher up to the 22" the stands are(without risking running into them in the room as there's not that much area in front I can do that) that they will open up a bit and lose that mush in the midrange I'm getting at this time. I spoke to a well known dealer for Klipsch that said the source material from the TV (shows, news, Youtube, Netflix etc.) will vary so widely that you can't trust them to illustrate accuracy of any kind for the sound that is coming out of the Fives. In other words "good source good sound, average source mush". All I can hope for is a soon arrival of that EQ in the App or I'll have to possibly suffer through all this irregular poor midrange issue. Sorry for the very long rant but I wanted you to hear the whole story and perhaps some of you out there are experiencing the same thing. Please do respond to this post as to your take on it all and if you know of ANY possible way around it how to open and clean up that midrange. Thanks