I had good experience with Klipsch in the past, so I always wanted this sound bar. It's really hard to audition stuff, even in high end stores. They crank the volume and I guess it sounds good, maybe. Hard to tell. What held me back from ordering was the the pain of installing and the lack of bluetooth. Most add on bluetooth receivers had bad ratings but apparently there is finally one that has good ratings, so for $30 I'll be set when I'm ready.
It's a huge box. They included all the cords for me, including the optical audio cable. This was my first problem. I have never seen one of these, and it didn't fit into the hole properly. These cables do have an up and down (no idea why) but it's very hard to tell as one side is only slightly rounded. But my bigger 'DOH moment was that the cable ships with a protective cover. I managed to plug it into my flush mounted tv, no easy feat, and the thing glowed, and actually worked, once I figured out I need to removed the protective cover on the sound bar side. Then I went back and removed it from the tv side. My fault, but hopefully someone saves some time.
I have Directv. After it was working and all, I went and programmed the Directv remote. It worked as I did it but, every button was now the volume up, the last button I programmed. It would not reprogram properly, so I dug out my Sharp TV remote (657 2013 vintage ) and successfully programmed the up, down and mute. Now the directv remote worked also. I'm guessing there is some extra info that is the same on every button press that the Klipsch was using. Anyway, no big deal.
When I first got it working I was like no big deal, sounds just like the tv. However, I just switched it back and wow, what a difference. I was also expecting louder sound, a hallmark of Klipsch. There is no way you would listen to a movie at max volume. In my high ceiling 20x20 room you might crank it to max if you were throwing a party and didn't want to talk to anyone. One thing I have noticed with good speakers, you don't notice they are too loud, but later on your ears hurt. This is similar. Just listened to Jewel at max volume, very good. (90's hits on Directv) now Miami by Will Smith is on. Again, very clear and loud. Not loud enough for a frat party, but awesome for a sound bar.
The bass is also very well integrated. I hate boomy artificial bass. This does not have it. I cranked the volume on the unit to max (and left it there), and it is very well integrated, no artificial sound at all. I placed it on the end of an L shaped couch, plus it's on carpet. Just blends in, and you can only tell the separation when you walk between the sound bar and the sub woofer.
Now the faults. As mentioned in other reviews, this has limited volume steps. 10 to be exact. 0 is nothing, 1 you could easily have a phone conversation and barely notice the noise, 2 would be late night tv viewing, and 3 is plenty loud, 4 you would have to be eating a bag or doritos or something crunchy. Everything else is pure music, unless you really like it loud. I wish there were more steps.
I was waiting for an updated unit as I also wanted to use bluetooth streaming to use this is a sound system. There are two other inputs on this, so I'll be able to add a bluetooth receiver later. I'm glad I stopped waiting. Sounds great.
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Get one while you can...
I did a lot of research before purchasing a sound bar. Before this year, I wouldn't have even considered a sound bad because I always felt they were inadequate compared to a good 5.1 system. However, in my current living situation, it was the only option short of leaving cables strewn about on the floor.To the point.. klipsch is the best. Period. I looked at every option including high end Sony, Bose, Sonos, Polk (which was my preference for large systems), and Yamaha. Yamaha had the best budget offering, but I decided to go close out model to get the biggest bang for the buck.The only feature this system doesn't have that is desirable these days is Bluetooth. I already own a Bose Soundlink Mini, so that wasn't really part of my evaluation. It was purely sound quality for the dollar.If you can get a close out model before they are gone, get this system... Now.. Pay no attention to the lack of HDMI because this is not meant to be a receiver or a pass through. Optical does the job.This is the best sound bar available for the price on the market and there are not many left... Enough said.
