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Impressions of the RP-260F, a week in.


gmboy559

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I have replaced my Polk Monitor 70's (whose tweeters I've blown ten years in; that's a hint) with these speakers, courtesy of an attractive Amazon offer likely related to their supercession by the newer RP-6000F. These are my impressions of the Klipsch after a week (it seems longer than that) of ownership:

 

My listening space is small (200sf); the speakers are used in an essentially nearfield application. Pointed straight at my back, 8 feet away. I'm powering them with an Onkyo receiver of sufficient output to properly exercise a speaker.

 

By comparison to the Polks, these things are not worth much at low power levels. No delicacy in their response; no real definition or separation of individual instruments/vocals.They're actually kind of muddy and lacking in that sense. They seem like the lower drivers and the horn don't really communicate, and there's a hard divide between what the two subsystems offer, I won't be playing them as background music while I'm sleeping.

 

OK, so let's drive them a bit harder. 

 

 

O gawd, now I get it. I don't know, and can't measure, whether their efficiency is equal to the published figures,  but one does not tout - or build towards - "efficiency" in speakers unless one desires their evaluation to be informed by how loud they can play music correctly. It's my impression that they can play pretty_damn_loud. The quality of these speakers is directly related to how hard you push them, and having flogged them like a rented mule for the last week I feel I can safely say that this is what they like. The harder you push them, the better they are. They're at their best at "I'm gonna get evicted" levels. The transient midrange lack vanishes, and bass is strong and tight down to the 40-50Hz level one should expect of such small drivers. I'm disconnecting my subwoofer just for the pleasure of listening to them; I'm gonna have to build a better sub than I already have to appropriately augment this setup for what I play through it.

 

There's a pair of JBL LSR-305's in front of me for the low-volume, delicate work I sometimes desire from speakers, and they're damn good at it. I don't want that from my "main" speakers; I want them to potentially get me in trouble. In terms of "potential for trouble," the previous Polks can't hold a candle to these Klipsch. I'm so_damn_happy I bought these. I considered Elac alternatives, but they felt like bigger versions of the JBL's which I don't need. These Klipsch are for turning my amp over "40" indicated (and they're ten digits lower than the Polks for the same SPL). 

 

Don't buy these if your sensibilities are delicate, you love tube amplifiers, and you want to discern the subtleties of the individual instruments of soft jazz. They're not for you. If your tastes are more towards "crank them, up, d00d," well, you haven't heard your Holy Grail until you've heard Klipsch.

 

I'm gonna get evicted. It'll be worth it.

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On 9/1/2019 at 12:09 AM, dtel said:

Welcome and Congratulations.

 

Glad you are liking them, after playing them for a while they may do better playing lower also ?

 

Can't say yet; I don't know if I've 30 total hours of listening in. The window in which I can exercise them without somebody knocking on my door with a gun is a narrow one. :) I don't care and it's not why I bought them; I have the JBL's for that. Give it a few weeks, and if I hear difference I'll report back. It_is a point of interest since Klipsch does tout dynamic range. Between my current JBL's and the Paradigm Atoms which preceded them though, frankly, they have a high bar to reach for softer listening levels and it won't matter if they never measure up. I had the Polks and the Atoms in the room at the same time and never used the Polks for that, either. :)

 

They're brutal on poor source music, I'll tell you that much. It is in this trait where I feel like I've most upgraded from the previous Polks; they expose lower bitrates like you're skinning deer., the inevitable conclusion being I'm hearing stuff the previous speakers couldn't give me. They are, in this sense, a whole lot like the Bose 901's I drove with two bridged Adcom amps in a previous life; you wonder why you spent the money until you feed them some power and then you realize you're a freaking genius. In fact, those Bose are an apt comparison, except the Klipsch don't need 800 watts a side. :)

 

For the sake of those reading who aren't yet Klipsch owners, I should reemphasize the conditions under which I'm using them are probably an outlier. As I mentioned, it's a small room and room acoustics have no real chance to come into play. It's a near field application, and with room to breathe - and utilize walls and ceilings - your result may be entirely different so take my comments with a grain of salt unless you're in a very similar space. These were not designed as near field units, quite the opposite, and I may not be hearing all they have to give.

 

Not that I care. If you'll excuse me, I gave Gimme Shelter cued up....

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  • 2 weeks later...

I've now started exercising them - intently - at lower volumes (just for the halibut) and come to the conclusion that I'm so utterly spoiled by the studio monitors in front of me that an objective evaluation is not possible.

 

They're pretty good at low volumes. There is no loss to the delicacy of the presentation; it makes no difference to them. They scale downward as well as they do upward. It's just difficult for them to top what amounts to a pair of good headphones lacking only the too-warm ears....

 

I consider the money very well-spent.

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