Klipsch R820F Review

[DillonQ]

Picked up the 820’s at Best Buy 5 days ago. First impression are that they look/feel surprisingly well put together. I have had them breaking in for the last five days almost continuously. The first thing I noticed is that out of the box their music reproduction was not really that good at all. I wasn’t impressed. The clarity was there. The bass was definitely there. These definitely put out a lot of bass for what they are, however, the mids just were not there at all. It was a very lean listen. When I watched movies it didn’t bother me at all. They are crystal clear, they image very well, and they have that punch in the bass so naturally they are great with movies. I’m hoping they open up a bit more over the next couple weeks or I will be replacing them with the RP6000’s since I have heard them before multiple times in different environments and was blown away. I was just trying to save a couple bucks. They do look really great in my living room though.

[HenrikTJ]

Well, what you have to realize is that the Klipsch R, RP, RF speakers are primarily HT speakers and not speakers meant for 2ch music listening. The best musical speakers from Klipsch would have to be one of the heritage ones. I do however know a fair few people that are quite happy with the RP and RF musicality, especially when the receiver is set to "pure direct". 

 

The RP line is definitely a step up from the R line. If you have the means, I'd return those 820s and get either the RP-8000F, or the cheaper but basically the same RP-280F. 

[tubetwister]

Klipsch R-820F (Part II)

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After living with these for a few months, I decided to do have a "showdown" between all of my tower speakers.

The others in the lineup were:

VMPS Mini Tower IIA
BIC Venturi DV-84

The VMPS Tower II SE did not participate, due to size and weight!

The BIC's are surprising good, especially for the price we paid (on sale).

The Mini Towers were good also, but lack overall "punch", a bit veiled in sound.

The R-820F's blew everything out of the water! Crystal clear highs, extremely detailed, with a low end that rivals my VMPS speakers. Extremely clean, almost analytical in nature. Not fatiguing to listen to at all!

I am driving these with an all tube pre-amp, and a 300 watt/channel Mosfet solid state power amp. You don't really need that much power as these are hyper efficient.

Strings, piano, guitar, trumpets and trombones really shine on these. Classical, jazz, or rock music all comes to life. I'm a former musician, so music is first in consideration, with video/movie soundtracks taking second place.

But with that said, these things shook the house with the bomb explosions in Saving Private Ryan, and Dunkirk.

Yes, I know these are budget towers from Klipsch, the lower version of the RP-8000. But they sound better than all of my other speakers, even the ones that cost three times the price.

These are on sale again right now, for about $249/each, from Klipsch. You can't go wrong for that price!

This summary from Sound Stage Hi-fi:

I enjoyed my time with the Klipsch Reference R-820Fs, and think their sound quality is competitive with anything in their price range. And if you like to play your music loud, and/or pressurize a home-theater room with maximum SPLs, the R-820F might be your best bet in a pair of budget floorstanders. I like the unique styling of Klipsch’s Reference models -- their copper-colored woofers and horn-loaded tweeters set them apart from a crowded field of competitors. Kudos to Klipsch for remaining true to their heritage while providing excellent value in a reasonably priced floorstanding speaker.

 

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TXFlyGuy

 

Re: Klipsch R-820F (Part II)

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Did an A/B comparison last night with my VMPS Tower II SE's.

Brian Cheny (owner/designer) of VMPS actually built these, and they were purchased direct from him. His speakers have gotten rave reviews in virtually all of the audio HIFI publications, including Stereophile Magazine.

This is a very subjective listening test, with my middle-age ears...

Equipment used:

Dynaco Tube Pre-amp - PAS-3 Series II
Sound Valves Mosfet: 32 Power Amp (200 Watts/Channel)
Panasonic DMP-UB900 Blu-ray Player

Music played was Basia (female vocalist), and The Big Phat Band (19 piece jazz orchestra).

Both of these discs are full range, and very well recorded.

The 820's had an immediate sense of presence, and visceral impact. Bass lines that went deep, real deep. You could feel it! Again (as stated before) horns, trumpets, trombones, and saxophones sound lifelike. Voices (male & female) are full timbre, without getting edgy in nature. Note that female voices are very hard to reproduce and sound good. These speakers actually make you exited about listening to music that is properly engineered and recorded well.

The Tower II SE's are fine, and might even be considered more of a true "audiophile" speaker. The sound top to bottom, was extremely well balanced. Smooth. Liquid in nature. Nothing stood out about them. But...they fail to generate any real sense of impact.

Compared to the 820's, listening to the Tower II's was like looking at a Rembrandt painting through a screen door.

Maybe it's my middle-aged ears, after spending 32 years in the cockpit of jet aircraft (i.e., noisy environment). Not sure.

But I'll take the Klipsch! Might even buy a pair of RP-8000F's.

 

[DillonQ]

Looks like I may just need to give them a bit more time or look into upgrading amps. I can still return them till Jan 14th. But right now there is a deal on Crutchfield that if I buy two RP8000s I can get the 12 inch sub for free so I think I want to go that route anyways since that’s a pretty great deal!  the sound has gotten better after I adjusted the positioning again a bit as well as having them playing all day that I’m at work has seemed to help. Also found it depends on the quality of the song. Some tracks literally sound like you’re in the room with them. Goo Goo dolls the song Name is a great example. The killers also sound great and have that effect as well as MTV unplugged AIC and Nirvana. Songs that don’t give that effect would be most modern “hardcore” bands like Memphis may fire, all that remains (sounded especially thin and jumbled), as well as older bring me the horizon. Seeing that many of my gripes dealt more with the source makes me feel a lot better and makes me appreciate them much more since it’s more than likely a major factor in what was bothering me.