F1Audio

I have a compromised family room layout with sofa against back wall. Right now it is a 3.1 setup with KLF-20, C7 and a James Cinema15 sub. Would like to add surround speakers. In ceiling, close to rear wall is probably going to be as good as anything else. But I was wondering how well the height channels built into the 280FA would work as surround channels. This is not a dedicated theater mind you. And we are probably going to start shopping for a new house later this year, so that will be a priority for the new house.... A real room to work with.

I thought I would update this. I have been happily enjoying the KLF20 and C7 for a few weeks now. I had the surrounds on the floor behind the couch for a few days, and it was not cutting it......neither were the wires strung across the floor......so rolling with 3.1 for now. The KSW200 is just ok.....about what I expected......mediocre performance. So I am about to go down the DIY road and build a flat pack SI HT18. The upside is that the location I have the KSW in loads the room nicely. I think a single 18 in that spot will be plenty for me. I may build a Marty or Stonehenge as well to compare.....but I have always been more of a sealed enclosure fan. My goals are for accurate, tonal, "quick" bass.....think double bass drum a la Dream Theater....so many subs turn it into "bass pudding" when Mike Portnoy gets his feet twerking. I know a ported enclosure can do that right as well, but I have always found the most tonally accurate bass timber to come from sealed enclosures. But I am open to try a ported design......it is worth the cost to give it a shot. Anyhow, glad to be a Klipsch owner. I am still tweaking the KLF20 distance , toe-in, etc. to get them just right. I think some acoustic treatment is in order first. Then I will get a feel for them before I start talking to Crites about upgrades.

450C is a pretty damn good speaker. I put one in last week in a fairly large room, with RP160M and KS3800WII in-walls for surround/surround back. RS115W + RS112W. HK AVR3700. It goes loud and stays clean. I think I crossed it over at 90Hz....only because I know this guy....and he will max out the volume often. It sounds GOOD in that room with the dual subs. The 450C has no problem keeping up. In a smaller room, it would be brilliant IMHO. It does not sound quite as good as his RF7 5.1 setup in the bedroom, buuuuut, apples and oranges there.

I went over and gave them a quick once over and was happy enough to agree to the deal. I pick them up Saturday. The guy has a humongous record collection as well. I might pick through and find a few. I will clean them up and have them cranking in my living room by Saturday night. Is it too much effort to try and refinish the cabinets? I am guessing they are wood....maybe veneer? Might be a fun project.

Thanks for the quick replies. I already figured it was a good enough deal to jump on. I figure I can re-sell the surrounds and subwoofer and make the deal even sweeter. I know enough to check for the faulty glue, and to check the woofers for damage. I will make sure to check for cracks in the horns. I think he mentioned he bought them locally, so hopefully they have not been tossed around too much. He was very adamant that he hook them up so I can listen and check them over, in case there was something amiss that he was not aware of. He seems legit. I am excited to get them home. For now, they will be powered by an old Rotel RSX-1067 receiver. I may try an old Proceed 5 ch. amp on them as well. I may also have an old Parasound 5 ch. laying around as well. I plan to listen to them as is for a few months before I try and upgrades to the mid and tweeter drivers, or new crossovers. I have been perusing Crites' site already. Surrounds will have to be something in the ceiling unfortunately. Room and furniture layout dictate this. I am thinking of using some R-5800-W II there.....or even the KL-7502 THX. I might get an R115SW, but I have some better options readily available. It will be a fun purchase. I have been installing this stuff for nearly 15 years and briefly had a nice 5.0 setup for a while when I was a bachelor in an apartment. Since I sold that stuff 10 years ago or so, I have not had any real system to speak of. Sad, I know.

