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the doors are made of perforated steel so air can enter. there's like a 1.5" space between the back piece on both the top and bottom clearing, so yeah, air can move through. The cable box does get hot but not nearly as hot as the RSP-1068. It gets almost too hot to touch. I was surprised that the amp doesnt heat up that much. i dont know if this is abnormal or not. i've read on the avsforum rotel thread that the rsp-1068 does run pretty hot and like i said, it has the clearance it needs on all 4 sides... the 4" it says i need to have in the manual. strange that for a piece that gets so hot, the top isnt covered with air vents.

i'm in the last stages of completing our 2-channel setup in the family room. when we first moved in, we had the RF7s paired with the SVS PB2+ sub. man did that put out tons of prodigious bass. almost too much bass. That sub, along with those speakers have since been moved to our dedicated theater room where its doing nicely. Now, we have the RF83s in the family room, coupled with a recent Rotel RSP 1068 pre-amp/pro and a RB-1080 amplifier. boy has the soundstage expanded. of course we are all really pleased with the sound we get from the klipsch but now we need the low end to balance the high end. When i was at the dealer getting the rotel stuff last saturday, i happened to have a prodigy CD with me and I wanted to test out the RT12d which is supposed to complement the new reference line. we played a few songs there and it was run through the rotel equipment that i now own, along with the RF83s, and i wasnt impressed. Not at all. There wasnt that earth shattering bass that i've come to expect. On paper, these two subwoofers are very comparable. the only thing was that this sub wasnt placed in the corner. it was placed against a sidewall, in the middle of that wall, surrounded by other klipsch subs. So i'm wondering if corner placement would have really given me a better feel of what this sub can do? honestly, my primary reason for considering the klipsch are its looks. its gorgeous and dimunative. i love its styling and it would make for a great family room sub thats not obtrusive. The SVS on the other hand, is, noticable, to say the least. Its massive and will be ever present. I went on the SVS site and the new sub that replaces the PB2+, the PB12-plus/2, is no longer available in cherry (which would forseeably match the klipsch we have), but they have a price break on the piano gloss finish (which would also work since it would be neutral). So i'm essentially asking 12d owners or svs owners to chime in and tell me if its even worth it for me to do an in-house demo of the klipsch or just get the SVS, which I know will work. like i said, the klipsch did absolutely nothing for me at the store. I couldnt even feel the bass. Of course i dont know how they had it configured and it wasnt placed in the corner, but still, its a reputable store, not a mass market megastore, so i can assume they set it up right and it just didnt 'hit'. As I said, this will ONLY be used for music, no HT/movies whatsoever. I have very eclectic music tastes and listen to pretty much everything but every now and again I'd like to have a few parties and when that happens i definitely want a capable sub that will keep everyone rocking. I'd really like to make this decision within the next few days so if you have any thoughts, please post. thanks for reading my ramblings. btw... the room is an open family room thats 20 x 20 x 11". it opens into a large kitchen which is equally big.

thanks, does it look like to you that i've over stuffed it? if i put a thermometer in there, what temp should i consider as threshold?

well this morning I went back in there and rerouted all the cables. I tried to separate all the power from all the other cables as much as i could. Again i've never seen any or heard any strange sounds that shouldnt be there, so i'm hoping i'm okay, but now at least its a lot neater, i think. anyway, i took some pictures while i was cleaning up. that was taken from about 20 feet back. So we have a Salamander designs Synergy 20 cabinet. I have the Rotel equipment stuffed in there. I've read that its normal for it to get pretty hot, and it hasnt shut down yet. I've left about 4 inches of clearance on each side like it says in the manual, and the front is perforated steel, so the heat can escape that way, if it needs to. basically, does it look like its okay for me to leave it in this cabinet, in terms of heat? I mean when I listen to music, i open both doors anyway (just to get to the CDs, so the heat shouldn't be a problem, i hope)? When watching tv, we rarely, if ever, listen to it very loud, or even loud at all (around vol 50-55).

