etc6849 Posted December 11, 2008 Share Posted December 11, 2008 Hi, I'm new to Klipsch and just picked up a display set of RF-83's and the RC-64 for half off, but I had a few questions... 1. These are great speakers, especially for the price. I'm using them in an apartment with an open floor plan, but only a 10' by 14' area for the HT. I notice that when I stand there is a slightly better sweet spot versus when I sit on my sofa that puts you 12" off the floor after sitting. Do most running the RF-83's have a similar issue or is it my room size? I am debating on building a platform for the sofa, but my wife is in disagreement about that... 2. I am also thinking about getting another pair of RF-83's for the rear... Would this be over kill? Keep in mind, I plan to buy a large home next year. Also, is there a good place to buy scratch and dent (or B stock ) Klipsch speakers within driving distance (3 hours or so) of Chicago, IL? I really want a second pair of RF-83's to use with the all channel stereo function of my onkyo 905. I don't have $2400 to blow on a full price pair after already buying the L,C and R speakers... 3. If anyone is using the Onkyo 905 or audyssey pro, do you notice that the highs are dampened when you use the adyssey room calibrater? For my set up, I had to disable the audyssey EQ in the 905. Could the small room size combined with such large speakers be throwing it off? 4. Any advice on a laptop based tool to do frequency response plots of my speakers or know of any places that rent a good calibration tool? I want to measure my set up's response and input the equalizer levels manually due to the issues with the audyssey equalizer. PS: I'm glad I bought the Klipsch speakers over the competitors. I bought them at Barrett's, but the guy at the first store kept trying to sell me the B&W 600 and CM series speakers and didn't even mention the half off Klipsch speakers. There's no way the lower end B&W's could match the RF-83's, especially when the B&W 600 series is made in China now... The RF-83's are great speakers, I don't know why everyone keeps telling me (on other forums of course ;-) ) that Klipsch speakers have a poor mid frequency response just because they don't have a midrange. The response over the midrange is very flat according to plots on reviews I've seen. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wuzzzer Posted December 12, 2008 Share Posted December 12, 2008 1) Speaker height and listening height definitely affect the sound you hear. If you like how they sound when standing, you might think about putting something underneath the rear of the speaker to tilt them forward ever so slightly. That would be a lot easier than building a platform to raise your sofa. That would lower the 'sweet spot' you refer to. Also, if you haven't already, you might want to toe your speakers inwards toward your main listening position. Some people like how their speakers sound with only a slight amount of toe-in, others like to have their front main speakers aimed directly at them at a more extreme angle. Experiment with different degrees of toe-in and see what you like best. 2) For rear (actually side placement only slightly behind you is recommended in a 5 speaker setup) speakers if you don't want to spend the money on another pair of RF-83s, most any Reference series tower will work. The RS series are specifically designed as surround speakers but floorstanding speakers will give you a fuller sound overall. If you do more music listening I'd recommend floorstanding as side surrounds, if you do more movies I'd recommend the RS surround series. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tigerwoodKhorns Posted December 12, 2008 Share Posted December 12, 2008 1) Speaker height and listening height definitely affect the sound you hear. If you like how they sound when standing, you might think about putting something underneath the rear of the speaker to tilt them forward ever so slightly. That would be a lot easier than building a platform to raise your sofa. That would lower the 'sweet spot' you refer to. Also, if you haven't already, you might want to toe your speakers inwards toward your main listening position. Some people like how their speakers sound with only a slight amount of toe-in, others like to have their front main speakers aimed directly at them at a more extreme angle. Experiment with different degrees of toe-in and see what you like best. 2) For rear (actually side placement only slightly behind you is recommended in a 5 speaker setup) speakers if you don't want to spend the money on another pair of RF-83s, most any Reference series tower will work. The RS series are specifically designed as surround speakers but floorstanding speakers will give you a fuller sound overall. If you do more music listening I'd recommend floorstanding as side surrounds, if you do more movies I'd recommend the RS surround series. I was going to suggest cutting holes in the floorboards instead of raising the couch. Seriously, Wuzzer has you covered. As far as RF82's for surrounds. Have you picked your large house out yet? If you are in the process of having it built and have the room layout all set, then go for it. If not, placing several tower speakers is not easy. I moved into a house that is well over two times as big as my old one and I need to run smaller speakers in the rear in the new place. Make sure that you can use the towers before you buy them. Nice bookshelfs are easy to place and can always be used for rears or side speakers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
etc6849 Posted December 12, 2008 Author Share Posted December 12, 2008 Thanks everyone, sounds like great advice. I'll just put a small block under the back of the RF-83's... Hopefully I can find some time to play with them Saturday. As for the house question, I plan to buy a house based on the speakers so of course they'd fit ;-) As much as it hurts, I think I'm going to wait on the rear speakers until I get my raise next year. Do the RF-82's sound as good as the RF-83's? I may consider them for rear speakers as I am still skeptical about the RS series being good for all channel stereo. I'll have to give them a try next time I'm at bestbuy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CECAA850 Posted December 13, 2008 Share Posted December 13, 2008 Welcome to the forum. I can't seem to find the article but I've read that using Audyssey with horn loaded speakers is a little more microphone placement dependant than with conventional speakers due to the directionality of the horns. You may want to do a little research. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
etc6849 Posted December 13, 2008 Author Share Posted December 13, 2008 Thanks for the information. It's good to know I'm not hearing things like my wife says! I'm going to have to read up on audyssey a lot more than the single one paragraph in the onkyo's handbook. Right now I have the audyssey EQ disabled, but use the speaker levels it generates. Just to let everyone know I have fixed the sweet spot problem thanks to the ideas here. The L&R's now have a 3 degree tilt downward and are tilted in 29 degrees. I titled my center upward 5 degrees. All this made a huge difference. The center is much clearer now and the sweet spot is much richer. Has anyone tried using 1/4" threaded stock for making threaded spikes in custom length? Right now I'm using carriage bolts in the rear 1/4" threads on the RF-83s, but the idea of using custom carpet spikes sounds like a good idea for a permanent set up. Also, is there a good laser tool made specifically for lining up speakers? I am imagining a simple laser pointing device that may project an x. Each speaker would have one and you would line up all the x's for the L,C and R. Maybe you would leave the L&R x's 5" apart though to take into account your head's width. I went to buy a laser guide, but the good one's are self leveling and would not work as I have a downward tilt I want taken into account. Right now I just eye balled the inward tilt, then measured later with a protracter and a straight laser beam that is square to the wall. What I did to set the left speakers inward tilt: I closed my right eye and sat in the exact center; I then set the speaker so only the front was seen. I can see no sides of the speaker. The downward tilt was harder to do using this method, so I resorted to using a protractor only and eye balled it. All this made a huge difference that even my skeptical wife noticed! I would put my half price speakers up against a $10000 set now. Any advice on side placement? I have them pointed at near ear height straight at my head. In other words, the speakers are perpindicular to a center line and placed inline with my head. The rear speakers are some old LX-8 Optimus speakers with the linaeum tweeters and 8" peerless woofers. I have them sitting on identical end tables right now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
entomologist2004 Posted January 6, 2009 Share Posted January 6, 2009 Maybe you already figured this one out, but a laser pointer would do the same thing and you can get several reallly small ones (think key chain fob) and use poster tack to stick it to the inside of the horn to really place it where you want it (just don't blind yourself). Roll up a sheet of poster board for a target... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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