RF-7II Owners Thread

[TasDom]

No one right way really (if there was they would come that way). Try as many ways you can. But the above settings look pretty good to start.

+1

My suggestion is based on the frequency response of your speakers. I'd start there and tweek until it sounds good to your ears. Some also like running the 7's large so experiment until you find what you like.

[Heritage_Head]

I run mine large and the rest at 50. I also like everything at 50 too but i always come back to large for what ever reason it sounds a tiny bit better to my ears.

[Shodrewken]

I do that as well. Have the 7's as large and cross everything else off at 50

[Heritage_Head]

Im not sure but it seems to have a little bigger sound stage. Its close though.

[Zen Traveler]

It really depends what you are driving them with and the sub(s) you have. If you have sufficient current to drive the RF-7s efficiently (at the volume level you want) then the next question is whether your RF-7s recreate above your crossover point better than the subs. Of course another big consideration is if all of your speakers and sub are in optimal locations--If not, then things can either sound boomy or directional especially in an untreated room.

For the record, I run my original RF-7s as Small and cross them over at 60 Hz because my dual RSW subs can hit anything below that effortlessly and the blend between my 7 speakers and 2 subs is seamless (in a less than 2,000 cu ft Library HT).

[derrickdj1]

The interesting thing with the RF 7/7II is that the frequency response drops like a rock below 50 Hz which is consistent with most tower speakers. By the time it get's to 30 db it is down 10 db, forget that +/- 3 db rating. They still produce plenty of bass, but a sub will fill in the under 60 Hz range much better IMHO. The efficency of the speaker drops as the xo drops, The major impedace dips for the7's occur under 100 Hz. I xo my 7's at 100 Hz for the best sound in my room (I know, I am the only one using that high a xo, lol). []

[Heritage_Head]

50 [] not sure what you used to measure that but on my sms-1 screen it falls off at 30ish.

[Heritage_Head]

The +3/-3 rating on the rf-7ii is really close from what i see. Room can chage that but 50 would be really bad imo.

[Invictus76]

I'm new to forums and not sure where to post this but I'll try here. I'm just getting into the higher end HT stuff. I year ago I bought the RF82 HT package from Future Shop. I was amazed at how they sounded. The music was great and the way the horns tickled your ears with everysound was awesome. Then I saw the RF7ii's and thought they have to sound even better. I've had my 7's for about 2 months now, have sold my 82's, and frankly am struggling with them a bit. The highs in some of the songs don't jump out at you like they did with the 82's, just not as in your face as the 82's and some of the songs you can actually her cracking. Don't get me wrong they sound good, but they don't seem as good as my 82's were. At double the price I would think they would be way better. So I'm looking for any suggestions on what I can do to remedy this as again I'm some what new to the higher end stuff. They rock when you put a movie on. There awesome. It's the music stuff I'm struggling with. My HTR is only 85 watts per channel so I'm assuming getting something with more power would help out a lot. I've also heard that Yamaha receivers aren't a great match for the 7's. Can anyone suggest a good receiver that will sound good for movies and music? The PS3 handles all my music and most of the MP3's I"m using are imported to the highest quality. Any suggestions would be awesome and thanks in advance for helping a noob.

[Heritage_Head]

I also went from 82s to the rf-7ii and to me it was night and day in a good way. But i have read others who thought the same as you so your not alone. The 7s have a much more refined clean sound due to the much bigger, better horn and drivers (the horn is amost twice as big). They wont pierce your ears as easily as the 82s can. More power will help but the two speakers have a differnt sound for sure.

[MichaelandKlipsch]

I noticed this change when I switched from my 83s to my Kl-650s. My 83s handled music better but at the same time the KL-650s had a less piercing sound at the highs and are more pronounced with the mids but I am only comparing what I hear in film soundtracks. I tested this on inception, some older films such as jawss soundtrack etc. I do miss my 83s for music though and looks but I plan to pick up a pair of RF-7iis for music listening downstairs. Not bashig on the 83s either they were astounding speakers for movies and music but definitely a different sound. I remember my old RF-25s being 2 times as high pitched then my 83s were as well thought I was the only one lol.