well i am having fun, i never really paid a lot of attention to wiring and such before, because I always knew we would have to change out the Onkyo receiver eventually for something new, so now that this time has come, I'm really getting into making sure i get the most out of the equipment. So right now I've hooked up the cable box to the RSP 1068 via the digital coax, and on the HD channels it recognizes everything as Dolby Digital. to me, it sounds pretty good, and i'm happy with the setting so i wont mess with it. what I am worried about is the power that you're talking about. I run the power cables directly behind the component rack. maybe i'll take a picture of it and post it here and you all can tell me if i need to move it or something. also how will i know if i'm getting interference from the power cables? will it be a hum or something at loud volumes?

1500 is a good deal on used rf83s, but for that price, you could get the RF7s, which are equally good for new, if not a bit cheaper. Dont discount the RF7s just because they are discontinued, they are every bit as good as the RF83s, if a tiny bit less refined.

So i finished bi-wiring yesterday, and man did i have a scare. after all that work, i turn it all on, and i get sound out of only one speaker! I thought I did something or some component got screwed. after 2 hours of troubleshooting, i find out that the cablebox, somehow, lost its right channel of audio! god that was so infuriating. Anyway, i dont know if it sounds any better, but then again i've only had it for a few days. A few more questions though. What kind of cables are you all using to connect the amp to the processor? I'm using the stuff that came in the Rotel box, but upon reading the manual, they suggest getting some good shielded cables, i'm wondering if any of you bought into that. also, one of the primary sources into this processor is the cable box. after i went to the dealer today, He suggested that i try running digital coax from the cable box into the Rotel. I told him that, i am not using it or planning on using it as a multi channel processor, just straight stereo. In this case, do I or would it sound better over digital coax vs analog coax? So again i ask, what do you all use?

well, since I have a lot of 16 gauge wire laying about the house, i guess biwiring it cant hurt. I did that yesterday, and it still sounded as good as ever. And yesterday I listened to some music in stereo mode, and that sounded excellent as well, the same as the dolby modes, so if thats the case, i'll just go with stereo mode. I cant go with bypass mode because the bass isnt there, till i get a sub anyway...

in the rf83 instructions, it says to take the jumpers OFF the binding posts, if you have choose to biwire. from the content of your response, it seems that you're not at all convinced that bi-wiring does anything except clutter the setup. also, my run length between the speaker and the amp is only 10 feet. in such a short distance, do i really need a 12-14 gauge speaker wire? right now i'm using 16 gauge simply because of the distance but i wouldnt mind upgrading to a higher gauge if its really necessary (spending a few grand on separates tends to focus the mind on priorities [8-|] ). in terms of the DACs, no i'm not going into a debate about which sounds best, thats all semantics. All i'm asking is am i losing audio information by listening to Dolby PLII M/C/3 stereo, when all i have are two speakers... the RF83s, and nothing else. As i said, to me, PLII M sounds better than Bypass, again its probably because I've yet to decide between getting another SVS PB2+ (or whatever they call it now) and the RT12d.

