The RB-75's are almost as good as the RF-7's with DEANG mods. With that said If you can find a pair buy them you will not be disappointed. I paid $900 used from EBAY and I just love them. I'd like to findd another pair for rear surrounds.

oh baby...
An, "Oh my god, [place performer name here] is standing 6 feet in front of me..." way of reproducing music.

Brutally honest with recorded material.

This speaker will become the stuff of legend. Mark my words... legend. It is the Klipsch Heresy of our generation. It was also a "one off" with no real successor so it will remain rare. It is an audacious speaker, itself spawned from an audacious idea: create a bookshelf speaker with some of the sonic characteristics of a top of the line floor-standing behemoth called the RF-7. Awesome.

How could these not become legendary. Without even considering the sound quality (which is ALL important), the speaker should be owned just for the fact at it is stuffed with one of the best sounding tweeters to ever come out of Klipsch. Is it harsh and bright, oh yeah baby... if the sound you are reproducing is also harsh and bright. I cannot think of a better speaker to reproduce the sound of fingernails scraping down a chalkboard. It can also be incredibly smooth and airy, almost feathery. Depends on the recording and specifically on how well that recording was produced. These speakers are supremely unforgiving of badly produced material. They pull no punches and give no quarter. They offer a front row, in your face listening experience that has to be experienced. When you consider that most musicians stand less than a foot from the mic when recording is this not how it is supposed to sound? Yes, they will also do "back of a smoke filled club" jazz. They will do such a way, though, that the club seems very small indeed. The speakers are intimate, involving and have a musical integrity that has to be heard.

Bass is what you expect from an 8" woofer in a cabinet this size... more than adequate for the average listener. I will be buying a subwoofer at some point. This however is more because I want to than need to. It will have to be damned good sub though to keep up with these. A cheapo sub would just muddy the already stellar bass produced by the RB-75s. If you listen mostly at higher volumes you will not even need a sub unless you listen to a lot of baroque organ compositions (yawwwn).

The mid range follows the same pattern...

If you can pick up a pair used in as new condition...than do it. You will not be buying mine though as I will be hanging on to these for a loooooong time. Heck, I might even upgrade to a pure class A 3 Watt per channel SET tube-amp for these, just because I CAN!

Lou Reed, by the way, LOVES THEM! From one legend to another.

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B&W 302
JBL LX2
Energy RVS
Energy Pro 1.5
A&R 44BX

Fast, taut bass in larger ported cabinet. High SPL. Solid construction. Very nice, titanium tweeters. The right amp/pre amp optimize inherent strengths. Dynamic, live sound.

Nothing to complain about for a bookshelf.

I consider this the ultimate bookshelf speaker. I do bi-wire with DIY cables. 8ga multi strand welding supply cable, to woofers w 14ga single strand to tweets. Lengths of 15ft. The 14ga is pliable enough for this purpose. Reference series Klipsch titanium tweeters are bright when used w solid state amps. Klipsch horns sound best with tube amps. Dampening w tube amps is the Archelle's heel. I have a rare Puresonic Quadramatic tube amp w 181 dampening factor...most tube amps are a 9-10 factor. Tube amps go at least and octave lower than SS amps, the result is a fuller bass, but the bloom results with a less taught, tight and refined bass. Higher dampening factor and low resistance 8ga multistrand wire, combined with smaller 8in driver, in a larger ported box...makes some healthy, dynamic, and fast bass. I also own RF-83 Klipsch floor pounders..they use three 8in woofers. Although RF-7's are an exact match for RB-75's, and a truly solid performer, I traded off some of depth of bass of 10in guns, for the speed of 8in woofers. The 1in tweeters and slimmer cabinet of the RF-83's make for better dispersion, clarity, and soundstage in IMO. 8in drivers do deliver dynamic bass ! If I want more and lower, bass..I turn on my RW-12 Klipsch sub woofer...mostly it's not needed, unless I run the RB-75's alone. Even w 42w per channel rms tube amp..RB-75's can rock the house. Multiply the rms rating of a tube amp by 2.5 to 3X, to equate to rms rating of SS amps.

Similar Products Used:

RB-25's, RF-83's, RC25, RW-12 sub.

soundstage, clarity , apperance, dynamics,efficiency,great all around.

Can't think of any.

Please note that these are really 5 of 5 rated speakers because all previous reviews raved about them , but some people won't give a 5 unless the product is the best in the world apparently, and this brings down the rating artificially.
These speakers are terrific in the areas of clarity, soundstage, and dynamics. They use the same excellant tweeter as in the former top of the line rf-7. the bass is very tight and quite extended considering the high efficiency and small cabinet.I highly recommend these speakers for anyone, especially with a subwoofer.

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too many to say.

High efficiency, imaging, detail, dynamics, clarity , balance, bass. Great cherry finish, front porting allows placement near a wall

Alittle larger that the average bookshelf speaker

This is a great time to get these speakers on closeout.
I got these used after being very impressed with the rb-25, which I also own ( I collect speakers and have about 30 pairs). These are impressive as well, very efficient with gobs of detail, very good tight bass to about 40hz (I use a subwoofer), and excellant imaging. The clarity is exceptional and they are well-balanced. What's not to like? No complaints. I'm sold on Klipsch horns, and am selling of my collection and replacing them with Klipsch, mostly the reference series with the 1.75" pro tweeters.

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Klipsch, polk, b&w, platinum, morel,mordent-short,dahlquist,jbl.speakerlab, etc.

an easy speaker to listen to, natural sound.

