anttielei

The only solution to make these sound really good out of the box, is optimizing the environment to the fullest. And these are needy in that regard to say the least. Per my experience. Speaker placement preferably at least 0,5m away from hard walls to remove the excessive boominess from the backfiring ports. Horn tweeters just at ear level so highs start to sparkle again. Perfect 30° stereo triangle to the listening position. Tune EQ only a bit to your liking per content. Then, yes they can sound absolutely fantastic. Huge and thearetical even. But the second you move from the perfect listening position, the sound starts to fade away quickly. Turns to mudd. You cant just toss these somewhere near the wall or in narrow media unit, because quickly they start to sound more terrible than most speakers would, which are generally far more forgiving with positioning. It's a missed opportunity, because who buys this swiss-toolknife -type of active bookshelf speaker with HDMI-ARC which in reality needs so much empty space around and perfect placing and tuning. This is not really the "easy audio fix" for everyday folk looking for better audio. It's way too demanding with it's placing and environment requirements. I would suggest that even a cheap decent soundbar is a better bet for most, just because it's that much more convenient. Then if you try to correct suboptimal room placing with this toy of equalizer update or inbuilt bass/position settings. You might fix the boomy/muddy issue, but in the process make them sound still somewhat bad. With PC it's easier to fix with tools like Equalizer APO. Well, I have these hooked up to my PC now instead of living room and they can be nice like this, but it really required a bit of room planning and changes to make them really live up to their potential.

How do you actually get it to roll back though? I have tried 5 different USB sticks from the bottom of my drawer now. 1. Plug stick in PC. Fresh full format to FAT32. 2. Move only the update, three files (5.8.0) in. 3. Unplug safely. 4. Unplug The Fives from all cables. 5. Insert USB stick in. 6. Plug the AC back in to the speaker. 7. Speaker Flashes on very USB briefly, and then goes back to last known source. 8. Nothing has happened. Driving me nuts.

Is this actually verified? I feel many people also have said "yea, mine saves them just fine". Because the app actually shows the last EQ settings that were used, but after reset they arent applied before you make a slight change to the EQ setting and they get re-sent to speakers by the app. I think this might throw some people off and they think that the settings are saved there, even though they are actually not.

Even more annoying for those of us that dont have this hardware revision though... 😐

For me all inputs sound just about the same. Very muffled. I really did not listen them prior to doing firmware update, so I don't know if that had an effect. I don't know. It feels I've tried everything but even with extreme equalizer settings and cutting a lot of bass, some vocals sound just straight out strange. Dull and quiet. Like people are inside a mattress... While others might be okay. Highly dependent on how the sound is mastered. Many times I have wondered if my speakers are actually somehow faulty or broken, because the sound profile is just so amazingly weird. These are the oddest pair of speakers I have ever listened to and I actually have a huge buyers remorse from ever getting these. Also iPhone Application is really pain in the *** to get reliably connected to the things... Every time connection rolls for good 5 seconds and then states "connection could not be made" but after the error message the connection is made...

While waiting for proper update. If you are in the same boat as me; that you find the default sound to be muffled, boomy or too warm for TV use, and thus need the custom EQ to fix it but you but don't want to adjust it every time you watch TV. Not ideal but here's a possible solution that worked with me while I still had the speakers. Disable speakers from powering off in the first place and don't turn them off. Disable HDMI ARC auto power setting in your TV, and disable Auto Power Off from the Klipsch Connect App. This way your speakers wont power off (reset the settings) unless specifically shut down or a power outage happens. And no - they should not consume a lot of power when they are in standby / idle even if powered on. Also things to try to reduce the excessive bass/boom: Speaker position. Not too close to wall. This is the number one reason for boomy bass and Klipsch Fives are particularly sensitive to it. If that is not possible for you, you can also try to plugging the rear ports. This can help tremendously and imho is the way to go if you have to place speaker very near to wall. Experiment with different configurations, partly plugged, only a soft seal or full seal. Extreme fix that might help some is just inserting a RCA plug to the speakers sub out, even if there isn't a sub on the other end. This will cut lowest bass frequencies entirely giving much more room for clarity on the other end. I ended up doing this as a solution. Disable auto power off. Insert soft plugs to back ports. Custom EQ Mid +5, High +4. This made the speakers "set and forget" usable for me with TV and sound was nice. But eventually decided to sell them because all in all the solution started to feel wonky for me, for so expensive pair of bookshelf speakers.

