RC-35 boxy, muffled - how to fix?

[wamerman]

Hi All,

I've read several posts where people found their RC-35 to sound muffled, like the voices were coming from behind cardboard. Some responses claimed there was a product defect that appeared in some RC-35s while others claimed you just needed to tweak the EQ settings. But I found no definitive answer to tell me if I've got a defective product or if I need to find a "mystery" setting to adjust (I call it "mystery" because I've tried all setting changesI can think of). The weird thing is that when I first set everything up, the RC-35 sounded sparkling clear. Exactly what I was looking for in a center speaker. After a day or two, though, I noticed the boxy sound and could not get back that perfect sound I first experienced.

As it is, DVD sound comes through 100% better selecting "stereo" output from the receiver rather than trying for 5.1 surround sound.

My system is:

Receiver: Pioneer VSX-1015TXK 7.1

Mains: RF-35

Surround: RS-35

Center: RC-35

Sub: KSW-12

I'm very pleased with the whole set-up except for the center. Can anyone who has experienced this problem let me know how you resolved it?

Many thanks!

[wamerman]

Quick update - doing more trouble-shooting, I plugged it into the left mains output and voila! perfect sound. For about 10 seconds. Then it became muddy and muffled again.

Well, at least I know it's definitely a speaker problem and am working on getting it fixed under warranty.

[DrWho]

Wierd...be sure to keep us informed on how it turns out.

I wonder if I don't have an issue with my SC-1...

[ironwoods]

Do you have it bi-wired? It may be just a loose connection internally, or with the jumpers and binding posts.

[colterphoto1]

Sorry if this sounds a bit sarcastic, but 'how to fix a RC35?' Buy an RC7!- there are a lot guys here who trade up.

Hope you get it figured out, it could very easily be the jumper straps.

[coreyc]

Perhaps the speaker's cross-over has failed. Have you tried running test tones thru it? (not your receiver's pink noise, but a series of tones from 80 to 16,000 Hz)

[lo123]

I have same system (speakers), and the RC-35 has great sound on some DVDs, other times is somewhat less than incredible. Agree with Colter on the jumpers, and have you tried running into only one set of input jacks at a time without the jumpers? Otherwise, have you registered the speaker with Klipsch and is it in warranty? Final thing I can think of it to see if the store you bought it at would let you bring it in and A/B it with another center, see if the problem occurs again. The intermittent operation could point to an internal connection problem, can you shake the speaker and duplicate the problem?

[chops]

Quick update - doing more trouble-shooting, I plugged it into the left mains output and voila! perfect sound. For about 10 seconds. Then it became muddy and muffled again.

Well, at least I know it's definitely a speaker problem and am working on getting it fixed under warranty.

Sounds to me like a loose connection inside the speaker. Try opening it up if you can and check the connections going to the tweeter.

I'm will to bet that when the center channel is "boxy - muffled" sounding, the tweeter is completely dead.

When you physically moved the speaker over to your left channel, the connection got moved just a bit to make contact, then once playing lost connection again due to vibration.

[wamerman]

Sorry I haven't had much time for an update. The place I bought it from was over the internet. Which, as you can imagine, made me nervous. I bought from them originally because they had a good price on everything I wanted AND they claimed "factory authorized dealer."

Yes. It dawned on me later that Klipsch's tight reign on its channel partners probably doesn't allow internet sales, but forgive me as I was on vacation and in the throes of a home theatre buying frenzy.

Anyway, the web store (am I going to get in trouble for mentioning it here?), acousticsounddesign.com, was amazing. The guy emailed me back a couple hours after my email and said they'd send UPS to pick it up and would send me a new one as soon as they got confirmation that UPS had picked it up. All at no charge to me. Even though I was a couple days outside of the store's 30 day return period (they supposedly honor the 5 year warranty themselves...I found out after reading the fine print, but you have to pay for shipping and they do a repair not a replacement).

Which is the only reason I'm mentioning that store here...it's easy to find good prices on the internet and reasonably easy to find good service if you just have questions about products, but to get outstanding service on a product return inspires gratitude and loyalty with me.

Anyway. Got the new RC-35. Hooked it up. And voila, very, very nice! The wife was accusing me of wasting $2000 on an RF35 HT system, but even she now has to admit it's lightyears now beyond what it was with the faulty rc-35. Thanks for all the responses and suggestions. If I was out of warranty, I probably would have opened it up and tried to follow some of your suggestions to fix it myself. As it was, this was much easier.