[MichaelandKlipsch]

Extra tidbit,

Not sure that Yammys arent good with Klipsch havent tested it with a yammy but adding separate power amps will be a night and day difference in your sound on those wonderful RF-7iis. When I switched to separate amps the quality and headroom allowed for little to no distortion at high volumes and those 7s will be delighted with more power.

[W27]

I'm new to forums and not sure where to post this but I'll try here. I'm just getting into the higher end HT stuff. I year ago I bought the RF82 HT package from Future Shop. I was amazed at how they sounded. The music was great and the way the horns tickled your ears with everysound was awesome. Then I saw the RF7ii's and thought they have to sound even better. I've had my 7's for about 2 months now, have sold my 82's, and frankly am struggling with them a bit. The highs in some of the songs don't jump out at you like they did with the 82's, just not as in your face as the 82's and some of the songs you can actually her cracking. Don't get me wrong they sound good, but they don't seem as good as my 82's were. At double the price I would think they would be way better. So I'm looking for any suggestions on what I can do to remedy this as again I'm some what new to the higher end stuff. They rock when you put a movie on. There awesome. It's the music stuff I'm struggling with. My HTR is only 85 watts per channel so I'm assuming getting something with more power would help out a lot. I've also heard that Yamaha receivers aren't a great match for the 7's. Can anyone suggest a good receiver that will sound good for movies and music? The PS3 handles all my music and most of the MP3's I"m using are imported to the highest quality. Any suggestions would be awesome and thanks in advance for helping a noob.

Which Yamaha are you using? Does it have any kind of auto calibration/room correction? I'd start with some of the settings on your receiver. For music usually there is a direct mode that sounds best. I would try moving them around as well. Sometime just pulling them out from the wall a few inches or angling them in a little will make a big difference. Perhaps the place they're in worked well for the 82's but the 7's need a little more room to breathe. I've also had all the speakers mentioned. Although a little more power wouldn't hurt, I think your money could be better spent elsewhere. The RF-7ii's will handle the extra power nicely, but are very efficient and don't necessarily "need" it unless you have them in a huge room or like it extremely loud. I would suspect your source (PS3) to be part of the problem. While its a decent bluray player, I found mine horrible for music. If you have another CD player around, try it out. If you can hook your iPod or laptop directly to the receiver try that as well. The RF-7's are a more revealing speaker that will bring out the flaws in the weakest link of your system.

[Heritage_Head]

I'm new to forums and not sure where to post this but I'll try here. I'm just getting into the higher end HT stuff. I year ago I bought the RF82 HT package from Future Shop. I was amazed at how they sounded. The music was great and the way the horns tickled your ears with everysound was awesome. Then I saw the RF7ii's and thought they have to sound even better. I've had my 7's for about 2 months now, have sold my 82's, and frankly am struggling with them a bit. The highs in some of the songs don't jump out at you like they did with the 82's, just not as in your face as the 82's and some of the songs you can actually her cracking. Don't get me wrong they sound good, but they don't seem as good as my 82's were. At double the price I would think they would be way better. So I'm looking for any suggestions on what I can do to remedy this as again I'm some what new to the higher end stuff. They rock when you put a movie on. There awesome. It's the music stuff I'm struggling with. My HTR is only 85 watts per channel so I'm assuming getting something with more power would help out a lot. I've also heard that Yamaha receivers aren't a great match for the 7's. Can anyone suggest a good receiver that will sound good for movies and music? The PS3 handles all my music and most of the MP3's I"m using are imported to the highest quality. Any suggestions would be awesome and thanks in advance for helping a noob.

