Klipsch RB81

I love this speaker. It sounds completely different from anything I have previously heard, and I have owned quite a few loudspeakers. This is the speaker that has come the closest to providing the same level of detail as my Grado SR-80 headphones. The sound produced is immersive. Rather than pushing you back into the back of the jazz club you are sitting front and center. This can be a little disconcerting if you are used to a more laid back loudspeaker. It is certainly not an aggressive sound and forward is not the term I would use to describe the sensation either. Just a little more "front and center". I am currently using two power amps configured for horizontal stereo biamplification of each loudspeaker. I have had these speakers up to ridiculous volumes with no distortion and no clipping and with the sensitivity of this speaker they never will clip, ever. They like to be played louder, though they sound good at the lower levels where I usually do my listening (predicated by having a 1 month old son). The bass is striking for a loudspeaker of this size. It is not floorstander deep but what you get is very musical as opposed to the shapeless thumping produced by lesser loudspeakers. Voices are real treat... I no longer have those moments where I am straining to understand the lyrics in many songs. Both male and female voices are realistically articulated. Higher frequencies are also convincingly realistic. High hats and cymbals sound life like with a nice airy sense around them. The speakers are remarkably sensitive. They will bring out the best on your well recorded music and make your 128 Kbps mp3's sound like the sonic diarrhea they are. These loud speakers sugar coat nothing. My one gripe is that the speakers were a little temperamental setting up properly. The horns necessitate a little more toe-in than most any other speaker I have listened to. Once set up though, they produce a sound stage where (with well engineered source material) the instruments seem fixed in a point in space. The better the recording the more 3D this space can seem. Negatives? Well, none really for this price. It is not the sexiest loudspeaker out there (low WAF) but then Pavarotti was never much of a looker either. But boy, could he sing... and with this loudspeaker to prove it.

We are classical musicians who researched blogs and review sites like this, as well as looking at the specs of many speakers. I had experience with Klipsch hearing some older enormous ones in a friend's house, which were impressive. I purchased the little Promedia speakers for my computer---also impressive and I'm sad they aren't making them if I'm correct. Anyway, we got the speakers and are knocked out with them. The most significant reason is that they don't add what isn't in the input---the music or voice. The musician's sound like themselves without gratuitous enhancement. The clarity and integrity and accuracy are matched by beauty and more punch than we'll ever exhaust. Truly a great value for speakers around $770/pair.

The titanium compression driver mated to the Tactrix horn is a beautiful thing to listen to. The Klipsch RB81 outputs incredible detail. I am constantly hearing things in music that I couldn't hear before. This bookshelf is not tiny at almost 2 feet high and 1 foot wide. The low end bass rolls off just below 50Hz, so if you want a full movie/music experience a subwoofer is needed. The RF82 is better for straight two channel listening as it goes deeper, but other than that the RB81 sounds identical.