Hard to find any weaknesss unless you are comparing them to a ten thousand dollar set of speakers.

I purchased my speakers on Ebay and have had them for a little over a year. My syswtem includes Rotel preamp and amp, tuner snd cd player. I have dabbled in audio for forty years but am not versed in the audiophile language. I can only say that the rb 75s are exciting to listen to. They are smooth and do a tremendous job from the high treble to the bottom of the scale. In talking to a friend of mine who is into audio far more than I am, he said, "I have listened to hundreds of speakers and the Klipsch rb 75s are among the very best." Speakers are such a personal thing it is hard to evaluate what another person would necessarily like. I can only recommend that if you are looking for a relatively smalll speaker for a nominal price listen to the rb75s.

Similar Products Used:

JBL, B&W

1.75" Tratrix Horn Loaded Tweeter sounds incredible 8" Ceramatallic Woofer with front port really handles the bass well! Numerous mounting options. Compete's with most floorstanding speakers, and in some cases blows most mass produced Floorstanders away (Infinity,Polk Audio,JBL and many others) Bi-Wireable

Big typical Black Box may offend some with other speaker design's on the move. Really need to break them in with Ceramic woofer (about 50 hours of good mid bass material) Not much else to think of.

For such a highly rated speaker, Im a bit surprised that there aren't more reviews here. Moving on, if you (and your Wife especially) can get passed the "same old black box speaker" clich'e, and are truely after performance via a bookshelf speaker (a bit on the large size for a bookshelf), stop here (after reading this review ofcourse) and try to find a nearby Klipsch authorized dealer. You can easily find a Klipsch dealer in your area by visiting Klipsch.com, and input your zipcode. Once you've found a dealer in your area, I would recommend you give them a call to make sure they have a pair of RB-75's out on demo (ideally hooked up as main speakers)before you make the drive. I made this mistake before and was quite disappointed when I got there to find the Klipsch dealer didn't have them to demo. No on to my personal review, I (as with all my audio/video products) do quite a bit of research so I know somewhat what to expect. In some cases this can backfire, because the more positive reviews you read, the higher you set your expectations! The Klipsch RB-75 will meet or exceed your expectations with great bass extension (down to 42Hz), and from 50Hz-120Khz they are crystal clean with very little coloration at all. As you continue to read about Klipsch's Reference line, one thing most reviews have in common is how Klipsch's Tratrix Horn loaded Tweeter can be a bit on the bright side. This is somewhat true to an extent, but not to the degree that some might say. Make sure when your having them demoe'd that they are driven with with a decent amp. In my case, I bought them for my main speakers for my 15x17 Home Theatre with 11' ceilings. I am using a Denon AVR-3805 rated at 120watts X 7. The Denon line of receivers have a solid reputation, with a very warm sound which makes for a great match for the Klipsch RB-75's since they can be just a bit on the bright side. I (when listening to them in my demo) pushed them pretty hard! And I must say, they didn't even break a sweat. As you continue to run them for about 50 hours or so, you"ll really start to appreciate how they open up once broken in properly. I am currently using them in a 7.1 set up with the RC-7 center, RS-7 side surrounds, & RB-25 rear surrounds. For my LFE, I decided to buy an SVS-25-31Pci custom tuned to 22Hz since I use my system 100% for Home theatre. Even without the Sub (LFE), and running the RB-75's in the direct mode, they simply sound incredible. I am very pleased with their performance to say the least. One great suggestion for mounting these speakers, and what Im currently using is Sanus Systems steel foundation speaker stands, which have a screw that comes with them that fits the threaded insert on the bottom of the RB-75's. The RB-75's are front ported, so if you want to mount them on the wall you can. Be sure to hit a stud for secure wall mounting if you do choose this route. Back to the RB-75's, they will out perform most floorstanding speakers, hence one of the reasons I bought them. Again, I just cant beleive a bookshelf speaker can extend down into the 40Hz range giving them powerful bass while sounding fantastic all the way up to 20Khz. I just couldn't find a bookshelf speaker that sounded as good as these, and I must of listened to over 70 different brands. Including Sonus Faber (which sounded great for music, but lacked the bass the RB-75's produce), B&W's middle of the line bookshelfs, Mirage, Boston Acoustics and many others in this class. Infact, I was really set on Sonus Faber & B&W before I decided to persue the Klipsch Reference line. They (RB-75's) are great for 2 channel or Home Theatre. If you are going to use them in a H/T set up, I ofcourse would still recommend a good Subwoofer for todays THX D.D. & DTS encoded movies. Check out SVS before you buy a sub. They simply cant be beat at any price! Good Luck on your search, and I hope this review helps.

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Had a pair of Vienna Acoustic floorstanding speakers that I had to sell that where the best sounding speakers I've ever heard. Couldn't afford to buy the matching Center and surrounds. Infinity JBL Studio's List could fill another page!

Very detailed and musical sound reproduction. Amazing bass for the its size.

To pick nits, these are little on the large and heavy side for "bookshelf" speakers, but they perform like bigger speakers, too.

Acoustic Sound Design has the best prices - even on Ebay, where there is plenty of competition. I ordered some Klipsch RB-75s in cherry, and saved one third off retail - that's about $400 savings. The speakers were double boxed, very well packed, and received in absolutely new, perfect condition.

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Klipsch RB-3, along with various low-price brands of small bookshelf speakers.