violetgrey Posted February 9, 2015 Share Posted February 9, 2015 My apologies if this has been covered in one of the other threads but I could not find the information I was searching for. I currently own a set of the Synergy Quintet III speakers with a SW-350 sub. Right now they are placed in a small living room and focused into a roughly 5x5 listening area which is slightly trapezoidal as the surrounds are on either side of a lightly larger than 6ft sofa. We are running the whole thing off of a new Onkyo TX-NR636 receiver and watch a lot of Blu-rays and Netflix via Apple TV, all over HDMI of course. The room is untreated and has book cases, action figure displays, windows and a large opening into the hall and kitchen in the back. It is not ideal for trying to fill he entire room with sound, which is why we have created a focused pocket to sit in. Lately we have been sitting and listening to more music and while I am not displeased with what we get from out little system I am curious to see if I can eek a little more out of our tiny set up. We run all the music in the Stereo listening mode, making the output 2.1 from the receiver. What I feel like I'm missing is a little more HF detail; just a certain crispness on the top of the sound to really make it POP. The Quintets, while detailed, just seem to be missing the air in the room, as it were. I've been reading up on the new Reference line and am well aware of it's pedigree as the replacement for the Synergy line, being almost identical in spec and build save for the slightly larger tweeter. I am wondering if these R-15M's would be a good sonic match for the speakers I currently have for getting a little more out of the front soundstage; slightly wider soundstage and greater detail. As I've said I don't have a lot of space, so getting floor speakers is right out. The RII's and Premieres seem like a lot of overkill for what I have as we are not trying to fill the room from wall to wall, and I want to stay within the Klipsch family as I have been very happy with the performance of my little Quintets. Now I can get some Synergy B-20's and even a new center NIB for less than the Reference and continue to use my Quintet's as surrounds. I'm sure if my QIII's sound, "good" in my space that these will as well. Since the Reference and Synergies are, "virtually" the same speakers is it the opinion of those in the forum that going the Synergy route would be a better option unless/until I can move up into the higher priced lines? Is there any level of upgrade in the Reference series that would make them a better buy in the long run, including eventually replacing the center and surrounds? My wife has been more than supportive of my interest in replacing these speakers, which is refreshing since she will usually fight me on making equipment upgrades when they are not necessary. I would like to repay this support by making a good decision that will reward her faith. Thank you for any help you can provide! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
derrickdj1 Posted February 9, 2015 Share Posted February 9, 2015 The R15 M should give you more of what your are looking for. Welcome to the forum and others will chime in with opinions. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scrappydue Posted February 9, 2015 Share Posted February 9, 2015 You are 100% correct in your thinking. If you can get synergy b-20 and c-20 for better than price than JUST the R-15 then jump all over that! Seems like you have read enough of iur opinions on here to know exactly how most of us feel. 99% of Klipsch speaker are gonna give you a fuller crisper sound than the quintet. They are great little speakers and have their purpose. But it sounds like You are venturing out of their comfort zone. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
violetgrey Posted February 9, 2015 Author Share Posted February 9, 2015 Thanks for your opinions, Scrappy. I am aware of your reputation on this forum as a strong but critical advocate of the products so I appreciate your thoughts. On a tangent, I find it rather disheartening that there seems to be a dearth of critical review on the bookshelf faction of the new Reference line. It's understandable that those who have been in the Klipsch community for a while would know of their heritage and their birth from the Synergy line but for those coming in from the outside it's just strange that it seems no one on a professional review level is looking at them. Everyone has to start from somewhere. Ok, enough of that. It looks like I can get the B-20/C-20 combo for around $370, putting it $120 under the matching Reference line. As I said, there is a slight difference in the size of the tweeter and the Reference lowers the crossover by 425HZ. So they are very close but not quite identical. And those technical quibbles can sometimes be what makes or breaks you. Mostly my issue is that, since the Synergy are older products, I feel compelled to buy all the pieces now whereas with the reference I pay a bit more per speaker but I have the convenience of knowing I can buy the fronts now and hold off on the center for a bit. thanks again for taking the time to listen. I hope I can be of value to this community in the future! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scrappydue Posted February 9, 2015 Share Posted February 9, 2015 Yeah it's hard to get reviews on"Lower" level speakers. Can I ask you what your budget is? If you can piece stuff together, why not try the new reference premier stuff? I have some on order. You could do a rp-150m or 160m set. Then later gran the rp-250c to match. "Should" be much better than the reference stuff sold at best buy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scrappydue Posted February 9, 2015 Share Posted February 9, 2015 Sending you a pm Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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