Well, I've got to play with this for about 2 hours now, in total. I'm really very glad that I upgraded to separates. For a while, I thought about going with a Denon receiver but I'm so glad that I went with Rotel. So anyway, as is with all new equipment, I saw a few surprises and a few quirks. First the quirks: After initially hooking everything together, I wanted to only run the component out to our display. Its a commercial 1080p display so its very barren when it comes to inputs, only DVI and component. So since the Rotel can convert s-video and composite to component, I only hooked that up. At first the signal jittered as it came on, but then every so often, the video would blank out for about 1 second, and the audio would continue uninterrupted. While it may have been that it was an issue with TNT, i could swear i saw it on different channels as well (but i wasnt really paying attention on the first day). Another quirk was that, I naturally figured, without reading the manual, that i couldnt access the OSD via component, so I would have to use the video out via s-video or composite. So I hooked up an old camcorder to the svideo jack and used that to configure the OSD. While I was doing that, the screen would keep flickering and the video would stutter and just go bizerk. Again this was all stuff that happened on the first day. Then, on Sunday, i finally opened the manual (i know i have no patience with reading the instructions), I realized that I could configure the video if i set it to 'progressive' mode. I did that and disabled the OSD screens, since it wouldnt work on component anyway, and since then there has been no flickering or any other issues i saw on the first day. I was a bit worried on the first day, wondering if pre-amp pro needed to be exchanged, but I'm just hoping it was me who did somethign wrong, or the channel i was watching and not the unit itself. And now for the surprise: I read the Rotel brochure that the salesman had given to me, which stated that the now discontinued 380wpc amp they sell had two sets of outputs for 'easy biwiring'. well, they dont sell that anymore, and I think thats a bit overkill for the klipsch anyway, so I went with the RB-1080, and lo and behold, it also has 2 sets of connectors per channel! The strange thing is, that there was an addendum to the manual that shipped with my unit, but it made no mention of the two connectors. Even their website hasnt updated their picture of the back of the unit. So, i'm almost afraid to assume that this is for bi-wiring and didnt connect it. I figure I'll ask here and see what you all think before I do anything. If they did include it for this purpose, then thats a great welcome feature indeed. I also wanted to ask the owners here what mode do you use just to listen to stereo, ie from a CD? It seems like I get the best bass response if i use the Dolby PLII M/C/3 stereo modes. I dont get the same bass extention in stereo mode that i do in those modes, even while i have access to the full contour controls. I mean I guess, as long as I like the sound thats all that should matter right, but I'm wondering if i'm missing any audible spectrum by listening in the Dolby modes vs straight 2 channel stereo/bypass. In the setup, i've set it so that the RF83s are set to large, and disabled all other speakers (i;ve selected no subwoofer). I dont know what to set for the crossover for the main speakers, so its set to its default 100hz. I dont know why this would even matter since its not crossing over to a sub anyway. The manual mentions that I should'nt use just any old cable for the unbalanced RCA connections between the pre-amp/pro and the amplifier, i've used the ones that came in the pre-amp pro box.... it sounds fantastic to me, but i'm really upgrading to a whole new level so i want to be able to actualize the potential of the components without breaking the bank on accessories (not a huge monster cable fan). I'm just wondering if you guys went with the cheap stuff or actually use a decent set of cables for your connections.

well, i went and pulled the trigger on it. seemed like i got a good deal, i think anyway. So far so good. Although the setup is a bit confusing. out of the box, i dont think its sending all the bass to the RF83s, i'm wondering if i have to go into the setup and tell it to set my speakers to large, and that i have no sub. whatever, i'm playing around with it... edit: WHOA... incredible sound! i'm very impressed right now. I dont know how the settings work but so far its really showing another side to these speakers i never imagined before. there are some quirks to the system, hopefully i can get it sorted out, but very pleased so far.

i'm considering getting this sub. I wasnt able to listen to it at the dealer's setup, and I have a SVS PB2+, which is basically a box sub with 2, 12"s feed by a 900 wrms bash amp. The bass on that is prodigious, and works great for theater/trance, but its not very consumer decor friendly. just based on specs alone, the klipsch sub seems pretty comparable. anyone have any insight has to whether these subs are actually comparable or not?

While we own a pair of rf7s, I am more interested in asking whehter the RF83 also has this 'dip' that you guys are talking about. I'm considering separates for it as well.

