Klipsch Wireless Home Theater System Doesn't Work

[Robert Krilowicz]

Ref: Klipsch RP-280 5.1 Wireless Home Theater System. 

 

Dear Klipsch Community, I've been trying to make my system work for last 17 Months. I've basically been doing beta testing for Klipsch new system , without being on payroll. I've had dozens of phone calls with Klipsch technical staff and been assigned multiple "tickets" to no avail (very poor follow-up from technical staff I might add - you shouldn't expect a call-back when promised or any promised follow-up on actions. I had to elevate issue to the "Product Manager" to finally get some attention - he is supportive).   

 

The problem: My 5.1 speakers become disconnected from my hub constantly. When I turn my system off only some of the speakers turn off. When I turn the system on only some of the speakers have sound. I have to go through procedure for the hub to find speakers again. Sometime the speaker that doesn't work is the one that didn't turn off correctly the night before - but not always! And sometime the speakers turn themselves on and off by themselves while the hub is off!! The speaker lights will come on and then later go off. We've swapped-out the hub twice so far and also a pair of speakers just to see if that had any effect. No luck. We live in an upscale apartment complex in metropolitan San Diego. There is nothing unusual about our living arrangement in year 2018. Yes, probably everyone around us has a WiFi router. We did a scan of our apartment. Yes there is interference in the air but that is the world today. Nothing unusual. We don't live near power plant or airport etc. 

 

Solution?: Still TBD. According to Klipsch, it's not their fault. Responsibility falls to WiSA. Klipsch doesn't control the wireless technology, WiSA does and I just have too much interference for the system. I was told WiSA "may" be working on a firmware fix but when (or if) it would come out, no one knows. I was told that pretty much everyone in the wireless home theater business uses WiSA, so I started to investigate. I called some people I know at Bang & Olufsen in Manhattan (NYC). I got my best advice/info from people where I didn't even buy their system (after 100's of hours spent with Klipsch Technical Support over past 1.5 years plus they never mentioned any of this). B&O does use WiSA for their systems. They said they have sold many system in downtown NYC which has to have interference issues at least as bad as SD. They experienced this same issue with their system but it was very rare. In each of these cases they were successful by having the individual switch their router from "automatic" setting (for routers that have both 2.4ghz & 5.0ghz) and go strictly with 2.4. The technical problem is WiSA selected 5.9 ghz for their design which is obviously close to 5.0 used by modern routers today. They told me if this didn't solve the problem the issue would probably be on the hardware side. They selected premium hardware and design which helps in these rare situations. I mean all you have to do is look at the Klipsch Hub and Remote to know that they definitely made design compromises on the hardware side (they couldn't be more risky-dink) - cost was driver no doubt. The B&O system is much, much more expensive but it sounds like it works in today's cluttered airspace.  

 

Current status:  today I switched my router off auto setting and set to 2.4 ghz and I'm still having same issue - speaker stayed on after shut down. I think the problem is on the hardware side personally but I may never know.  

 

Request: Has anyone from the Klipsch Community experienced this issue? if so, what did you do? 

 

  -Thanks for taking time to read about my issue and good luck to you all! 

 

Sincerely 

 

 

UPDATE: as of 2 March 2018

 

I have been observing over last several weeks the impact of switching to 2.4 ghz on my router and it has had an impact but it hasn't fully solved the problem. Before my speakers had a problem around 90% of the time, now it's only about 50% of the time. The impact has been visible but the problem still exists to an unacceptable degree.  

 

 

 

  

Edited March 2, 2018 by Robert Krilowicz
updated information

[Galleywinter]

Same issue.  I have commented on several post about this.  Every day I have to go thru the add a speaker feature in the menu to get all speakers to work.  Also like you sometimes one of my speakers won't turn off and then when I turn everything on that speaker won't work.  I'm actually kind of glad your solution of switching to 2.4ghz didn't work.  I use 5.0 for everything.  So much faster.  As far as Klipsch telling you it's not on their end it's WISA.  WISA isn't the one that promised lifetime support either using software or even hardware updates.  Klipsch did.  It's been nothing but trouble for everyone that purchased this system.  I might add purchased it anywhere from $3,500-$5,000.  Future-proof is what they called it.  A strait out lie from Klipsch.

[BriscoCountyJr]

On 2/8/2018 at 7:39 PM, Galleywinter said:

Same issue.  I have commented on several post about this.  Every day I have to go thru the add a speaker feature in the menu to get all speakers to work.  Also like you sometimes one of my speakers won't turn off and then when I turn everything on that speaker won't work.  I'm actually kind of glad your solution of switching to 2.4ghz didn't work.  I use 5.0 for everything.  So much faster.  As far as Klipsch telling you it's not on their end it's WISA.  WISA isn't the one that promised lifetime support either using software or even hardware updates.  Klipsch did.  It's been nothing but trouble for everyone that purchased this system.  I might add purchased it anywhere from $3,500-$5,000.  Future-proof is what they called it.  A strait out lie from Klipsch.

***DILLY DILLY***