teagster Posted February 20, 2005 Share Posted February 20, 2005 Has anyone had trouble with Klipsch build quality on the reference line recently. I do not know if I am just unlucky but after the helpful advice from this forum, I went out and purchased an RF-35 Theater system to find two out of three speakers damaged/unfinished. (RF-35's, RS-35's and an RC-35). I could only pick up the RC and RS's at the time of purchase and my RF-35's were ordered for collection in two days time. To my surprise when I opened up the RC-35 I found that on the front edge where the fabric cover meets, the laminate was cracked and peeling back. I initially thought that maybe this happened in shipping to the store and called the store for a replacement to be ready the same day I pick up the RF's. I then opened the RS-35's and while one looked absolutely fine the other had the whole thread insert missing from the back of the unit. As I want to bracket mount these from the ceiling this was an important feature for me. In place of the thread there was just a black felt pen circle where the thread should be. Now I have to re-order a replacement for this. Is it standard to 'roll the dice' on quality with Klipsch or am I just very unlucky? I hate to think how the RF-35's might arrive. I would like to hear any views from others on their experience on quality before I decide whether to return them for another brand. Can I trust that the insides are better quality than the exteriors seem to be? --------- P.S. Let me confirm the purchase was from an approved Dealer, (I checked the web-site before buying) and each box was sealed with no signs of ever being opened previously. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rennocneb Posted February 20, 2005 Share Posted February 20, 2005 Well my 2 cents worth. Klipsch used to make an awesome product, but recently in a great example of corporate greed has decided to mass market there equipment and start building a good portion of their products in china. This has led to quality issues and in my opinion a negative image in alot of peoples eyes. So let the chinneese that they pay 38 cents an hour buy their speakers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Anonymous Posted February 20, 2005 Share Posted February 20, 2005 ...... not surprising Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rennocneb Posted February 20, 2005 Share Posted February 20, 2005 true not suprising but dissapointing from the "American Legend in Sound". They still the headquarters in Indianapolias and some production in the USA but from what ive seen most of it has shifted overseas and the quality went down alot. It does make buying new speakers easier though I know i can pretty much skip over Klipsch on the list. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fish Posted February 20, 2005 Share Posted February 20, 2005 Well,the truth of the matter is its just about a toss up on gettin'a perfect speaker.If you buy several you're likely to see more than one with mild imperfections.I consider myself pretty picky and have bought at least 10 different pairs of Klipsch over the years.Almost all were acceptable,a few really good and a few needing buffed or touched up.I did get an rc7 that the front was not fully attached. Now,for the good news.My dealer and Klipsch stand behind the products and do whatever it takes to make it right.I've never had any Klipsch product fail on me so the inside must be ok. Last but not least if you put these speakers up against other co's similar priced the Klipsch just blows em' away.I recently aquired a pair of JBL Northridge 100s in a trade(2 10"/4"mid/titanium tweeter.I almost forgot how crappy speakers could sound.These were so bad I could not live with em' even in a guest room.I was going to move some rb5's to another area and let the jbl take up some space but they could not get close to the quality sound of the rb5's,as big as they were,they're gone now.Note,the JBL were perfect in appearance. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fish Posted February 20, 2005 Share Posted February 20, 2005 ---------------- On 2/20/2005 8:40:57 PM rennocneb wrote: It does make buying new speakers easier though I know i can pretty much skip over Klipsch on the list. ---------------- Thats true but you'll have to settle for less in sound quality. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scott0527 Posted February 20, 2005 Share Posted February 20, 2005 Aren't the Reference Series finished in Hope? Can't blame the Chinese for this one. Let's blame Walmart! They're in Arkansas. All the good labor in Arkansas is running up to Bentonville. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rennocneb Posted February 20, 2005 Share Posted February 20, 2005 I would have to disagree that you cant buy as much sound for the dollar. You can buy from Phase Technology, PSB, and get as much sound for th buck as klipsch reference on the low to mid end and Theil will flat spank them in look and sound for around the same money on the high end. And yes the klipsch reference is mostly made in Arkansas but how long till that changes? not long would be my guess. