Bought RB-5’s for only $20, anyone here familiar with them?

[Nathat777]

I've never had klipsch speakers before and I've never owned bookshelf speakers either. However I do have a 7.2 surround sound system set up at my desk with Polk Audio satellites and center channel. There seems to be limited online stuff about the RB-5's online but I decided to buy these because I know klipsch can be good! Can anyone tell me more about these? Are they a good pick up for 20? Should I pair them with a subwoofer to get a more balanced/full sound from them? What more popular speakers are most similar to these? Are they a good first bookshelf speaker? Thank you all!!

[The History Kid]

They're a steal at $20.  A literal steal.  Those speakers easily still sell for about $200.  They're one of the best bookshelf speakers Klipsch ever made, and play much larger than their footprint.  If you have a good amplifier and a good preamp, you honestly may not need a sub depending on your room and listening habits.  If you're leaning more movies (i.e. the 7.2), you'd want a sub almost regardless.

[TasDom]

I own a pair and they are fantastic for their size. $20 bucks was a good investment to say the least.
Lots of info on this forum using the search feature. Here's one example...........Enjoy!

 

 

[Nathat777]

38 minutes ago, The History Kid said:

They're a steal at $20.  A literal steal.  Those speakers easily still sell for about $200.  They're one of the best bookshelf speakers Klipsch ever made, and play much larger than their footprint.  If you have a good amplifier and a good preamp, you honestly may not need a sub depending on your room and listening habits.  If you're leaning more movies (i.e. the 7.2), you'd want a sub almost regardless.

Thank you so much for the info dude! I appreciate it. I’m only running the amp from my receiver which is a Sony str-dn820. Would a preamp be a good idea to really have these working at full potential? Is there any sources you can point me to to learn more about like preamps I should be looking at for these? And yeah so my plan was rather to replace my front left and front right satellites with these but I wasn’t too sure if they would overpower the rest of the set up too much. Or if I should just set these up as a separate 2.1 set up for my computer. 

[Nathat777]

3 minutes ago, TasDom said:

I own a pair and they are fantastic for their size. $20 bucks was a good investment to say the least.
Lots of info on this forum using the search feature. Here's one example...........Enjoy!

 

 

Thank you very much for the input and the guidance towards the other posts! I appreciate it a lot

[The History Kid]

I mean, you certainly run that risk with a form factor change, timbre, and imaging across the front sound stage - I won't lie to you and tell you they won't overbear the center.  The Sony AVR you quoted has a total output of 240W, so it works out to about 30 or so watts per channel.  That's not a lot - and while the RB-5's don't need nearly that much I would be concerned that your Sony is a bit anemic.  I think you'd be better off upgrading the AVR than investing in an additional preamp for the time being.  

[Nathat777]

35 minutes ago, The History Kid said:

I mean, you certainly run that risk with a form factor change, timbre, and imaging across the front sound stage - I won't lie to you and tell you they won't overbear the center.  The Sony AVR you quoted has a total output of 240W, so it works out to about 30 or so watts per channel.  That's not a lot - and while the RB-5's don't need nearly that much I would be concerned that your Sony is a bit anemic.  I think you'd be better off upgrading the AVR than investing in an additional preamp for the time being.  

I see I see, thank you again for the input. Now I have a possibly simple question. Would I be able to use my unused additional sub preamp to run an external amplifier to the rb-5s to more amply power them?

[wuzzzer]

12 hours ago, Nathat777 said:

I see I see, thank you again for the input. Now I have a possibly simple question. Would I be able to use my unused additional sub preamp to run an external amplifier to the rb-5s to more amply power them?

Congrats on the awesome deal!  I’ve had a couple pairs of RB-5s and they are really, really nice.

 

A sub pre-out will only send low frequencies so unfortunately that won’t work.

[OO1]

14 hours ago, Nathat777 said:

Are they a good pick up for 20?  

 they are great deal even if you add a 0 

[Zen Traveler]

16 hours ago, Nathat777 said:

Are they a good pick up for 20?

If they are in decent shape I'll give you $30 for 'em. 

