Refurbished Opinions

[edtsui]

I bit the bullet and purchased a set of the Promedia 4.1s refurbished from Klipsch and here is my experience. FedEx ground shipping is fast. gg FedEx. When I got the speakers in, I was pretty psyched cause Klipsch has been pretty hyped up online. My first impression after opening the box was a little disappointing. The cables leading out of the Control Pod weren't tied up and were everywhere. So I went on to hook up the system to my SB Live 5.1 to test these suckers out. To my dismay as I was wiring up the satelites, I found several cuts in the wiring and I could clearly see bare wire exposed. I electrical taped those up and noticed that one of the speaker wires was actually severed so I had to strip it, tie it up, and electrical tape it up too. After orienting all the satelites, I decided to fire up some MP3s w/ some BASS. After blasting them at a relatively low volume, I began to notice that sub had a rattling sound and didn't sound quite right. Sure enough upon inspection, the back panel of the subwoofer was loose. One of the screws stripped the wood and could be pulled out w/ relatively little strength. I decided to just replace that screw w/ a screw slightly larger then it, but that didn't help. I notice air was still escaping out the back panel and that it wasn't properly sealed. I may or may not have voided my 90 day warranty by doing the following but I don't really care. I took some quick sealing silicone and began to seal off the areas where air was escaping and a few hours later after drying, fired up the speakers again. I am actually able to push these puppies pretty hard w/ out any rattling now from the sub.

To sum it up, I WOULD NOT recommend anyone to buy the refurbished 4.1s if they want a system to work perfectly right out of the box. However, if you're a somewhat savy, techie, hands on type of guy who's not afraid to put a little work into the system, then at 149.99 dollars, these are right for you.

P.S. I can't say whether the damage came directly from Klipsch or FedEx. (I did notice the FedEx delievery person drop a few boxes from her van trying to get to my package) So instead of jumping all over Klipsch about defective items or whatever, plz be aware that sh*t happens during delievery.

kthx bai

[sj993]

well you can expect things to be wrong with the speakers because they are refurbished, so having said that I will now say this: buy new.

[sj993]

well you can expect things to be wrong with the speakers because they are refurbished, so having said that I will now say this: buy new.

[ajg]

I check the RMS wattage on the 4.1. They did not hold 400 watts for 30 seconds. I never saw 400 watts. The best I got was 98 watts. I also checked my ADA 995 and they were at 200 watts like they said. The spec on ADA995 is 115db and the PM 5.1 is only 113db. So from what I know about amps for the 5.1 PM to get 116db they would need a 1000 watt amp. This is based on for every 3db you have the double your amp. With this in mind and I have heard the 5.1 PM I will keep my Altec Lansing

[justin_tx_16]

i doubt you. sorry, but i do. explain in DETAIL the procedure you used and the equiptment.

[ajg]

It is a very simple process and all you need is a volt meter and a 1kHz and a 50Hz wave file. Open up on satellite and turn the volume all the way up. Play the 1 kHz file and measure your voltage. Once you have that measurement take the voltage and square it. Then divide it by the Ohms listed on the back of the speaker. This is the formula (E2/R).

Once you have that multiply it by the number of satellites speakers in this case 4. Follow the same process for the Sub using the 50Hz wave file. As you can see it is very easy to do.

[sj993]

i'd just say don't go with refurbished products... that about sums it up.

[Don_1]

I just recieved my refurbished 4.1's and they came in good shape...

a few blemishes, nothing to cry about..

They sound awsome...I'm glad I ordered them..

[alexleshnick]

best 150$ i ever spent.

The refurbished speakers sound great, the only thing is i was a bit un happy with wires 2 of them were a bit strange but i got every thing to work fine. The "slight cosmetic defects" are verrrryyyy minor mine were a smuge on one of the speaker mesh covers and one of the speakers does not sit perfectly flat. But besides that they are all i could of wanted and more, they shake the whole house with clear and crisp sound.

[jsnyder]

Absolutely no complaints here.

No blemishes on the speakers or sub. There is only a little bit of white paint on some of the wires connected to the right front satellite. Performance is excellent. Only problem with my setup is that the damn desk and cabinets in the room start rattling

best $150 (plus shipping) I've spent on any audio hardware period.

As for the packaging, all the cables were properly coiled/tied up and placed in bags.

I guess the standards for refurbished hardware vary

[JayProgrammer]

I bought these a month or so ago when I saw that I could get a Klipsch set for the price of the Logitech Z-560s. Being an Electronics tech myself, I've read the reviews on the Z560s, and am quite suspicious that their 400 Watt system has speakers in it rated notably lower. I didn't want to spend over $200 on a cool set of speakers, and I thought the Z560s would be too much of a risk, so I snagged an "Ugly" set.

Far from being ugly, the only "minor cosmetic defect" I've seen is some of the styrofoam from the box stuck to the speaker cases. Fortunately that brushed right off.

The only problem I've had is that my front right channel keeps cutting out. I've found the problem to be the plug from the control pod into the subwoofer. So I run the wire up over the top of the sub and -- NO PROBLEMS!

My only issue is that my stepmother is going to have a COW when I go home for semester breaks. Not just because of the 4.1 sub being infamous for being savagely loud, but because paired with my Audigy, my computer is louder and sounds better than her big stereo that she bought for a big chunk of change about 15 years ago.