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IAmtnbikr Posted February 20, 2005 Share Posted February 20, 2005 The Rx-35 on down are made in China now. And they are still a nice product for the dollar spent IMO... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrMcGoo Posted February 20, 2005 Share Posted February 20, 2005 Goods made in China tend to be of lower quality IMO. It takes many years to develop goodwill; it takes a much shorter time to destroy it. Bill Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dylanl Posted February 20, 2005 Share Posted February 20, 2005 Are those from an authorized dealer or some internet company? If they are from an authorized dealer take them straight back for return. From my experience, if a Klipsch product has a problem Klipsch will work to repair it right away. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tonygeno Posted February 20, 2005 Share Posted February 20, 2005 ---------------- On 2/20/2005 9:53:53 PM MrMcGoo wrote: Goods made in China tend to be of lower quality IMO. It takes many years to develop goodwill; it takes a much shorter time to destroy it. Bill ---------------- Take a look at the Onix Reference, Swan Divas, NHTs, Wharfedale Pacific, Von Schweikert: all made in China and fantastic build and finish quality. The finish on the Onix in particular are equal to high end furniture. No, the quality issues relating to Klipsch have little to do with where they're made and much to do with a corporate mentality that allows missing screws and poor veneer finish to slip through the cracks. Here's a true story for you. About 4 years ago I bought a pair of KLF-20s from Percy's in Worcester, Mass. Upon taking them home, one of the woofers was missing two screws and the driver was literally hanging out of the cabinet. How the heck does that pass quality control? And this was made in Hope. Don't blame the Chinese. Blame the dopes in Indianapolis who evidently don't care if this level of "quality" makes it to the marketplace. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dylanl Posted February 20, 2005 Share Posted February 20, 2005 Tell us the end of the story. Did you take them back? Did Klipsch work this out for you? There is no excuse for poor quality on Klipsch part but they should try to repair whatever bad has been done. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tonygeno Posted February 20, 2005 Share Posted February 20, 2005 ---------------- On 2/20/2005 10:23:04 PM Dylanl wrote: Tell us the end of the story. Did you take them back? Did Klipsch work this out for you? There is no excuse for poor quality on Klipsch part but they should try to repair whatever bad has been done. ---------------- Well, I took them back and got a set of Heresys. Problem with this set was that 3 of the screws on one woofer were stripped and two on the other were stripped. You couldn't tighten them and they just fell out. I ended up dealing directly with the factory who agreed to supply me with a brand new set of KLF-20s, custom built for me. These arrived in great shape, but really, getting screws to stay put, or put in in the first place ain't that hard. Quality control, based on my limited experience, does not seem to be part of the Klipsch manufacturing process. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
minn_male42 Posted February 20, 2005 Share Posted February 20, 2005 ---------------- On 2/20/2005 10:31:41 PM tonygeno wrote: ---------------- On 2/20/2005 10:23:04 PM Dylanl wrote: Tell us the end of the story. Did you take them back? Did Klipsch work this out for you? There is no excuse for poor quality on Klipsch part but they should try to repair whatever bad has been done. ---------------- Well, I took them back and got a set of Heresys. Problem with this set was that 3 of the screws on one woofer were stripped and two on the other were stripped. You couldn't tighten them and they just fell out. I ended up dealing directly with the factory who agreed to supply me with a brand new set of KLF-20s, custom built for me. These arrived in great shape, but really, getting screws to stay put, or put in in the first place ain't that hard. Quality control, based on my limited experience, does not seem to be part of the Klipsch manufacturing process. ---------------- sounds like a great story of customer service from klipsch!!! will the boys over at av123 custom build you a set of rockets to solve a problem??? .... probably not..... and considering that klipsch probably sells well over 100 times the quantity of speakers of the brands you mentioned combined (Onix Reference, Swan Divas, NHTs, Wharfedale Pacific, Von Schweikert) there might be a few speakers that slip through the cracks of quality control... btw - my KLF-30's were in perfect condition when i got them.... and i was the second owner!