Joe Bagadonuts Posted October 20, 2004 Share Posted October 20, 2004 Had my first hands/ears on KL-650 and KS-525 (others to follow) for almost a week. Spent a couple of days installing and calibrating room/system with these. First listen is attention-getting due to brightness. Measurement with 1/12th octave RTA mic at two feet confirmed this interesting idiocyncracy; a 4dB peak centered at 16K. At our primary listening distance (14') in this large room, the highs were quite flat. On the RTA there is a noticable two octave 4dB trough centered at 1KHz. Below 500Hz their was little out of the ordinary. Not surprisingly, the speaker is very strong right down to 80Hz. Rather than wait for the speakers to get some break-in time, we calibrated using a digital parametric EQ. We experimented with building a target X-Curve-like roll off, but after listening for a day, decided that this made them too laid back. So, we let them do their thing up high, building a gentle roll off above 10KHz. The trough was very easy to target and raise. We do not have the Klipsch U2 subs/amps yet, but are using THX Ultra subs. Splice with the subs was very good and easy to manage. KS-525-THX surrounds are, much to my surprise, bipoles rather than dipoles. I don't recall THX certified bipoles. There is no indication of this in the owner's manual. My first clue was that there are no L/R side markings. John Dahl at THX confirmed that the THX spec doesn't call for dipoles; just that the majority of the sound comes from the room rather than direct, and that the sound power is reasonably flat. Indeed, the first impression of these when wideband pink noise is played through one is that it is a much larger speaker. The sound power is reasonably flat, therefore no EQ was used. The horizontal dispersion of the KL-650 is not as wide as some older THX Ultra designs such as the Triad Gold LCR (wish it was), but the relaxed vertical dispersion is nice. The speakers do require some toe and aim to cover the listening area. Results. Quite amazing. These speakers sound truly fabulous. Dialogue and vocals are exquisite. And yes, they are serious SPL machines, but never fatiguing or stressed. We have not spent any time at DD reference level (what THX uses), but I doubt they will have any problem. We have avoided going there because we want to wait for the subs as we need their headroom. The surrounds were interesting. I have never used bipoles, but as our room is quite large, and the surrounds are 10' high at 13', they are in an ideal setting. I would be concerned in smaller rooms that they may become more localizable (exit sign effect), and less effective at creating an enveloping surround field. In this room, though, their balance of indirect sound, direct sound and sound power are fabulous. The best demo so far is the Open Range gunfight. The dynamics are spectacular! The first shot is enough to send you over your seat...then the echo wraps perfectly symetrically around the sides and to the hills in the distance behind you (THX Ultra2 mode). Music? It sounds fabulous. We only listen in multi-channel modes rather than two channel, but we listened to a lot of two channel in DPL II. We listened to everything from Diana Krall to Santana to Faith Hill and The Eagles in DD, DTS, and DVD-A (often in THX Music mode). Spectacular. Wanting for nothing. Reference multi-channel. After a couple of weeks of break-in, we will listen for the highs to relax a little, and take a look again at the RTA and see if we see it. I do not know if that is a characteristic of compression drivers. These speakers strike me as what the JBL Synthesis speakers would be if they were updated and refined with newer technology...and at a fraction of the price. Hope this is helpful. Cheers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Griffinator Posted October 20, 2004 Share Posted October 20, 2004 Extremely well-done review, Joe. Tell me about you - I haven't seen you around the forums - are you an installer? An enthusiast? Some combination of both? ---------------- These speakers strike me as what the JBL Synthesis speakers would be if they were updated and refined with newer technology...and at a fraction of the price. ---------------- Understand that Synthesis isn't a "speaker" so much as it's an entire system, complete with ridiculously-high-power monoblocks, studio-grade para-EQ, 10.3 channel preamplifier, and a JBL engineer (not some local jerk satellite guy) to correct your room deficiencies with various acoustic treatments, then install and calibrate the above-listed equipment along with the speakers in question... Is it still worth the money they ask? Dunno. Never heard it. Doubt it, frankly. I can build (I'm an installer...) one outrageous system, complete with room treatments and studio-grade equipment, for a quarter of a million dollars... and likely have more than enough left over for a movie-theater quality video system... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joe Bagadonuts Posted October 20, 2004 Author Share Posted October 20, 2004 Hi Griff, Both...to answer your question. I've been around Syn since it came out years ago. Took another hard look at it recently with our rep to consider going demo dealer. You certainly can tell that what we did and are doing with the Klipsch system is to put it through a process similar to Syn. We are evaluating it, in conjunction with other products, as an alternative system with "Syn-like" level of performance, but capable of considerably more refinement (for lack of a better word). One thing Synthesis has going for it is that it is packaged and in a manner that gives it great credibility (JBL pro cinema heritage, THX, etc). I am sure you could design a killer system at about any price point you may have to work with, but sometimes marketing it is not so easy. For this reason, I think Klipsch is wise to enter the THX world again and draw comparisons to their achievements in pro cinema systems, which is significant these days. Our task is to apply our skills in a way that serves the client within a technically credible and marketable frame work. And have some fun along the way! Cheers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
caveboy Posted October 20, 2004 Share Posted October 20, 2004 ---------------- On 10/20/2004 1:31:57 AM Griffinator wrote: Extremely well-done review, Joe. ---------------- I second that Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
htxpert Posted October 20, 2004 Share Posted October 20, 2004 Hi JB Nice to see that you received the system the other truly amazing thing about the system is how seamless the transitions are between speakers There sonic signature's are almost identical I have experimented with various heights for the surrounds (side) and found that 16"-30" above the seated listening position and 6-8" behind measured from the center of the baffle yielded the best results placing them in the "null" as you would typical THX Di-Poles did not sound as good Happy Listening Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joe Bagadonuts Posted October 20, 2004 Author Share Posted October 20, 2004 Hi Ray, Very true. Voicing of LCRs and surrounds are very good. The flat-ish sound power of the surrounds helps that seemless quality. I found the same thing about lateral placement of the surrounds. When placed at 90 degrees, they imaged at about 80 degrees while listening facing the screen. I had to move mine aft to about 100 degrees to have the "perception" of them being at 90 degrees. I don't know if this is an idiocycracy of the speakers (I doubt it), or just a psychoacoustic phenomenon. Either way, it took care in placement and made me learn to hate the key hole hanger. In the future I am going to make a little block with a screw for the key hole on one side, and a big simple hanger device on the other so I don't have to fight it until I find the spot. With regards to your experience with surround height, what is the distance to your surrounds? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
htxpert Posted October 20, 2004 Share Posted October 20, 2004 The side surrounds are 9.2 ft from the sweet spot to each speaker This height also allowed me to get the EX speaker close to the same height as the sides I lost no sense of height this way and expanded the rear sound field it also provided better and more pronounced hard pan's from front to back and rear side to side placing the EX and surrounds at an exaggerated height yielded a more diffuse rear surround with the side surrounds already being wide dispersion I found that placing them at a lowered level helped with definition It also sounded much better with multi-channel DVD-A and SACD Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joe Bagadonuts Posted October 20, 2004 Author Share Posted October 20, 2004 Sounds good. I was never great at trig, but it sounds like ours are at a bit higher angle (an architectural requirement). The debate/consideration now is whether to go with one KS-525 for the back surround or two KL-525s. We have Ultra2 post processing, so with one speaker we would be giving up the ASA feature. I think we will give the KLs a chance. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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