i guess i never really thought of it that way. but your logic makes sense. I mean, yeah there is quite a bit of hype thats more superfluous than reality. Such as speaker cables... i could never tell a difference. Nor could I really tell much of a difference between 1080p and 1080i on a 1080p screen. I think you're right that with these speakers, which arent shabby in the least, but also arent the exotic high-end kind either, I wouldnt really see anything more with XLR vs RCA connectors. And we dont really plan on upgrading these speakers, ever really. Now once i get out of school and live on my own and build an audiophile system, i'm sure I'll get a new package anyway, and I cant beat this rotel stuff at their price point. I have the money for it, but I'm wondering when the best time will be to buy. When I got the speakers from this dealer, they had some promotion where they were selling things at 10% above cost, i dont remember if it was everything in the store or not but I did get a fantastic deal on these speakers. Little did I know that my reciever would start to fail where I would need to get an upgrade, or I would have gotten all the equipment right then and there. So either I wait till October and try to get that same type of deal again (i think it was their anniversary special), or I go in now, with cash, and ask for that type of deal now. I also need to get a subwoofer, perhaps the Rt-12D, so maybe they may be inclined to move inventory and cut a return customer a good deal... who knows, we'll see and i'll keep this thread updated.

All I will use this for is 2 channel. Like I said, we have a dedicated theater room upstairs. And we dont want or need 2 surround sound systems in our house. So if I'm going to upgrade to separates, I would like to consider a processor that will give me the option of using balanced/xlr connections, even if I dont use them with these Klipsch, or with something else later on. I guess I dont understand why Rotel doesnt offer this, while B&K does on its Ref 50.

well, we have a pair, and we love our 83s. they are tamer and more refined than the RF7s, which we also have, but it really still is a great speaker. shame its not reviewed more, but i guess klipsch doesnt really showcase their high end stuff, but advertise moreso their low end stuff that you find in the mass market retailers.

well, thanks for the direct answer, although i was hoping for a bit more. I see that you use Tubes with your fronts. Do those have/use XLR connections? what kind of speakers benifit from those connections? the heritage line or something from wilson audio? i guess i'm wondering where i can find a technical explanation for why they are different and its appropriate application

how important are balanced inputs? i mean if i'm making the jump to separates, i doubt i'll be changing components for a while, a long while. i dont get upgraditis like a lot of people here, its only because my equipment now is dying that i'm thinking about doing this. I obviously dont need or will ever use the surround sound processing of the 1068, so should i look at another processor perhaps? if you click the picture in my signature, you can see the cabinet where I want to house all this stuff and space is at a premium in there, so ideally i'd like to get 2 components, the amp and the processor and not have to worry about getting anything else. so again the rotel seems like a good product and a lot of people seem to be pairing klipsch with it, so really do i need the XLR inputs?

So, i think its finally time to upgrade the amp section driving the RF83s. We've had an Onkyo reciever for about 10 years now (one of the ones with the original thx certification), but i think its dying on me. It keeps making these loud hums and stuff. Anyway, the dealer from who we bought the RF83s is also a dealer of Rotel and I took the product catalog from them when we were getting the 83s. Since I am upgrading, i thought about going the separates route with the 200wpc RB-1080 amp and the RSP-1068 processor. I guess i'm hoping that someone here will chime in and talk about this combination and how it will work with the 83s. I noticed that the RB-1080 has XLR balanced inputs but the RSP-1068 doesnt have XLR balanced outputs. thats my only concern. Afaik, XLR is the best connection type for separates, so i'm confused as to why their amps have the connection but the processor doesnt? This will only be used as a two channel mode, as we have a dedicated theater room, and the reason I want the processor is becuase it can handle the video switching out to the tv. anyway, what do you guys think?

i think the sheer resolution aspect to buying a tv should be the least of your concerns. the primary things that should matter are budget, viewing distance, and picture quality. Resolution doesnt really fit into this equation, not in realistic terms anyway. We recently upgraded our family room plasma from a 42" ED (480p) to a 1080p 65". Now, watching from 20 feet away, does the added resolution help? not really. I can only see the screen door from like 3 inches from the screen, if that. But when we got it, there wasnt a price difference between the 1080p and the 720p models. Anyway, do I regret getting the 1080p model? not at all. We got it in our family room because the room was simply overpowering the 42" and the 65" fits quite nicely in such a large space. I also get excited sometimes when I watch some sports (like the NFL playoffs) and I find myself unable to sit in the couch, and constantly hovering around the screen from a few feet away. In this case, not being distracted by the screendoor effect sure does help. If you can chart out exactly what you watch on tv, and how you watch it, and your distance, then i think you'd have a good place to start with that. I went to the store several times to look at various sizes with a measuring tape of sorts to try and imagine exactly how a display of x size would look in our room. I never really looked at resolution. I really dont think that should be a major concern for you. If you have a bit of patience though, I do think that prices of 1080p displays should be dropping precipitously as the year progresses.

