campy Posted January 16, 2011 Share Posted January 16, 2011 I'm new to this forum and have some questions. I currently have a pair of B&W DM-602 bookshelf speakers for my fronts and the matching center channel. My problem is sometimes I have trouble hearing dialogue in movies and have read the Klipsch are very clear without having to turn volume up too high. My room is 13x15 and the speakers and tv will be around 12 feet away. What I had hoped to do was to maybe get a Klipsch center channel and use it with my B&W fornts, but have read they should all match. I really don't want to sell the B&W's but I would need the funds for the new speakers. I aslo have a problem not being able to hear them since there are no dealers anywhere in the Boston area other than Best Buy and they don't carry the RF's and the ones they do carry aren't setup. I guess one of my questions is would the RF-42 be good enough for my size room or should I spend the extra on the 52's? I should also mention my receiver is an Onkyo 600 which is 80 watts. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Patricius Posted January 17, 2011 Share Posted January 17, 2011 RF52! pricedifference is too small for not to buy them, one day you will move the sp. to bigger room and then you will be even more happy! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SuBXeRo Posted January 17, 2011 Share Posted January 17, 2011 You having trouble hearing dialogue could be from a few things. What is the crossover setting set to on your receiver for your fronts. Also, are the fronts including the center set to "small" or "large". Also, alot of the time, you can set the individual gain for each speaker, as in, you can make the volume higher on your center so that it will always be louder than your L/R channwel. That can help to improve vocal clarity. If you are happy with your B&W's it would be a shame to have to sell them. B&W is a very very good quality company so to me, it sounds like there may be a settings issue. If you did decide to switch to klipsch i would definitly get the rf-52's over the 42's. They are more efficient of speaker so they will use less power to achieve the same volume, but i wouldnt expect that to be your cure all. Its the clarity of the speakers themselves as well as the quality receiver or the seperates that you use that can make or break a system. I dont know which center matches your B&W set so i cant do a comparison between the klipsch and that one but i would assume they are relatively similar is acoustical output. Go do some troubleshooting and see what you can come up with. Familiarize yourself with your receiver before making any hasty decision and see if you can hear things differently so you can compare. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Danclarkin Posted February 23, 2011 Share Posted February 23, 2011 To be honest man i think matching B&W with a klipsch centre may be risky, while i personally dont think that Klipsch speakers are bright they may sound it in comparison to the B&Ws as theiy are horn loaded. Just my opinion. They are extremely clear in dialogue due to the horns aswell. I would definitely go for the 52s over the 42s as upgrade fever will only set in if you go for the 42s Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Danclarkin Posted February 23, 2011 Share Posted February 23, 2011 i may be wrong here but surely crossover settings wouldnt have that much effect on dialogue unless it was at like 200, as no dialogue is really low enough to be effected by it?? Again, im prob wrong here but it just makes sense to me. Dan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deluss Posted February 24, 2011 Share Posted February 24, 2011 ill tell you what everyone told me when i first started here. Get the biggest speakers you can afford, because you will wonder what the other speaker would sound like in your house. Therefore causing the upgrade bug. A speaker Can never be to big for a room (also was told to me here ) Get the RF-52's -Kevin Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rn225 Posted February 24, 2011 Share Posted February 24, 2011 I have the RF-42`s and they are great I would try to listen to them at a store and see witch ones you like.Mine are with klf-10`s as my fronts and you can adjust for the differance Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rn225 Posted February 24, 2011 Share Posted February 24, 2011 I have the RF-42`s and they are great I would try to listen to them at a store and see witch ones you like.Mine are with klf-10`s as my fronts and you can adjust for the differanceSorry I thought it was the RS-42`s my oop`s but see if you can listen to both Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jjwatmyself Posted March 6, 2011 Share Posted March 6, 2011 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jjwatmyself Posted March 11, 2011 Share Posted March 11, 2011 I did some additional reading and here are the facts. RF-42 II frequency response = 59Hz-24KHz ± 3dB. Rf-52 II frequency response = 36Hz-24KHz ± 3dB. What does this mean? Well, with a correctly configured receiver and RF-42 connected, when listening to music in STEREO mode, it will take the audio below 60 Hz and send it to the sub. This is because the RF-42 does not produce sound below 59Hz accurately, i.e. it can't do it well and the base is poor (and I tested this). The problem here is that those frequencies that are going to the sub include a range of frequencies that the human ear is able to determine direction from. This means that you can tell that the base is coming from the sub. This is a NO-NO, especially for when playing music. The purpose of a sub is to produce base in a frequency range that the human ear is unable to determine the direction from. i.e the really crazy low stuff! When you move to the RF-52 and correctly configure your receiver, it does not send any audio to the sub when listening to music in STEREO mode. In fact, your receiver will turn the sub off, unless you add a double base type setting (not to be confused with turning base up). What this does is preserve base, that the human ear can hear from a directional perspective, in the left right channels/speakers. The RF-52 does an amazing job at producing this base as well as the low base that you cannot determine direction from. So the throatiness of a sax, trombone, guitar, or your fav vocalist come from the main speakers with the intended left and right proportions and most importantly not from the sub. If you have a heavy beat type track, you can turn on double base on your receiver to engage the sub and watch the walls cave in around you if you want. Ok, so what is the point of all this? As one of the other folks on here said, the price difference between the RF-42 and RF-52 is so small. The difference in frequency response is so large that should buy the RF-52. I can honestly say that the RF-52 BLOW AWAY the RF-42. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rivernuggets Posted March 11, 2011 Share Posted March 11, 2011 Here is a pair of RS-52s in the Garage Sale section. elitedemo and I met when he purchased an XPA-3 from me. He's a good guy, and takes very good care of his stuff. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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