Klipsch RF-7II Need suggestions

[inder19]

I just received an email saying that the speakers have arrived and will be ready for pick up tomorrow morning! Unfortunately I am stuck at work so I am hoping I can get someone to pick everything up. Does anyone have a rough measure of the RF-7II RC-64 RS-62 SW-311 boxes..... I will be using an extended length mini van to do the pick up.

Thanks,

(I am getting a bit too excited I think)

[jacksonbart]

Top Notch!!

[inder19]

The speakers have arrived.....but I am stuck at work. This is officially the longest day ever. This is my first real home theatre setup so does anyone have any tips from experience.... what I should do first or how to best calibrate, anything that you think I would find helpful would be greatly appreciated.

Knowing that they would arrive today I have already connected everything so I just need to plug in the speakers and go throught the receiver set up. Two screws are waiting to be put into studs so I can mount the surrounds. Luckily I have tomorrow off because I have a feeling it will be a long night.

Will post pictures later if anyone is interested.

[cornfedksboy]

Set them up really pretty like and take pictures so I can be envious for a bit. Worry about how it works later.

[inder19]

Good news bad news..... Speakers are great but they sent a black centre rather than the cherry so that has to get swapped next week. Good news is he let me bring it home and use it because it wasn't my fault .

Also when we built this house we had the cabinets built in to house the speakers......and so the other bad news is that I will possibly be getting those removed. I was intending to purchase speakers that are made to go into a cabinet but didn't.

I tested the fronts inside and outside the cabinets and there is a difference, perhaps its the speakers being closer to me but regardless there is a difference. The only way it sounds close is when the grill is off and the cabinet mesh door is open and listening to music. For movies its night and day.

For anyone else considering putting them in cabinets make sure the cabinets are open at the back and speakers can still be aimed. Did not like the sound in the cabinet myself. I will give a try of lining the cabinet with a foam the installer told me about which is supposed to make it sound better, less cabinety lol.. don't put much faith in it but I will give it a try.

My issue with keeping them out is only 1, kids. I am afraid when kids are there they will poke them and touch them or worse knock them over. We have a lot of family get togethers at our house and I swear some parents don't think anything of it...last time I come downstairs to the theatre room, kids are supposed to be upstairs and two of them are playing pass with one of the billiards balls, one of them is trying to shoot pool but just rubbing the cue stick on the cloth and the other is trying to reach the projector...... I guess it's time to invest in a good door lock lol.

Good news bad news..... Speakers are great but they sent a black centre rather than the cherry so that has to get swapped next week. Good news is he let me bring it home and use it because it wasn't my fault .

Another note on the subwoofers, they are exactly as I expected . I have heard deeper bass no doubt, and more hard hitting bass as well. After using the auto room correction and finding proper placement for them I would have to say I am very impressed and they outperformed my expectations. There are a few songs I know that hit really low so I tried those and it was lackluster but still good. I watched the Town and it sounded GREAT, some scenes with a lot of bass hit really hard and my posters on the wall were shaking while the sub volume was not set any higher than default. I turned them up and watched the Dark Knight scenes and I was pleasantly surprised, the subs did not fall behind. Having said that at the retail price I would probably look else where but could not resist with my discount .

Good news bad news..... Speakers are great but they sent a black centre rather than the cherry so that has to get swapped next week. Good news is he let me bring it home and use it because it wasn't my fault .

I asked my wife to find the subs and she was only able to locate one because its very visible but otherwise It is very difficult to pin point the bass. When I showed her she said "you bought TWO subs, why do you need TWO subs" ooops

Good news bad news..... Speakers are great but they sent a black centre rather than the cherry so that has to get swapped next week. Good news is he let me bring it home and use it because it wasn't my fault .

I will post pictures inside and outside the cabinets later this weekend. Right now I left them in the cabinets because I am waiting to get a soundproof door with better lock and our carpet has rolled up a bit into almost a hill about 4 inches high in the middle of the room so the carpet guys have to come and fix that. Don't worry for those who consider putting these in a cabinet a sin, they will come out as soon as the carpet and cabinets are fixed . I bought the cherry ones because I like to look at them lol

[inder19]

Ok so I have had my speakers for about 6 weeks and I wanted to address some of the concerns people mentioned I may have and some that I do have.

1 - The SW-311 may not be enough and may have me wanting to upgrage.

This is a tough one because I tried a paradigm sub 12 and was blown away and wanted to buy it. It was in a much smaller room so it wasnt a fair comparison as even the SW-311 in my family room is excellent. At home I have tried a velodyne 15" and wasn't doing much more than the SW-311s. Do I want to upgrade..possibly yes but no more than I want another set of RF-7s lol. The SW-311 is a more than capable sub but a bit pricey imo. I am running 2 of these so that could be another reason I am satisfied. (my room is approximatel 22x33). For music is where I would like more bass movies not so much as I find the two are doing more than I need.

2 - May want to consider a powered amp.

This is a yes, I will definetely be adding a seperate amp and currently looking at the emotiva xpa-3 but the website says it will ship Mar. 20th i think it was. My receiver is doing the job but having heard another set of speakers with amp vs same receiver it was very apparent that the amp will help. I was curious if anyone has any other recommendation for an Amp. My budget is under $1000 just for front 3.

3 - 5.2 vs 7.1

So I had opted for the 5.2 and the only complaint I have is that in some movies I feel like there is not enough sound coming from behind. I tried different placements and then tried using a set of old speakers as rear surround and front heights and even though its not discrete channels it did help my set up. My theatre room is essentially a dedicated theatre room but also has a pool table/bar area at the back which gives about 18x22 ft of area behind the seating w/o speakers.

I am currently on the verge of ordering a set of the RB-81s and or RB-61s. They will both stay in theatre room as front heights and rear surrounds or one pair will go to my bedroom. Any opinions on that would be great. I liked the idea of going all 6" for rears, surrounds, and centre. I could always go all RB-81s for fronts and rears. I also considered the rb-51 but didn't like the sound beside the rf-7s. Haven't had a chance to test the RB-81 and RB-61 but i have heard they are very similar. Price point is almost double for the RB-81s which I think may be over kill for rear surrounds and potentially front heights/wides.

4 - Placing speakers in cabinet

This was another issue and I have found that putting some insulation behind the rf-7s made a difference but will test more. I would highly recommend keeping them out if possible. I also tried playing around with the toe-in and maybe its because my room is 22' wide but I liked the speakers almost straight. This is another reason I am considering adding front wides or heights as the 2 edge seats dont get the same experience.

5 - Photos

I posted some in the lets see your theatre thread.

6 - RF-7 Feet

KEEP THEM ON as they are designed... I had mine tip on me and they have a scratch now ... I had tried them pointed inwards just to test and see the look and unfortunately I bumped one. It didnt hit the ground but bumped another piece of furniture and now there is scratch. I will see about getting that fixed later.

If anyone has any othe questions or tips let me know