WF-35's: Sugar Ray Leonard or Pee Wee Herman?

[jdm56]

I think the new WF-35 is the best looking speaker Klipsch has made in a long while. But the light weight bothers me: 41 pounds? Seems a serious speaker that size, with that driver compliment ought to be considerably heavier. Is it made with half-inch mdf? Are the drivers really light weight? It's not much cheaper that the RF-63, but it's form factor is in another league altogether, judging from the pictures. So, I really want to like the Icon, but I dunno... Anybody know any details that would explain the light weight, other than the relatively shallow (11.75") cabinet depth? Maybe it's not really aimed at the audiophile crowd...

[Bill H.]

I heard these at the last Klipsch Fest. They are an awesome speaker for the Price and produce excellent sound. I was blown away that these sounded so good with just a simple Denon 3803 receiver...............

Don't let the weight fool you. They are designed to produce great sound without taking up gobbs of Room..............Try them, and you'll be convinced, like I was............A Great Deal !

[jdm56]

Bill, you seem to be the only person on the forum who has heard them! So...since I live in an audiophile desert and would have to drive 100 miles to hear a pair, maybe you could describe for me how they compare to other klipsch models we have both heard --I've heard the RB-75, RF-83 and have owned '85 Cornwalls, '98 klipschorns and mid-90's heresy II's.

...And while I'm prevailing on you... Have you heard the La Scala II...too?([]) If so, how does it sound compared to the WF-35? No contest, I assume.

Sorry for all the questions, but it's virtually impossible for me to hear new heritage speakers, and like I said before, I'm 100 miles from any klipsch dealer that actually stocks anything.

[SilverSport]

I heard them at the Pilgrimage as well...I thought they sounded very clean and could take a lot of power...and stayed clean...I thought they sounded more to my ear like Reference and I am more a Heritage kinda guy...LaScala IIs to my ear sound like Heritage and really sounded nice...nicer than I recall LaScala usually sounding and I have no complaints of LaScala (but little time listening to them)...I find the Heritage speakers to have a bit more oooomph than Reference...that said...when I had my RB-5s, I found they sounded excellent but my Heritage tuned ears felt there was something missing...it was a "midsection"...to be fair...I have a lot of listening time on Heresys, Quartets and Klipschorns...a good bit with kg1s and kg2s (somewhat similar but two way) and prefer that sound...I did put in a bid on a couple pair of the WB speakers (ICON?) but I did not win any...

Good Luck,

Bill

[colterphoto1]

I did a beta test on them here and will be selling my pair soon. These are a very handsome, articulate speaker.

[Bill H.]

To my Ears they sounded much like the Reference series, without the Harshness. Very Enjoyable sound and Size wise..............good punch in the low end

and the Sub is fantastic also..................

Though I love the Heritage sound, these are a good subsitute because of their Design and their sound. Just my two cents worth.

[J.4knee]

My concern is the center, surround and bookshelf speakers do not go low enough. My corner freq on my rcvr is 80 hz these barely reach 90 hz

[jdm56]

I really appreciate the input, y'all, so keep it up!

Personally, I'm only interested in the WF-35 for 2-channel, so the limited bass of the companion speakers is no concern. In fact, the "high sensitivity / modest bass extension" tuning is exactly what I'm wanting in a compact floor-stander; I've got two Velodyne DLS-4000R subs to cover the low end anyway! The speakers I've got now are just the opposite, they are tuned for max. extension at the expense of sensitivity. They'll go down below 30Hz in-room, but the sensitivity is only 85dB. So even though I'm powering them with an Adcom GFA-5500, they just don't sound very punchy or clean with rock at life-like levels. They'll get loud if you throw enough juice at them but they don't have enough in reserve to do so and retain their clean dynamics. They start sounding soft and flat.

I don't know if I'd be satisfied with anything less than Heritage, really. After all, I owned Cornwalls for eight years and k-horns for five or six. But good gosh a-mighty they're B-I-G!! ...and then I'd probably want to upgrade my subs to keep up with'em! Geez, it never ends!

[Deang]

"To my Ears they sounded much like the Reference series, without the Harshness."

I thought they sounded really good too. I never considered Reference "harsh" sounding, but I didn't have any real experience with the new Reference stuff until yesterday, when I went to Carlin Audio and ran the RF-83 through the paces using some of my CD's. I was really disappointed with the sound and consider it a pretty big step backwards from the RF-7 and RF-5. The midrange was really grungy and closed in sounding, and the presentation in general couldn't pull me into the music -- not even a little bit. Maybe good for HT, but definitely failed the test with music.

[J.4knee]

I am hoping the Magnolia in Mira Mesa has them so I can give them a listen. I need a stand in system while I redo my Heritage stuff.