dcisive Posted March 10, 2021 Share Posted March 10, 2021 I just picked up a pair of the "Fives" along with a SW100 to eliminate a top line soundbar I'd been using. First let me say since I semi retired and moved to a custom home that has a fairly good sized living room and a 45 degree wall in one corner where a top Sony 75" flat screen resides I thought I'd do away with the usual speaker setup and go for a soundbar. I was a audiophile since the late 60's and a musician since 63. In the mid 80's assembled a state of the art recording studio that was analog only switching to digital late that decade. I then went all digital in the 2000's to finish off a album. So I KNOW the frequency spectrum and what it takes to tame it so it is presented correctly. That said..... I noted this pair of Fives had some interesting characteristics along with some "issues" I'm running into. I'll try to condense this to make some sense. First of all, the midrange or vocal range to be specific, is as if someone threw a towel over the speaker. The words I'd use to describe it is "Mushy", "Muddy", "Veiled" and "Dark" for starters. The bass is unreal and tight I'll give them that. The high end is actually quite smooth and by no means exaggerated or hard, quite accurate. But the midrange is driving me nuts. I'm awaiting some nice stands for them (22" high) to match up with the height of our cabinet in the center below the TV panel. 2nd I understood, from several reviewers of the Five's on Youtube that when you plug in the Sub output of the Fives it senses you've done so intending to use a Subwoofer, and then enacts a LPF which will steeply roll off the lows (I believe it's factory set to 80hz) which the reviewers stated "Opened up the midrange increasing it's detail". Mine on the other hand did NOT have this effect whatsoever. it's still mushy. The effect of the sub is minimal and quite discrete so not boomy which I suppose is good. But the mushy midrange is troublesome. So I wanted to prove something to myself. I took my smartphone which has some music on it I'm familiar with, along with a downloaded Equalizer app for Android on it too. I connected to Bluetooth of course, opened up the song, and the Equalizer adjusting what I've always known to be the MOST offensive frequency to cause mushiness in the midrange area, the 500hz slider, which I took down several DB. I upped the 12k and 16k range as well to add more detail. Man oh man did those speakers SING! If I had closed my eyes I'd have sworn they were some $3000 monitors I used to own. Take the EQ off and mushy came right back. So I called Klipsch tech support and spoke to Liam there. We had a long conversation about the midrange issues and the sub not taking the mushiness away by dropping out the bass from the main speakers driver. he said that result was odd as it should work. He did say that they are working on the Klipsch Connect app intending to add a Equalizer function to it. I was emphatic that this would literally transform the "Fives" and turn them into the Reference speaker they could only hope to be. He agreed and said he'd hoped this would happen in the next 6 months but was stated to be in 2021 anyway. I'm hoping for now that at least, once I get the speaker stands tomorrow and put them together and get as much space from the wall as possible and higher up to the 22" the stands are(without risking running into them in the room as there's not that much area in front I can do that) that they will open up a bit and lose that mush in the midrange I'm getting at this time. I spoke to a well known dealer for Klipsch that said the source material from the TV (shows, news, Youtube, Netflix etc.) will vary so widely that you can't trust them to illustrate accuracy of any kind for the sound that is coming out of the Fives. In other words "good source good sound, average source mush". All I can hope for is a soon arrival of that EQ in the App or I'll have to possibly suffer through all this irregular poor midrange issue. Sorry for the very long rant but I wanted you to hear the whole story and perhaps some of you out there are experiencing the same thing. Please do respond to this post as to your take on it all and if you know of ANY possible way around it how to open and clean up that midrange. Thanks 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dcisive Posted March 12, 2021 Author Share Posted March 12, 2021 OK so all is well. I figured out the issues. So now the Five's sound excellent and when a sub is plugged in indeed you DO year the LPF kick in. The sub works well except I not that in the Auto setting for power it tends to go off after a while when still watching a show. The firmware update did in fact not load a 3rd setting for the bass. There is NO "Bass Cut" added via the new firmware update. Oh well. Not a deal breaker. My stands arrive today so I'm stoked to get rid of the boxes they are sitting on. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pauel Posted March 12, 2021 Share Posted March 12, 2021 Look at the link I tried both options and one of them helped me Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dcisive Posted March 13, 2021 Author Share Posted March 13, 2021 Sounds like a DAC coupled with a decent 7-12 band EQ would be quite the answer to the potentially muddy mids and lacking high end in some sources. I'll have to think about that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dcisive Posted March 13, 2021 Author Share Posted March 13, 2021 Problem solved. I did a ton of research and just ordered a Modi 3+ DAC and a Loki Mini+ multi band EQ. That combo I will run off the Optical output from my Sony Bravia 75" flat screen and from there into the DAC and out to their EQ and from there to the RCA Line inputs of the "Fives". NOW finally I'll have EQ control over the sound most likely superior to what the supposed EQ in the app will ever provide. I'm not a patient person and it could be quite some time before they'd release such an app. Either way I like having the manual control over it. My HDMI switching hasn't worked thus far as when I fire up the TV it goes to the USB input of the speakers for some strange reason. Oh well not such a big deal really. I'll just be turning on the speaker manually to the TV input for sound and adjusting it from there. I can't wait to hook that setup together. Hope to have it in a week or so. I'll be sure to report back to ya'll on my impressions. I already know EQ for the "FIVE's is going to reinvent them. I've already used my phone with music via bluetooth and a loaded EQ app. to see what it would do and that confirmed the sound is unreal perfection with the EQ. Without it.......it's meh...with some sources. So can't wait to have that control. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dcisive Posted March 16, 2021 Author Share Posted March 16, 2021 As I mentioned in another post I opted out of the Loki equalizer for now and will give the Bellari "Exciter" a try to recapture the midrange clarity and high end air. We shall see. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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