Klipsch The Fives resets the custom EQ setting once they are powered down. If you are in the same boat as me; that you find the default sound to be muffled, boomy or warm for TV use, and thus need the custom EQ to fix it but you but don't want to adjust it every time you watch TV. Here's a possible solution. This of course is not fundamentally ideal solution to the issue, but you do what you have to. So just disable speakers from powering off in the first place and don't turn them off. Disable HDMI ARC auto power setting in your TV, and disable Auto Power Off from the Klipsch Connect App. This way your speakers wont power off (reset the settings) unless specifically shut down or a power outage happens. And no they should not consume a lot of power when they are in standby / idle even if powered on. Also things to try to reduce the excessive bass/boom: Speaker position. Not too close to wall. This is number one reason for boomy bass and Klipsch Fives are particularly sensitive to it. If that is not possible for you, you can also try to plugging the rear ports. This can help tremendously and maybe is the way to go if you have to place speaker very near to wall. Try different configurations, partly plugged, only a soft seal or full seal. Extreme fix that might help some is just inserting a RCA plug to the speakers sub out, even if there isn't a sub on the other end. This will cut lowest bass frequencies entirely giving much more room for clarity on the other end.

Oops. Accidental double message when trying to edit the first one.

Delete.

I do find this absolutely insane software design - and surprised to see more people are not being more vocal about it. I really hope they would fix this with future software update but as I think Fives are pretty much at the end of their lifespan and that they probably wont release any more updates. Imagine if every time you turned your TV off and on again, all your calibration settings would reset to factory defaults. Not even that, but you have to use completely different smart device to connect and set it up again to your liking. Every time. Insane. In my apartment I unfortunately can not place the speakers super optimally (which would be at a good distance from wall, not in a corner and at ear level) so they have to sit very close to wall, and under ear level. I cant also play them very loud because of neighbors. I have no other reference, but at least with this configuration, they sound so weird with factory defaults, that I'm considering if the speakers could even be broken (?). Bass is so extremely boomy and all the mids and highs are very overly colored by the bass to the point vocals sound like they are coming from inside a mattress. Some music tracks can sound quite neat with this profile I guess, but regular TV use or even some vocal+bass heavy music like hiphop I find absolutely terrible. Only way I find the sound even somewhat reasonable and leveled in these circumstances is to open the Klipsch connect app; disable dynamic bass, speaker placement: corner (cuts bass -6db) and enabling the custom Vocal EQ preset. Only then are close to getting to what I would consider normal balanced audio. And after that extensive tweaking, I'm not even so sure if it even sounds very pleasant or high quality - even if the clarity is now reasonably good. I thought these would be the swiss army knife of home hifi with ease. Throw them anywhere and they'll sound great type of deal. Nope. Needs super optimized environment pretty much built around the speakers not to sound terrible boomy and muddy.

I'm getting one major frustration with these speakers. For a week that I've owned them I have been on and off wondering why my Fives sound so muddy as my TV speakers every time I start the TV. Too warm. Blurred vocals. Too much bass. I have been wondering am I just that used to the bright sound of the old soundbar. Then I fiddle with EQ a bit, boost mids or high and find them okay. I finally find settings I'm pleased with and want to save these as a "set and forget" type of deal. Just found out that the speakers do not actually save EQ settings in speaker as default. Meaning every time I boot up the TV one should start the Klipsch The Fives application on smartphone and activate the my custom preset again. It's not activated before I change it one time in app. Please tell me it isn't so? It's a major inconvenience to connect with the application every time, and theres a whole family whos supposed to use them with the TV and app is only in my phone, I'm not always there etc. And on default flat setting they are pretty much unusable in our apartment. Ughhh... I think I just might have to try to return them still. Please tell me there's a solution for this. Please! 🙏