Which Yamaha are you using? Does it have any kind of auto calibration/room correction? I'd start with some of the settings on your receiver. For music usually there is a direct mode that sounds best. I would try moving them around as well. Sometime just pulling them out from the wall a few inches or angling them in a little will make a big difference. Perhaps the place they're in worked well for the 82's but the 7's need a little more room to breathe. I've also had all the speakers mentioned. Although a little more power wouldn't hurt, I think your money could be better spent elsewhere. The RF-7ii's will handle the extra power nicely, but are very efficient and don't necessarily "need" it unless you have them in a huge room or like it extremely loud. I would suspect your source (PS3) to be part of the problem. While its a decent bluray player, I found mine horrible for music. If you have another CD player around, try it out. If you can hook your iPod or laptop directly to the receiver try that as well. The RF-7's are a more revealing speaker that will bring out the flaws in the weakest link of your system.

Nicely put totally agree.

[Invictus76]

The Receiver I'm using is a Yamaha HTR-5840 6.1. It has all the maunal calibration settings which I've gone threw as well as some cross over settings. It's about 5 to 6 years old I think however when I purchased the 82's the fella at Future Shop told me that an older receiver was actually better. As far as power goes at 85wats per channel I can crank everything up and it will put you right out of the room. I just wondered if more power would bring out more sound in the speakers. I'm not talking raw volume, I mean more depth in the music, bring more sound out. I do have a Sony CD player that goes threw an E.Q. I did play with it a bit but couldn't get it sounding any better then the PS3. The HZ settings on the PS3 are all set to max and as I said it sounded really good on the 82,s. I like the PS3 as it's just nice to have a platform that stores and catagorizes all your music. Plus I have over 1200 songs right at my finger tips. I apologize for my lack of knowledge but I don't quite understand what running seprates means. I take it this is a sperate amp. So you run everything from your reciever into the seprate amp?? And does the sperate amp still run your music as well as you HT?? I've experimented with the speaker placement in this room and feel I've got it pretty good.

[Heritage_Head]

Newer receivers will have higher resolution sound for blurays for example (newer hd audio vs plain dolby). So not sure what the guy at the store meant. Older gear can be debated to sound better for 2 channel but that would be much older than 5 years i would think? And again it would be that persons opinion. A power amp will make things better but if you don't like the sound i would guess its more than just a power amp away from liking it. I ran my amp on both and it did make both speakers (7s and 82) better. But I it could be that the 82 sound is more to your liking. I know you don't want to hear that but its one real possibility. They sound different so its which different you like better.

[derrickdj1]

I was refering to the bench test mesurement of the RF 7 and other data on tower speakers.http://www.avsforum.com/t/1412510/klipsch-rf7-ii-measurements

[MichaelandKlipsch]

I agree with RHs comment. You may like your 82s sound better than the 7iis. I always liked the RF-7s better than the RF-83s (havent heard the 7iis but I suspect great things from them) but I had purchased the 83s before listening to the original RF-7s about 5 years ago so it may very well be you like the sound of the 82s better. Id def. suggest upgrading to a new receiver and see how it brings out new sound form your rf7iis. I really like the way Pioneer Elite, Onkyo, Harmon Kardon sound with Klipsch. Was never a Denon fan but there are several members that do like their sound. Youth posted a nice review earlier about his new Harmon Kardon which he got for a great price of around 300 dollars or so. That may be a great place to start. The Separate amp will bring out much more from your speakers. If you want more depth and headroom that will be achieved with a separate amp.

[Shodrewken]

I had a Yamaha RX-V1700 that sounded very nice with my RF-7 II's. Very recently I made the switch over to my Onkyo 818 and from what I could tell in my listening space, the Onkyo just seemed a bit warmer sounding than the Yamaha. Both are great avrs, I upgraded to my Onkyo because I needed more hdmi inputs and the network features were something that interested me, but the Yamaha sounded very good none the less.

[Fish]

I only read a little of this thread but......I had 7's for ten years and consider them a fantastic speaker, that needs a sub. I spent eight of those years trying to find a good source, avr, prepro' amp etc.....I discovered 90 % of the units I tried had a negative impact on the 7's. The avrs never did them justice, even at $3k. The HK and Rotel avrs did do decent, the rest, ehh.....I had good luck with Rotel, pres and amps, BK was also nice and Emotiva, Parasound, Outlaw etc..In all cases they needed a solid amp to do them justice, and a good prepro is the most important part.