I am new to Klipsch ownership....at least I hope to be shortly. I have been in the industry for nearly 15 years and worked with Klipsch back in 2001-2002 for a short stint at a dealer, then recently, for the past 3 years where I have installed a lot of Klipsch speakers, mostly in-wall/in-ceiling models, and several THX series theater systems. Actually, just today, I installed some of the new Premiere line...RP-160M, RP-450C, and 4 R-3800-W II, with a RS115W AND a RS112W, headed up by a HK AVR3700. And in the largish family room it was installed in, it sounded phenomenal. This client was hoping to use his RF7 II setup, but it just would not have fit in the room and looked right. So we put it in his bedroom! That room sounds insane as you might expect by shoving so much sound in such a small space. Local ad for KLF-20, KLF-C7, KSF-S5, KSW-200 has me interested. I told the seller I was really only interested in the KLF-20 and C7, but if the package deal was good enough, I would take the other stuff off his hands....I will likely just resell it. $550 for the lot is what his counter offer was to my admittedly lowball initial offer. The cabinets have the normal wear and tear, which is fine, considering my kids would not allow anything pristine to remain as such for very long. I am going to go over and hook everything up and run it through the ringer so to speaker to check for faulty glue, any cone/surround issues, etc. before I commit. I wanted to check with the community to see what your thoughts were on how good a price this deal looks if everything is operationally 100%. Anything else to look out for when checking them out?

It is my best option, I will put it that way. In-wall would be doable if I cut open the entire wall, reframe parts of it, possibly move some plumbing and ductwork around, and re-drywall, texture, and paint. Not wanting to go through that at this point, in-ceiling is the best compromise. I am not looking for a dedicated theater room performance in the living room here. But I do not want it sound like I just threw in the cheapest 5 speakers monoprice had at the time. On-wall might be considered, but I would likely just stick with freestanding speakers at that point. My biggest reason for not doing that is that they would inevitably be destroyed by my kids. If they can reach it, it will have crayon, marker, glue, glitter, peanut butter, gum, etc. on it. Our next home will have a dedicate space that I can lock. Another reason I am opting for in-ceiling is to hopefully control some of the reflections that will be a problem regardless. The room is only 13.5' deep. Sofa is against the back wall, TV on the front wall. 8' ceiling height. Listening position is 12.5' from the intended speaker locations in the ceiling (measured directly from my head to the ceiling). My rough calculations put my head ~25 degrees off axis from the ceiling speaker locations. With an untreated wall 1 foot behind me, my thought was that most angled LCR speakers, like the Triad or Def Tech models, are angled at 45 degrees. I am afraid that will lead to a lot of unwanted reflections off the back wall. Thus, here is me looking at the KL7502. The horn is aimed towards the listener, but the midrange drivers are not. I do not know if that will be ideal, even though the description says they are "perfect" for this application. My other options are Episode 700LCR5, which are angled at 35 degrees, Martin Logan Vanquish or Electromotion R which are at 30 IIRC, the Paradigm Sig and Ref. also at 30, and TruAudio Rev8-LCR.1 which are at 30 as well I believe, and possibly one of the new Beale Street Audio models which are only at a 15 degree angle. My thought is that with the shallower angle, I will still get closer to being on axis with the speakers, with less of the sound reflecting off the back wall. I know I should just put some sound panels there, and I may do just that, but finding the right speakers is my first priority. The surrounds will be not far from the back wall, and spread fairly wide, as the seating area is roughly 12' wide. Fronts will likely be a bit closer than that, and roughly 18" from the front wall to center of speaker. I will also send an email directly to Klipsch to get some more detailed info on dispersion patterns and location recommendations. But I though the Klipsch community would have at least one person who has used these speakers in this application and would be willing to share their experiences/opinions. Thanks.

For in-ceiling LCR usage, will the 7502 work out ok or should I look at something designed more for this application such as something from Triad or similar with an angled baffle? Looking for real world experience with the 7502 in this application. My calculations place my listening position 25 degrees off axis vertically from the ceiling plane where the speakers will be installed. Most angled baffle type speakers are 45 degrees. This might be too steep in my room . I have options that are angled 15 or 30 degrees which might work better in the environment. Any thoughts?