[The History Kid]

18 hours ago, Nathat777 said:

I see I see, thank you again for the input. Now I have a possibly simple question. Would I be able to use my unused additional sub preamp to run an external amplifier to the rb-5s to more amply power them?

 

As wuzzer said, no.  That is not what that pre-out is meant to do.  You would best be served by upgrading your AVR to a unit with cleaner power, and possibly some pre-outs for expansion later.

[Nathat777]

On 12/6/2023 at 10:44 AM, wuzzzer said:

Congrats on the awesome deal!  I’ve had a couple pairs of RB-5s and they are really, really nice.

 

A sub pre-out will only send low frequencies so unfortunately that won’t work.

Thank you very much for the response, I truly appreciate it!

[Nathat777]

On 12/6/2023 at 4:17 PM, The History Kid said:

 

As wuzzer said, no.  That is not what that pre-out is meant to do.  You would best be served by upgrading your AVR to a unit with cleaner power, and possibly some pre-outs for expansion later.

Okay for sure, that makes sense, thank you for the assistance! Now one more quick question if you don’t mind: If I just wanted to use the speakers by themselves for a 2.1, what type of amp should I get, like in terms of power. I’m not sure what would be the optimum wattage to be sent to the rb5’s. Thank you again friend!

[Nathat777]

On 12/6/2023 at 10:59 AM, OO1 said:

 they are great deal even if you add a 0 

Haha I know klipsch for the most part has nice stuff so I felt like I couldn’t pass them up for 20 even with not knowing the average price

[wuzzzer]

2 minutes ago, Nathat777 said:

Okay for sure, that makes sense, thank you for the assistance! Now one more quick question if you don’t mind: If I just wanted to use the speakers by themselves for a 2.1, what type of amp should I get, like in terms of power. I’m not sure what would be the optimum wattage to be sent to the rb5’s. Thank you again friend!

Realistically you’ll only use 10-20 watts even at high volumes but a good 100 watt/channel amp would be what I’d look for.

[The History Kid]

39 minutes ago, Nathat777 said:

Okay for sure, that makes sense, thank you for the assistance! Now one more quick question if you don’t mind: If I just wanted to use the speakers by themselves for a 2.1, what type of amp should I get, like in terms of power. I’m not sure what would be the optimum wattage to be sent to the rb5’s. Thank you again friend!

 

That depends on your budget.  I run my RB-5's mostly in a configuration with a Parasound NewClassic 200PRE pre amp and a 2125v2 amplifier.  You could probably find a good Yamaha stereo amp for around $300 on Accessories4Less.  If you know what you're looking for you could also look on the used market.  Aim for 100 WPC on a 2 channel amp, again, like wuzzer mentioned.  I think on average (assuming I can trust my power management meters) I run between 3 and 36 watts at any given time with them in my setup.

[amped]

I have a pair and use them with a 60 WPC tube amp. They sound great. 

Do a search of the forum for more info and enjoy them!

[Nathat777]

22 hours ago, amped said:

I have a pair and use them with a 60 WPC tube amp. They sound great. 

Do a search of the forum for more info and enjoy them!

Thank you bro!!

[Nathat777]

On 12/8/2023 at 10:16 PM, The History Kid said:

 

That depends on your budget.  I run my RB-5's mostly in a configuration with a Parasound NewClassic 200PRE pre amp and a 2125v2 amplifier.  You could probably find a good Yamaha stereo amp for around $300 on Accessories4Less.  If you know what you're looking for you could also look on the used market.  Aim for 100 WPC on a 2 channel amp, again, like wuzzer mentioned.  I think on average (assuming I can trust my power management meters) I run between 3 and 36 watts at any given time with them in my setup.

THANKYOU so much again, I appreciate it for real. I have a little amp that runs 50w per channel so I’ll probably see how they do with in mean time whilst I look for better equipment. You guys were super helpful I appreciate it.

[Nathat777]

On 12/8/2023 at 9:37 PM, wuzzzer said:

Realistically you’ll only use 10-20 watts even at high volumes but a good 100 watt/channel amp would be what I’d look for.

Thank you Wuzzer I appreciate it a lot! You and history have been super awesome in helping me navigate these speakers.