mApte

I am writing this review after using the Klipsch the Fives for 2 months. I am no audiophile, but I have always craved for an excellent sound system, not just to listen to music streamed from Spotify , but also to watch movies, TV shows etc on popular streaming platforms such as Netflix, Amazon Prime etc. Flat screen TV’s of the last few years have become thinner and thinner and their sound output / fidelity is severely compromised due to this. The sound is tinny and totally underwhelming. My last 2 purchases were sound bars – initially a basic 2.1 channel one from LG and then an upgrade to a 4.1 channel surround sound-bar from Phillips. The Phillips sound bar was getting old and I was looking to upgrade. I researched the market for many sound bars. They were either too basic and I did not like the sound, or the better ones from the likes of Bose / Loewe etc were too expensive. Another problem was in how soundbars are constructed vis a vis discreet speakers, an aspect I shall discuss later. In came the Klipsch the Fives, which were touted as ‘soundbar killers’ due to one important fact – they had an HDMI input which to my mind no other powered speakers had. Not only did they promise sound fidelity that matched / beat top end sound bars, they were competitively priced *and* took up much less space. So I took the plunge and bought them. How has been my experience? In one word – excellent. They do live up to their tag line of being soundbar killers. There are a few important determinants on which I measured their performance: - Are they powerful? After all they are not very large - Are they capable of producing room filling / immersive sound? Remember they were replacing the Phillips 4.1 surround sound bar - How is the dialogue clarity? Being 2.0 stereo speakers, how will dialogue sound in the absence of a center channel I was keen to run a head to head test in a real life use situation. For that I chose the following: - Bose 700 soundbar + Bose 700 bass module, which is one of the best sound bars in the market. It has a dedicated center speaker to boost dialogues - A scene from the TV show – Billions. One of the lead actors Paul Giamatti has a strange way of delivering his dialogues. He speaks in a throaty guttural low pitched voice which makes it (sometimes) difficult to understand what he is saying. On comparing, I am happy to report that The Klipsch the Fives came through with flying colours!! Firstly, I realized that I still could not decipher what Paul Giamatti was saying even on the Bose LOL. Then came the most important realization. *ALL* sound bars suffer from one major shortcoming – the lack of a SOUNDSTAGE. They key differential IMHO is the ability to keep discreet stereo speakers wide apart. In my case, the Klipsch have been kept about 7 feet apart. No soundbar on the planet has been made SO wide, it will look ridiculous right? And won’t fit into tight corners. The ability to keep the speakers wide apart and create an enveloping soundstage is, to my mind, the key advantage of any 2.0 speaker setup, not just the Klipsch. Soundbars throw the sound at you directly from where *they* are located and it feels as if all sound is coming from just one place. Sure, the addition of surround speakers will enhance the 360 degree nature of the sound, no doubt. But for that, you will be paying significantly more for a Bose, Sonos, JBL or even Klipsch’s own soundbar setup as compared to a 2.0 stereo speaker system. And the satellite speakers will need their own power source, therefore more wires, more clutter. Also note, the surround speakers (of soundbars) are usually paired with the main bar using Bluetooth, so due to sound compression used to direct sounds, they may not be as effective as wired setup. And BTW, the Fives recreated a phantom center channel quite effortlessly for dialogues. If the aim is to de-clutter your room, save money and get a soundstage which is nearly equal to some of the top soundbars in the market, stereo speakers is the way to go. Another important point. When listening to music, the Klipsch the Fives will eat any premium soundbar for breakfast! Again the stereo effect coming into play here. So, net net, I am very happy with my purchase of the Klipsch. These are the first set of speakers I have owned from the venerable Klipsch brand and it has already got me started on exploring their passive reference premier range. I would heartily recommend Klipsch the Fives for wide range of applications – for watching TV, listening to music etc. BTW, in order to get the maximum out of your Klipsch, upload the firmware (a not so easy process, but got it right after a few try’s), download the Klipsch app and use the graphic equalizer to boost the center frequencies for clearer dialogues.

And just to add, I have also done a factory reset, updated the firmware once again, the Klipsch updater states the firmware is updated, uninstalled and reinstalled the app, it connects via bluetooth and plays the media on the phone but the Klipsch connect app does not work. I am therfore unable to access the special features such as graphic equaliser. Please help!

Hi Recently bought the Klipsch Fives and followed the instructions to update the firmware "to the T". The Klpisch updater app shows the firware being updated. However the Klipsch Connect App is not connecting to the Fives. I "forgot"and re-"paired" the speakers, still not working. I deleted and downloaded the Klipsch app and tried re-paring again, no luck. The updater app is showing that the device is already updated. Since it is not pairing, I am not able to use the full functionality like the graphic equaliser etc. Please help. Thanks.