how do you get into magazines? I'd like to get ours in if possible

i told you to get cable...

I have both the RF7s and the RF83s. while i cant give you a good technical description i will say the following. The price difference between the two is NOT justified. The RF7s are every bit as capable as the RF83s. The RF83s are simply a bit more refined, and a little less harsh than the RF7s. They have a bit better midrange and makes for a better all around speaker. The RF7s are a much more "live" speaker that really commands your attention. We went with the RF83s simply becuase we loved our RF7s, but we didnt want to have the exact same speaker in both the family room and the theater room, and so the RF83s worked out. I actually prefer the RF83s for music (thats all we listen to downstairs) and the RF7s for theater. But If i was buying today, with the pricing of the RF7s, i'd be hard pressed to go with the RF83s with what they are commanding. The RF7s are a very very capable and competent speaker set from klipsch with incremental improvements in the RF83s. hope that helps a little.

i think it really comes down to the display device itself, at least from my experience. We have a 720p projector and it shows anything thats in its component input as pure crap. its fuzzy and just irritating to watch. But over DVI it looks spectacular. Which is the reason i cant watch dvds in the theater room becuase it just doesnt look good to me. we recently purchased a 1080p plasma and i have that hooked up via component and DVI out of the same cable box. on this display, the Component looks a lot crisper and richer than dvi. i later found out the reasons for it which i wont go into here, but suffice it to say, yes the way a display handles each input matters. So at the leas tyou should test out each connection and go with whatever looks best. I know from experience not all inputs are calibrated the same or optimally pristine when delivering a picture.

two years ago, i had some people who invited themselves over to my house for the superbowl. the issue was that the game was on FOX and the local affiliate was owned by Sinclair and Sinclair refused to let Comcast carry the HD signal for free, and demanded that comcast and its customers pay for their infrastructure upgrades. anyway so there was a stalemate and I went out to circuit city to get a OTA receiver and a set of rabbit ears. When i got it all hooked up, the signal was pretty good but there was occasional hiccups, and because it was a very very VERY dodgy installation, any movement of the antenna at all and the signal would fail. I wouldn't have had the time to mount it properly. Anyway somehow Comcast and Sinclair reached an agreement and the game was broadcast over HD cable, so i didn't need all that stuff after all. my advice to you is if you are having that many people over and you haven't permanently mounted it or arent planning on it, i think you should get a 'lifeline' subscription to local cable. thats also probably your cheapest route, i think. lifeline cable is just the OTA (over the air) networks fed into your tv without the use of an antenna. I dont remember what company it is in indianapolis, either Insight or Comcast (I went to school at IUB) but i believe they should also offer this lifeline service. I think its like 10-15 bucks, and all you'd need is a HD cable box, which they can rent it to yuu for 5-6 bucks. so you'd be out like 20 bucks total for a month, and you could cancel after that if you so desired probably without consequence. Comcast in nashville, TN doesnt create a huge fuss if you cancel their service, there's no contract but i dont know there. anyway the pluses are that you get a clear pristine signal for none of the hassle of wiring and hooking up your OTA antenna/receiver for a nominal fee. anyway, check that out if you can. I dont know if they can hook it up that soon being in indianapolis (town must be nuts over tv sales/hd service/etc) but its worth a shot. If you go the OTA route, good luck but with that many bodies in one room, the chances are pretty high that someone can knock something over and screwup the feed for a bit.