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tonygeno Posted February 20, 2005 Share Posted February 20, 2005 ---------------- On 2/20/2005 10:38:19 PM minn_male42 wrote: ---------------- On 2/20/2005 10:31:41 PM tonygeno wrote: ---------------- On 2/20/2005 10:23:04 PM Dylanl wrote: Tell us the end of the story. Did you take them back? Did Klipsch work this out for you? There is no excuse for poor quality on Klipsch part but they should try to repair whatever bad has been done. ---------------- Well, I took them back and got a set of Heresys. Problem with this set was that 3 of the screws on one woofer were stripped and two on the other were stripped. You couldn't tighten them and they just fell out. I ended up dealing directly with the factory who agreed to supply me with a brand new set of KLF-20s, custom built for me. These arrived in great shape, but really, getting screws to stay put, or put in in the first place ain't that hard. Quality control, based on my limited experience, does not seem to be part of the Klipsch manufacturing process. ---------------- sounds like a great story of customer service from klipsch!!! will the boys over at av123 custom build you a set of rockets to solve a problem??? .... probably not..... btw - my KLF-30's were in perfect condition when i got them.... and i was the second owner!!! ---------------- To me it sounds like poor quality control. It actually took several phone calls, a number of posts on this board (which seem to have been removed, but that is probably due to their age) to get the situation resolved. I don't doubt that Klipsch went out of their way to accomodate me, but my point is that they shouldn't have had to. Again, it ain't too hard to ensure that all the screws are present on a speaker. How does a speaker exit the factory with the woofer hanging out of the cabinet? It boggles the mind. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dylanl Posted February 20, 2005 Share Posted February 20, 2005 Tony, I agree that is a bad story. Your loyalty after that ordeal says something about you. Being in sales myself most people would not stick around. I think Klipsch is fortunate that they still have you. I do not agree that this is great service just because they replaced the speaker. I think that is the least they should do if they care about their client base. In my industry if we did that we would not only have deductions on the bill but most likely loose the client. Our product line is also much less in cost on a per peice basis. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
minn_male42 Posted February 20, 2005 Share Posted February 20, 2005 ---------------- On 2/20/2005 10:46:23 PM tonygeno wrote: To me it sounds like poor quality control. It actually took several phone calls, a number of posts on this board (which seem to have been removed, but that is probably due to their age) to get the situation resolved. I don't doubt that Klipsch went out of their way to accomodate me, but my point is that they shouldn't have had to. Again, it ain't too hard to ensure that all the screws are present on a speaker. How does a speaker exit the factory with the woofer hanging out of the cabinet? It boggles the mind. ---------------- until everything is made by robots, there is always a human factor involved in manufacturing a product..... perhaps the quality control person the day that your speakers came off the line was ill, or had to leave his shift early..... or perhaps there was a new person being trained in on that particular day.... many possible reasons why it happened.... but if you look at this forum and comments from other audio forums out there, klipsch does have a pretty good reputation for build quality..... nobody goes ga-ga over the finish of the cabinets.....IMHO that is because klipsch owners buy their speakers for the sound and not for the "pretty" box.... (it's amazing how many owners of av123 speakers (rockets) rave about how their speaker looks - and by the way it sounds pretty good too)... ultimately - if the company makes sure that you are happy (fixes the problem)... then you are free to enjoy the great sound of klipsch and you don't have to worry about the very tiny percentage of speakers that may slip through klipsch's quality control measures.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tonygeno Posted February 20, 2005 Share Posted February 20, 2005 Russ: While I agree that perfection is impossible, I do think that the problems I experienced had more to do with the systems that were or were not in place. Prior to boxing up a $1200 per pair speaker, I would expect that the manufacturer would ensure that the all the screws were at least inserted. A basic visual inspection would reveal that the woofer was hanging out of the box. People that take pride in their work ensure that stuff like this will not happen. The only reason I have relayed my story is that there seems to be a common misconception that moving production overseas is the reason for these qc issues. My experience is that where the speaker is put together has nothing to do with it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kenratboy Posted February 21, 2005 Share Posted February 21, 2005 Just need to note that reguardless of where they are made, they can be built PERFECTLY or falling apart out of the box. It is a decision on the part of the contractor whether or not the product is built better or not. There are lots of products built overseas that OOZE of perfection and quality and products built in the USA can be terrible. There isn't a qiality issue of where it is made, just HOW they choose to make it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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